Bitcoin Forum

For those of you who don't know me (which is expected, since I don't altcoins in general), I have built a small business around supporting the mining community and like finding ways to help home and small-scale miners get an edge against the takeover of industrial operations, including affordable power hardware and hosting. These days a lot of small-scale miners are running GPU rigs, so it's probably time I made good on some projects that have been rolling around for a while to help you guys out.

I work a lot with server PSUs and breakout boards. I also make cables. I have recently expanded my cable-making abilities to do things faster and with wider variety. I can now make 6+2 cables, PCIe splitters, and 4-Molex which I hear are useful for GPU powered risers. It is my assumption that, if someone wanted to run a GPU rig off a server PSU, it'd be handy to have cables with 6-pin on one end and 6+2 on the other to power cards directly without adapters. It'd probably be handy to have a 6-pin to EPS 8-pin native cable for motherboard 12V power.

I am also working on a small board which would draw power from 6-pin jacks and fan out into three 4-Molex cables for plugging into powered risers, integrating a 5V converter and with entirely modular cabling.

I might, if there is enough demand, develop a small picoPSU-style board with 5V and 3.3V converters (probably 12-15A each) that takes in power from 6-pins and attaches directly to ATX24 connector for main motherboard power.

If there's something y'all GPU guys think needs to be done or something else that would make things easier for you, let me know and I'll see what I can do. If any of this interests you, hit me up and we can talk numbers.

I have done a lot of deals with sidehack in the btc threads.

I have been active with btc eth and etc.

It is good to see you post here.

I will try to figure out what I could use.

R9 390 gpus need 8 pin

So a six pin to six + two pin  cable would work.

i have a lot of servers in house I would love to,adapt,one to run a pc

I would say a package to power 6 risers, hard drive, CPU and MB would be and immediate sell for me and most likely others wanting to use server psu's. I have 30+ of the DPS-2000 PSUs and would prefer to use those for my rigs if possible. Can you PM me a ballpark price for x6 of these "kits"

You mentioned PCIe splitters?


I've seen cards where an extra power connector is added even though the TDP does not even surpass a single 8-pin + PCIe demands. This makes those cards unfavorable since they would require more wires and result in needing more PSU units in a rig. And it is a shame to pass up a card with extra power phases

I think it would be usefull.

I've been buying cables from sidehack and they're top notch - MUCH better than anything else you can find elsewhere.  Plus it gives you the opportunity to really clean up the internal wiring - here's some of my latest machines running some of sidehack's work:

http://www.analogx.com/images/gpu/dsc00107s.jpg
http://www.analogx.com/images/gpu/dsc00108s.jpg

mark you have a plug in one card it is an hdmi socket.  What does that plug do?  is it just a dummy plug?  I am asking because how do you see the cards on a screen to adjust them.

Nice clean build.  I wish my gear looked that way.

I have had a lot of gear from sidehack  it works well.



I have  spare  dps-2500 units   which are a step above  dps-2000 units.

I would love to use one or two of them.

It looks to me like you have a dps-2000 running your build.

Correct - whichever card is designated the primary video card, I put a dummy plug in it to ensure that Windows boots smoothly (some of the ASRock's had problems, so it's worth the $20 to not have any).  I run TightVNC on it, so I just remote in with that and do anything I need - works like a champ, although I really don't do a whole lot of tweaking once the machine is up and running.


Thanks!  I always enjoy designing and tweaking the cases - plus with the GPU side of things, if you spend the time to nail the case, it just makes everything a whole lot easier in the long run.  The cost of the case is obviously more than the light weight ones on here, but it's also ensures that 100% of the fan airflow is used for cooling, which is important to me.  I also like having things mounted securely - this case could fall off the rack and I doubt anything would happen to it.

This is currently my v3 rev of the case - and I'm just finalizing the v4 to incorporate some of the things that Sidehack mentioned above.  The reason the build is coming together as cleanly as it is, is all thanks to cables that Sidehack has made for me.


Yeah, I have about 100x DPS-2000BB's lying around, so I use them like candy.  ;)  Right now I'm just using the one cooled by the fans - you'd be surprised how well that works, but the PSU does get warm.  I use Optimizer's breakout board for it (the best one I've used), and I'm looking forward to getting his 4k boards when they're available - that will probably be the final update I make as part of the v4 rev of the case.  While It's far more power per case than I need, he says he's tested it without active cooling at 2k and it works great - so that way I would get redundancy AND even better temperature performance.

Never played with the 2500's, but assuming they're the same as the 2000's but just with an extra 500w, they'd be an excellent supply to use.  Right now my heaviest power 6 GPU system is close to 1800w, and really I don't see things ever going much beyond that.  2000w still gives me a bit of headroom (especially considering these are server grade PSU's), but 2500w would be ideal...

And the next one I build will be for the GPU's I just bought from you, so you know they're going to a good home... ;)

How do you power the 24 pin socket on the motherboard with that PSU.

I have 1 not used for the btc antminers so it would be great if that could power my next rig.

