CDU 50 Cooling
Distribution Unit
Overview CDU 50
The 5U CDU50 Cooling Distribution Unit (CDU) is a compact version of cooling distribution unit designed to fit in the rack and provide 50kW of cooling capacity. It is designed to provide cooling water for secondary loop devices such as rear door heat exchangers, cold plates and other HPC water cooled devices requiring a secure, clean, filtered water supply, closely controlled and above dew-point. It is capable of 50kW cooling capacity with supply water anywhere between 15oC (59oF) to 45oC (113oF). The CDU50 offers many of the same advantages of the CD300 Cooling Distribution Unit. On the front face of the 5U Unit is the touch screen operator interface for ease of operation and monitoring. The unit controller of the 5U module offers RS 485 communication for BMS and TCP/IP communication for SNMP, web server, FTP, Telnet, SSH, Modbus, etc.

Characteristics
5U rack sized component of every direct and indirect liquid cooling systems – manufactured by Nortek.
40 servers
supported with single unit
Redundant pumps
System components redundancy provides high availability
Dew Point control
Condensate free safe cooling
Full remote monitoring
Monitoring performed remotely
Features & Competitive Advantages
Safe and open solution – like nothing else on the market
Cooling capacities ranging from 20kw to 50kw
Cooling capacities ranging from 20kw to 50kw – real efficiency for real applications with warm / hot water in closed loop. Ensures 100% sensible cooling reducing the need for humidication and saving energy.
Full run/standby capability with redundant pumps
Full run/standby capability with redundant pumps – enables system redundancy and high availability for critical system components.
Dew point temperature control.
Dew point temperature control – Coolant temperature controlled at above dew point to maximise cooling and ensure condensate-free, optimum operation and minimise energy use.
Auto fill and bleed of coolant
Auto fill and bleed of coolant – autonomous system providing self maintenance in low pressure & low volume secondary loop.
Full alarm monitoring and connectivity
Provides essential monitoring of the racks being cooled and system status with RS485 communication for BMS and TCP/IP communication for SNMP, Web server, FTP, Telnet, SSH, Modbus, etc.
50 kW
of real applications cooilng capacity
54LPM /14.3 GPM
of maximum flow available
600W
only for 50 kW of cooling capacity


PERFORMANCE
Pumps setup | Dual 48VDC pumps; tandem or standby operation |
Nominal flow rate | 54L/M (14.3 USgpm) |
Cooling capacity | 50kW with 10°C primary ; 45°C secondary |
Minimum approach temperature (plain water) | 5°C at 20% full load 25°C at 100% full load |
Primary temperature | ASHRAE W1 to ASHRAE W4 |
Secondary temperature | Up to 55°C |
Simple and Effective
PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES
Shipping data | Installed on 19” rack |
|
Unit dimensions | 600mm x 435mm x 960mm 23.6” x 17.1” x 37.8” | 23.6” x 17.1” x 37.8” 17.5” x 8.6” x 31.0” |
Weight | 62 kg (136.7 lb) | Dry 36.7 kg (80.7 lb); Wet 41.5 kg (91.3 lb) |
Pipe connections | Secondary circuit: 1” BSP male thread connectors Primary circuit: 1” BSP male thread connectors |
ELECTRICAL DATA
Power supply | 110 V – 240 V 50 Hz / 60 Hz; single phase + ground (earth) |
Full load current | 5.2A on 110V ; 2.4A on 240V |
Typical nominal power and installed load | 600 W (maximum) 1.45kVA (maximum) |
Electrical connection | IEC connector C13 or C14 ; 10A MCB or fuse must be provided on site |
Communication | Ethernet RJ45 for RS485 communication (BMS); TCP/IP communication for SNMP, FTP, Telnet, Modbuss |
Complete liquid cooling portfolio
We know that every cooling system must guarantee reliability and safety for costly computing infrastructure. We saw large area for improvement in existing solutions and decided to design something better. Our systems are crafted carefully to deliver ultimate density, energy efficiency & sustainability without painful customisation. We serve customers complete, 100% safe, open, well-thought portfolio of direct chip and immersion liquid cooling.

Advantages
Next Gen Liquid Cooling System. Safe. Open. Flexible. Different than anything else.
