Monthly Archives: June 2019

Ever since the company was founded in 1984, Dell has been putting out quality personal computers that could be customized by consumers. One of the most popular series of desktops over the past 3+ decades has been the XPS. Today, the series continues with reliable desktops such as the Dell XPS Tower, which has high-performance graphics and as much memory as you need for doing your favorite tasks and running all of your applications.

There are a couple of options available for this series, including the regular XPS 8910 tower and the Special Edition version. The newer models are designed to be 27% smaller than their predecessors. Regardless of which version you buy, you can expect to have a glossy black tower that is easy to access and upgrade. Thanks to a swing-out power supply unit, you get fast and easy access to the inside of the tower. Upgrade and expand hardware such as the storage drive and video card to meet your specific computing requirements.

Some models of the tower, including the Special Edition version, can be upgraded with hardware that makes it VR-ready.

These are built to be silent machines – even when running at full load. The tower stays quiet, thanks to thermally controlled fans.

Here is an overview of some of the specs you can expect with a Dell DPS Tower:

• 6th generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processor

• 4 DIMM slots for memory (speed 2133-MHz) with support for 8GB up to 64GB

• Wi-Fi 802.11 wireless technology (b/g/n and ac are both available) and optional Bluetooth 4.0

• Intel HD Graphics (530) integrated graphics or your choice of various NVIDIA GT or GTX discrete cards. Some configurations are compatible with AMD Radeon R9 370.

• Multiple 3.5-inch hard drives as well as M.2 for SSD for storage

• Optional optical drive

Connectivity of the Dell XPS Tower

If you order your tower with a discrete graphics card, note that the HDMI port on the back panel will be covered. You will have to thus connect your display to the graphics card itself, which will come with its own connectivity.

There are also USB ports, including 3.0 ports, 3.1 ports and a 3.1 Type-C port, which will allow you to connect the desktop to devices such as printers and external storage drives. You will find an L/R surround line-out put on both the front and the rear. This is for connecting audio-output devices like amps and speakers.

This is a pretty popular computer series. There are many Dell XPS Tower reviews from owners who are happy with its quiet operation, support for discrete graphics, memory expandability, etc.

Reduce the cost of your desktop when ordering with Dell XPS Tower discounts. Dell promotional codes have been around for a long, long time and will continue to be in the future. You never know what kind of deal you might find.

What does the future of cell towers hold for landlords and land owners?

That’s the burning question for about 250,000 cell site lease holders who are trying to figure out if they can count on getting that monthly rental check from Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, U.S. Cellular, Sprint, T-Mobile, Cricket or Metro PCS here in the United States. Every year some wing-nut telecom nerd writing for one of the savvy technology blogs or websites writes a feel-good article on how the ugly cellular towers polluting the sky will soon become obsolete and replaced by some pocket-sized cube that does not cause global warming or kill the Hudson River Red Tailed Pigeon, or by a network of tiny satellites, or by hot air balloons, by some advance in nanotechnology or possibly by bridge trolls.

Sure, the carriers have built out DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems) in places where usually no other coverage solutions existed. But these DAS systems are extremely expensive and will never replace cell phone towers in our lifetime.

Will cell towers become obsolete?
Cell towers will become obsolete only when Chevy Suburban’s and Ford F-150’s can drive down the Interstate at 70 MPH fully powered by solar panels made in the USA. The demand for bandwidth is growing faster than the carriers can sell smart phones. Even if they came up with some amazing technology that could replace cell towers, it would easily take 10 years or more to implement. Think about it, how many of you reading this currently have mediocre to poor wireless coverage now as compared to 5 years ago before every 12 year-old started getting data text messages on their cell phones? Do you regularly drop calls? How many times did you call the customer service line to complain? Wonder why they couldn’t fix it? They need more cell towers, not fewer cell sites, and telecom scientists have not yet invented the all-purpose cell tower bandwidth nano-widget to replace that big hunk of steel in the air protruding skyward in your neighborhood.

How many places have little or no coverage now? I feel bad for the 55 million rural folks once again left without coverage. It’s time spread the capacity, so everyone has coverage, and take all the cell sites from Wall Street, decommission them and relocate them to rural Vermont. LOL.

Will some new technology replace cell sites?

Rumor has it that the current administration is looking at converting all of the Chevy Volt’s ever produced into roaming telecommunication base stations in the San Francisco Bay Area to replace all existing cell sites. We will keep you posted on the progress of this green initiative.

What’s going to happen to my cellular site lease revenue?

Inevitably some wireless landlords will agree to have carriers reduce their cell tower rents and have their cell site leases optimized to appease the cost cutting carriers so they can continue providing so-so coverage to their beloved subscribers. At the conclusion of every five-year term, landlords who agree to a rent reduction can expect to have the carriers re-optimize their previously optimized cell tower leases until eventually either cell towers will become obsolete or the carriers will be renting space on their fully optimized leased property for free.

We have answered many critical questions here, and after reading our in-depth analysis into the inner eye of the cell tower infrastructure and leasing industry, you are likely scratching your head, and wondering how it is possible that there is only one truly independent carrier neutral cell tower consulting firm in the United States which is loved by landlords and despised by the establishment.

How are you going to affect lasting bandwidth change? Occupy your cell phone tower.

WHAT IS A COOLING TOWER AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

A cooling tower is a specialized heat exchanger in which air and water are brought into direct contact with each other in order to reduce the water’s temperature. As this occurs, a small volume of water is evaporated, reducing the temperature of the water being circulated through the tower.

