Liquid cooling in servers seemed like overkill until a rack hit 95F in Phoenix last July.

I always said air cooling was fine. Then I saw three drives fail in one week during a heatwave and realized the water loop kept the other rack stable. Anyone else change their mind after a hardware failure?

3 comments

3 Comments

sean_green445d ago

Man, that really sucks about the drives failing. I've been there with fried gear and it's a terrible feeling. My setup in Vegas had a fan controller die during a 110 degree day and I lost a whole SSD array before I could get it shut down. Since I switched that specific rack to a simple closed loop, it hasn't hit over 80 even when the AC in the room struggles. So yeah, I get how a failure like that can completely change your mind on it.

christopherw341d ago

Three drives in a week sounds like the hardware was trying to tell you something real subtle like "we're literally melting"... I love how claire thinks good fans work in Texas until the power grid takes a nap and all you've got is hot air.

claire_davis316d agoTop Commenter

Yeah I get what you're saying about the drives failing, that's rough. But I still think liquid cooling is overkill for most setups unless you're in extreme conditions like Phoenix. Air cooling with good fans and some ducting has worked fine for me even in Texas summers.