Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Chapter 5

Cooling and Power
Typical heat dissipation and power consumption metrics for a Sun Fire X4600 server equipped with eight
Dual-core AMD Opteron processors and 32 GB RAM are as follows:
•UL Maximum Power: 1975 W
•Typical Power Consumption: 1400 W
•Typical Heat Dissipation: 5850 BTU/hr
•Ambient Temperature: 5-32 C

Cooling

The chassis of the Sun Fire X4600 server is segregated by an air divider into two distinct chambers: the
motherboard/PCI and fan chamber and the Power Supply Unit (PSU) and storage chamber. Both areas are
front-to-back air-cooled. The PSU and storage chamber is cooled by individual fans on the back of each power
supply. Air is drawn through the front of the server by these rear-located fans. The motherboard/PCI and fan
chamber is cooled by redundant rows of fans mounted in front of the server behind the bezel. Approximately
200 CFM of airflow is provided to cool the system.
Figure 5-1: Airflow Diagram of Sun Fire X4600 Server
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