Gauging interest around some custom hardware and cabling for GPU rigs

[sidehack]

Sounds like crap power wiring to me.

[philipma1957]

Sounds like crap power wiring to me.

sounds like he dual mines and overclocks the cards.

[sidehack]

Right, but overclocking shouldn't wreck the power wiring if the power wiring doesn't suck. If you're smoking out the Molex into the riser there's a problem, since that shouldn't pull 100W.

[philipma1957]

Right, but overclocking shouldn't wreck the power wiring if the power wiring doesn't suck. If you're smoking out the Molex into the riser there's a problem, since that shouldn't pull 100W.

Rx cards have been shown to pull 95 watts at the pcie jack.

So dual mining on a custom rom could get too much watts if it is an rx card.

[MarkAz]

Been testing some different configurations and thought I would post some of the pics using Sidehack's new molex breakout board.  So far I have to say it's awesome, definitely cleans up the build and makes things much more universal... I run 6x cards off 2x molex boards for a system, but Sidehack thinks you could comfortable run 6x cards off of just 1x of the molex boards - for me I look at these as longterm builds, so I'd rather have the extra buffer room.  Anyway, enough of the rambling, here's some pics:



You can see the new braided cables Sidehack does here, they're the nylon ones.  All my new builds are using his cables, so I don't have to deal with the cable wrap I currently use:



Here's the actual molex breakouts - each one is powered by 2x PCI 6-pins, which is more than enough headroom for what's typically pulled off the PCI slot side.  One other nice thing is that the molex plus are different from the 6-pin PCI, so no chance of getting them mixed up:

[HerbPean]

Those open frame case are wonderful !

Where did you get them ?

edit: I would also take 2 of those molex board with the molex cables, great job !

[MarkAz]

Those open frame case are wonderful !

Where did you get them ?

heheh, glad you like them - they're my design, this is the 5th version of the case, but it's really come together now - especially with the cables and this new board from sidehack.  While it looks like an open-frame case, it really isn't - all the other sides are closed, it's only the back that's open, because I'm much more interested in controlling airflow to get the best temps - that's also why I use industrial tube-axial fans and not just box fans, these babies move the air through the case so nothing gets trapped in it.  In my two latest ones running RX470's, I'm experimenting with hoe much air I'm letting come through next to the fans - one is fully enclosed around the fans, the other is open, so we'll see how that works.  I just want to make sure the fan airflow isn't short-circuiting (exhaust being sucked into intake).

edit: I would also take 2 of those molex board with the molex cables, great job !

Those are sidehack, so just PM him and you can get in on the next batch as I think he just ordered those up.  You can't got wrong with them, definitely a great option when you're using server PSU's.

[kilo17]

Sounds like crap power wiring to me.

sounds like he dual mines and overclocks the cards.

I was dual mining but no longer do that because of the SIGNIFICANT wear & tear.  Here is an example of what can happen: No cheap wires in my rigs 

[kilo17]

Right, but overclocking shouldn't wreck the power wiring if the power wiring doesn't suck. If you're smoking out the Molex into the riser there's a problem, since that shouldn't pull 100W.

On a second note, the molex/sata cables that come with the USB cables are in fact junk.  Give it a month or two below a hot ass GPU and the wire insulation becomes dry and brittle. 

[nerdralph]

I have switched to exclusively using the following risers:  They are 9.5" and I do not have any issues with them at all unlike the USB risers which have a short half life.  They are sourced from Padrino. I definitely need to order some stuff from Sidehack.  Love your new stuff.

I'd say you have been lucky.  PCI-e signals are in the hundreds of Mhz, and are spec'd to use differential pairs or impedance-controlled PCB traces.  USB 3.0 cables are designed for high-speed signalling, while flat ribbon cables often will have problems once you get much over 100Mhz, even for low-voltage signals like PCIe.  I still use ribbon risers because they are cheap and I can get away with powering them from the mobo, but I have a couple of USB3.0 risers for testing when I have a bad ribbon riser.

You're also generally better off with the shorter ribbon risers (15 or 20cm), since the longer cables attenuate the signal more.

Not sure how much the signal translate to mining issues but I know that fried and non working USB risers cause a lot of downtime and headaches.  I point out on another thread that I have a BIG box of fried and nonworking USB risers.  

One of the biggest problems came when using Claymore's Dual Miner (which I abandoned a while ago due to the extra stress on the hardware). I fried 20+ USB risers which causes a lot of downtime.  The weakness is in the molex/sata wires which frequently burn but also they just stop working.  It occurs more after a couple of months but it happens and I have yet to have a problem with any of the above ribbons.

(I agree on the shorter ribbon cable but they are a little to short for 6+ GPU rigs.)

So your problem is crappy molex/sata adapter cables, not the USB risers.  When using USB risers, I power them from the PSU molex connectors.  If you test the wires on the cheap chinese-made SATA->molex adapters, you'll probably find they are nowhere near 18AWG.
http://nerdralph.blogspot.ca/2016/06/when-does-18-26-when-buying-cheap-cables.html

[TuffToad]

MarkAz,

Your 5th generation open rig with Sidehack's wrapped cables and molex breakout boards looks very clean and might be something we would be interested in.  Are you selling these rigs (Complete or just shells) or selling the plans with a parts list?



Thank you for your time in advance,

 /s TuffToad

[philipma1957]

@ markAZ. How much mh you got ?

