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