[Waterblock from Anfi-tec:]

Unified Info Thread for water cooled Bitburner owners (and owners to be). I have listed some parts and costs to help people decide if water cooling is worth it or not. I personally have order my Bitburners with water blocks and plan to see how far I can push the Avalon chips.

Waterblock from Anfi-tec:

• up to 40 chips per waterblock
• Standard G 1/4 threads for fittings
• Wetted Materials: Aluminum <-- need anti corrosion

Additional Components Needed:

• Pump(s)
• Radiator(s)
• Fans
• Reservoir
• Tubing
• Fittings/Barbs
• Hose Clamps
• Kill coil or Biocide/PT-Nuke
• Anti corrosive

TL;DR Did not expect to type so much stuff so the TLDR is at the top.
Pump $80
Radiator $60
3x Fans $15
Reservoir $25
10 feet tubing $5
6x barbs $20
PT-Nuke $5
Anti corrosive $10
Total $220 (+$70 per additional 2-4 Bitburner boards - estimate)

I think one 360 rad should be able to cool 2-4 Bitburner boards (1-2 Anfi-tec blocks) but I have no idea what real world temps are gonna be and it also depends on the choice of fans and radiators. Also I have no idea how restrictive the water blocks are gonna be and how many boards one pump can push. Will post when I receive the boards and do a little experimentation.

More Detailed Info
Below are some candidates for each component. I picked parts that are popular and well received in the PC water cooling community. Several options for each component exist to fulfill different budget needs. Of course you are free to pick your own favorite brands or use any existing equipment.

Pumps
Almost all these pumps are made by the OEM Company Laing. The two series of interest are the Laing D5 and DDC series. Several companies (Swiftech, Koolance, Danger Den) rebadge these pumps.

Swiftech MCP655 (Laing D5) ~$80-100 - reliable workhorse pump, been around for a while
Swiftech MCP35X/MCP355 (Laing DDC) ~$80-100 - Newer redesigned pump, runs a bit hot, more pressure for restrictive loops

Multiple pumps: Run them in series (In -> pump 1 -> pump 2 -> Out) for extra pumping power (more pressure for restrictive blocks) and reliability (if 1 pump fails water will still circulate with almost no loss aside from the failed pump). See http://martinsliquidlab.org/2011/04/26/pump-setup-series-vs-parallel/ for more info.

Swiftech MCP35X2 ~$200 - two MCP35X pumps connected in series with a custom top (top also available separately).

Radiators
Most standard radiators are measured in the number of 120mm fans it takes. For example a triple size radiator needs three 120mm fans. Other names include 360 radiator or 3x120 radiator.

The big question: What size radiator and how many should I get?
Well it's complicated. According to some lab tests a triple rad will dissipate between 50-175 watts depending on how fast the fans are spinning. See http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/n494/machin3r/Computer%20Forum%20Guides/triples-v2_heatdiss-2dT.jpg
It can get even more complicated depending on the radiators fin density (how closely the fins are spaced - measured in fins per inch - FPI). Higher fin density cools better with high static pressure fans while lower fin density is designed for fans with lower speeds. If noise is important (I mean that's why you went water anyways right? ) you should research as this topic is quite beaten to death on forums. Also see https://i.imgur.com/QTrlI.jpg

Swiftech MCR320 QP ~$60 - triple rad, lower fin density (12 FPI) for slower fans
Swiftech MCR320 XP ~$75 - triple rad, high fin density (20 FPI) performs better with high speed fans
XSPC RS360 ~$50 - budget version? XSPC doens't make the difference in series clear except for the RX high end
XSPC RX360 ~$90 - low fin count but its twice as thick to make up
HW Labs Black Ice GTX360 ~$120 - a top of the line model, does significantly better at 2000+ rpm fans

Fans
Another much debated category with lots of options.
My general fan speed ratings.
Low speeds: 600-1000 RPM
Medium speeds: 1400-1800 RPM
High speeds: 2300-2800 RPM

Yate Loon D12SH-12 ~$5 - a popular fan because its nice and cheap and performs well. This is the high speed version (2200 RPM). There are also medium speed (D12SM-12 - 1600 RPM) and low speed (D12SL-12 - 1200 RPM) versions available. These fans (especially the high speed one) are rather loud but for the price one can't complain.

