So what do you think this is?

CoolIT has signalled its intent on moving into the lucrative server-cooling market with a prototype cabinet that provides both air- and water-cooling, controlled by the company's MTEC Control Center.

The custom-designed 26U cabinet packs in a huge radiator at the very front. Looking closer, a couple of industrial-grade pipes - which are practically indestructible, we were told - ferry the liquid-cooling to the rear.

Adding more oomph are a couple of 16in fans whose speeds can be controlled by the laptop above the cabinet when routed through the MTEC Control Center.

Looking at the rear shows the plumbing at work.

What you see above is a regular 1U chassis that uses conventional air cooling for the PSU but custom water-cooling blocks for the dual processors inside the box. The rack(s) then hook up to the chassis and radiator through two long metal tubes on each side.

Here's a close-up view of the cooling. The connectors can withstand pressures of up to 4,000 PSI and the entire cabinet can dissipate around 35kW of heat.

The prototype Control Center was connected to a laptop where one could toggle various options pertaining to fan-speed and required internal temperature.

The benefit of such an approach , we suppose, lies with per-cabinet cooling rather than the blanket cool-'em-all strategy adopted in data centres, where room-based cooling doesn't take into account racks that don't run so warm. The racks can be designed on a bespoke basis, of course.

An interesting concept that will come to market in 2H 2008, representatives stated. No word on pricing, again.

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