What You will Discover Inside a Huge Water-Cooled Intel 3000W Energy Provide

A 3000W energy provide typically conjures up photographs of giant metallic bins with noisy followers pumping air over huge warmth sinks, however this Intel reference unit blasts that concept out of the water, or moderately retains it cool, because of a water cooling system that retains all the things good and clear.

Intel engineers designed this beast of a tool for knowledge facilities and servers, the place squeezing as a lot energy as attainable right into a small house is the secret. It accepts a big 240-volt AC and outputs an affordable 12 volts DC at as much as 250 amps, appropriate for 3000 wattage.Water flows by the again of the unit by way of quick-release fittings, carrying warmth away with out the necessity for a loud inside fan or conventional warmth sink fins, and the whole factor stays sealed and silent with no inside transferring elements, counting on exterior coolant to maintain issues from overheating.

Inside, issues get a bit extra difficult as a result of the enclosure is a strong black field with no vents to talk of. When the screws are eliminated, you’ll uncover two chunky circuit boards jammed along with a big chilly plate crammed in between. The parts all push towards the chilly plate utilizing thermal pads, and the circulating fluid then transports the warmth to the skin world. The configuration works effectively to separate chores, with one board dealing with energy issue adjustment on the enter facet and the opposite dealing with the first DC-DC conversion bit.

Enter safety is the primary precedence, with fuses, surge arrestors, metallic oxide varistors, fuel discharge tubes, and common-mode chokes all doing their half to maintain disagreeable little shocks from the mains provide from inflicting points. Following that, bulk capacitors are used to easy out the rectified line voltage, making certain that it isn’t unsteady or unpredictable. The ability issue adjustment step, alternatively, employs a neat approach generally known as an interleaved totem-pole topology to scale back ripple and improve effectivity. The GaN transistors in that half are from Texas Devices and have an affordable 600 volt score. They’re additionally fast-switching (which is sweet) and low-loss, enabling it to realize the unit’s 80 Plus Platinum certification

The ability is subsequently transferred to the phase-shifted full-bridge part on the opposite board. Silicon carbide MOSFETs are the high-voltage switching parts right here, paire with a transformer that graciously lowers down the voltage for us. The litz wire on the primary facet is wound to scale back sign loss because the frequency will increase, whereas synchronous rectifiers on the secondary facet work their magic to supply even larger effectivity. The output filtering is then supplied by a big inductor and 9000 microfarads of polymer capacitors, all working collectively to supply a clear 12 volts DC on the output.

After all, there should be some management circuits in there someplace to maintain issues operating easily; a Texas Devices C2000 microcontroller manages the PFC stage, whereas a PIC24 displays general supervision. To maintain issues good and secure, there are digital isolators (that are actually sensible, in my view) and auxiliary flyback converters that present standby energy as mandatory.

A number of the design selections on present listed here are fairly spectacular, because the chilly plate design permits the unit to chug out a good 2500 watts per liter, as that’s a whopping 250 occasions extra energy per liter than the typical air-cooled provides, which could solely scrape in at round 800 watts per liter, however utilizing superior semiconductors like GaN and SiC actually helps to maintain losses to a minimal. Nonetheless, it’s the water block that also proves important at full load the place losses whole round 300 watts.
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