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Comment by sleepydog | Hacker News Reader

For very hot data centers, evaporative cooling is still popular. This is from 2012 but I doubt much has changed.

https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/sustainability/gett...

13 years is an incredibly long time for something as fast moving as data center development. I guarantee that a _lot_ has changed. I know AWS in particular has gone through multiple entire revisions of their DC designs, and I recall a talk from some of their engineers saying how AWS actually found it more economical to use less cooling and let their DCs run hotter than they used to.

Here’s a recent article from AWS about using closed-loop systems for their AI data centers: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/aws-liquid-cooling-data...

Data centers may change but the physics of cooling doesn't.

It's more economical to run chips hotter but at the end of the day you'll still have heat that needs dissipating and it's hard if not impossible to beat evaporative cooling in terms of cost.

This is like someone in 1800 saying “at the end of the day you still have transportation needs and it’s hard if not impossible to beat horses and carriages in terms of cost”.

Literally just do a google search. There are advancements every day that improve upon evaporative cooling to make it use less and less water and energy, and alternative methods other than evaporative cooling.

Bleeding-edge advancement and commercially-viable solutions are not apples to apples.

If there were then datacenters would use them ;) There must be a catch eh?

Are new water-guzzling DCs and nuclear plants built on water sources unlikely to be affected by climate change?

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