Prior to the current massive shortage and "gouge pricing", well over 40 Mhash on ETH was EASY to achieve for well under $600 using a pair of RX 470/480/570/580 cards or a pair of GTX 1060 cards.
I think you could also get there NOW via 3 x GTX 1050 - which are still in wide fairly good supply and NOT getting price gouged at all - for under $500 and possibly close to $400.

 Tradeoff is that the rig density is lower.

 1) Profitability is STILL higher than a lot of the past year.
 2) It wasn't MINERS that caused the current shortage (though we did have a lot of input into the SPRING shortage).

 We're just not seeing a lot of mining GROWTH right now (except to a degree on Ethereum), but profitability isn't to the point of "panic sale" yet, it's just dropped to the point of "achieving 100% ROI is VERY iffy, stop building NEW rigs" for most folks.

Based on past experience with them I refuse to have anything to do with Paypal for ANY reason.

I was a member of the "class" in the FIRST class action lawsuit against Paypal, they're current in discovery phase on a SECOND class action lawsuit over the SAME ISSUES, despite the consent decree they signed agreeing to FIX those issues that was part of the settlement of the FIRST lawsuit.

ebay also announced recently that they were discontinuing Paypal services (they already spun Paypal BACK OFF AGAIN), I strongly suspect it's due TO the issues that are likely to drive Paypal into long overdue bankrupcy.

Until eBay drops Paypal entirely (they STILL used them as their primary and sometimes FORCED payment processor), I also refuse to have anything to do with eBay.


 Not really a point for me any more though, I prefer to sell local and Craigslist is a far better option there.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2336088.0

 It was a valid question when the OP posted it, but it's been outdated a few months now.

 How hot was it at the panel?

 Breakers DO derate with temperature.
 I've seen a LOT of cases of a breaker tripping when it's at 60% or less of it's rated capacity, when the area the panel was in was hot and the panel wasn't well ventilated.

 Could also have been an old breaker that was wearing out - breakers last a long time but NOT forever.

 Was the main breaker ITSELF a 100 amp unit? Some panels don't have the main breaker in the panel, they feed from somewhere else and the breaker for the circuit FEEDING the panel may have had less than a 100 amp breaker on it.
 This is fairly widespread in apartment setups, one main panel with a bunch of 50 amp 234 VAC breakers feeding secondary panels in each apartment with no "main breaker" on the secondary panel.
 Just because the PANEL itself is rated 100 amps doesn't mean the feed to it is always 100 amps (and in practice, most panels aren't rated 100 amps anyway, 125 amp rated panel is the norm in "100 amp feed" setups).

 And yes, if everything is installed correctly, NOT overheating, NOT wearing out, and balanced well you can draw 160 amps at 117 VAC continuous from a 100 amp 234 VAC panel while staying within NEC limits - realistically you probably won't manage to balance PERFECTLY but miners aren't hard to keep balanced, it's the other stuff in the place that will commonly cause an imbalance.

 It depends.

 NEMA 6 uses 2 hots and a ground for wiring to devices that are 234 volt only.
 NEMA 14 uses 2 hots, a neutral, and a ground for wiring to devices that use BOTH 234 volt AND 117 volt - most commonly electric ranges/ovens as the clocks normally are standard 117 volt clocks while the heater elements run from 234 volts.

 Home outlets NORMALLY are NEMA 5-15, 117 VAC 15 amp - 20 amp outlets at 117 VAC are UNcommon, but do see some use for high-power A/C units and occasionally in shops/garages.
 It is NOT uncommon to see a 20 amp CIRCUIT in a kitchen, with a pair of 15 amp duplex outlets on the one circuit.

 Most US power feeds on NEW homes are 150 or 200 amp - 200 in areas of cheap electricity, 150 where electric is not cheap but natural gas is available.
 Apartments are commonly 50 amp in natural gas heat areas, 80 or 100 in cheap electric areas - but even THERE I've seen some 50 amp apartment feeds in the area I live in which is VERY VERY cheap electric and can't GET natural gas at all.
 I've NEVER seen an apartment with more than a 100 amp feed, though I won't say that they don't exist in very high-scale high-end apartment buildings.

 Before you start pulling large amounts of power, though, DEFINITELY CHECK how much you have available - which will normally be what the main breaker on your main panel is rated at (if it's NOT then the breaker was mis-installed or someone unqualified changed it, that matchup is a NEC reguirement).

4 20 amp 117 circuits fed from a single 40 amp 234 circuit WILL NOT cause your breaker for the 40 amp circuit to trip at 50% power draw, unless you don't wire the 117 circuits correctly in the secondary panel.

The way the panel is set up, 2 of those 117 circuits end up IN SERIES with the other 2 (with the neutral transferring any imbalance back to the pole transformer) IF you wire the thing up correctly, 2 breakers on each "side".