Thanks

Here's the exact one that I use:

http://amzn.to/2b1KiAG

The important thing to consider is that this only powers the MB and SSD, not the riser boards - you'll also need a 6-pin PCIe to 8-pin ATX plug on the MB.  For the risers, Sidehack is making a board which I think will be awesome for them, basically giving several +12/+5 molex plugs that can easily handle the load of even demanding cards like the RX 480 (demanding on the molex side).

Using a server-PSU and a setup with a bunch of Sidehack's cables is the way to go - no comparison to some consumer-grade PSU with poor AWG wires.

Connecting DPS- 2000BB in GPU ?

What did use?

In my build I used GPU riser boards - but those need molex power, and sidehack made custom cables for me to take care of it (that's what he's talking about in this post).  The 6-pin's are just your run of the mill 6-pin PCIe cables, but I had him make much shorter ones since in my build the GPU's are close to the PSU.  Finally, he also makes a 6-pin PCIe cable to 8-pin PCIe - the reality is he's using 16 AWG cable, and Optimizer's DPS-2000BB breakout can easily support the load, we're talking more about the connector max amp load instead of the ATX standard max amp load.

So in the end you have a safer (high quality cables, known power limitations), cleaner (correct length cables), cheaper (server PSU+breakout much less than commercial) and more efficient (server PSU typically platinum at least) setup - just buy the parts from Sidehack already, you won't be disappointed!  ;)

@sidehack

I would be interested in these boards! I have hosted miners and done business with sidehack and can vouch for his services and products.

Are you able to elaborate on your set-up a bit more? Is that a custom case? Prices for each set-up and whatnot. Very clean and fancy looking!

I don't have anything for the DPS2000 right now, but I have an HP Common Slot board (which has PSUs from about 500 to 1500W Platinum) with 12 PCIe jacks.

All I have for GPU-rig-specific hardware right now is cables. The 4-Molex conversion boards are still in prototype. MarkAz specifically requested ATX24 conversion boards so he might get dibs on that depending on how everything works out, but I'll try and build 'em one way or another.

where is the molex for powered riser getting its power? from the breakout board?

Right now the power comes from the 12v supply of the breakout from the PSU, and from the 5v step-down converter to the right of the PSU.  It's kind of a clunky setup, and Sidehack is working on a board which will take the 12v from the breakout and break it out to the 12v and 5v that the molex needs - it should be great and really clean things up.

great, waiting to see that new breakout with 5v, that step down complicates things and adds to expenses. just harness the 5v from the PSU.

as for the motherboard/cpu power, I'd rather use some surplus good quality, low power psu to supply the hdd, and some fans. they can be bought less than half the price of 24pin Pico ATX switch you posted up thread.

Actually, it's still a stepdown - it's just all integrated and sized appropriately.  In order to have it compatible with any of the server PSU's, it basically needs to be 12v.  Really I wanted something that would make it dead simple to run the risers and clean up the cable mess, and sidehack already had a design in the works that met this need.

The problem you have with mixing and matching PSU's is that you could introduce all sorts of issue related to voltage mismatches - it's really why I wanted to have a single solution anyway.  Ultimately if sidehack does make the kind of miner equivalent of the pico ATX, it's really geared to be high quality and reliable at a good price, probably not the cheapest solution.  That's where my interests are - what's the point of jeopardizing $2k worth of hardware just to save $10 or $20 bucks - I want my base system to be rock solid, so as I swap out cards, I never need to mess with it.

a stepdown? i didn't know dps2000 dont have 5v

voltage mismatch? i haven't encountered that for 2 and 1/2  years wiith gpu mining.

it's not that i'm just about saving a few bucks, its about component (pico atx, stepdown) availability in my location too..i know someone in the US where the dps2000 with breakout and wires  can be shipped, and before the year ends it will be sent to me (to my country)

in my mind, for troubleshooting power, 1st psu is all about booting the os and dps2000 is all about the gpus. thats it (assuming the new breakout will cater for the 5v for the molex)

the all in one dps2000 solution is still not all in one in my mind in troubleshooting power, it is basically 3, the pico atx, stepdown, and the psu itself.

EDIT: i googled dps2000 only have 0.1A for 5v so a stepdown is necessary

Sounds like you don't want it. That's okay. Can I get opinions from the other side?

edited my previous post..

actually it is perfect for my rig with 4x pcie, a 2kw psu can handle 4x 390/390x or 490/490x (when released) at full power.

i just want to assemble and simulate everything in my mind before making a decision.

Yeah, you'd still need 3.3v as well for the 24-pin ATX connector... Really with things like the RX480 reference boards drawing more than typical current, I just like to over-engineer on the enclosure/power side of things.  DPS2000BB's are cheap relative to anything else - and if I can get some really nice boards/wiring from Sidehack to compliment them, I think it's money well spent.

I definitely agree with you about availability - and that's why I love getting things from Sidehack, he turns them around quickly and the quality is great.  It's a bit trickier obviously when you're non-US, as you need to plan in advance a bit more, but at least for me it's pretty rare that building new machines comes as a surprise - generally I buy in batches.

