My second ZEC + XMR+ ETH thread builds info links thoughts and photos.

[philipma1957]

Phil,

On different note - did you catch the moment when BTC dropped to $825 to buy a coin? I slept it out

Since January 1 I sold 1 at 1000 later maybe the 4th  I sold 1 at 1111. I did 5 buy backs. Each of .2.


  Range of 830 best to 920 worst. Average for the 1 purchased back was 890.

[1715370861]

1715370861

[1715370861]

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[1715370861]

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[1715370861]

1715370861

[GabryRox]

Phil,

On different note - did you catch the moment when BTC dropped to $825 to buy a coin? I slept it out

Since January 1 I sold 1 at 1000 later maybe the 4th  I sold 1 at 1111. I did 5 buy backs. Each of .2.


  Range of 830 best to 920 worst. Average for the 1 purchased back was 890.

you did quite well then... I missed that drop below $850 but bought $200 worth when it was around $920 I think, so not great but luckily, this happened:  I had requested a poker cash-out of $400 when BTC was a bit over $1100.  Lucky for me they are on a 2-3 day lag and the day they actually sent that $400 worth of BTC to my wallet, it was right at the $900 mark. So, I ended up about even but could have very easily lost $100 in value if it would have transferred even 24 hours earlier, so I count myself very fortunate there.

[GabryRox]

So, i didn't end up pulling the trigger on those 2 x 550w PSUs.  It was going to cost $140 for 1100w vs the 1200w single unit, which yes, now costs $180 but has been as low as $160 recently and $120 a little longer out.  I just didn't want to hassle with a 2-PSU setup for what would probably be a nominal savings.

So... still on the lookout for a good deal on a 1200w unit, I found this Rosewill Capstone G Series at NewEgg for $100 after $10 rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182361&cm_re=rosewill_1200w-_-17-182-361-_-Product

This at least appears to be very similar to the Quark Plat Series, with the exception of course of the 2% difference in power efficiency, but was wondering if anyone on this thread had used this series (in any wattage).  In addition, the Capstone seems to be semi-modular, but with only the 24-pin connector permanently connected, so probably no issue there. Otherwise, seems to have the same # of cables/connectors as the Quark.  This still puts me 1 molex cable short, but hopefully can find a work-around for that.

If i do my math right, the incremental electricity cost for Gold vs Plat is only $2/month, so ROI wise, this would be a no-brainer vs the $180 (or even $160) Quark version.  But, wondering if there are any other differences that I am not catching.

1200 watt capstone review  a 7.8 I would not buy it

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=453

quark review  a 9.2  I would buy it

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=435

Thanks Phil... I agree... based on that review I am not exactly gung-ho on that Capstone.  I will probably just wait for the price of that Quark to drop again. After all, I cannot really justify spending $1100 for 6 new MSI 470's at the moment anyway, so any money spent on other components that would just sit around for several weeks would probably not be wise.  Also, RAM prices seem to be quite high right now, although not as confident that those will drop.  If I had everything else except the PSU I would be more gung-ho but I actually only have the Mobo for rig #3 so I may wait a bit to go full-bore on rig #3. Probably will pick up at least 1 MSI 470 before Jan end for $170 though since I don't want to miss a rebate month.

[ps_jb]

Since January 1 I sold 1 at 1000 later maybe the 4th  I sold 1 at 1111. I did 5 buy backs. Each of .2.


  Range of 830 best to 920 worst. Average for the 1 purchased back was 890.

Buying around $830-850 was a great investment!

[philipma1957]

Since January 1 I sold 1 at 1000 later maybe the 4th  I sold 1 at 1111. I did 5 buy backs. Each of .2.


  Range of 830 best to 920 worst. Average for the 1 purchased back was 890.

Buying around $830-850 was a great investment!

Yeah I got .2 for 167  and .2 for 171

  the other .2 buys were higher. 

I never go all in any more too old for those moves.

[generalt]

I fucked up with a riser I got it in the mail and did not remember where I purchased it.  it worked great It had a six pin pcie jack for power. not those shit   4 pin power jacks.

I used a few weeks and rearranged all my gear for the panda miner  So I sold a psu to generalt and he asked me if I had a riser So I tossed it in and never did the review of duh moron me.

I will post more on it  but I am asking generalt does it still work well?