For reference, common 234 volt service in the US (and Canada) is set up as "split phase", more widely known as a "center tapped" arrangement.
Half of the 117 circuits are set up to be on one side of the "neutral" center tap, the other half on the other side, with the WHOLE of each side being in series with the WHOLE of the other side, optimally keeping the draw on each side balanced or nearly so to reduce the current on the neutral feed line.
THEREFORE, you can pull *TWICE THE AMPERAGE* at 117 as your 234 feed provides, as half that amperage is in series with the other half.

This is not theory, this is a union-trained electrician and a VERY long time electronic tech explaining FACTS.

1-2% is typical for savings on a gold-rated supply when using 234 VAC input instead of 117 VAC.
Probably a bit less on a Platinum or better rated supply.

Server PS that have a much lower wattage rating at 117 VAC are limited by the input circuitry only being designed to handle a certain amperage - it's NOT an "efficiency" difference causing the greatly different max power ratings.

Your APARTMENT panel is fed at 234 VAC - the total power draw is going to be basically the SAME if you feed the miners from 117VAC as if you feed them from 234 VAC, as you can pull *60* amps at 117 VAC of total current draw.
The only difference is going to be a very small increase in IIR losses at 117 VAC vs 234 VAC (which is also WHY your power supply is a hair more efficient at 234 VAC, reduced IIR losses in the input circuitry).

Changing to 234 VAC does NOT allow you "double the wattage".

It DOES allow you to use smaller wire gauge for the same power draw, or use the same wire gauge and run a lot cooler (which does reduce fire risk).

And 1050 ti cards are low enough power that the semi-tight spacing shouldn't be an issue at all with cooling on the Onda-type "mining motherboards".

 Unless it's an algorithm with a LONG ESTABLISHED ASIC presence like SHA256 (Bitcoin and such) or Scrypt (Litecoin among others), it IS a huge risk past the first batch of the first ASIC miner for an algorithm.

 It helps a lot and reduces the risk factor quite a bit to have very low electric cost - then you can still make SOME money when other folks are losing it.

Most cards with 2 PCI-E power connectors won't run AT ALL with only 1 connector attached.
I have heard of exceptions, but never SEEN one to date.

 The issue with using SATA to power risers is that the PCI-E bus is specified to allow up to 75 watts power draw from the GPU, then the riser ITSELF has to do "voltage conversion" to run that 75 watts from a +12VDC only feed which will eat a few watts as well, while the SATA power connector ITSELF is only rated to provide 54 watts MAX at +12VDC.

 There is no way to guarentee how much of it's power a given GPU will draw from the PCI-E power connector(s) and how much it will draw from the bus, so there is a definite risk of overloading that SATA power connector by powering a riser with one.
 If the card splits the power draw so that it's pulling less than 50 watts or so from the PCI-E bus then it will work reliably - but there is NO WAY to make the card do that for SURE unless it's a low power card that draws ALL of it's power from the PCI-E bus (most 1050ti and lower) and you turn the total card TDP down to 50 watts or less.

 This is not an issue for MOLEX (150+ watt rated power connector) or PCI-E (192+ watt rating on the connector, even though PCI-E spec says 75 they WAY underrate the connector).

 I have not worked with Corsair modular power supplies, but most power supply manufacturers design their "peripheral" and "sata" ports on the PS to be interchangeable - might be worth checking to see if you can run Molex from all of those ports on your Corsair.
 It definitely works on the Corsair AX860/AX760 but those are Seasonic-built Corsair variants on the Seasonic SS-860/SS-760 models and most Corsair PS models are manufactured by companies other than Seasonic.

 Isn't the Zotac 1080 ti Extreme a "8 + 8" powered card?

 All of the 1080 ti cards I have will do 700-720 hash/sec at 200 watts, +100 core +100 mem, using ebwf.
 Sample size is small though - 3 x Gigabyte Aorus (NOT the extreme), 1 x EVGA SC "black", 1 x Asus Turbo, 1 x Gigabyte "Windforce".

 Above 200 is where the "lower cooling capability" cards start noticeably losing hashrate vs the better cooled cards.

 150 watts more or less seems to be the "best efficiency" point at 620 hash more-or-less for slightly better than 4.1 efficiency - and all of my cards show the SAME hashrate within measurement error range at 150 or at 175 watts.

 Mem clock setting probably varies depending on where the "stock" clocks are set at as to what works best.

 I've not done as much "ringing out" on fine tuning on my 1080 ti cards as on some of my other cards though - YET.

 Your link is showing a date of 27 November, not 31 December.

 I don't count a 22% premium OVER MSRP on a card that was seilling 10-11 months ago for UNDER MSRP as being "close to MSRP" - closer than now certainly, but not really "close".