As far as troubleshooting power, I've basically been running first the IBM 2880W PSU's, which I had no problems with except with the breakouts.  I switched over exclusively to the DSP2000BB's last year, and they've run flawlessly - but to be honest, the main reason I used it with the GPU builds was because I have about 100 of them not being used right now, and 2000W was just about perfect power-wise.  Since all the breakouts and cables are of a known high quality, it just eliminates the #1 issue I've had in the past.  And as I mentioned above, I'll probably be double these up to 4k when Optimizer finishes those boards in a few weeks - but not for any reason other than because I have room in the case, it will run much cooler, and give me a bunch of extra PCI connectors.

@ arielbit 

I have helped European buyers of sidehack's gear.
I helped 2 people out see thread below

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1509068.0

if you look here I helped euro buyers of the avaon 6's

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1391814.0


So if you cut a deal with sidehack I would be willing to help with logistics.

My fees were $0

But of course the extra shipping would be on you.

I always used the cheapest safe shipping and always was transparent.  To Europe shipping was best via usps.com

To Canada ups.com was best

thanks for the offer and the information, i will keep it in mind..it might become handy in time.

but, someone i know in the US is a family member who from time to time sends stuff here, he might even pay the shipping for me, mix it with other stuff in a huge box. I'm in asia BTW.

actually it can handle even more, atm my 4x390x mining etc/sia pulling 1350W from the wall

i think i can do with the stepdown for the molex powered risers..but not with the pico atx

the only thing that will be powered by the low-cost, low-power, good quality surplus psu are the cheap 775 socket motherboards, quadcore cpus, ddr2 rams and 80gb hdds..the expensive GPUs cannot be harmed with this setup since it will be connected only to dps2000 via powered risers and 6+2 pcie pins..

that would make it even better

well it is not purely 2k psu in terms of 12v, looking at seasonic psu's they rate their psu in watts in terms of 12v, by using a stepdown for 12v it is technically a little bit lower for 2k for "pure" 12v utilization due to some of it will be used by 5v plus conversion losses , besides my country is in a tropical area so maximizing power capacity = heating up the psu more and heat can greatly shorten the life of the psu.

and the socket 775 boards i mentioned just have 4x pcie slots = 4 gpus..if ever i use a motherboard with more pcie slots i will analyze heat and power draw to maximize utilization... until then the convenient and safe side is 4 gpus

the dps-2500 is the same wire pin out but is more powerful .

The dps-2000 should do six r9 390s,but you do have tropical heat issues.  The dps-2500 certainly can do six units even with your temps at 40c

i would definitely go for dps-2500 then. buying from afar, one should put a room for upgrade and backup/extra psu's.

I would definitely be interested in enough for 12 cards!

Your breakout boards look nice, but for PSUs like the Dell 750p and the IBM/Delta DPS1520AB 6mm spade connectors are simple and cheap way to go.  If you sold 18" 16AWG cables with the 6mm female spade connectors, I probably would've bought some from you in order to avoid the crimping.
For my rigs I use a standard PC PSU for the mobo, and server PSUs for the GPU PCI-e power connectors.  I'm planning to link the power control so the server PSU shuts off when the mobo powers off once my order of optocouplers comes in.

Are you asking about 1/4" quick-connects to tie directly onto the power blades from the PSU? You could have asked, because I've made cables like that. I don't think it's a great long-term solution but it works. I have some temp supplies in hosting set up just like that.
Also all my breakout boards have an active-high external turnon pin specifically so it can be used alongside an ATX PSU without additional hassle. My first server PSU mods were for a GPU rig, so that feature's been there since the beginning.

Yes, here's a link showing them connected to a Dell PSU:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/10PCS-NEW-6pin-6p-Female-PCI-E-Graphic-Card-Power-conversion-Cable-for-DELL-2950-1470/32516294320.html
I got the ones without the vinyl hoods from a local hardware store.  I got the cables (16AWG/18") from Maxime at Cryptominer for about C$3 shipped.  It's worked great for months.

I'm making my own active-high external power-on for ~10c each.  A single 817 opto with dupont cables connected to the power LED on the mobo, and the output to PS_ON and Gnd on the server PSU (PS_ON to VG works as well on the Dell since it is an open collector output).

I just did more searching on you, and see that you're behind bitcoinware.net.  Knowing that, it's highly unlikely I'd do business with you.
https://coinforum.ca/discussion/3256/free-snow-from-bitcoinware

Edit: or maybe you are just a supplier to Bitcoinware.  It adds to the confusion given your .sig says "made in USA", but I think I saw one of your posts saying you ship your cables from Toronto.
http://www.kijiji.ca/v-other-computer-products/city-of-toronto/gekkoscience-usb-compac-btc-miner-8-16-gh-s-0-3w-gh-bitcoin/1128683339

I supplied a lot of PSUs to Maxime last year, before they started doing a lot of work in-house - both breakout boards and hard-soldered cabling. Folks who can do their own rigging like you don't benefit nearly as much from what I do, and I'm certainly not going to be upset about self-sufficiency.

