Tech-Guide
How to Pick a Cooling Solution for Your Servers? A Tech Guide by GIGABYTE

As CPUs and GPUs continue to advance, they consume more power and generate more heat. It is vital to keep temperature control in mind when purchasing servers. A good cooling solution keeps things running smoothly without hiking up the energy bill or requiring persistent maintenance. GIGABYTE Technology, an industry leader in high-performance servers, presents this tech guide to help you choose a suitable cooling solution. We analyze three popular options—air, liquid, immersion—and demonstrate what GIGABYTE can do for you.

1.
Air Cooling

A side view diagram demonstrating how heat is dissipated in an air-cooled data center. Servers must also be designed to facilitate airflow. They can be customized to provide greater protection against airborne contaminants that may cause equipment failure.

GIGABYTE’s air-cooled servers perform admirably even under the hefty workloads of pressure tests. This is because the chassis design has been optimized for ventilation; powerful fans and heat sinks have been installed at key positions; and the components are made from heat-resistant materials.
2. Liquid Cooling

A liquid-cooled server uses sealed cooling loops filled with coolant to dissipate heat. Thermal energy is transferred from the components to the coolant through cold plates; then, a heat exchanger removes the heat from the coolant to repeat the cycle.

With a liquid-to-air cooling solution, heat exchangers are fitted on the same rack as the liquid-cooled servers, and they transfer heat from the coolant into the “hot aisle” of the data center. This allows processors to be packed closely together, resulting in greater computing power. It also allows air-cooled and liquid-cooled servers to coexist in the same facility.

A liquid-to-liquid cooling system transfers heat from the coolant to the data center’s liquid supply, making it possible to pack servers even more densely together.
3. Immersion Cooling

Immersion cooling places servers directly in a bath of non-conductive liquid with a very low boiling point. Heat from the components causes the fluids to vaporize and disperse heat. The vapor is then cooled by a coil condenser and reverts to liquid form, which flows back into the bath to be reused. (Image provided by LiquidStack)

GIGABYTE’s Immersion Cooling POC Unit. It is compatible with 2U form factors and can be modified on request to be used with 1U or 4U servers.
Summary: Three Steps to Help You Pick a Suitable Cooling Solution
1. Energy consumption and heat dissipation
2. Availability of space and other resources
3. Infrastructure

PUE
Scalability
Edge Computing
5G
Data Center
Immersion Cooling
AI Inferencing
Deep Learning
Liquid Cooling
BMC
Parallel Computing
TDP
Cooling
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