Cooling heat-generating electronics

A method for cooling electronic equipment, comprising:

• providing at least one server rack sub-assembly, comprising:
• at least one motherboard;
• one or more brackets coupled to the motherboard within airflow pathways that extend along opposed sides of a perimeter of the motherboard between a first edge of the motherboard and a second edge of the motherboard, the one or more brackets adapted to couple the motherboard to a server rack assembly;
• and
• a plurality of heat-generating computing devices mounted on the motherboard in an area that is substantially thermally decoupled from the airflow pathways;
• circulating an airflow through the airflow pathways and over the one or more brackets without circulating the airflow over the area that is substantially thermally decoupled from the airflow pathways;
• conductively transferring heat generated by the plurality of computing devices mounted on the substantially thermally decoupled area to the one or more brackets;
• and
• convectively transferring the generated heat from the one or more brackets to the cooling airflow.

A system comprising:

• a server rack assembly;
• a server rack sub-assembly, comprising:
• at least one motherboard having a perimeter;
• an airflow pathway defined along opposed sides of the perimeter of the motherboard from a first edge of the motherboard to a second edge of the motherboard;
• a plurality of heat-generating electronic devices mounted on the motherboard in an area of the motherboard that is substantially thermally decoupled from the airflow pathway;
• one or more brackets coupling the server rack sub-assembly to the server rack assembly, the one or more brackets comprising heat transfer surfaces and attached to the motherboard within the airflow pathway, the one or more brackets positioned in the airflow pathway to receive a cooling airflow that is circulated within the server rack sub-assembly over the one or more brackets without circulating over the area of the motherboard that is substantially thermally decoupled from the airflow pathway;
• and
• a heat transfer device coupled to the area of the motherboard that is substantially thermally decoupled from the motherboard perimeter, the heat transfer device arranged to conductively transfer heat from the one or more electronic devices to the one or more brackets.