I ran across this today when researching a Citrix user profile issue, and thought i would post this up for others to enjoy.

GR Cooling

(Green Revolution Cooling) provides a rack utilizing a special Mineral Oil suspension used to cool the servers and other equipment that would normally be cooled using air. This is very promising technology that i believe will help drive costs down if implemented in the datacenter. According to GRCooling, this uses 95% less cooling power and 10 to 20% less server power due to internal cooling systems having no fans i guess. If you want to see a couple video’s and more pictures, please check out the site here: http://www.grcooling.com/?page_id=655

The server sit suspended just below the surface of the fluid. and the fluid is pumped through a heat exchanger and recycled back into the cabinet. This supports Power densities to 100kW per rack with extreme CPU and GPU cooling potential are available.

The following benefits are gained with this technology”

Lower Server Failure Rates

The solution offers the potential to lower failures significantly in three ways:

• Removal of all server fans
• Low temperature gradient
• Better electrical connector reliability

High Density

The system will cool up to 100kW in a 42U rack in its current configuration.  This is equivalent to an air-cooled system near 120kW since nearly 20kW of that 120kW would be used by server fans.  The system offers orders of magnitude better convective cooling than an air-cooled system and thus can handle higher densities.

Also, full immersion of all components is unique to dielectric fluid submersion.  Without full submersion, air is still the primary heat transfer medium and with it comes all of the limitations of air.  For the rare CPU that is “thermally coupled” with a liquid, which entails a water-filled heat sink or equivalent, other components still require air cooling

 

Why As a coolant, GreenDEF™ is better than air:

• 6x the dielectric constant, which prevents micro-arcing and improves electrical connections
• Holds 1,200 times more heat by volume
• Significantly better at heat transfer

Server warranty when used in this system

According to GRCooling they have partnered with STG (Signature Technology Group) to provide warranty on all servers and data center hardware housed in the system. I am guessing this means the manufacturer warranty is voided when used in these systems.

According to the manufacturer,Almost any OEM server can be used. Customers have installed 1Us (e.g. Dell 1950 & R410; HP DL 360; Verari; IBM x3550; and a few white boxes), 2Us (e.g. Dell 2950), Blades (e.g. Dell M1000e), and Trays (e.g. Dell c6100).

Hard drives require encapsulation, while solid state drives do not. What preparations or modifications to the servers/ equipment are needed?  First, our technicians remove server fans and put them aside for future use or reverse-modification at a later date. Then, each hard drive is encapsulated using GRC’s proprietary hard drive sealing system.  Finally, the CPU thermal grease is replaced with a non-soluble foil.