That USB riser is still working perfectly for me thank you very much.  Before putting that riser in I was getting constant system crashes and reboots with the old riser.  The old riser had a molex connector on it and the molex to sata adapter melted a little it.  It was not noticeable until I removed it from the system and you could see some of the melted bits.  Using the 6 pin PCIe directly so far I've had no problems nor do I expect any power problems with this riser.  Thanks again Phil!

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1744064.0

http://www.itopshop.net/pcie-1x-to-16x-pcie-riser-with-6pin-power-connector-version-6-p-303.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/272456808280?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

[citronick]

So, i didn't end up pulling the trigger on those 2 x 550w PSUs.  It was going to cost $140 for 1100w vs the 1200w single unit, which yes, now costs $180 but has been as low as $160 recently and $120 a little longer out.  I just didn't want to hassle with a 2-PSU setup for what would probably be a nominal savings.

So... still on the lookout for a good deal on a 1200w unit, I found this Rosewill Capstone G Series at NewEgg for $100 after $10 rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182361&cm_re=rosewill_1200w-_-17-182-361-_-Product

This at least appears to be very similar to the Quark Plat Series, with the exception of course of the 2% difference in power efficiency, but was wondering if anyone on this thread had used this series (in any wattage).  In addition, the Capstone seems to be semi-modular, but with only the 24-pin connector permanently connected, so probably no issue there. Otherwise, seems to have the same # of cables/connectors as the Quark.  This still puts me 1 molex cable short, but hopefully can find a work-around for that.

If i do my math right, the incremental electricity cost for Gold vs Plat is only $2/month, so ROI wise, this would be a no-brainer vs the $180 (or even $160) Quark version.  But, wondering if there are any other differences that I am not catching.

IMHO, it's not worth "saving pennies" on PSUs, because your entire investment, ie. mobo, gpus, ram, cpu, etc., could be harmed in many ways due to a sub-standard PSU. Be careful on so called Platinum PSU selling at "attractive" pricing -- there are too many scams out there.

Standardizing on a good PSU brand will save you power bill, stability of rigs, consolidated warranty to some extent, etc, over time.

The more expensive PSUs, esp Platinum ones from EVGA, Corsair, Rosewill are well above 100 for Gold or 200 bucks for Platinums, for a reason - its simply using quality & better components resulting good performance and efficient power consumption for the rigs. I standardized on EVGAs because of the build and reputation, and also the 10-year warranty.

To save on overall rig costs, find a reliable and cost-efficient supplier of RAM and GPUs instead, because these items are bought in multiple quantities therefore the savings realised are much meaningful.

To go even further, study the supply chain for the RAMs and GPUs, and buy direct from distributor if you are buying in bulk, rather than buying from Newegg or Amazon.

[philipma1957]

So, i didn't end up pulling the trigger on those 2 x 550w PSUs.  It was going to cost $140 for 1100w vs the 1200w single unit, which yes, now costs $180 but has been as low as $160 recently and $120 a little longer out.  I just didn't want to hassle with a 2-PSU setup for what would probably be a nominal savings.

So... still on the lookout for a good deal on a 1200w unit, I found this Rosewill Capstone G Series at NewEgg for $100 after $10 rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182361&cm_re=rosewill_1200w-_-17-182-361-_-Product

This at least appears to be very similar to the Quark Plat Series, with the exception of course of the 2% difference in power efficiency, but was wondering if anyone on this thread had used this series (in any wattage).  In addition, the Capstone seems to be semi-modular, but with only the 24-pin connector permanently connected, so probably no issue there. Otherwise, seems to have the same # of cables/connectors as the Quark.  This still puts me 1 molex cable short, but hopefully can find a work-around for that.

If i do my math right, the incremental electricity cost for Gold vs Plat is only $2/month, so ROI wise, this would be a no-brainer vs the $180 (or even $160) Quark version.  But, wondering if there are any other differences that I am not catching.

IMHO, it's not worth "saving pennies" on PSUs, because your entire investment, ie. mobo, gpus, ram, cpu, etc., could be harmed in many ways due to a sub-standard PSU. Be careful on so called Platinum PSU selling at "attractive" pricing -- there are too many scams out there.

Standardizing on a good PSU brand will save you power bill, stability of rigs, consolidated warranty to some extent, etc, over time.

