[gfv]

In datacenters, you're mostly limited by the power (and thus cooling). Most commercial DCs only let you use up to about 10kW per rack. For standard 40U racks it's just 250W/RU, give or take.

There are niche expensive datacenters with higher power density, but as it stands, exotic multi-kW hardware at scale makes sense if you either save a ton on per-node licensing, or you need extreme bandwidth and/or low latency.

[ksec]

>Most commercial DCs only let you use up to about 10kW per rack.

I think that was the case in 2020;

>By 2020, that was up to 8–10 kW per rack. Note, though, that two-thirds of U.S. data centers surveyed said that they were already experiencing peak demands in the 16–20 kW per rack range. The latest numbers from 2022 show 10% of data centers reporting rack densities of 20–29 kW per rack, 7% at 30–39 kW per rack, 3% at 40–49 kW per rack and 5% at 50 kW or greater.

We dont have 2023 numbers and we are coming to 2024. But it is clear that demands for high power density is growing. ( And hopefully at a much faster pace )

[hinkley]

I have been told by tech writers that Google discovered that at some point electricians will refuse to route more power into a building. So even if you created a separate thermal plant, you still have issues.

[eternauta3k]

Really? I imagine datacenters are not reaching powers anywhere near those of e.g. arc furnaces.

[zamfi]

Arc furnace: peak of about 250 MW to melt the steel [1]

Datacenter: seems to cap out at around 850 MW [2]

Same ballpark I guess? Probably both are limited by inexpensive power availability + other connectivity factors (road/rail, fiber).

[1]: “Therefore, a 300-tonne, 300 MVA EAF will require approximately 132 MWh of energy to melt the steel, and a "power-on time" (the time that steel is being melted with an arc) of approximately 37 minutes.” via https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_arc_furnace

[2]: https://www.racksolutions.com/news/blog/how-many-servers-doe...

[hinkley]

I knew they were putting ridiculous power into these buildings but that’s absurd.

How many backup generators does that need??

[repiret]

Some electricians just assume you’re on a budget.

There’s always some limiting factor, and there’s always some (possibly crazy expensive) way to resolve it and get a bit more power until you run into the next limiting factor.

[hinkley]

Why would they assume Google or Amazon for that matter, are on a budget?

[kuchenbecker]

You build another datacenter rather than make the existing bigger.