rack power question

Tue Mar 25 14:15:12 UTC 2008

On 25 Mar 2008, at 09:11 , Dorn Hetzel wrote:

> It would sure be nice if along with choosing to order servers with  
> DC or AC power inputs one could choose air or water cooling.
>
> Or perhaps some non-conductive working fluid instead of water.  That  
> might not carry quite as much heat as water, but it would surely  
> carry more than air and if chosen correctly would have more benign  
> results when the inevitable leaks and spills occur.

The conductivity of (ion-carrying) water seems like a sensible thing  
to worry about. The other thing is its boiling point.

I presume that the fact that nobody ever brings that up means it's a  
non-issue, but it'd be good to understand why.

Seems to me that any large-scale system designed to distribute water  
for cooling has the potential for hot spots to appear, and that any  
hot spot that approaches 100C is going to cause some interesting  
problems.

Wouldn't some light mineral oil be a better option than water?

Joe