- Safety Guaranteed
- Huge Savings
- Open System
- 20-30% More Performance
- Energy Efficient
- Green and Sustainable
We know from experience all the troubles related to positive pressure water cooling systems. Risk of flooding the costly systems is biggest concern for infrastructure operators. This is why we chose state of the art technologies to provide completely safe, 100% leak-proof system. We guarantee complete safety using three technologies:
- One is VCDU negative pressure vacuum based system that guarantees total safety in difference to positive pressure CDU’s. In an unlikely event of integrity loss, Cool-Flo® technology works with negative pressure on both supply and return, so if anything happens air will flow into the system instead of coolant leaking out. The “leak” does not stop the operation and electronic components are safe from water damage. The system also automatically evacuates coolant from a server when it is disconnected from a liquid cooling system for maintenance.
- Second feature: proprietary nanoparticles enhanced engineered fluid. We use two types of dielectric fluids for DLC and ILC cooling. Single or dual phase dielectric fluid option provides another layer of protection.
- Third component: over engineering policy. All modules, ports, tubing, dry break quick disconnects and couplings are more robust than necessary. We use high pressure rated components in our low-pressure system. We choose best in class simple solutions – e.g. flat tubing so the loop is twice as much durable than corrugated. Our tube can withstand over 650 PSI, when typical pressure in our system is up to 10 PSI. Because safety & uptime matters most.
Liquid cooling technology provide massive saving for hyperscale, enterprise and smb installations. Even individual users see significant cost cut. Savings can be measured in CAPEX and OPEX so ROI is immediate. In terms of CAPEX there are three biggest factors:
- cost of liquid cooling systems is usually lower than air cooling infrastructure of the same capacity. In most cases it’s 15-20% less.
- liquid cooling renders the need for costly HVAC infrastructure which effects in fever pieces of critical equipment in data hall space. Liquid cooled servers require only 20% of previous airflow with allows for free-cooling during all seasons. Of course immersion cooling requires virtually zero airflow thus providing another discount.
- Increase in rack power density (from 10-20 kW to 100 kW and beyond) allows to lower data center footprint, resign from air exchange plenum, stack data center vertically. Fewer server racks and interconnects means another reduction in capital cost.
Both of this factors results in reduced site & structural construction, compared to traditional build. Simplified electrical and mechanical topology and faster go to market gives tremendous advantage to data centers outfitted with liquid cooling, over air cooled designs. For new data center projects, the cost savings is even more dramatic as capital expenditures can be cut nearly in half.
The biggest advantages however starts with OPEX:
- For most installations we observe an overall reduction in average data center power consumption by up to 45%. The savings comes from a combination of HVAC elimination, reduced infrastructure footprint, and reduced fan power consumption. This cuts lot’s of operational cost associated with power cost.
- Increase in computing power of liquid cooled processors and gpu’s effects in 15-20% more performance. For specific application it can reach with additional fine tuning and overclocking even 30% more compared to air cooled server rooms. This means we can spend 20% less on computing infrastructure having more performance for less.
- Increased reliability of equipment through elimination of the most of airflow. Liquid protects IT devices from harsh environment including high temperature, humidity, vibration, dust, air contamination extends MTBF of ICT infrastructure and extends lifespan of systems.
- Riddance of most of aircooling critical infrastructure that must be maintained on regular basis, less maintenance overhead, means reduced maintenance and personel cost
Significant reduction in CAPEX and just fraction of traditional datacenter OPEX decrease Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of running ICT infrastructure.
Currently available liquid cooling systems are highly customised – “boutique” solutions. Water cooling coldplates and tubing length must be carefully prepared for one and one only specific server model. Even the size of the rack which holds the device must be taken into consideration, as tubing length between the coldplates and manifold must be carefully measured. All recognised hardware vendors propose liquid cooling for one single server in their portfolio – in the same way as IBM in Manframe s/360 servers in 1965. In case of immersion cooling available solutions support only some types of servers, switches and storage systems because of dimensions of immersion baths. Summing up – all solutions we saw and tested were unique and proprietary.
Industry however requires open solutions, and typical cloud / colo infrastructure is usually diversified with many server vendors and types. In case of immersion cooling our universal enclosures and computing enclosures can accommodate variety of servers, switches and storage systems from a-brands and oem vendors. DCX believes in open systems and our liquid cooling systems support over 95% of available hardware without specific customisation. In case od direct chip cooling – DCX patent pending Next Gen DLC system features Push To Lock quick disconnect ports on cooling module / rack level. Customer can purchase Next Gen DLC components as every other third party product: memory chip, disk drive or gpu card. Administrators can link DLC modules with our proprietary tubing and create the loop for every server and platform worldwide – without being forced to order custom solution for each device.
