Bitcoin Forum

Hello,
After getting my rig setup up and running and somewhat stable I am starting to think about protection mechanisms in case of fire etc.

My 6990's are not controlled by an automatic fan - I need to figure this out - at the moment I have them all switched on 90% at the moment.

One large concern would be with my cards overheating and getting damaged or causing a fire. Does the Radeon shut down when it reaches a certain temperature or will it melt?

I have 4 rigs so I'm considering paritioning them somewhat so if something did go up in smoke it would not damage any other rigs. My cooling at the moment is only ok - I got a vortice extractor today that I'm not totally happy with but I have flexible ducting at the moment. Sewage pipes have been recommened so hopefully this will work out better.

At the moment I am running two machines from the same 220 volt 13 amp socket. Each rig is drawing just under 1200kwh. How much can I draw and should I wire a new line into the breaker board rather than using another plug in the house?

Well that's all I can think of for now. Looking forward to how others are proctecting their equipment.

Most high performance processors have a temperature that they'll stop at or start to throttle processing power. To have a fire caused by a modern CPU or GPU would be kinda amazing to me.

A malfunctioning PSU is a different thing, but those will be fine as long as their load is within specified specs.

Im with fascistmuffin on this. I dont skimp on my PSU's also get that rig ventalated and you will sleep better at night. (unless like me you still have it in your house and its making a racket :-[ ) Need to get it outside asap lolz.

From experience with 5970s, they tend to fail and then run hot with fans on max until you either RMA or bin them.

As something new today I set fire to a hard-disk - plugged it in, turned it on and watched the flames burn happily through an IC on the back for 5 seconds before I could turn the PSU off.

What sort of configuration do you have to run the machines from a 220v outlet (like what type of three pronged connector)? Are you outside of the US since you say it is 13 amps? The 220v you commonly see in the US is usually 30 amp and for a large appliance like an air conditioner, washer, or dryer.

For my rigs, I run them with air cooling and three of them with the open case in my sig. This prevents any overheating with the cards OC'd. For power consumption, I mapped out the circuits in my place (by flipping the switches in the breaker box) and keep each circuit I'm using for mining under 80% load. So if it is a 15 amp circuit, I keep rigs drawing 12 amps combined and below on it.

This is to prevent a fire that could occur by maxxxing out a circuit which can't handle the 24/7 stress causing wires to melt or catch fire from the heat.

I use a Kill-a-Watt (http://amzn.to/q9CUrL) meter to test how many amps the systems are drawing to get a good idea.

You might have to do something a bit different if you're in the UK or find a kill-a-watt that works there.

Also, if you can afford it, renters or homeowners insurance in case you really do burn the place down. Also you usually get covered for theft as well. Just make sure you have pictures of any machines serial numbers and what not.

One last thing I want to add. Your GPUs will throttle down once they hit a certain temperature to prevent damage, most of the time. If your cards are too close together inside your case, use a PCI extender (http://amzn.to/ppZm7v) to split them up a bit more.