dedicated server cabinets

[John Scott]

I found some pictures of a colo place in Seattle. It kind of confuses me. Don't servers need a lot of air movement to keep cool?

[fishfreek]

Enclosures like this often have very BIG fans in the top of them pulling air out of the cabinet. It appears the back is open and my guess is that quite possibly the bottom of the cabinet is open and there might be AC vents dumping air into the bottom of the enclosures. Although the floor appears to be concrete.

The room itself is probably kept a chilly 65F or something.

[John Scott]

Oh ok.

[arrow]

I herd your average 42u rack need 2 to 3 kilowatts of power.
Each kilowatt of load requires passing 140 cubic feet per minute of air throught the rack for proper cooling according to some studies (probably the guy who is selling air conditioning units)

Looking at the picture with no raised floors and even with a blow fan on top I would have them leave the doors open in the back.