The more expensive PSUs, esp Platinum ones from EVGA, Corsair, Rosewill are well above 100 for Gold or 200 bucks for Platinums, for a reason - its simply using quality & better components resulting good performance and efficient power consumption for the rigs. I standardized on EVGAs because of the build and reputation, and also the 10-year warranty.

To save on overall rig costs, find a reliable and cost-efficient supplier of RAM and GPUs instead, because these items are bought in multiple quantities therefore the savings realised are much meaningful.

To go even further, study the supply chain for the RAMs and GPUs, and buy direct from distributor if you are buying in bulk, rather than buying from Newegg or Amazon.

Mostly true.  Except for rose will as they are directly linked to newegg.

And with rose will the quark psu has been a real good psu for me.

Buying seasonic two or three at a time or evga two or three at a time is what a lot of home builders do.
For me. I max at 6kwatts if the weather is cold.  So 12 x 750 watt or 12 x 850 watt psus works for me.
If I was to go 12 biostar rigs with four Msi rx 470 gpus I would want either 12 evga plats or 12 rose will 850 plats.

Of course I have a mix of gear not the above.

I would love to have 6 panda miners with three IBM 2980 psus.

That would be the cleanest smallest way to run 48 gpus

[vg54dett]

So, i didn't end up pulling the trigger on those 2 x 550w PSUs.  It was going to cost $140 for 1100w vs the 1200w single unit, which yes, now costs $180 but has been as low as $160 recently and $120 a little longer out.  I just didn't want to hassle with a 2-PSU setup for what would probably be a nominal savings.

So... still on the lookout for a good deal on a 1200w unit, I found this Rosewill Capstone G Series at NewEgg for $100 after $10 rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182361&cm_re=rosewill_1200w-_-17-182-361-_-Product

This at least appears to be very similar to the Quark Plat Series, with the exception of course of the 2% difference in power efficiency, but was wondering if anyone on this thread had used this series (in any wattage).  In addition, the Capstone seems to be semi-modular, but with only the 24-pin connector permanently connected, so probably no issue there. Otherwise, seems to have the same # of cables/connectors as the Quark.  This still puts me 1 molex cable short, but hopefully can find a work-around for that.

If i do my math right, the incremental electricity cost for Gold vs Plat is only $2/month, so ROI wise, this would be a no-brainer vs the $180 (or even $160) Quark version.  But, wondering if there are any other differences that I am not catching.

IMHO, it's not worth "saving pennies" on PSUs, because your entire investment, ie. mobo, gpus, ram, cpu, etc., could be harmed in many ways due to a sub-standard PSU. Be careful on so called Platinum PSU selling at "attractive" pricing -- there are too many scams out there.

Standardizing on a good PSU brand will save you power bill, stability of rigs, consolidated warranty to some extent, etc, over time.

The more expensive PSUs, esp Platinum ones from EVGA, Corsair, Rosewill are well above 100 for Gold or 200 bucks for Platinums, for a reason - its simply using quality & better components resulting good performance and efficient power consumption for the rigs. I standardized on EVGAs because of the build and reputation, and also the 10-year warranty.

To save on overall rig costs, find a reliable and cost-efficient supplier of RAM and GPUs instead, because these items are bought in multiple quantities therefore the savings realised are much meaningful.

To go even further, study the supply chain for the RAMs and GPUs, and buy direct from distributor if you are buying in bulk, rather than buying from Newegg or Amazon.

Do you have any tips to help finding a GPU supplyer ?
in EU , all GPUs prices are high nowadays (higher than 2016) , no good deal forn the moment.
Maybe a direct distributor would be better, but how to find it ?

[vg54dett]

Somebody tried that risers ?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/311716467457

[vg54dett]

Of course I have a mix of gear not the above.

I would love to have 6 panda miners with three IBM 2980 psus.

That would be the cleanest smallest way to run 48 gpus

Do you really think the panda miner is such a good deal ? Ok it's a clean setup, but

It seems expensive, and harder to sell in the end. (only to miners, not to gamers)

[philipma1957]

Of course I have a mix of gear not the above.

I would love to have 6 panda miners with three IBM 2980 psus.

