[Noisebridge-discuss] New pony

[Leo Dearden]

2009/6/4 Dr. Jesus <j at hug.gs>:
> On Thu, Jun 04, 2009 at 09:19:50AM -0700, Dr. Jesus wrote:
>> Due to a communications foulup, the new pony server needs to be
>> reclaimed for another project.  This means that we need an even newer
>> pony to replace it.
>
> ...there seem to be plenty of loud fast servers
> available.  If there was some way we could cool them quietly (dunking
> them in transformer coolant seems to be an option), one of those could
> easily be the new pony.

I haven't done this but I've read a fair amount about it. My take is
that it's possible but not trivial. Immersion in anything will
probably kill any drives with moving parts. Except for that, IMHO, all
you need is a non-conductive, chemically stable, low viscosity fluid,
and a suitable container to put it in.

www.tomshardware.com cooled a PC with cooking oil, but I think that's
a short term (days/weeks) destructive proposition.

I would probably use a thin silicone oil since I know how to get that
(Silicone rubber suppliers carry it) and I don't know where to get
transformer coolant from. If you do, that would probably be better.

While I worked at CSR we cooled FPGA based ASIC emulators in baths of
some expensive liquid organic fluride from (IIRC) 3M.

If you try it let us know how it goes.

Leo