Scythe Gentle Typhoon ~$15 - quiet yet moves a lot of air, medium prices, several speed options
Corsair SP120 Series ~$15 (two pack $30) - Theres a quiet series and a high performance series.

Reservoir
Holds water. You generally want one to hold extra water above the pump to keep it from running dry and so you don't have to refill the loop every time some water evaporates. You can get by without one by using a T splitter as a fill port, just need to carefully monitor the loop.

Ghetto Tupperware ~$5 - buy a tupperware container, put two barbs in it, call it a day. The most "budget" you can get.
Swiftech MCRES ~$25 - well regarded, cheap, gets the job done. A bit small.
Swiftech MCP35X-RES PUMP RESERVOIR ~$30 - turns your MCP35X pump into a pump/res combo. Replaces the pump top.
DIY with PVC pipe and barbs ~$?? - make a container that holds water and doesn't leak. Can't be that hard right?

Tubing
Cheaper tubing will be able to bend less without restricting flow and will be more flexible. Also quality tubing will not leach plasticizer into the water and make everything cloudy. Home Depot PVC tubing (Watts brand) is not recommended. It gets cloudy overnight.

Standard sizes are 3/8 ID and 1/2 ID.

Masterkleer PVC tubing ~$0.50/foot - great budget choice
Tygon R-3603 ~$2/foot - "better" tubing, better bend radius, more flexible
Tygon E-1000 ~$4/foot - plasticizer free, ideally won't cloud at all

Fittings/Barbs
These screw onto the component and connects to the tube. The standard thread is G 1/4 and the Anfi-tec waterblock follows this standard as well. Straight barbs are the cheapest, then angled rotary fittings and then compression fittings. In a PC you're trying to show off you might get some cool looking compression fittings but here I suggest go with one of the cheaper options. The exception is on the Anfi-tec water block. Since the Bitburners are most likely to be stacked together, I suggest the 90 degree elbow fittings as this provides the lowest flow restriction.

You will need two fittings per waterblock, radiator, reservoir, and pump. The Anfi-tec does not come with two 90 degree fittings shown in the renders.

Bitspower G1/4 Barb ~$3-4 - Several brands in this price range, I don't really think brands matter here. I mean as long as it doesn't leak right?
Bitspower G1/4 90 degree rotary fitting ~$6-8 - these turn the flow 90 degrees, best way to do it as tubing can get kinked

Hose Clamps
Don't want to spring a leak! Sometimes these are not needed. Also don't clamp down too hard or you will rip the tubing and cause a leak.

Zip ties ~$0.10 - not reusable
Plastic reusable hose clamp/Steel spring clamps ~$1 - these get the job done, reusable. More here: http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g30/c289/s720/list/p1/Liquid_Cooling-Tubing_Accessories-Reusable_Clamps_-_38_OD-Page1.html

Kill coil or Biocide/PT-Nuke
You don't want algae to grow inside the loop and gum up the works. Get some biocide or a silver kill coil.

PT-Nuke ~$5 - couple drops per liter should do the trick
Antimicrobial .999 Fine Silver Strip ~$10 - drop it in your res and let the natural silver antimicrobial properties work its magic.

Anti Corrosion
Since the anfi-tec blocks are aluminum we need anti corrosion additives or else the blocks are going to slowly dissolve away. Yes they are anodized but it won't completely stop the corrosion, just slow it down. Anti corrosives deplete and need to be replenished by flushing the loop and refilling it.

Car anti freeze ~$? - 30% concentration is what typical PC water coolers use however it decreases cooling performance as concentrations increase. In automotive applications it is used at 50% concentration.
Swiftech HydrX ~$2.50 - One bottle is good for 1 liter of water for up to 1 year or 0.5 liters for up to 3 years.

More information:
http://martinsliquidlab.org/2012/01/24/corrosion-explored/
http://www.overclockers.com/pc-water-coolant-chemistry-part-ii/

Damn...didn't expect to type this much stuff.

Additional Reading on water cooling:
http://martinsliquidlab.org/
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky
http://www.computerforum.com/206174-how-liquid-cooling-101-a.html
http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/the-watercooling-guide-from-a-to-z.180876/

EDIT 1: Material updated as aluminum, no fittings come with the block, added anti corrosion section.