That would be the cleanest smallest way to run 48 gpus

Do you really think the panda miner is such a good deal ? Ok it's a clean setup, but

It seems expensive, and harder to sell in the end. (only to miners, not to gamers)

  My circumstances are different then most.
I have the solar array deal.  My power costs allow for running the pandas with the rx 480s  until  rx 680s come out.
So when the rx 580s show in JUNE -AUG  I won't need to replace  the rx 480s.
I would get  1 extra generation to use them.
The solar array  could do 72 amps max.
So that could be :

 6 pandaminers
 4 s9's
 5 avalon 7's

would keep me  and buysolar diverse.

[vg54dett]

Of course I have a mix of gear not the above.

I would love to have 6 panda miners with three IBM 2980 psus.

That would be the cleanest smallest way to run 48 gpus

Do you really think the panda miner is such a good deal ? Ok it's a clean setup, but

It seems expensive, and harder to sell in the end. (only to miners, not to gamers)

  My circumstances are different then most.
I have the solar array deal.  My power costs allow for running the pandas with the rx 480s  until  rx 680s come out.
So when the rx 580s show in JUNE -AUG  I won't need to replace  the rx 480s.
I would get  1 extra generation to use them.
The solar array  could do 72 amps max.
So that could be :

 6 pandaminers
 4 s9's
 5 avalon 7's

would keep me  and buysolar diverse.

I made my math, I can get more hashes with less money if I build my own rigs instead of using Pandaminers. (and I don't even considered in the maths the fact that Pandaminer will arrive with shipping cost and customs fees..)

The solar array should not change the results ! with real GPUs (actual 470/480s), you should ROI faster and still be able to sell the gear later , no matter if this is 580s time or 680s time !

Did I miss something ?

[vg54dett]

and when you have a minute, could you sum up what is the sidehack project you are supporting with your signature ?

[citronick]

Of course I have a mix of gear not the above.

I would love to have 6 panda miners with three IBM 2980 psus.

That would be the cleanest smallest way to run 48 gpus

Do you really think the panda miner is such a good deal ? Ok it's a clean setup, but

It seems expensive, and harder to sell in the end. (only to miners, not to gamers)

  My circumstances are different then most.
I have the solar array deal.  My power costs allow for running the pandas with the rx 480s  until  rx 680s come out.
So when the rx 580s show in JUNE -AUG  I won't need to replace  the rx 480s.
I would get  1 extra generation to use them.
The solar array  could do 72 amps max.
So that could be :

 6 pandaminers
 4 s9's
 5 avalon 7's

would keep me  and buysolar diverse.

Yes, my rationale on the Panda similar to Phils.

The Pandas will somewhat refocus the whole mining gameplan for me and group.

Yes, the tinkering and experimentation on open rigs & DIY have given me hundreds of hours of "satisfaction" and sleepless nights -- love those challenges.

But on the other hand, the commercial side of things is also important and ROI and profits needs to come in to pay bills.

I have been trying very hard to look for cases and chassis for the open rigs so that someday it can be transported and powered by cheapest source of power available. All of this to improve profitability at the end of the day.... to be honest, this is very hard to do.

The Pandas are a game changer, esp for large GPU farms, cooling cost, footprint, IMHO.... all it needs is smart software.

No worries on resale or repurpose of these multi-GPU Pandas... there will always be buyers or renters (think.... local universities Deep Learning labs).

[AmDD]

Of course I have a mix of gear not the above.

I would love to have 6 panda miners with three IBM 2980 psus.

That would be the cleanest smallest way to run 48 gpus

Do you really think the panda miner is such a good deal ? Ok it's a clean setup, but

It seems expensive, and harder to sell in the end. (only to miners, not to gamers)

  My circumstances are different then most.
I have the solar array deal.  My power costs allow for running the pandas with the rx 480s  until  rx 680s come out.
So when the rx 580s show in JUNE -AUG  I won't need to replace  the rx 480s.
I would get  1 extra generation to use them.
The solar array  could do 72 amps max.
So that could be :

 6 pandaminers
 4 s9's
 5 avalon 7's

would keep me  and buysolar diverse.

Yes, my rationale on the Panda similar to Phils.

The Pandas will somewhat refocus the whole mining gameplan for me and group.

Yes, the tinkering and experimentation on open rigs & DIY have given me hundreds of hours of "satisfaction" and sleepless nights -- love those challenges.

But on the other hand, the commercial side of things is also important and ROI and profits needs to come in to pay bills.