The best is that using provided leak- proof tubing & PTL quick disconnects the Customer can reconfigure the LOOP if needed and move to the next generation server, utilising the same socket, cooling modules, and LDUs (liquid distribution units). This extends lifetime and ROI of Next Gen Liquid Cooling components three times comparing to current DLC offering.
Modern, energy efficient CPU’s, GPU’s and memory chips are subject to thermal throttling. Vendors know that overheating can cause errors and accelerate component failure. This is why all existing hardware operate with lower performance than advertised if reaching certain thermal point. In Intel Skylake architecture AVX-512 and heavy AVX2 instructions throttle the CPU’s frequency. This is why Intel diversifies processor models to “thermally optimised” and not In case of memory – command rates are reduced if system works over certain limits.
One need to realise that in real case application most of the customers get 20% less performance from their chips – if CPU temperature reaches over 55C/130F – cpu frequency will be reduced and performance hit may be even higher than 20%. For most of Nvidia GPU’s – thermal throttle point starts at 50C/122F and clock frequency will drop – step by step to 50% of base Mhz.
To put it simply – you pay 100% price for the chip and get 80% of performance in real world applications. There are two ways to cope with that issue: one is to use power hungry chillers to run the systems in cold air. The second is to use direct liquid cooling and extract the heat with warm fluid – at the source and keep the chips at optimum 50C/120F temperature. Liquid cooling allows also, with additional fine tuning and overclocking, to turbo boost your chips getting additional increase in performance of 15% to 25%. Without any compressed cooling.
Sharp increases in energy prices have forced many IT pros to look at how inefficient existing cooling practices are. Traditionally only half the total data center energy is used at the equipment with typically about 30-45% or even over 50% of the total data center energy is consumed by the cooling infrastructure. Most of this is consumed by the site chiller plant, used to provide chilled water to the data center, and by computer room air conditioners (CRAC) and air handlers (CRAH), used to cool the computer room. With average PUE of 1.89 for many datacentres over 50% of energy consumption and carbon footprint is not caused by computing but by powering the necessary cooling systems to keep the processors from overheating.
Datacenters use currently 3% of the world’s energy (around 420 terawatts) which is around 45% more than the entire United Kingdom energy spend. And this consumption will double every four years. Researchers predicts that by 2025, data centres will amount to largest share of global electricity production at 33% This is why EU Commission issued EU Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency along with best practice guidelines.
DCX systems save over 50 % of typical data center’s energy consumption with hot liquid cooling and 30% save can be expected in small scale consumer systems. For most installations we observe an overall reduction in average data center power consumption by up to 45%. The savings comes from a combination of HVAC elimination, reduced infrastructure footprint, and reduced fan power consumption. This cuts lot’s of operational cost associated with power cost. Increase in computing power of liquid cooled processors and gpu’s effects also in 15-20% more performance. For specific application it can reach with additional fine tuning and overclocking even 30% more compared to air cooled server rooms. This means we can do the same having 15-20% less servers.
Moreover, high-grade heat at the output can be used for such needs as heating building spaces. In our liquid cooling installations, with 50-60*C hot fluid output we reuse from 64% to over 80% of usually wasted heat. This is why liquid cooling sites demonstrate the extreme energy efficiency and can deliver heat to local community or office space.
Climate change is recognised as one of the key challenges humankind is facing.
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector including data centres generates up to 2% of the global CO2 emissions, a number on par to the aviation sector contribution. Problem with supply of renewable sourced energy will make data centres one of the biggest polluters in just seven years.
Additionally data centres are estimated to have the fastest growing carbon footprint from across the whole ICT sector, mainly due to technological advances such as the cloud computing and the rapid growth of the use of Internet services. ICT industry is posed to be responsible for up to 3.5% of global emissions by 2020, with this value potentially escalating to 14% by 2040, according to Climate Change News. Researchers say this will be directly related to the fact that the data centre sector could be using 20% of all available electricity in the world by 2025 on the back of the large amounts of data being created at a fastest speed than ever before seen.
Our solutions render the need to use high GWP refrigerant associated with chilling plants, reduce 3 tons carbon dioxide emission per kW of ICT equipment in one year and reduce power consumption on average by 50%. Simple as that. Moreover, high-grade heat at the output can be used for such needs as heating building spaces. In our liquid cooling installations, with 50-60*C hot fluid output we reuse from 64% to over 80% of usually wasted heat. This is why liquid cooling sites demonstrate the extreme energy efficiency and can deliver heat to local community or office space.