Glad I caught your edit before replying. My only affiliation with bitcoinware.net is they bought my stuff to resale in Canada, same as my affiliation with HolyBitcoin and ASICPuppy in the US. If it has my name on it, I manufactured it in and shipped it from Missouri, USA regardless who is the reseller. The only place I have ever listed Compacs for sale is on this forum, so if you see them for sale anywhere else it's a reseller (authorized or otherwise) and I claim no responsibility for their actions. The only website I'm "behind" is my own sadly neglected one, gekkoscience.com

I may have ended up with a couple PSUs from you, since the first 2 750p's I bought were from Maxime.  I soon found a guy from Markham (Toronto suburb) selling them for ~C$20 ea, and that's where I got the rest of them.  I like the 1520AB the best, since I don't need to add a fan control circuit.  I know you can ground the fan speed control input (B2) for low fan speed, but they'll get pretty hot if you go over 50% load.  I tried a trim pot, which was too unstable to be useful (fan speeds would fluctuate up/down significantly).  It's a PWM digital input (not analog), so it's no surprise the trim pot doesn't work well.  The best solution I came up with was a AtTiny13A generating a PWM signal with the duty cycle varying according to the ADC input connected to a trim pot.  What I eventually plan to do is read the temperature of the output mosfet heatsink over the I2C bus, and vary the PWM output according to temperature.

Thanks for clearing up your connection to bitcoinware.  I searched around gekkoscience.com to find shipping info to see where you are located, but couldn't find any.
Now that you say you're from MO, I'm impressed.  The only person from there I know was a big redneck who wouldn't shut up about his son playing for ole miss.  I kinda wish Canada hadn't issued him a landed immigrant card...

I used to say I was proud to be from Missouri, but then I started learning more about other people in the Bitcoin world. BFL, VMC and MinerSource are all from Missouri; Minersource started in the same town I'm based in, even. Yes there are a lot of hicks in MO, and I did grow up on a farm, but if you know where to look you can find a lot of really smart people and if you really know where to look you can find smart hard-working people. Rural upbringing does wonders for the work ethic.

I grew up in a rural area; knew how to shoot, drive a tractor, and handle a chainsaw by age 12.  However I find intolerance is far more pervasive in rural areas than urban.  It was nothing to hear nigger and paki jokes at school, and if you valued your life you didn't come out as gay until after you left town.  I didn't realize how bad it was until I moved away for university (and suddenly found out some of my friends were gay).

Anyway, sorry for sidetracking the thread.  Getting it back to the topic, do you just use a pot for fan control on your breakout boards, or do you have a PWM circuit?  For the current output monitor pin, did you just use a high-resistance voltage divider on the current share pin from the PSU?  When I tested with the n750p, the current share voltage seems close to linear at 1V=~100W.

My mom knew well enough to understand early that racism and its ilk were foolish and raised us kids to think about people as people rather than targets. Subsequently I have more hangups about people who are fine with being lazy or dumb and not trying to do better for themselves than about any race or sexual preference. Considering the neighborhood, I feel lucky to have had the parents I did.

Fan control on the Dell 750 board is a basic pot. The DPS2K board (out of stock and pending some redesign) has adjustable PWM to two 4-pin headers for external fans. The DPS8/12 board doesn't have fan control because those supplies are internally regulated. Current measurement was done with a low shunt resistance and sense amplifier, but the feature was so little used compared to cost it's been removed.

Prototype PCBs for the Molex adapter have finally arrived. I'll be assembling and testing in the next few days and hopefully they work well and reliably.

I have already tested the new Dell 750W PSU board and it's in need of slight revision (including adding PWM fan control as suggested in this thread; it's been tested but not yet integrated), so I'll probably have another prototype PCB order going out soon. I intend to have a test version ATX24 adapter on that order - nothing fancy, directly powered with unswitched 12V EPS rail and probably two jacks for Molex cabling (compatible with the Molex adapter board, gotta love interchangeable parts).

I'm also playing around with a 1500W PSU that works with my edge-connector board (compatible with DPS800 and HP Common Slot family supplies), which might be interesting to some of y'all with six ~200W cards - depending on how all the jacks line out.

MarkAz is kinda the partner in crime for the cabling and adapter solutions so he'll probably have first access for actual in-rig testing. But that's okay because he likes posting pictures a lot more than I do and he's better at it anyway.

Initial testing on the Molex adapter board looks good. It's currently drawing about 18A off the 5V rail which is good since I intended to give it a 15A rating. A little airflow goes a long way too, just saying. Tomorrow I'll test how well it handles the heat of that much 5VDC conversion while drawing about 20A of 12V through the PCB.

I'm glad it's working well right off the bat. Maybe I'll put up pictures tomorrow.

