Bitcoin Forum

Other => CPU/GPU Bitcoin mining hardware => Topic started by: DeathAndTaxes on February 06, 2012, 02:55:23 PM



Title: POLL: What temps & fan speeds do you maintain for 24/7 mining?
Post by: DeathAndTaxes on February 06, 2012, 02:55:23 PM
Just interested what other people run at.

Select only 1 fan choice & 1 temp choice.

If you use auto-fan or some dynamic fan put in what you average fan speed is (estimate if you need).
If your GPU temps vary put in the upper range of what you are comfortable with them running 24/7.

For some of us temps in summer are higher than in winter put what you are comfortable with.  For me I keep GPU <80C.  Sometimes they are much lower than 80C (like February in the garage) but I voted for 80C.

Bulanula thread was inspiration.  Discussion on GPU temps and longevity.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=62801.0


Title: Re: POLL: What temps & fan speeds do you maintain for 24/7 mining?
Post by: DeathAndTaxes on February 06, 2012, 04:53:15 PM
Hmm.  Well I learned one thing.  I run my GPU hotter than most.  Maybe I will try auto-gpu w/ 75C temp target.


Title: Re: POLL: What temps & fan speeds do you maintain for 24/7 mining?
Post by: r3v3rs3 on February 06, 2012, 05:43:22 PM
GPU temperature -> the lower the better (less leakage currents -> reduced power consumption)
fan speed -> the lower the better (cheap sleeve bearings...)

So I've recently put my rigs on the balcony, got me into the range of 40-60% fan speed and 30-50 °C GPU temp (before: 70-100% and 60-80 °C), reducing the total power (at the wall) by more than 10%.


Title: Re: POLL: What temps & fan speeds do you maintain for 24/7 mining?
Post by: malevolent on February 06, 2012, 05:51:05 PM
GPU temperature -> the lower the better (less leakage currents -> reduced power consumption)
fan speed -> the lower the better (cheap sleeve bearings...)

So I've recently put my rigs on the balcony, got me into the range of 40-60% fan speed and 30-50 °C GPU temp (before: 70-100% and 60-80 °C), reducing the total power (at the wall) by more than 10%.

People placing their rigs on balconies/outside have no issues with humidity (not to mention rain, etc.)? I was wondering if I could do that but it is too cold outside now (-18C at noon, up to -25C at night)


Title: Re: POLL: What temps & fan speeds do you maintain for 24/7 mining?
Post by: -ck on February 06, 2012, 09:11:45 PM
I use default cgminer settings  ;) They were developed around my own usage pattern of course  :D


Title: Re: POLL: What temps & fan speeds do you maintain for 24/7 mining?
Post by: m3sSh3aD on February 07, 2012, 04:49:52 AM
GPU max is late 90's but id be a little concerned going above 90 at all. For VRM's im happy at 120 max but again, prefer the 110 marker. As long as your not putting too much extra voltage into the card and make sure temperatures are GPU <85 and VRM's <110 i'd put money (Shouldn't say that with my mate Death&Taxes around hehe :) ) on your cards running 2 years 24/7 without an issue. By then you should be able afford the latest and greatest and sell the old GPU's on. Or get yourself a nice FPGA Cluster in a few years when there cheaper than current incarnations. Unless you brought an XFX which pretty much die within a few months and dont OC very well. Maybe harsh on XFX but my recent experience with them is B-A-D! I'm talking 5 series here. My friends just picked up a 5970 for a good price which is an XFX Black Edition... I hope he as more luck than i've had with 2x 5870's!!! Fan failure on BOTH :/

I got 8x 5850's (2x 4 card systems)  running 24/7 for 5 months on 100% fan, 965/300 @ 1.185V and all cards pull 400MH+ and all well less than 80  degrees apart from the 1st GPU in both systems which seems to lag 5-10MH and run just below and above the 80 degrees. Anyone explain why this is? I may be jinxing myself here but as i said before, as long as they 'live' 2 years they'll get replaced then and sold on. I recon 3-5 years before any of them die. might just keep them going till they start failing just for a future reference. I've never run GPU's 100% 24/7 so please note that all this is my opinion and what you do with it is up to you but i stand by it :)


Title: Re: POLL: What temps & fan speeds do you maintain for 24/7 mining?
Post by: johnyj on February 07, 2012, 09:41:48 AM
GPU temperature -> the lower the better (less leakage currents -> reduced power consumption)
fan speed -> the lower the better (cheap sleeve bearings...)

So I've recently put my rigs on the balcony, got me into the range of 40-60% fan speed and 30-50 °C GPU temp (before: 70-100% and 60-80 °C), reducing the total power (at the wall) by more than 10%.

