[HarHarVeryFunny]

> You would save a ton on cooling cost

I'm not sure that you would. You might think that cooler ambient temperatures mean less cooling required, but it's really a matter of rapid heat transfer away from chips, which is why electronics in satellites need active cooling, despite the temperature of space being near absolute zero.

[roryirvine]

Yes, you'd still need a full forced air cooling system (especially with modern datacentre densities), so the only gain would be from the there being a higher temperature gradient for your heat exchangers to work with.

There's no way that by itself would make enough of a difference to justify building a dc there, given all the other negatives that others have mentioned.

[HarHarVeryFunny]

Actually modern datacenters, such as xAI's Memphis one, are now using liquid cooling since the power density of SOTA chips demands it.

[quickthrowman]

That data center likely still uses liquid to liquid heat exchangers with a chilled water loop and cooling towers to reject heat outside, but I could be wrong. Piping refrigerant around a massive building costs way more than chilled water, same goes for filling up the system, glycol and water is cheaper than refrigerant.

[roryirvine]

That's inevitable, really, given the way power densities have been increasing. I wouldn't be surprised if people weren't also experimenting with high pressure Helium and similar technologies.

It's certainly a far cry from opening some windows and stringing a few fans together in the hope that the chilly outside air will be enough to keep things cool!

[touisteur]

Before we go down that path, datacenters full of oil tubs seems to be a trend in some spaces. Very good cooling power, low-tech heat extraction (small pumps to make the oil move, car radiators with big simple plumbing... do the trick well).