If you're going to do PWM, I'd suggest adding temperature-based speed control.  There's a i2c temperature sensor (LM75 I think it was) on the i2c bus (pins B5/C5).  I forget the address, but you can find it with an i2c scanner; it's the lowest address of 3 you'll find on the bus.  Never figured out what the other 2 devices, but the LM75 gives 2 temperature readings in Celcius, one of which is off the heatsink for the mosfets.  I made a circuit with an attiny13a for PWM fan control (pin B2 I think), varied by ADC reading from a POT.  My plan was to do a bit-bang i2c implementation to read the temperature and make the fan speed temperature dependent, but still haven't got around to it.

be careful with the loads, the wires needs to be thick, and the terminals needs to be soldered well (and the psu, capable in the rails distribution). The 390s and 290s are beasts in power consumption, potentially.

The quality of the cables from sidehack are night and day from the junk your typical PSU comes with... That's the advantage of getting them from someone who knows mining - they know that these cables are really going to be used.

I know them perfectly, that's why I suggested to have caution. Surely they are :)

It's also dependeant by the load, for example 2x8 pin PCIE, linked, on a silverstone SST 1500W Gold aren't appropriate if you power an HD 7990.

You can easily melt the terminal in the female connector of the PSU, a thing that doesen't happen if you use them for a 290x, due the Amperage and thickness of the Copper in the cable (AWG).

I am curious to see the results sidehack, you seem to be doing a good job :)

Testing on the Molex board looks good, so I have no qualms about manufacturing that guy.

I'm working now on designing ATX adapter boards, but figured I'd ask a question before finalizing anything.

A standard ATX PSU outputs 5V standby power until the motherboard sends it an "on" signal, at which time it fires up the other rails (3.3V, +/-5V, +/-12V). I intend to design a full-feature board with all these rails, including a switched (and on a fancier version, probably regulated) 12V rail for motherboard power and EPS, so that a computer can be run properly from a 12V source without requiring disconnection to safely and completely power down.

A simpler board would meet most people's needs, with an unswitched 12V rail and the like. Should it be designed with 5V standby and motherboard-signaled rails, or is a simple "rails come up when 12V is applied" board good enough for most folks?

EDIT - regarding cables, I have to use 18AWG on anything that gets two wires to a pin (so all leads on 6-pin splitters and one GND on 6+2 which jumps to the +2) but everything that's a one-to-one gets 16AWG wire. Been that way since I started making cables 3 years ago; in fact, I didn't even start stocking 18AWG until last month.

Sidehack just sent me the first trail shots of doing sheathed cables, here you can see them next to his normal cables.  In this case it's all of my PCI-e to PCI-e ones, so one splitter and one 6-pin to 8-pin:

http://www.analogx.com/images/gpu/dsc00125s.jpg
http://www.analogx.com/images/gpu/dsc00123s.jpg

I'm not overly surprised, but I like them quite a bit more than non-sheathed - well worth the extra money.  In terms of a practical build, it really helps to clean up the internals and make any wiring quite a bit more convenient.  The #1 is still getting cable lengths that are correct for your build, but this is a nice #2 values.  Here's the before and after - I shouldn't need to tell you which is which.  ;)

http://www.analogx.com/images/gpu/dsc00120s.jpg
http://www.analogx.com/images/gpu/dsc00128s.jpg

You could probably skip the 5V step-down and provide just 12V to the molex.  PCIe has no 5V supply, just 3.3 & 12V, so the riser board has a 3.3V regulator powered by the 5V line from the molex connector.  Although I have not measured it, I suspect the GPU cards use so little power from the 3.3V line that the extra power dissipation on the 3.3V regulator wouldn't be a problem.

Assuming the 3.3V regulator is okay with taking in 12V, and nothing else pulls from the 5V (depends on the riser I'd guess), that only increases the power dissipation on the 3.3V regulator by about 5 times.
A proper 5/12 Molex adapter is also handy if you want power for other necessities like a hard drive.

We can directly connect the psu without board
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COOnxZBQ_-c

Which is great if you don't want to be able to change anything with your cabling, and it's also great if your PSU doesn't ever break. A modular solution is, in general, a better solution.

I'll Call 4 r9 280x it

I did some testing on my test platform with R9 390's, and they were pulling about 2a per card peak on the 5v side, with steady state being closer to 1a.  It's annoying that they step down 5v instead of 12v so we could just use PCIE connectors.

MarkAz has had his order of test boards and cables for about a week now, and I've asked if he'll get some pictures of an installed setup. I just now found my camera so here are some standalone pictures:

http://gekkoscience.com/img_stash/5V6PIN/DSCN2335.JPG

http://gekkoscience.com/img_stash/5V6PIN/DSCN2332.JPG

This board is 1.2x3.4 inches with three screw holes for mounting; it takes in power from 2x PCIe 6-pin jacks (only one may be necessary depending on your load) and outputs 5V and 12V on three 4-pin connectors. With moderate airflow for cooling, the board will comfortably handle 20A on both 12V and 5V lines simultaneously. I can provide cables of any desired length, with or without sheathing, from the 4-pin jack to standard 4-Molex for risers and other computer peripheral hardware. I can also provide 6-pin or 6+2-pin cables for powering GPUs. Cables are custom-made to order in the USA from 16AWG and 18AWG wires, no cheap Chinese stuff.

http://gekkoscience.com/img_stash/5V6PIN/DSCN2334.JPG

I have PCBs and parts on order, so if anyone's interested in the Molex adapter boards they'll be for sale in about three weeks. I figure $15 apiece on this batch; if a second batch is made in larger quantity I might take the price down a bit to account for bulk discounts on parts.

