5 ms·

> cooling has basically just been orientating the DIMMs to line up with airflow Isn't that server cooling in a nutshell? Ram high volumes of airflow through th

by dcow 4y ago

> cooling has basically just been orientating the DIMMs to line up with airflow Isn't that server cooling in a nutshell? Ram high volumes of airflow through the chassis with stupidly loud fans and hope the parts stay cool?

dodobirdlord 4y ago
You still need to conduct the heat away from the sources to a radiator of some sort, since cooling is proportional to surface area and it’s much easier to increase surface area by adding fins than by increasing airflow. You can only speed up the air to a certain point, past which better cooling becomes a matter of shaping the components for more contact with the air.
- kllrnohj 4y ago
  Sure but the airflow over DIMMs in a server chassis is already vastly more cooling than RAM gets in any consumer application other than GDDR on GPUs.
  - Ekaros 4y ago
    Yeah, kinda weird that on ATX RAM is placed in way that is perpendicular to usual CPU cooling or even general air flow. The top mounted fans do change this, but I don't think those are very common.
    - sbierwagen 4y ago
      Makes it easier to keep all the traces the same length: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/74789/purpose-of-wave-shaped-pcb-traces https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/74789/purpos...
      - kllrnohj 4y ago
        Although the entire socket can be rotated 90* for even better traces, which is what the EVGA Kingpin motherboards do ( https://www.evga.com/articles/01543/EVGA-Z690-DARK-KINGPIN/ https://www.evga.com/articles/01543/EVGA-Z690-DARK-KINGPIN/ )
        mjevans 4y ago
        This design would have made so much more sense before the top of the case closed loop watercooler radiator setups became popular. I still like this a lot, but now the top down fan and some kind of ducting to help direct the air out the top / side vent makes more sense. There's so much heat these days everyone needs the baffles inside of a case.
        kllrnohj 4y ago
        That kingpin design is really for extreme overclocking and is about ensuring best possible signal integrity. Hence why it also only has 2 ram slots. But it demonstrates what's possible. In reality the RAM barely needs any cooling anyway and if you really care you can get one of those clip on fan brackets like this https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Accessories-%7C-Parts/Dominator-Airflow-Platinum-RGB-Fan/p/CMDAF2 https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Accessorie...
  - __alexs 4y ago
    The density is also vastly higher.
throwawaylinux 4y ago
I'm not in the field, but I have seen some of the work done by thermal engineers designing new server systems, and no that's not the case. Cost, noise, and physical box size are to be minimized, and various compute/storoage/io capacity are to be maximized. Component placement and orientation relative to one another, baffles, fan characteristics heat sink design, all play a role. They don't just throw parts in a box and add fans until all components are within operating temperature. Gross air flow is one lever, but it has costs and limits like all the others. Designs are modeled with heat and fluid simulations.

by dcow 4y ago

dodobirdlord 4y ago

You still need to conduct the heat away from the sources to a radiator of some sort, since cooling is proportional to surface area and it’s much easier to increase surface area by adding fins than by increasing airflow. You can only speed up the air to a certain point, past which better cooling becomes a matter of shaping the components for more contact with the air.

kllrnohj 4y ago
Sure but the airflow over DIMMs in a server chassis is already vastly more cooling than RAM gets in any consumer application other than GDDR on GPUs.
- Ekaros 4y ago
  Yeah, kinda weird that on ATX RAM is placed in way that is perpendicular to usual CPU cooling or even general air flow. The top mounted fans do change this, but I don't think those are very common.
  - sbierwagen 4y ago
    Makes it easier to keep all the traces the same length: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/74789/purpose-of-wave-shaped-pcb-traces https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/74789/purpos...
    - kllrnohj 4y ago
      Although the entire socket can be rotated 90* for even better traces, which is what the EVGA Kingpin motherboards do ( https://www.evga.com/articles/01543/EVGA-Z690-DARK-KINGPIN/ https://www.evga.com/articles/01543/EVGA-Z690-DARK-KINGPIN/ )
      - mjevans 4y ago
        This design would have made so much more sense before the top of the case closed loop watercooler radiator setups became popular. I still like this a lot, but now the top down fan and some kind of ducting to help direct the air out the top / side vent makes more sense. There's so much heat these days everyone needs the baffles inside of a case.
        kllrnohj 4y ago
        That kingpin design is really for extreme overclocking and is about ensuring best possible signal integrity. Hence why it also only has 2 ram slots. But it demonstrates what's possible. In reality the RAM barely needs any cooling anyway and if you really care you can get one of those clip on fan brackets like this https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Accessories-%7C-Parts/Dominator-Airflow-Platinum-RGB-Fan/p/CMDAF2 https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Accessorie...
- __alexs 4y ago
  The density is also vastly higher.

throwawaylinux 4y ago

I'm not in the field, but I have seen some of the work done by thermal engineers designing new server systems, and no that's not the case. Cost, noise, and physical box size are to be minimized, and various compute/storoage/io capacity are to be maximized. Component placement and orientation relative to one another, baffles, fan characteristics heat sink design, all play a role. They don't just throw parts in a box and add fans until all components are within operating temperature. Gross air flow is one lever, but it has costs and limits like all the others. Designs are modeled with heat and fluid simulations.