IBM Cooling by water

[Sabre]

While not new to the OverClocking community, IBM has gone a step further and put the water basically on the chip.

Check out the video

They now have Power6's running at 5GHz

[complacent]

holy snot!

[drwrx]

I'm impressed, but they went just a bit too far with the claim in the video that . . .

"the piping hot water is than lifted off of the chip and out of the system where it can be reused to heat your home, the town swimming pool or a hot shower."

Who are they kidding, that has to be the most inefficient way to get hot water. The heat loss from moving the water the miles it would require to get to homes would render the water only luke warm at best. I can certainly see them recycling the hot water within the building where the computer is stored, but come on, let's keep the fantasy land implications to a minimum.

[Sabre]

Ya, I chuckled at that too. I worked for a lab a long time ago that took waste heat (and they had a LOT of it) and threw it into large vats of anti-freeze. They then siphoned off what they needed during the day and used the cooled water back in the process. Very cool design, although it used a LOT of space.

[drwrx]

I worked for a lab a long time ago that took waste heat (and they had a LOT of it) and threw it into large vats of anti-freeze. Very cool design, although it used a LOT of space.

I would expect something very similar in this instance as well.

[zaxrex]

Was in Toronto and had a meeting in a brand new office building that was getting refurbed. The heating system could not keep the place warm enough in the winter.

Turned out that the contractor had calcualted all offices having 19"+ CRTs and tower PCs in every office and adjusted the heating requirements accordingly...

[drwrx]

Turned out that the contractor had calcualted all offices having 19"+ CRTs and tower PCs in every office and adjusted the heating requirements accordingly...

What kind of ratings was taking for those devices? Did he get them from 1987 instead of 2007? I can't imagine any world where the heat of tower PCs and Monitors would markedly affect the level of HEAT required. I can certainly understand an increased need for AC in summer, but less heat in winter "because everyone will have a tower PC and 19" CRT." I have a Mac Tower and a 21" CRT and trust me, they are not the space heaters they are touted to be.

[Sabre]

Turned out that the contractor had calcualted all offices having 19"+ CRTs and tower PCs in every office and adjusted the heating requirements accordingly...

What kind of ratings was taking for those devices? Did he get them from 1987 instead of 2007? I can't imagine any world where the heat of tower PCs and Monitors would markedly affect the level of HEAT required. I can certainly understand an increased need for AC in summer, but less heat in winter "because everyone will have a tower PC and 19" CRT." I have a Mac Tower and a 21" CRT and trust me, they are not the space heaters they are touted to be.

lol, believe it or not, I can see this. Given my experience with hardware and such. My tower PC at home (I have a LCD monitor which puts out little heat) can easily raise the temp of my office 10F. I also have a room that is ~9'x9' that requires 4 tons of cooling...

[drwrx]

lol, believe it or not, I can see this. Given my experience with hardware and such. My tower PC at home (I have a LCD monitor which puts out little heat) can easily raise the temp of my office 10F. I also have a room that is ~9'x9' that requires 4 tons of cooling...

I will have to take your word for that. I can certainly understand the need for cooling in a small 9'x9' room. In summer I can notice the temp difference around the area of the tower. But it certainly isn't allowing me to lower my heating bills in the winter. The fan just runs less when the ambient temps are cooler.

[Sabre]

Back when I had a server room in my basement, I pulled off the heat during the winter to warm the house. Worked pretty well!

[drwrx]

I had at one time 4 tower PCs (and other various peripheries) running round the clock and they never really heated my basement enough to not have to run space heaters as well in the winter months.