If anyone is interested, let me know.

I'm working on an ATX24 adapter design which should complement this board nicely, but I've been kinda busy lately so that's a bit stalled.

I would be interested in psu if you had one laying around?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=940317.0

A complete (and updated just this morning) listing of everything I have available right now.

I have switched to exclusively using the following risers:  They are 9.5" and I do not have any issues with them at all unlike the USB risers which have a short half life.  They are sourced from Padrino. I definitely need to order some stuff from Sidehack.  Love your new stuff.

https://i.imgur.com/5rYn162.jpg

so how much is 1  board and 3 wires?

Also I was thinking my psu has 2 cpu mobo cables  each is 4pin + 4pin

so if I want to is it possible for a cpu cable to six pin pci adapter cable  to be built.

I would connect the spare cpu to the adapter cable to your small board.
see photo of psu
https://i.imgur.com/r9nURFA.png

I'd say you have been lucky.  PCI-e signals are in the hundreds of Mhz, and are spec'd to use differential pairs or impedance-controlled PCB traces.  USB 3.0 cables are designed for high-speed signalling, while flat ribbon cables often will have problems once you get much over 100Mhz, even for low-voltage signals like PCIe.  I still use ribbon risers because they are cheap and I can get away with powering them from the mobo, but I have a couple of USB3.0 risers for testing when I have a bad ribbon riser.

You're also generally better off with the shorter ribbon risers (15 or 20cm), since the longer cables attenuate the signal more.

Not sure how much the signal translate to mining issues but I know that fried and non working USB risers cause a lot of downtime and headaches.  I point out on another thread that I have a BIG box of fried and nonworking USB risers.  

One of the biggest problems came when using Claymore's Dual Miner (which I abandoned a while ago due to the extra stress on the hardware). I fried 20+ USB risers which causes a lot of downtime.  The weakness is in the molex/sata wires which frequently burn but also they just stop working.  It occurs more after a couple of months but it happens and I have yet to have a problem with any of the above ribbons.

(I agree on the shorter ribbon cable but they are a little to short for 6+ GPU rigs.)

Sounds like crap power wiring to me.

sounds like he dual mines and overclocks the cards.

Right, but overclocking shouldn't wreck the power wiring if the power wiring doesn't suck. If you're smoking out the Molex into the riser there's a problem, since that shouldn't pull 100W.

Rx cards have been shown to pull 95 watts at the pcie jack.

So dual mining on a custom rom could get too much watts if it is an rx card.

Been testing some different configurations and thought I would post some of the pics using Sidehack's new molex breakout board.  So far I have to say it's awesome, definitely cleans up the build and makes things much more universal... I run 6x cards off 2x molex boards for a system, but Sidehack thinks you could comfortable run 6x cards off of just 1x of the molex boards - for me I look at these as longterm builds, so I'd rather have the extra buffer room.  Anyway, enough of the rambling, here's some pics:

http://www.analogx.com/images/gpu/DSC00130s.jpg

You can see the new braided cables Sidehack does here, they're the nylon ones.  All my new builds are using his cables, so I don't have to deal with the cable wrap I currently use:

http://www.analogx.com/images/gpu/DSC00132s.jpg

Here's the actual molex breakouts - each one is powered by 2x PCI 6-pins, which is more than enough headroom for what's typically pulled off the PCI slot side.  One other nice thing is that the molex plus are different from the 6-pin PCI, so no chance of getting them mixed up:

http://www.analogx.com/images/gpu/DSC00133s.jpg

Those open frame case are wonderful !

Where did you get them ? :P

edit: I would also take 2 of those molex board with the molex cables, great job !

heheh, glad you like them - they're my design, this is the 5th version of the case, but it's really come together now - especially with the cables and this new board from sidehack.  While it looks like an open-frame case, it really isn't - all the other sides are closed, it's only the back that's open, because I'm much more interested in controlling airflow to get the best temps - that's also why I use industrial tube-axial fans and not just box fans, these babies move the air through the case so nothing gets trapped in it.  In my two latest ones running RX470's, I'm experimenting with hoe much air I'm letting come through next to the fans - one is fully enclosed around the fans, the other is open, so we'll see how that works.  I just want to make sure the fan airflow isn't short-circuiting (exhaust being sucked into intake).


Those are sidehack, so just PM him and you can get in on the next batch as I think he just ordered those up.  You can't got wrong with them, definitely a great option when you're using server PSU's.