Water, which has been heated by an industrial process or in an air-conditioning condenser, is pumped to the cooling tower through pipes. The water flows through nozzles, spraying water into the material called “fill,” which slows the flow of water through the cooling tower, and exposes as much water surface as possible for maximum air-water contact. As the water falls down through the cooling tower, it is exposed to air, which is being pulled through the tower by the electric motor-driven fan.

When the water and air meet, a small amount of water is evaporated, creating a cooling action. The cooled water is then pumped back to the condenser or process equipment where it becomes reheated. It will then be pumped back to the cooling tower to be cooled once again. Cooling Tower Fundamentals provides a level of basic cooling tower knowledge and is a great resource for those wanting to learn more.

TYPES OF COOLING TOWERS
Cooling towers are designed and manufactured in several types, with numerous sizes available. Not all towers are suitable for all applications. Understanding the various types, along with their advantages and limitations, is important when determining the right tower for a project. The product list provides an overview of towers to help you determine which is right for your application.

Factory-assembled towers (FAP)

Factory-assembled towers undergo virtually complete assembly at their point of manufacture, whereupon they are shipped to the site in as few sections as the mode of transportation will permit. A relatively small tower would ship essentially intact. A larger, multi-cell cooling tower is assembled as modules at the factory, and are shipped with appropriate hardware for assembly by the user. Factory-assembled towers are also known as “packaged” or “FAP” towers. Factory-assembled cooling towers can be crossflow or counterflow, induced draft or forced draft, depending on the application. While all applications are different, the Marley NC crossflow, induced draft tower is widely used for HVAC and light industrial applications.

Field-erected cooling towers (FEP)

Field-erected towers are primarily constructed at the site of ultimate use. All large cooling towers, and many of the smaller towers, are prefabricated, piece-marked, and shipped to the site for final assembly. The manufacturer usually provides labor and supervision for final assembly. Field-erected towers can be crossflow or counterflow, depending on the application. For power and heavy industrial applications, the Marley F400 counterflow tower can be customized to meet your exact specifications for performance, structure, drift and plume abatement.

Crossflow cooling towers
In crossflow towers the water flows vertically through the fill while the air flows horizontally, across the flow of the falling water. Because of this, air does not have to pass through the distribution system, permitting the use of gravity flow hot water distribution basins mounted at the top of the unit above the fill. These basins are universally applied on all crossflow towers.

Counterflow cooling towers
Counterflow towers are designed so that air flows vertically upward, counter to the flow of falling water in the fill. Because of this vertical airflow, it is not possible to use the open, gravity-flow basins typical in crossflow designs. Instead, counterflow towers use pressurized, pipe-type spray systems to spray water onto the top of the fill. Since air must be able to pass through the spray system, the pipes and nozzles must be much farther apart so as not to restrict airflow.

Induced draft vs. forced draft
Induced draft cooling towers have fans that are typically mounted on top of the unit and pull air through the fill media. Conversely, air is pushed by blowers located at the base of the air inlet face on forced draft towers.

PERFORMANCE DRIVERS
Optimally designed system – Using a total system approach, every unit and component is designed and engineered to work together as an integrated system for efficient performance and long life.

HVAC Free Cooling – A free cooling system allows the tower to directly satisfy a building’s cooling needs without the need of operating the chiller in cold weather. The goal of a free cooling system is to save energy. There are specific types of free cooling systems and certain elements that must be in place for a free cooling system to be considered.

Variable Flow – There may be significant energy savings opportunities if the cooling tower can be operated under variable flow in off-peak conditions. Variable flow is a way to maximize the effectiveness of the installed tower capacity for whatever flow the process has.

OEM parts – Precision-engineered to provide a reliable product, Marley OEM parts are built to the highest standards and tightest tolerances for extended service life.

Geareducer® Solutions – Gearboxes are available in a variety of designs and reduction ratios to accommodate the different fan speeds and horsepowers of cooling towers. The Marley Geareducer Solutions program lets customers order a new replacement gearbox for a tower from SPX, or a factory-trained technician can repair an existing gearbox or rebuild a gearbox using Marley OEM parts.

Fill – One of the single most important components of a cooling tower is the fill. Its ability to promote both the maximum contact surface and the maximum contact time between air and water determines the efficiency of the cooling tower. The two basic fill classifications are splash type fill (breaks up the water) and film type fill (spreads the water into a thin film).

Drift eliminators – Designed to remove water droplets from the discharged air, drift eliminators cause the air and droplets to make sudden changes in direction. This causes the drops of water to be separated from the air and deposited back into the tower.

Nozzles – Crossflow configuration permits the use of a gravity-flow distribution system with a nozzle such as the Marley ST. With this system, the supply water is elevated to hot water distribution basins above the fill and then flows over the fill (by gravity) through nozzles located in the distribution basin floor. Counterflow configuration necessitates the use of a pressure type system of closed pipe and spray nozzles like the Marley NS.

Fans – Cooling tower fans must move large volumes of air efficiently, and with minimum vibration. The materials of manufacture must not only be compatible with their design, but must also be capable of withstanding the corrosive effects of the environment in which the fans are required to operate. The Marley Ultra Quiet fan is an example of a fan that can be used in situations where very low sound is a necessity.

Driveshafts – The driveshaft transmits power from the output shaft of the motor to the input shaft of the Geareducer. Because the driveshaft operates within the tower, it must be highly corrosion resistant. Turning at full motor speed, it must be well balanced and capable of being re-balanced. Due to the rigorous cooling tower specification requirements, the Marley Comp-DS carbon-fiber driveshaft was designed.

For specific information on how SPX Cooling Technologies can meet your needs, contact your local Marley sales representative at http://spxcooling.com/en/sales.