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Other => Beginners & Help => Topic started by: Quantus on June 28, 2011, 05:21:00 PM



Title: Super Noob Question.
Post by: Quantus on June 28, 2011, 05:21:00 PM
ok so I have my Mining rigs up and running and I just got my power bill and it went up by 200 bucks!
i pay .20 cents per kwh. yeah it sucks
  But here is my Question. I am running my rigs off old HHDs 4 prong power adapters. could I save a little bit of electricity by runing my OS off 20GB memory sticks?
If this is a re-tarted ass question I am sorry  :D   


Title: Re: Super Noob Question.
Post by: btcgames on June 28, 2011, 05:23:41 PM

You can save some, but it's unlikely to be a significant amount compared to the power draw of a video card.  I have a couple of mining systems that I boot a USB install of LinuxCoin on, then once it's started and mining, I pull the USB drive and use it to boot the other systems.


Title: Re: Super Noob Question.
Post by: Quantus on June 28, 2011, 05:32:01 PM
do i need to know any comands for this OS? i have used unbuntu before it was easy.
do i need UNetbootin to install it onto a stick?


Title: Re: Super Noob Question.
Post by: btcgames on June 28, 2011, 05:37:07 PM

LinuxCoin is based on Debian (Ubuntu is also based on Debian), so it shouldn't be too much of an adjustment.  You can get more info here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/LinuxCoin


Title: Re: Super Noob Question.
Post by: kylegates on June 28, 2011, 08:39:00 PM
What are your "mining rigs" comprised of?


Title: Re: Super Noob Question.
Post by: Acidka on June 28, 2011, 08:43:49 PM
u need any usb flash drive > 1gb


Title: Re: Super Noob Question.
Post by: Maxim Gladkov on July 08, 2011, 09:30:42 PM
It's better to use 2gb flash and install LinuxCoin via permanent install.
It will store Linux on 1gb and other information, that will be available between restarts, on other 1gb of the flash drive.


Title: Re: Super Noob Question.
Post by: karbonxx on July 08, 2011, 10:40:41 PM
What kind of Video Cards are you using or CPU?


Title: Re: Super Noob Question.
Post by: sega01 on July 08, 2011, 11:12:03 PM
I would stick a Kill-A-Watt on your mining rig and see what it draws. 20 cents a kW/hour is awfully expensive.

Some rough math suggests that your box would have to be using almost 1.4kW to get to the 1000 kW/hours necessary for a bill increase like that in a month. What kind of hardware is in it? I've never seen anything draw more than 400 watts myself, but I guess higher is feasible. That much seems likely more due to A/C for the summer heat than just your mining rig, but I could be mistaken.


Title: Re: Super Noob Question.
Post by: enmaku on July 08, 2011, 11:17:43 PM
An average hard drive uses 7 to 10 watts running full out - which in a mining rig, it shouldn't be doing. It uses much less when idle.

Worst case monthly cost for your hard disk at your cited energy costs is $1.44 per month.

A single 5830, on the other hand, would cost about $15.55 and one of my 400W rigs would eat up $57.6 per month. I've got six of those rigs and energy here in NV costs 11.28 cents per kW/H. My bill, including air conditioning, went up almost $300 per month. I envy your paltry $200  ;D