I was dual mining but no longer do that because of the SIGNIFICANT wear & tear.  Here is an example of what can happen: No cheap wires in my rigs  ;D

https://i.imgur.com/fl6Rqus.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/OwoGkyH.jpg

On a second note, the molex/sata cables that come with the USB cables are in fact junk.  Give it a month or two below a hot ass GPU and the wire insulation becomes dry and brittle. 

So your problem is crappy molex/sata adapter cables, not the USB risers.  When using USB risers, I power them from the PSU molex connectors.  If you test the wires on the cheap chinese-made SATA->molex adapters, you'll probably find they are nowhere near 18AWG.
http://nerdralph.blogspot.ca/2016/06/when-does-18-26-when-buying-cheap-cables.html

MarkAz,

Your 5th generation open rig with Sidehack's wrapped cables and molex breakout boards looks very clean and might be something we would be interested in.  Are you selling these rigs (Complete or just shells) or selling the plans with a parts list?



Thank you for your time in advance,

 /s TuffToad

@ markAZ. How much mh you got ?

I am now at 25 cards around 550mh.

I do no bios flashing and run pretty much stock 20/21 for rx 470 and 25 for rx 480

I've been considering making them available - the main reason I haven't is just because they're quite a bit more expensive than the open frame rigs, so didn't really want to listen to people complaining about how much they cost.  ;)  I view them as a fixed equipment purchase while I swap out cards, etc - so for me I'd rather pay a bit more and have a clean/high quality solution that's easy to work with.  Which is also why I love sidehack's work.  ;)


I don't do any bios flashing either - and the total is just shy of 2GH/s.  I've just been slowing adding machines, so I'll probably go to about 3GH with this setup.

I'm using the Sapphire Nitro+ 8GB RX470's, and seeing pretty consistent 24MH/s with Claymore (which is what I run on everything).  I only have a couple of RX480's (the original ones), and they perform almost identically to the RX470's (at least the ones I buy).

2gh is nice.  I can't cool my garage enough to get to 2gh.  I have 2 x 30 amp  240 volt lines  so I can do    over 10kwatts of power.  I just won't be able to cool that off.  

My goal for the winter is 32 cards and about 700mh.  Cards 26 and 27 arrive next week.

I like a few cards  this one  is decent  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137024&cm_re=msi_rx_470-_-14-137-024-_-Product

Yeah, I have about 300a usable, but I'm only using a bit of it... One big advantage of living in Arizona is that evap works REALLY well, so for ~500w I can drop 10-20f off ambient.

So what hash rate are you getting from the MSI 4G (ideally using claymore)?  I had considered picking those up, especially at the price - the place I buy most my cards from now is jet.com:

https://jet.com/product/MSI-RX-470-GAMING-X-4G-Radeon-RX-470-Graphic-Card-125-GHz-Boost-Clock-4-GB-GDDR5/e63f1e7cb1b645c6ad7b36c9dba862e2

If you order 3, and opt out of returns, you can get it for $185, plus free shipping and no tax.  If it's your first order, using the coupon TRIPLE15, and you can knock another $30 off the order (if you buy 3 cards).  Really a smoking deal, and the funny thing is when the boxes arrive, they're from Newegg - pretty stupid really on Newegg's part to give better deals through 3rd parties than on their own site.

Little farther off topic than ideal right now.

Sidehack - Any chance of putting together a "Package" that includes the 1500 watt PSU with breakout board, cables and the Riser Power.  I expect to need about 15 to 20 of them.  

With the cable braided etc

Sorry my fault I lead him down that road.

I won't need much, but 2 little boards  with pcie in and four pin out and the pcie to four pin cables that come with it.

so 2 boards and I guess 6 cables is what I will need.

two sets of this:

http://gekkoscience.com/img_stash/5V6PIN/DSCN2332.JPG

I'm hoping to offer "package deals" like you're asking, Kilo. I don't have a good source for the 1500W PSU yet but there's time. The only issue with that in the short term is I'm at the end of my PSU board run and samples of the redesign will be arriving at the same time as the new Molex adapter boards, and a full batch won't come behind them for a while unfortunately.

Would you be willing to make risers for gpus?

How many molex can be run from each of the molex boards?  Will it handle 6 or is 3 the safe route?

Will the cables you offer only be 1 molex adapter per cable? Will you make cables with 2 or 3 molex adapters?

Also 2 more questions that may be a little off topic. Sidehack does your breakout board work with the HP 1500watt PSU?

And what adapter should I buy for server PSUs with the Blue plug. All my server PSUs with the black plug work but the blue ones I think are designed for 240v. Is there a C13 or C14 adapter I can by to run off the standard american 120v outlets?

Thanks

The standard cable as I've done it so far has a single Molex. If your riser has a separate PCIe for 12V you probably won't have to worry about overloading the adapter's 12V throughput, so the 5V demands would be the only real limit. I could make a cable with two Molex ends if you wanted, or just use an off-the-shelf splitter.

