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Comment by everdrive

2 months ago

"The real story here isn't Hetzner being greedy. It's that AI companies are vacuuming up every DRAM chip on the planet and the rest of us get to pay the tax."

We might also have our aquifers depleted and our electricity prices skyrocket. But at least we see really great benefits, such as being able to script some side-project while unemployed due to AI.

12 comments

everdrive

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daxaxelrod  2 months ago

Anyone who thinks modern data centers don’t use recirculated water can safely have their opinions summarily discarded.

  • Betelbuddy  2 months ago

    Data centers consume...a lot...of water by design, recirculated water, does not means no water consumption. Water must be continuously added in evaporative cooling systems used by many data centers.

    [1] - Cooling towers reject heat through evaporation, which uses water, not just recirculates it. Evaporated water is lost to the atmosphere and must be replaced with "make-up" water. As a result, recirculating cooling loops still require new water input to make up evaporation and blowdown losses.

    [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooling_tower

  • b40d-48b2-979e  2 months ago

    Anyone who thinks that modern data centers don't evaporate their "recirculated FRESH water" straight into the ocean can safely have their opinions summarily discarded.

  • estimator7292  2 months ago

    Please google "datacenter evaporative cooling" and then re-evaluate

    • 15155  2 months ago

      Whoa: is this the only possible form of cooling?

      What if there were a cooler that somehow didn't evaporate water, you might even call it a "dry cooler" - that would be a sweet invention. This might even be required in areas where adiabatic cooling isn't effective (humid climates)!

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