 It's starting to look like the PRIMARY cause for the current shortage was timing on Nvidia's part, in having TSMC shift from Pascal production to Volta production "around the end of the year" and RIGHT AFTER the busy Christmas season.
 For a change, Nvidia ran out FIRST then the gamers started grabbing AMD cards 'cause they were still available - and a week later POOF both sides have run out of inventory at the retailers and stock in the pipeline.

 I suspect demand drop on the mining side isn't that big of a factor, as I don't think it was much of a factor in CAUSING the current shortage.

 That's weird, I never had an issue like that back when I sold via Amazon.

 Still MADE by Nvidia, then third party slaps their name on it - or Nvidia makes it with the third part name on it as part of a contract.

 Like EVGA or Corsair power supplies - they don't make ANY of them, but it has their name on them.

 That would work, with the understanding that you're going to be limited by the 30 amp rating (then have to derate it to 24 amps for CONTINUOUS usage) of the PDU.

 Most PDUs are designed to work with a L6-30 because that's by far the most common power feed in most data centers.


 There is no "loss of power protection" in setting up a BREAKER BOX to feed from that outlet and split it out into smaller circuits - in the NEC it is called a "secondary panel" though most such are hard-wired, not plugged into an outlet.

 This used to be a COMMON setup in Mobile Homes (but was the PRIMARY panel there), feeding from a L14-50 for the entire home via a (usually) fairly long cable to plug into a pole-mounted outlet box - the usage is depreciated in recent code versions, but it still allowed in "existing" installations.

 A 40 amp 220 circuit will split out to 4 x 20 amp 117 VAC circuits safely, since the L14 provides the center tap "neutral" connection to do so.
 Or you could set up the secondary panel to provide 234 VAC instead, though 10 amp 234 VAC breakers are hard to find you could do a pair of 20 amp circuits, or a pair of 15 amp circuits (for the miners) and a pair of 10 amp 117 VAC circuits for other stuff that needs 117 VAC.

 40 days ago more like, and ONLY on the Nvidia side - AMD cards haven't been close to MSRP (except Vega) since spring, and the Vega low prices evaporated before Thanksgiving when the "killer on Monero" guides got widespread.

 I don't anticipate a huge price jump on MSRP for the Volta cards - we didn't get one from Maxwell to Pascal after all, despite 28nm being a MUCH bigger jump on cost to 16nm vs 16nm to 12nm (which is the same NODE, just upgraded on the process and misnamed).
 I DO anticipate a 10-15% jump due to the move to GDDR6 and memory pricing jumps in general, and won't be shocked at 20%.

 EVGA_Jason has been bouncing restock time around quite a bit for the last 2 weeks or so.

 Restock numbers also seem to be TINY there.

 I suspect Nvidia might be regretting a bit their decision to have TSMC switch production over to Volta consumer cards "around the end of the year", as it seems to be a MAJOR or even THE PRIMARY reason Nvidia cards above the 1050ti are in crazy-short supply since right after Christmas.


 eBay isn't the only source for "cheap old servers" usable for CPU mining, though some of the sources FOR those servers do have eBay shops as well as their own sales page.

 "open compute" servers in particular tend to be quite low cost compared to their CPU mining performance, if you look at the older "Windmill" and "Winterborn" generation surplus refurb gear.

Don't forget that the voltage conversion circuitry on the riser itself will eat a few watts.

 If you can't keep the card under 50 watts and PREFERABLY under 45 watts *RELIABLY*, don't run it on a SATA powered riser unless you are willing to run the risk of the SATA power connector failing, melting, or even burning at some point.


 Don't even THINK about powering multiple risers with a single SATA "chain" - I've NEVER seen a chain that was rated to handle more than about 100 watts at 12VDC, and most have wires that are only rated to handle 5 amps (60 watts) for the chain.
 The presumption seems to be that most SATA chains will have at most a SINGLE DVD/CD-ROM/Blueray type drive (1.5-2.5 amps normally on SATA powered versions) and the rest of the devices will be hard drives/SSDs (normally less than 1 amp each) drawing +12VDC power.

 2 risers from a single MOLEX chain can also be an issue - CHECK THE WIRING, in many cases it's only rated to handle 7 amps of 12 VDC though it's more LIKELY than a SATA string to be designed for 10 amps or more as many older CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives with a MOLEX power connector would draw 2.5-3 amps per drive and a lot of FANS draw over 3 amps, so most MOLEX chains tend to have heavier wiring than SATA chains.

 As far as why the card doesn't get all it's power from the PCI-E power connector - in many cases it CAN'T do so because it's rated to draw more power even at FACTORY stock settings than the connector(s) on it are rated by PCI-E to supply.
 Then there are cards that don't have a PCI-E power connector at all (most 1050 and 1050 ti models for example) and MUST draw all of their power from the PCI-E bus connection.

Profitability has dropped some the last couple weeks, combination of folks adding some new rigs and coin prices dropping from their peaks.

 Still not down to where it was at one year ago.