So I just added another 2 gpus to my mining farm to a total of 7 gpus now. Funny thing is when I added that system, everything went haywire. cgminer (1.6.2) started lagging out and saying that Pool X is not providing work fast enough. I thought it was my pool so I added some more. They all lag out at the same time and then shortly after they all recover. I've tried different routers and my Internet seems fine. Ping times are about 100ms to btcguild and 150ish to bitcoins.lc. I've tried eligus as well but it seem to lag out too. The new system I added was Ubuntu natty and the others are running Linuxcoin final. Is this an OS issue or what?

I have the Asus M4A79XTD Evo (2 x16 and 2 x1 slots) and I can't get it to run more than 2 cards. I've tried shorting the presence detect pins.
Funny thing is it's not a particular slot or card, it's the total amount of cards. If I have both in the 1x slot both of those will run. If I have one  x16 and  one x1 those two will run. It seems that it can only run the first two cards. I even tried taping the cards down to x1 and plugging that into the x16 slot but it didn't help.
Anyone encountered this or fixed it before?

[syslinux.cfg]

All my mining rigs were running Windows 7 but they kept BSODing and crashing and I got tired of reseting them so I tried Linux. It kicked my butt the first day or so but in the end I got it to do my bidding

So in this guide I'll show you how to setup LinuxCoin to

• run off a USB thumb drive
• automatically boot and start mining unattended
• automatically set overclocks and load fan speed profiles
• setup a software watchdog to automatically kill and restart crashed miners
• 
• Profit

Credit: Most of this is based off a post by kjj http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=7374.msg248025#msg248025
I couldn't get it to work for me so it's heavily modified by me to run on a stock LinuxCoin 0.2.1b install.

I'm using a 4GB flash drive I had laying around. I recommend good quality high speed flash drive. I'm using one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220251

Rest of my Hardware
Two Sapphire 5850 Xtremes, Asus M4A79XTD EVO, 2GB RAM, Sempron 140 processor, 550W CoolerMaster PSU

OK let's get started.

1. Grab a copy of LinuxCoin 0.2.1b http://www.linuxcoin.co.uk/
2. Download Unetbootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
3. Download the persistence file. I got the 2GB (2048.zip) but I think the others would work too http://linuxcoin.co.uk/downloads/persistence/
4. Run unetbootin and select the LinuxCoin iso you just downloaded. Let it do it's thing. When it's done click exit but don't remove your flash drive yet.
5. Extract the persistence file to the root of your flash drive.
6. Open syslinux.cfg and replace it with this:

Code:

default menu.c32
prompt 0
menu title LinuxCoin
timeout 2

label linuxcoin
menu label LinuxCoin Persistent (flash only)
kernel /live/vmlinuz
append initrd=/live/initrd.img boot=live config quiet splash persistent rw vga=791 noprompt

This let will make it autoboot into persistence mode. The noprompt disables the press ENTER to reboot/shutdown message at the end.

7. Plug the flash drive into your mining rig and boot it off the USB. Setup networking/wallpaper/whatever else you want to do. You might want to test out mining/connecting to the net/etc. Assuming you have no problems booting and running LinuxCoin...proceed.

8. Make the file and/or folders /home/user/.config/autostart/auto.desktop and add the following contents:

Code:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=coin
Exec=lxterminal --command "sh /home/user/start.sh"
Terminal=true

9. Open up terminal run AMDOverdriveCtrl -h | grep active. (Hint type AMD and press tab to autocomplete) Note the index number of your active adapters. If you only have one then it is 0. Mine are 0 and 3.

10. Now run AMDOverdriveCtrl -i 0. This opens up AMDOverdriveCtrl GUI for card 0. Overclock your card and setup your fan profiles. Export it as a file called gpu0.ovdr. Repeat for each card you have and change index numbers accordingly (ie AMDOverdriveCtrl -i 3)

11. Make the file /home/user/start.sh and put paste in the following:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
sleep 20
xhost +
echo $DISPLAY > /home/user/.display
AMDOverdriveCtrl -i 0 -b gpu0.ovdr
AMDOverdriveCtrl -i 3 -b gpu3.ovdr
lxterminal --title miner1 --command "sh /home/user/miner1.sh"
lxterminal --title miner2 --command "sh /home/user/miner2.sh"

This will make the computer wait 20 seconds to loadup/connect to the network/etc. Then it will load the overclock and fan profiles for each GPU and then start your miners.