I don't know what you want for an adapter, because I don't know what you have for a cable. I just use 5-15P everything so it doesn't take anything special here.

I would like to buy the same thing !

Thanks

Herb

I'm gonna go ahead and say one board with three 18" cables is $20. Sheathing currently is some extra expense and a lot of extra hassle, so one board and three 18" cables is $22.30

I will probably set up a group buy thread. I'm not so much for preorders, but since this is a proven design and PCBs are already on order and so are pretty much all the components, I'm not too worried about it.

Okay 2 x 22.30 = $44.60   plus shipping  let me know when to pay I am onboard for two of these.

I'll have a GB/Sales thread up in the next few days. Probably use USPS Small flat rate for shipping the little orders like that, Phil.

Yeah was hoping for that as it is cheap and fast.  Should just about 51 or so with shipping. I will watch for it.

I want you to know that sometimes the answer is in front of my face and I look right past it.  I am aware of cheap wires (but I have read through your blog because it is a nice read).  The one thing I never thought about and I am almost embarrassed to say it is just hooking up the PSU molex to the USB riser. 

What makes it worse is that I do exactly that on the ribbon risers and just never even considered it on the USB.  The good news is that I will NEVER need to buy new risers again because I replaced a ton and I bet I have 200+ USB risers in a box.

On second thought - it gives me a good reason to add more miners - lol

I have put up an official sales thread in Group Buys.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=940317.40

I have been reading through this thread and I am interested in trying out a few of these server power supplies, but I am unsure as to exactly what I would need.

I am looking to power a GPU rig, so it sounds like the 1200, 1500, or even 2000 watt server PSU's would work, but I need to know exactly what parts I need to be able to power all 6 cards, the motherboard, SDD, and risers from the same PSU.

My builds would require:
GPUs - single 8-pin PCIe connector each (total 6)
Motherboard - 24-pin & 8-pin power connections, 2 Molex connectors (depending on MB)
Sata SDD - (I suppose I could use a Molex to SATA adapter here)
USB Risers - 6 more Molex  (9 total including MB and SDD)

So far I gather that I will need the server PSU, a compatible break-out board which I believe takes care of the PCIe connections. I will then need something to take care of the Motherboard and Molex connections. Can someone fill in the missing pieces for me?

Thanks

The hardware discussed in this thread will cover your Molex needs. Something like a PicoPSU would power the motherboard. I can put you together a kit price estimate if you like.

if he doesnt i would like one

Yes, a kit quote including everything I need would be appreciated. Thanks!

aye, id also like quote for such kit i already got psu and breakout boards, would like to use those with it

Hey Philip, I went ahead and got me a Biostar Z170 after reading your posts about it, and the board works perfectly with 4 cards so I owe you. Here is my two cents then :
With 25 cards ( RX 470/480's ) some simple bios mods and NO overclocking ( underclocking and undervolting infact ) they can easily get ~25.5Mh each, totaling to ~640Mh.
There is next to no reason to not do the bios mods, since there is zero chance of bricking (if you mod your own bios instead of flashing someone else's) and undervolting/underclocking insures your power draw and heat generation stays low. I currently have 28 RX 470 cards at 730Mh/- running in 6 systems with a combined power draw of ~3.1KW and all these are in my small house and the heat and noise are low enough to live with. I'm sure you can easily add more to your garage and hit that 1Gh mark :) I wish I had 10KW capacity id go crazy and spend all my money on this stuff :)

I am looking for some PCIE 8 Pin to 8Pin+4pin molex, someone is selling this kind of cables ?

They would remove a lot of "cable noise" in my rigs

I also make custom cabling. PM me with a bit more detail on what you're looking for (expected power loads, lengths, gender of each end etc) and I'll see what I can come up with.

Also, expected delivery of the PCBs is tomorrow. I thought I'd have 'em by now as the shipping expectation was about the 11th, but according to tracking they weren't on the move until the 14th.

what are those RX's sucking from the 5V off the molex sidehack ?

i didn't read all 5 pages.. apologies.

and this board will use the 12V & convert it to 5V but how many amps will it provide on the 5v ?

sub'd, looking fwd to more pix & info. might be interested to grab a few.

I'm not sure how many amps, but PCIe spec calls for up to 3A of 3.3V so if it's a linear regulator off 5V it could be that high. MarkAZ said his setup ran more like 2A each.

This board will push 20A on both 5V and 12V simultaneously.

PCBs and all components have arrived. I spent today verifying everything and setting up the pick-and-place for bulk manufacture. I ran one off to test calibrations, completed assembly on it and it's running right now with about 10A of output current on 5V with no trouble.

Tomorrow I'll do all the surface-mount for the batch and start on through-hole.

I got started cutting wires to run out cables last week but ran out of wire; my reorder has arrived. So tomorrow I'll also be finishing up cutting wire and start cable manufacture. I've got some better heatshrink than I had available for the test cables MarkAz got, which means the production batch should come out better. As of right now there doesn't look to be any reason I can't get initial orders shipped out Friday.

Great news!