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Comment by wmf | Hacker News Reader

This server appears to be from 2005; it looks like Google is still keeping some secrets.

The hard disks are dated Nov 2007. The motherboard is from 2005, but it's got decent specs http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Networking/Products_Spec... so they may still be using them.

Although I'm surprised they went with Xeon CPU's, and I don't see anything on gigabytes page about 12V only for the board.

It's quite possible that they got Gigabyte to do a custom design for them, given their volumes. Or, the 5v conversion is done in an extra device between the power supply and the mother board power socket (ATX or whatever it is).

We did indeed work with gigabyte on that board.

Given all Google's talk about power efficiency, it's debatable whether power-hogging NetBurst processors are "decent".

Note that the publicly available Gigabyte board you link to is the GA-9IVDT, the name on the board in the photo is GA-9IVDP. Moreover, they look nothing like each other.

I also can't tell where the 5V rail for the hard disks is coming from:

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/20090401/Google_server-1.jp...

The only wires from/to the PSU are those running to the battery and the 12V and ground wires for the motherboard.

the psu is labelled 13.6 V, there seems to be a fair bit of the motherboard under the drives, possibly that holds a 12V to 5V DCDC convertor

I really appreciate the minimal "case" these are in. Saves material and makes the containers lighter.

and I'm sure keeps them cooler.

The "case" is the shipping container. Again, economies of scale.

A post at the 'Green Data Center Blog' (http://www.greenm3.com/2009/04/close-up-an-old-google-server...) says that the pictures are of a "Google Server which is ready for retirement".

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