12. Make the files /home/user/miner1.sh and /home/user/miner2.sh and fill in:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
cd /opt/miners/phoenix
./phoenix.py -u http://yanz_1:pass@uswest.btcguild.com:8332/ -q 7 -k phatk BFI_INT VECTORS FASTLOOP=false AGGRESSION=11 DEVICE=0

Modify accordingly to mine for yourself.

13. Make the file /home/user/restart.sh and fill it with these magical lines:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=`cat /home/user/.display`
pc=`ps waxuf | grep miner1.sh -c`
ld=`aticonfig --odgc --adapter=0 | grep "GPU load" | cut -c 30-35 | cut -d % -f 1`
if [ $pc -lt "2" ] || [ $ld -lt "50" ] ; then
 kill `ps -ef | grep miner1 | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'`
 lxterminal --title miner1 --command sh /home/user/miner1.sh &
 date +"%D %r miner1 restarted" >> /home/user/cron_job.log
fi
pc=`ps waxuf | grep miner2.sh -c`
ld=`aticonfig --odgc --adapter=1 | grep "GPU load" | cut -c 30-35 | cut -d % -f 1`
if [ $pc -lt "2" ] || [ $ld -lt "50" ] ; then
 kill `ps -ef | grep miner2 | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'`
 lxterminal --title miner2 --command sh /home/user/miner2.sh &
 date +"%D %r miner2 restarted" >> /home/user/cron_job.log
fi

This will check the each GPU to make sure the load is greater than 50% and check to see that the process miner1 and miner2 exist. If not it will kill and restart the appropriate miner. It also logs it to /home/user/cron_job.log

14. Run sudo crontab -e -u user and add this line after the last line:

Code:

0-59 * * * * sh /home/user/restart.sh

This runs the restart miner script every minute.

15. Reboot

16.  

17. Profit

18. Donate to 1LeLE4PP72CNfHDmT3JyFUQehZ4i41LxPz if this helped you.  

Comments and improvements welcome.

Are the newer Sapphire 5850 Xtremes better than the older(ish) 5850s? I'm looking at an XFX 5850 (non reference) that looks like this one on Newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150477 or should I go with the Sapphire? I know XFX has a better warranty but does it still apply if I buy it from a non authorized retailer? Sapphire does not honor the warranty without a legit sales receipt.

http://www.9mart.com/products/2-Lots-PCI-Express-Card-Extender-Cable-PCI%252dE-1X-Riser-Adapter.html
These are a lot cheaper than cablesarus. His cables almost add 25% more to the cost of the card lol

http://www.nordichardware.com/news/71-graphics/42830-amd-to-offer-preview-of-radeon-hd-7000-in-june.html
These new cards should be announced at the AMD developer conference in three days
Let's see if these new cards have an increased stream count. Rumor says it's only a die shrink though.

So I got a 5970 to put in my mining rig which already has a 6950 in it. However I can't get all three GPU's to all mine. Either one slows down, crashes, or BSOD.

When the 6950 is primary, none of the 5970 cores show up as CL devices.
When the 5970 is primary, it BSODs right after the desktop loads.

I've tried driver sweeper and reinstalled everything, now it BSODs when I have both cards in.
One interesting note, when I have the 6950 as primary, under Catalyst, it says the second core of the 5970 is disabled.

Anybody else having these issues or know how to fix it?
I would really appreciate it.
2 monitors, one on each card
6950 unlocked
5970
800 watt Mushkin psu
Catalyst 11.5, SDK 2.4, MSI Afterburner
Win7 x64

Other stuff
Q9300, Abit IP 35 Pro, 4GB ram

Another side question, can Afterburner support multiple GPUs of different series at the same time?

Hi I just got started into mining for Bitcoins a few days ago at btcguild. I've been tweaking my hardware and trying out different miners on my 6950 2GB. Now according to the hardware wiki (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison) my 6950 should get between 295-360 Mhash/s. I have my 6950 at 960/700 @1.2V with unlocked shaders. I get about 405-410 Mhash/s. Is this weird? The other 6950's on the wiki are clocked higher than mine and get lower hash rate. I've tried

poclbm.exe -w 64 -v

phoenix with -q 5 -k poclbm VECTORS BFI_INT FASTLOOP=false AGGRESSION=13 DEVICE=0 WORKSIZE=64

They both give about the same results.

I'm thinking about expanding my mining operations and getting another 6950 and maybe 2 5830's. Do you guys think that's a good idea?
Thanks, awesome forum btw!