Bitcoin Forum

I got my usual electricity bill and found a slight shock that my powerconsumption for 1 aug 2012 - 1 sep 2012 was 1330 kWh and 1 sep 2012 - 1 okt 2012 1138 kWh.

I'm using 200kwh/month for non mining related costs, so basicaly during augusth my mining rigs where: 1330 -200 = 1130kwh.
1130kwh/30/24 = 1.57kw each hour.

I used to have this setup:
Rig 1: Aircooled tripple(3) AMD 7950 clocked at 1055core/625memory 1093mv, powerusage was 660w at wall using kill-a-watt
Rig 2: Watercooled double(2) AMD 7950 clocked at 1100core/800memory 1100mv/1168mv, I need to find logged data but according my electricity bill this amounts to 500w(?)
Rig 3: Watercooled single(1) AMD 7970 clocked at 1268core/1000memory 1243mv, I need to find logged data but according my electricity bill this amount to 400w(?)

I guess it's possible that my Rig 2 and Rig 3 used together 900w considering the overvolts?

Sounds about right.

My Quad 7970 watercooled Rig uses 1KWh, memory at 170, core at 1160, stock clocks. Here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-A_NlkGvbM

You should invest in a Kill-A-Watt

Overclocking to the max rarely gets you the most profits. Usually some minor undervolting is in order. On my single 7970 (air cooled) gaming comp, underclocking the RAM and going from 1200MHz @ 1250mV to 1050MHz @ 1050mV can be the difference of 380W down to 245W. I get ~90% of the hashrate for ~65% of the power cost.

That should be fine.  My rig consumes 400W at the wall which means it consumes around 288 kW per month.

Well I guess in december none of this matters :)

Crazyates is right about underclocking your memory. If you just use MSI afterburner to underclock them to around at least the 300 mhz range you should see a decent drop in heat and power, and you really shouldn't see a noticeable drop in hashrate.

I actually see an increase in hashrate dropping my memory down. I keep it ~410. Too low, and it starts hurting performance. Idk how people run it in the 160 ranges.

what?  you mean this lunch is not free?

I saw the same thing with my 6990 rig. Dropping the memory down to 150 made a huge difference in power consumption. I second the comment about using a Kill-A-Watt or equivalent. Being able to see the power usage in real-time will help you to tune your system to maximize profit. I went a little overboard with this for my setup (using the iMeter), but it really fills in some gaps to tell how your rigs are doing:

http://www.praecogito.com/photobucket/acheron-cgminer-hash-rate.png
http://www.praecogito.com/photobucket/acheron-iMeter-Output-Load.png
http://www.praecogito.com/photobucket/acheron-miner-efficiency-mh-w.png

Like others said, sounds about right.

A useful bitcoin profit calculator
http://bitcoinx.com/profit/
.

Hehe, I love these people that are shocked that these insanely high power use computer components running 24x7 are actually using a lot of power.

Welcome to the party. :)

Exactly. "Help, my money making super computer costs money to run!"

Get yourself one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353421948&sr=8-1&keywords=killawatt (http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353421948&sr=8-1&keywords=killawatt)

That link showed a pic of a burned up looking wattmeter, is that for real? Would someone really buy one looking like that?

Haha you don't need to buy that one. Those little buggers are actually pretty popular, and quite reliable.

You can pick up cheap second-hand electric meters from eBay. Modern or the old mechanical ones with the spinning disc. You'll tell exactly how much your consuming then.

Cheap second hand and electric meters are two phrases that might as well be "Likely firestarter"

No. Electric companies periodically change them, because they become inaccurate not because they are dangerous. I'm talking about ones perhaps 10 years old, not antiques made of bakelite.

these days us GPU folk need every BTC we can grab before having/asics!

Also, if one uses their computers to keep their living quarters heated verses using a heater.. the electricity almost becomes "free" (or at least "very cheap", due to offsetting a normal heating bill)

^ This. Last year I had 1 less Gpu, And my apartment is pretty decently insulated. We ran the A/C all but 2 days last winter. Had a pretty fatty credit with the electric company when summer rolled around. Not to mention the bill dropped to almost nothing. ($30/m vs $70/m i think)

I actually moved some mining equipment into the living room... cracked a window, and put 35watt box fan in a window at the other end of the house... I haven't had to turn the heater on yet (and it's hitting high 30s at night). The other day I came home to find my wife had closed the window in the front room... then turned on the AC because her gaming rig was overheating...

"Well why did you shut the window?"

"My feet were cold."

*sigh*