Keeping servers cool

STaN

I am just curious about the best way to keep a 1u rack server cool.

Does it depends on the case, should there be special fans setup in a certain way etc?

The server would have Dual Athlon MP 1.733Ghz processors.

Any1 have any case suggestions, tips, things to watch out for, a good case or method of cooling the server.

Or any tips of keeping a rackmout servers uptime in the weeks.

Gerry

I haven't put together rackmount servers myself, but this would be one of the best places to read about them:

http://www.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.html?i=1604

And more particularly, this article:

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1514

Now the appro 1U dual athlon mp server has serious cooling in there to deal with the heat, your cpu's are going to be even hotter. So a standard 1U case isn't going to work, you are going to have to go for something with at least the cooling of the appro case. You should pay particular attention to ducting the airflow around the cpu heatsinks.

Perhaps you may be able to find that appro case somewhere on the web?

In terms of uptime, well the best thing to do is to hammer the server with stability tests before you put it into production. Its that simple, just stress the hell out of it for as long as you can. Setup temperature monitoring on it so you can monitor it remotely.

STaN

Ive bagan my search for the perfect case now.

Anyone got or seen a 1u case that has sufficient cooling?

(Appro don't seem to sell their cases only the prefabricated systems - as far as i know)

steve-hosting36

I would recommend a built box. 1u machines are still very fussy about components, heatsinks, etc, and the fans/cabling etc have a huge bearing on temp. 2 AMD's are going to run fairly hot, even when idle, and if you want a decent lifespan from the machine, you may be better getting one built.

You can get some great deals nowadays, and getting a custom built box should not cost more than diy,

HTH, Steve

flamegrill

Originally posted by steve-hosting36
I would recommend a built box. 1u machines are still very fussy about components, heatsinks, etc, and the fans/cabling etc have a huge bearing on temp. 2 AMD's are going to run fairly hot, even when idle, and if you want a decent lifespan from the machine, you may be better getting one built.

You can get some great deals nowadays, and getting a custom built box should not cost more than diy,

HTH, Steve

Who do you recommend steve?

steve-hosting36

Well, we use www.encom.ie for all our gear, servers are top quality, good components, top quality build, extremely tidy cabling, etc and excellent thermal properties.

We also find it better value to have them build everything than do it ourselves, as we alway get a perfect box, burned in and fully covered

As always, depends on the budget and the application

HTH, Steve

STaN

pity they dont do AMD

steve-hosting36

Talk to George there, he can sort you out

Anyway, Intels are better

Inspector Gadget

I'd like to echo Gerry's sentiments as I'm really quite concerned about cooling those babies - I've seen very few reviews of 1U Socket A HSFs, and those I have seen haven't been overly promising - airflow is a huge problem in low-profile cases.

Gadget

STaN

http://www.appro.com/1124.html

http://www.dualathlonservers.com/103multiview/103chassis.htm

both made for them

btw athlons have trashed intels at the same clock speed level?

Inspector Gadget

...it appears to me that the Appro method, apart from having the ducted blowing over the RAM (for the model you're proposing, Dave|STaN) before it hits the CPUs it appears to me that one of the CPUs has a line of capacitors (and, I might add, what looks like a northbridge with a largish heatsink) in front of it, which is going to play havoc with the airflow, isn't it?

The dualathlonservers.com coverage of heat issues is little more than an exercise in circumlocution - they say a lot about cooling without saying much about what they've done apart from the things like referring to a "wind tunnel" (duh) and "our wonderful engineers spent ages on it... honest!"

I don't know, I'm not convinced. If it were me, I'd be going 2U just for the improved airflow. However, more room to manoevre inside the case would be an added bonus too, wouldn't it?

Gadget

STaN

http://www.appro.com/tech_resources/appro-amd-datasheet.pdf

It seems the appro case keeps an operating temperature of 10oC to 35oC, surely thats well withing the optimum spectrum for a server like that staying alive for weeks on end without a reboot?

I think the dualathlon server case would have to be quered as to how hot the case gets, but it does seem to take allot of the heat out of the case with the wind tunnel and 6 chassis fans, although i may be corrected on that.

Inspector Gadget

10-35 degrees? Unless they're talking about in a properly air-conditioned server room (we're talking air temperatures of maybe 10-15C) they haven't a hope - even based on the assumption that they're referring to the system temp rather than the CPU temp (because if they're getting those CPUs to those temperatures using aircooling with warm air (remember - it's already flowed over the RAM), that server's going to be pushing the rack around the room like a thruster pack on a spacesuit

Gadget

STaN

ROFL

The servers would be in an airconditioned room so the intake would be pretty cool. The dual athlon .com case looks like it is extracting all the air above the cpu heatsinks and bringing in cool air from outside and as for the case there are 4 intake and 2 exhaust fans to regulate circulation.

This is as far as my knowledge goes and i havent really built a server of such a high spec before. But i have heard that the difference in terms of 1u & 2u are minimal when it comes to cooling and u still face the same dilema when it comes to getting the heat out of your case and getting the cool air in.

Has any1 built such a system before and had experience with the temperatures?