People placing their rigs on balconies/outside have no issues with humidity (not to mention rain, etc.)? I was wondering if I could do that but it is too cold outside now (-18C at noon, up to -25C at night)

My open frame rig running on balcony have a transparent foil cover the front/side/top of the frame, I think the actual temp inside is still above 0 degree even the outside temp is -20C, I still need to set the fan speed above 30% to keep the GPU temp less than 60C, which is my normal target temp area. As long as the machine is warmer than environment, there is no risk for condense

But when the machine hangs for a couple of hours (due to too high overclock, unstable gpu etc...), the extreme low temp will hurt the fan bearing, those fans have become so noisy recently that I plan to take them apart to re-oil


Title: Re: POLL: What temps & fan speeds do you maintain for 24/7 mining?
Post by: eviltt on February 07, 2012, 03:32:31 PM
GPU temperature -> the lower the better (less leakage currents -> reduced power consumption)
fan speed -> the lower the better (cheap sleeve bearings...)

So I've recently put my rigs on the balcony, got me into the range of 40-60% fan speed and 30-50 °C GPU temp (before: 70-100% and 60-80 °C), reducing the total power (at the wall) by more than 10%.

People placing their rigs on balconies/outside have no issues with humidity (not to mention rain, etc.)? I was wondering if I could do that but it is too cold outside now (-18C at noon, up to -25C at night)

My open frame rig running on balcony have a transparent foil cover the front/side/top of the frame, I think the actual temp inside is still above 0 degree even the outside temp is -20C, I still need to set the fan speed above 30% to keep the GPU temp less than 60C, which is my normal target temp area. As long as the machine is warmer than environment, there is no risk for condense

But when the machine hangs for a couple of hours (due to too high overclock, unstable gpu etc...), the extreme low temp will hurt the fan bearing, those fans have become so noisy recently that I plan to take them apart to re-oil

never thought i would say this.. but im jealous of wherever you live and its that cool

wish i could do that, but here in AZ its too hot during the summer to even consider putting a PC outside.


Title: Re: POLL: What temps & fan speeds do you maintain for 24/7 mining?
Post by: DeathAndTaxes on February 07, 2012, 03:40:50 PM
But when the machine hangs for a couple of hours (due to too high overclock, unstable gpu etc...), the extreme low temp will hurt the fan bearing, those fans have become so noisy recently that I plan to take them apart to re-oil

If you ever want to rig up a "thermal protection system" it could be as easy as a 100W lightbulb rigged to a thermal switch which cuts on/off at temp below lowest operating temp and above freezing.  Put the thermal switch near air intake.  When cards are running enough to keep temp up the switch is off.  In a failure, temp drops, switch closes, and 100W (maybe 200W) light bulb turns on keeping rig from freezing.

:)  Plus saying your rig "outdoor ready" due to a "Thermal Protection System" just sounds cool.


Title: Re: POLL: What temps & fan speeds do you maintain for 24/7 mining?
Post by: rjk on February 07, 2012, 03:47:26 PM
But when the machine hangs for a couple of hours (due to too high overclock, unstable gpu etc...), the extreme low temp will hurt the fan bearing, those fans have become so noisy recently that I plan to take them apart to re-oil

If you ever want to rig up a "thermal protection system" it could be as easy as a 100W lightbulb rigged to a thermal switch which cuts on/off at temp below lowest operating temp and above freezing.  Put the thermal switch near air intake.  When cards are running enough to keep temp up the switch is off.  In a failure, temp drops, switch closes, and 100W (maybe 200W) light bulb turns on keeping rig from freezing.

:)  Plus saying your rig "outdoor ready" due to a "Thermal Protection System" just sounds cool.
To use less electricity, build an insulated container with variable dampers.


Title: Re: POLL: What temps & fan speeds do you maintain for 24/7 mining?
Post by: johnyj on February 08, 2012, 10:04:58 AM
But when the machine hangs for a couple of hours (due to too high overclock, unstable gpu etc...), the extreme low temp will hurt the fan bearing, those fans have become so noisy recently that I plan to take them apart to re-oil

If you ever want to rig up a "thermal protection system" it could be as easy as a 100W light bulb rigged to a thermal switch which cuts on/off at temp below lowest operating temp and above freezing.  Put the thermal switch near air intake.  When cards are running enough to keep temp up the switch is off.  In a failure, temp drops, switch closes, and 100W (maybe 200W) light bulb turns on keeping rig from freezing.

:)  Plus saying your rig "outdoor ready" due to a "Thermal Protection System" just sounds cool.

Good idea, just that 100W light bulb sounds very luxury, I'm sure that I can use the heat from the GPU instead, but a usb powered intake that opens and closes matched to case temperature is out of my reach now  :D


Title: Re: POLL: What temps & fan speeds do you maintain for 24/7 mining?
Post by: DeathAndTaxes on February 08, 2012, 03:03:37 PM
Good idea, just that 100W light bulb sounds very luxury, I'm sure that I can use the heat from the GPU instead

Except when the GPU crashes or freezes and thermal output drops 99% which causes the card to drop below freezing.  The lightbulb would simply be a "protection system" which would just engage when GPU isn't running (due to some failure).  Under normal operation the temp would be high enough to keep the light bulb off.


Title: Re: POLL: What temps & fan speeds do you maintain for 24/7 mining?
Post by: Mousepotato on February 08, 2012, 04:14:18 PM
I think there's a gap in your poll options.  What about fan speeds of 61-69%? :)