Europe's most powerful supercomputer, the SuperMUC will be one of the first facilities to use a water cooling system. Usually one is more accustomed to the network of fans, ventilation systems, and air conditioning required to cool giant data centers.

That approach is expensive, and often costing just as much to run the computers as it does to cool them. IBM developed a giant water cooling system for the Leibniz Supercomputer Center Campus which houses the SuperMUC. It uses warm water, and the compact system is claimed to be 4,000 times more efficient than an air cooling approach, promising to save the facility up to $1.25 million in operating expenses every year.

All the heated water is pumped throughout the data center, and it also heats the facility's offices and its occupants during its winter months. Not bad for a cooling system!

[IBM via Gizmag]