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I wonder why they are submerging these instead of just making them a floating barge.

I can't imagine submersion is significantly better for cooling, the energy density very likely already requires a circulating water system, and the added issues dealing with the pressure at depth seem risky.

Possibly there is a benefit not related to cooling. Perhaps weather/waves? Things are probably alot calmer 30ft below the surface. The tossing and turning on the surface may place additional streses on things like HDD spidles.



HDD spindles????


Spinning hard drives have a decent gryoscopic effect. Hold one while it's powered up and try rotating it in a manner that would change the plane of the platters and you will feel the resistance.

Each time you do that, it puts a slight load on the spindle bearings. Do it repeatedly on a varying 5-30 second cycle and you'll simulate what a harddrive on a boat or barge in the open water would experience.

I can imagine that would create additional wear and tear and contribute to an increased failure rate.


Right but who is deciding to use spinning hard drives instead of SSDs in an underwater data center?


Cooling fan spindles are subject to the same forces; and they had a large array of cooling fans.


I doubt they're going to use fans if they are pumping the air out of the thing.




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