45°C cooling design cuts data center water use to near zero(blogs.nvidia.com)
375 points by nitin_flanker 22 hours ago | 277 comments
tl;dr: NVIDIA's Rubin AI infrastructure uses 100% liquid cooling with coolant running up to 45°C, enabling closed-loop systems that can operate without chillers or evaporative cooling in favorable climates—cutting water use from ~2.6M gallons/MW/year to near zero. The higher operating temperature allows outdoor dry coolers to reject heat efficiently year-round, eliminates fans entirely, and triples rack density (6U servers fit in 2U). Since cooling accounts for up to 40% of data center power, a 50MW facility could save over $4M annually.
HN Discussion:
  • Skepticism about environmental benefit since waste heat still pollutes cold climates
  • ~Waste heat could be repurposed for district heating to benefit communities
  • Questioning what's actually novel since high-temp liquid cooling already exists elsewhere
  • Article lacks technical detail on climate requirements and efficiency tradeoffs
  • Sharing related implementations or creative uses confirming the approach works