Bay Area Data Center | 75 kW Racks and PUE 1.09
A Bay Area compute services provider needed to support rack densities of 75 kW without allowing cooling overhead to scale alongside the IT load.
Maktinta redesigned the cooling architecture, built the system, and commissioned it in house.
The result was a reduction in facility PUE from 1.50 to 1.09 while supporting 75 kW per rack.
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75 kW Rack density
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1.50 to 1.09 PUE improvement
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More than 80% Reduction in non IT overhead per kW of compute
Case Study
The Facility
A Bay Area data center compute services provider was preparing to operate racks at approximately 75 kW, a substantial increase in thermal density compared with conventional server environments.
The existing facility was operating at a PUE of 1.50, meaning every 1 kW of IT load required approximately 0.50 kW of additional facility power.
Increasing compute density without redesigning the cooling architecture would have increased the thermal challenge and limited the facility’s ability to scale efficiently.
Keep the client confidential unless Maktinta has permission to name them.
The Cooling Challenge
At 75 kW per rack, heat removal becomes a rack level and facility level problem at the same time.
The system needed to remove substantially more heat from each rack while controlling the energy required by pumps, fans, cooling equipment, and the rest of the facility infrastructure.
The project therefore could not be solved by simply adding more conventional cooling capacity.
The cooling architecture itself had to change.
Maktinta’s Role and Scope
Maktinta maintained responsibility for the complete cooling project from thermal assessment through final commissioning.
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Thermal load assessment
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Cooling architecture
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Mechanical design
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Equipment integration
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Controls strategy
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Installation
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Commissioning
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Performance verification
This is where the design build model matters. The engineers responsible for the cooling architecture remained involved through installation and startup.
Cooling the Load at the Source
The cooling architecture was redesigned around the thermal density of the racks rather than relying on additional room level cooling alone.
Heat removal was moved closer to the compute load, reducing the amount of cooling work that needed to be performed at the room and facility level.
The rack cooling system, facility infrastructure, controls, and heat rejection strategy were then engineered as one coordinated system.
Measured Performance
Following commissioning, facility PUE improved from 1.50 to 1.09 while supporting rack densities of approximately 75 kW.
At the same IT load, that represents a substantial reduction in the amount of facility power required outside the computing equipment itself.
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1.09 to 1.50 PUE improvement
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75 kW Rack density supported
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0.50 to 0.09 kW Non IT overhead per 1 kW of IT load
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Approximately 27% Reduction in total facility power at the same IT load
Why PUE 1.09 Matters at High Density
Cooling efficiency becomes increasingly important as compute density rises.
At a PUE of 1.50, every megawatt delivered to IT equipment requires approximately another 500 kW of facility power.
At a PUE of 1.09, that overhead falls to approximately 90 kW for every megawatt of IT load.
The larger the compute load becomes, the more valuable that difference becomes.
This deployment became part of the engineering foundation for Maktinta’s current high density cooling work.
Maktinta now designs cooling architectures for racks up to approximately 150 kW using technologies including direct to chip cooling, rear door heat exchangers, CDUs, facility water loops, and hybrid liquid and air systems.
Increasing Rack Density?
Send us the existing rack loads, target density, facility water conditions, mechanical drawings, PUE data, or cooling constraints.
Our engineering team can evaluate the complete path from the rack through heat rejection and identify where the existing architecture needs to change.