I am now at 25 cards around 550mh.

I do no bios flashing and run pretty much stock 20/21 for rx 470 and 25 for rx 480

[MarkAz]

Your 5th generation open rig with Sidehack's wrapped cables and molex breakout boards looks very clean and might be something we would be interested in.  Are you selling these rigs (Complete or just shells) or selling the plans with a parts list?

I've been considering making them available - the main reason I haven't is just because they're quite a bit more expensive than the open frame rigs, so didn't really want to listen to people complaining about how much they cost.    I view them as a fixed equipment purchase while I swap out cards, etc - so for me I'd rather pay a bit more and have a clean/high quality solution that's easy to work with.  Which is also why I love sidehack's work. 

@ markAZ. How much mh you got ?

I am now at 25 cards around 550mh.

I do no bios flashing and run pretty much stock 20/21 for rx 470 and 25 for rx 480

I don't do any bios flashing either - and the total is just shy of 2GH/s.  I've just been slowing adding machines, so I'll probably go to about 3GH with this setup.

I'm using the Sapphire Nitro+ 8GB RX470's, and seeing pretty consistent 24MH/s with Claymore (which is what I run on everything).  I only have a couple of RX480's (the original ones), and they perform almost identically to the RX470's (at least the ones I buy).

[philipma1957]

Your 5th generation open rig with Sidehack's wrapped cables and molex breakout boards looks very clean and might be something we would be interested in.  Are you selling these rigs (Complete or just shells) or selling the plans with a parts list?

I've been considering making them available - the main reason I haven't is just because they're quite a bit more expensive than the open frame rigs, so didn't really want to listen to people complaining about how much they cost.    I view them as a fixed equipment purchase while I swap out cards, etc - so for me I'd rather pay a bit more and have a clean/high quality solution that's easy to work with.  Which is also why I love sidehack's work.  

@ markAZ. How much mh you got ?

I am now at 25 cards around 550mh.

I do no bios flashing and run pretty much stock 20/21 for rx 470 and 25 for rx 480

I don't do any bios flashing either - and the total is just shy of 2GH/s.  I've just been slowing adding machines, so I'll probably go to about 3GH with this setup.

I'm using the Sapphire Nitro+ 8GB RX470's, and seeing pretty consistent 24MH/s with Claymore (which is what I run on everything).  I only have a couple of RX480's (the original ones), and they perform almost identically to the RX470's (at least the ones I buy).

2gh is nice.  I can't cool my garage enough to get to 2gh.  I have 2 x 30 amp  240 volt lines  so I can do    over 10kwatts of power.  I just won't be able to cool that off.  

My goal for the winter is 32 cards and about 700mh.  Cards 26 and 27 arrive next week.

I like a few cards  this one  is decent  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137024&cm_re=msi_rx_470-_-14-137-024-_-Product

[MarkAz]

2gh is nice.  I can't cool my garage enough to get to 2gh.  I have 2 x 30 amp  240 volt lines  so I can do    over 10kwatts of power.  I just won't be able to cool that off.  

My goal for the winter is 32 cards and about 700mh.  Cards 26 and 27 arrive next week.

I like a few cards  this one  is decent  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137024&cm_re=msi_rx_470-_-14-137-024-_-Product

Yeah, I have about 300a usable, but I'm only using a bit of it... One big advantage of living in Arizona is that evap works REALLY well, so for ~500w I can drop 10-20f off ambient.

So what hash rate are you getting from the MSI 4G (ideally using claymore)?  I had considered picking those up, especially at the price - the place I buy most my cards from now is jet.com:

https://jet.com/product/MSI-RX-470-GAMING-X-4G-Radeon-RX-470-Graphic-Card-125-GHz-Boost-Clock-4-GB-GDDR5/e63f1e7cb1b645c6ad7b36c9dba862e2

If you order 3, and opt out of returns, you can get it for $185, plus free shipping and no tax.  If it's your first order, using the coupon TRIPLE15, and you can knock another $30 off the order (if you buy 3 cards).  Really a smoking deal, and the funny thing is when the boxes arrive, they're from Newegg - pretty stupid really on Newegg's part to give better deals through 3rd parties than on their own site.

[sidehack]

Little farther off topic than ideal right now.

[kilo17]

Sidehack - Any chance of putting together a "Package" that includes the 1500 watt PSU with breakout board, cables and the Riser Power.  I expect to need about 15 to 20 of them.  

With the cable braided etc

[philipma1957]

Little farther off topic than ideal right now.

Sorry my fault I lead him down that road.

I won't need much, but 2 little boards  with pcie in and four pin out and the pcie to four pin cables that come with it.

so 2 boards and I guess 6 cables is what I will need.

two sets of this:

[sidehack]

I'm hoping to offer "package deals" like you're asking, Kilo. I don't have a good source for the 1500W PSU yet but there's time. The only issue with that in the short term is I'm at the end of my PSU board run and samples of the redesign will be arriving at the same time as the new Molex adapter boards, and a full batch won't come behind them for a while unfortunately.

[xleejohnx]

I'm hoping to offer "package deals" like you're asking, Kilo. I don't have a good source for the 1500W PSU yet but there's time. The only issue with that in the short term is I'm at the end of my PSU board run and samples of the redesign will be arriving at the same time as the new Molex adapter boards, and a full batch won't come behind them for a while unfortunately.

Would you be willing to make risers for gpus?