White Papers
Figure 3: Airflow through Zone 2 of the MX7000 chassis, showing cooling of IOMs. Other airflow zones have
been greyed out in this graphic.
POWER SUPPLIES
Power supplies in the MX7000 chassis benefit from a simple, independent airflow path at the bottom of the chassis, as
shown in the cross sectional view of Figure 4 below. PSUs intake fresh air at the front of the chassis. Dedicated fans
in the front of each PSU push airflow through dense electrical components and under the power connector at the back
of the PSU. Since there are no downstream components to cool, PSUs can operate with very high exhaust
temperatures of 60°C or higher. This thermal design helps ensure reliable delivery of up to 3000W supplied power in
the dense form factor of each MX7000 PSU.
Figure 4: Airflow through Zone 3 of the MX7000 chassis, illustrating cooling of PSUs. Other airflow zones have
been greyed out in this graphic.
CONCLUSIONS
Traditional modular architectures have been characterized by complex airflow pathways that restrict airflow available to
cool internal components, or require downstream components to operate within the constraints of preheated air from
upstream components. This results in sub-optimal energy efficiency as well as places limitations on feature support,
which in turn adversely impacts scalable growth for higher performance and/or capacity expansion.
The innovative multiple airflow zone architecture of the new PowerEdge MX7000 chassis overcomes these challenges
and ensures that fresh air is delivered to each component in the chassis, enhancing cooling for higher power and
denser system configurations. This design enables increased energy efficiency, extends the lifecycle of the chassis to
accommodate multiple generations of future IT technology, and delivers excellent investment protection.
© 2017 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell, EMC and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries