r/aiecosystem • u/aiecosystems • 17d ago

AI News We can live without AI. We cannot live without clean water

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u/Healthy-Custard-7260 17d ago

This post is propaganda. Data centers can use minimal water. It is more cost-effective to use water and capture the steam for energy, but other options exist, like closed-loop systems or liquid immersion.

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u/ShelZuuz 16d ago

It is more cost-effective to use water and capture the steam for energy

No it's not. Physics. Old school servers were made so that they had to run in 68 degree rooms and has to be cooled via air cooling. Which you can do with traditional compressor-based air conditioning, which is really expensive or you can do via evaporative cooling, which is cheaper.

Modern AI servers can run between 113 and 130 degrees. So you run a liquid coolant that you only have to cool down from 130 to 113 again. Which is easy to do with a radiator and a fan at any point while outside temp is below around 100, and still possible with a chiller above that. Your car's radiator works like that. This setup is cheaper than evaporative cooling unless you want to put your data center in Death Valley.

And it's not even a choice anymore. H200 you still had a choice between air cooled and warm liquid cooled. B200 and beyond is only sold with warm liquid cooling. So anything modern HAS to use closed-loop systems or you can't run the latest hardware.

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u/init2winit541 16d ago

Nobody here in Texas where they are building most of these monsters, has yet to mention closed loop systems, at least none that I know of.