OT: CRAC

[Paul Lussier]

Ben Scott <dragonhawk at gmail.com> writes:

>   For small setups (handfuls of commodity x86 servers running in small
> businesses),

Does 300+ still count as a handful? ;)

>   PCs are a lot more tolerant of temperature and humidity then the
> mini's and mainframes of yore.  The ideal temperature for most PCs is
> in the mid to low 60's, I believe (check mfg specs), but even 70 is
> usually okay.  You want to avoid it getting much warmer then that,
> though.  It usually won't cause immediate trouble, but it will shorten
> the lifespan of components.

I can attest to that, as our room regularly runs at ~70F and sometimes
warmer.  And that's with ~20tons of cooling provided by a mix of
"building AC" and a 5ton "Move'n'Cool" venting to the outside.

>   Make sure you can isolate air exchange, too.  Otherwise, your fancy
> computer AC will be trying to cool the whole building in the summer. 
> This is especially bad when the office people want it at 73 degrees
> and the CRAC wants 68.

In our last building we had the AC units pumping the hot air into the
raised ceiling, which it turned out was also the return-air plenum for
the building's AC system :) 
-- 

Seeya,
Paul