Patent attributes
Systems and methods for cooling large numbers of computing devices in a data center are disclosed. The devices are positioned on shelves in racks and are connected via network switches. The computing devices are oriented so that their cooling fans all exhaust waste heat to one side of the rack into a hot aisle, and each position is offset from positions on neighboring shelves above and below the current shelf. The racks can be offset, or the positions within the racks can be offset. Each computing device on the rack can also be angled horizontally and or vertically to improve airflow. Multiple racks can be configured together into sloped regular polygons, with the interior forming the hot aisle, and deflectors can be installed to further improve airflow.