Data Center Cooling Technology: Liquid Cooling VS. Air Cooling

Liquid Cooling VS. Air Cooling

The CPU core temperature of the liquid-cooled server can be 20~30°C lower than the limit temperature of the air-cooled server, and the reliability will be greatly improved. Liquid-cooled servers do not use compressors for refrigeration, so that the annual PUE value of the entire system drops below 1.2. At the same time, the server CPU can be overclocked, and the computing performance can be increased by 12%.

Air-cooled data centers can usually solve cabinet cooling within 12kW. If the power of the cabinet exceeds 15kW, compared with the existing air-cooled data center, it has reached the ceiling of the air convection heat dissipation capacity. As a technology with stronger heat dissipation capacity, liquid cooling can support higher power density.

The cold plate liquid cooling has the highest maturity, and the immersion liquid cooling and spray liquid cooling have better energy-saving effects.

Advantages of liquid cooling systems:

1) Chip operating temperature is low, reducing energy consumption

Since the energy conversion efficiency of liquid is much higher than that of air, and the liquid cooling system can directly dissipate heat for key components such as chips of the server, the heat dissipation is accurate and efficient, so the operating temperature of the key components of the server is significantly lower than that of conventional air cooling, and the temperature is constant. Its system can double the performance of continuous high-load operation. In addition, since the server system fan is removed for the spray liquid cooling and immersion liquid cooling, the energy consumption of the server can be directly reduced by about 15% to 25%, while that of the cold plate type can be reduced by about 5% to 10%.

2) Increased server lifespan

The improvement of server life is mainly reflected in two aspects:

First, since the chip works mainly at a low temperature and a constant temperature, reducing the vibration of the fan (spray and immersion liquid cooling) can significantly increase the life of the chip.

Second, in the spray and immersion liquid-cooled machine room, since the server is immersed in the cooling liquid, the server does not need to be in contact with the indoor air, which avoids equipment failure caused by the accumulation of dust and other particles in the server. In addition, it directly reduces the corrosion of the server caused by moisture and dust in the environment, improves the reliability of the equipment, and prolongs the service life of the equipment.