I have been trying very hard to look for cases and chassis for the open rigs so that someday it can be transported and powered by cheapest source of power available. All of this to improve profitability at the end of the day.... to be honest, this is very hard to do.

The Pandas are a game changer, esp for large GPU farms, cooling cost, footprint, IMHO.... all it needs is smart software.

No worries on resale or repurpose of these multi-GPU Pandas... there will always be buyers or renters (think.... local universities Deep Learning labs).

Im not so sure about this last statement. Back in the Bitcoin GPU mining days there was a company/pool by the name of CoinLab. They wanted to share/rent GPU miners out to anyone who needed the power. It never went far, Im not even sure if they ever got a single client.

Im also not saying that just because they failed, everyone else will too but know that this road has been walked before and without much success.

[philipma1957]

Of course I have a mix of gear not the above.

I would love to have 6 panda miners with three IBM 2980 psus.

That would be the cleanest smallest way to run 48 gpus

Do you really think the panda miner is such a good deal ? Ok it's a clean setup, but

It seems expensive, and harder to sell in the end. (only to miners, not to gamers)

  My circumstances are different then most.
I have the solar array deal.  My power costs allow for running the pandas with the rx 480s  until  rx 680s come out.
So when the rx 580s show in JUNE -AUG  I won't need to replace  the rx 480s.
I would get  1 extra generation to use them.
The solar array  could do 72 amps max.
So that could be :

 6 pandaminers
 4 s9's
 5 avalon 7's

would keep me  and buysolar diverse.

I made my math, I can get more hashes with less money if I build my own rigs instead of using Pandaminers. (and I don't even considered in the maths the fact that Pandaminer will arrive with shipping cost and customs fees..)

The solar array should not change the results ! with real GPUs (actual 470/480s), you should ROI faster and still be able to sell the gear later , no matter if this is 580s time or 680s time !

Did I miss something ?

Yes  in my case  I have power 3x 30 amp 240 volt circuits   or 72 amps.   but the area in the  barn for mining is not huge.

So fitting pandaminers is easy compared to fitting rigs. see photo at the bottom


I wrote that signature with the idea to get donations to sidehack's  projects so to be clear:
the whole kit and kaboodle  

the twopacs  with antminer chips

and the bitfury  work in feb.

I can do 2 racks in the solar array
so  for me  the pandaminers would be better.
BTW  I most likely  won't do it due to all the gpus I have and the multiple rigs.

As it is  I would need to sell  a lot of gear to switch to panda miners.
And people don't buy fast in market place
I no longer sell on ebay  as buyers have become really bad.

The card below is a good deal and will only get better yet no one has purchased it.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1734829.0

I am going to sell  multiple mobos and gpus to get more pandaminers


here is my 24 card rack with gpus.
it would become a 48 card rack with pandaminers

6 four card rigs  = 24 cards
6 psus
6 eth cables
an 8 port dvi switcher
1 key board
1 mouse


or 6 pandaminers   = 48 cards
3 ibm 2980 psus
6 eth cables
an 8 port dvi switcher
1 key board
1 mouse

[vg54dett]

PM me when you are ready to sell some mobos+gpus , I will compare the cost (including oversea shipping) to check if it's better than local offers ! (pretty high actually).


Maybe due to translation, lack of knowledge and number of page in his thread, I didn't get exactly what sidehack is going to offer. Is he trying to build somethig better than antminer S9 ? or only small things ?

[philipma1957]

PM me when you are ready to sell some mobos+gpus , I will compare the cost (including oversea shipping) to check if it's better than local offers ! (pretty high actually).


Maybe due to translation, lack of knowledge and number of page in his thread, I didn't get exactly what sidehack is going to offer. Is he trying to build somethig better than antminer S9 ? or only small things ?

his bitfury  will be 1th  at 100 watts  maybe  in Feb.

 So if you want  100th  he may not be what you want.

But  if you want 10th-25th  he could be good for you.

His gear will be able to over and under clock plus over and under volt.

Translation :

 speed it up to the max  more hash less efficient ----------  say .13 watts a gh
 slow it down less hash more efficient ---------------------- say  .08 watts a gh

I will send a pm today.

[TheYankeesWin!]

Phil  did you ever see these?


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA27C3GN8656

They have a resistor  and plug inline for 3 pin fans.  5 for 6 bucks.  So 2 orders for 12 dollars  would be enough for all 9 fans in the PandaMiner.