Liquid immersion cooling advances in data centers | the next audio snake oil?

[EERecordist]

We really don't have much of a heat problem in audio. Maybe in tubes, or Class A amplifiers? I believe the compound is an ester which generally has even higher dielectric breakdown voltage than mineral oil used in electric utility transformers. So this might work for a tube amplifier!

With all the exotic snake oil in audio it would not be a surprise to hear someone is doing immersion for audio electronics. Liquid sound, syrupy smooth? The marketing opportunities are limitless!

Intel and Shell Advance Immersion Cooling in Xeon-Based Data Centers

An industry-first, Intel-certified immersion cooling solution gives data center customers a clear path to sustainable, efficient cooling in the AI era.

newsroom.intel.com

 

[DVDdoug]

They've had liquid cooling for CPUs for a LONG time. It seems to be popular with gamers... Maybe related to overclocking?[/B] Or maybe because it's "cool" (unavoidable pun). But it looks like they're still using fans for the radiator.

It's probably just not a good economic trade-off with amplifiers, and/or it's a problem that's better-solved with a regular-old heatsink. A lot of people don't like the sound from a fan either way. Also, there's a pump that can fail and plumbing that can leak.

 

[Philbo King]

I've often advocated (in a tongue in cheek vein) the use of copper tubing with liquid helium pumped through it to replace speaker wires with the superconducting copper tubing. Not necessarily practical unless you have access to NASA-like funding...

On a more serious note:

In my former job, there were people experimenting with liquid metal as a coolant, circulated by magnetic pumps through channels milled into the PCB. Not sure of the alloy used; perhaps gallium? I don't know what became of this idea; about 60% of the ideas that were investigated in my R&D group would fail. This might very well have become one of them.

 

[nerdstrike]

Yeah, this stuff only makes sense when you're running 10kW per 4U. Maybe you could open some possibilities for higher power AVRs but you end up with a radiator somewhere and hifi people like their units entirely enclosed.

 

[sam_adams]

The single-phase immersion cooling (SIC) discussed in the linked article is nothing like your typical gamer water-cooled CPU. In a datacenter that employs SIC, the servers themselves are completely immersed (case, power supply, system board, etc.) in a di-electric liquid. This liquid (PDF) is the coolant that is circulated through the servers to remove the heat. This is not a cooling system that the average gamer would be trying at home. Shell S3 X in a 1000L tote, $10,488.

In action:

 

[kemmler3D]

The single-phase immersion cooling (SIC) discussed in the linked article is nothing like your typical gamer water-cooled CPU. In a datacenter that employs SIC, the servers themselves are completely immersed (case, power supply, system board, etc.) in a di-electric liquid. This liquid (PDF) is the coolant that is circulated through the servers to remove the heat. This is not a cooling system that the average gamer would be trying at home. Shell S3 X in a 1000L tote, $10,488.

In action:
View attachment 450794

Wildly expensive, impractical, an overkill solution in search of a nonexistent problem, almost certain to improve the sound 0.0%?

This is the PERFECT audiophile product!

 

[EERecordist]

I've often advocated (in a tongue in cheek vein) the use of copper tubing with liquid helium pumped through it to replace speaker wires with the superconducting copper tubing. Not necessarily practical unless you have access to NASA-like funding...

On a more serious note:

In my former job, there were people experimenting with liquid metal as a coolant, circulated by magnetic pumps through channels milled into the PCB. Not sure of the alloy used; perhaps gallium? I don't know what became of this idea; about 60% of the ideas that were investigated in my R&D group would fail. This might very well have become one of them.

In my formative years I did research on superconductivity using III-V materials with liquid helium. We had a vacuum bottle inside a vacuum bottle. First we cooled the space between them with liquid nitrogen for a few hours. Then we delivered the liquid helium to the experiment in the inner vacuum bottle. After that we introduced a vacuum above the helium to get close to zero.

Maybe the magical consumer high temperature superconductor will be invented?

My colleagues were famous in superconductivity and photonics. In the nuclear fission power area there are commercial designs based on liquid metal heat transfer. We shall see if they succeed. In my view, the limiting factor will be material degradation from neutron flux.

 

[Salt]

Ferrofluid for tweeter's cooling and damping is still en vougue ... but a bit out of range for mid an bass ...

 

[Berwhale]

They've had liquid cooling for CPUs for a LONG time. It seems to be popular with gamers... Maybe related to overclocking?[/B] Or maybe because it's "cool" (unavoidable pun). But it looks like they're still using fans for the radiator.

No fan on my Zalman Reserator back in 2004... https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...fan-less-silent-pc.41114/page-18#post-1761517