BFL Single (FPGA) in hot weather

[dave3]

One of my Single's is having a hard time, even running at the slowest firmware it's getting up to 73° C and throttling.

I've got it in a room without air conditioning and it's around 95° F outside.

I'd keep them in my air conditioned office, but they're incredibly noisy.

Please hurry up and get here super quiet and efficient Single SC ASICs.  If you're quiet enough I'll even let you stay in my cool office.

Code:

 cgminer version 2.10.2 - Started: [2013-03-27 16:44:57]
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 (5s):361.5M (avg):1.547Gh/s | Q:14337  A:201102  R:233  HW:17  E:1403%  U:17.8/m
 ST: 2  SS: 9  DW: 28528  NB: 1367  LW: 276413  GF: 6  RF: 2  WU: 21.0
 Connected to us3.eclipsemc.com with stratum as user 
 Block: 00ccc545ebfd31a9ca76f670...  Started: [12:36:19]  Best share: 428K
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 [P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [Q]uit
 BFL 0:  73.0C         | 762.3M/757.6Mh/s | A: 95433 R:104 HW:63 U: 8.46/m
 BFL 1:  65.0C         | 794.2M/789.7Mh/s | A:105669 R:129 HW: 0 U: 9.37/m
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[Frankie Delaney]

Have you tried pouring cold water over it?

[dave3]

I imagine that would cool it off, permanently.  Probably wouldn't hash so well after that, though.

I cleaned off some of the caked-on dust from the side grills, and it's back down to 64° C for the moment.  I'll see if it holds.

I'd take them apart and give them a good cleaning and see if I could improve their performance, but the ASIC shipping has been just around the corner for so long, I thought I'd just be shipping them back soon, anyway.

[n4l3hp]

I have a single that throttles with the 800 firmware using the stock hsf. After replacing the hsf with a cpu tower cooler (4 heatpipes), 880 firmware ran fine from november to march. This month, I switched to 864 firmware due to summer heat. Also in a room without AC.

[Gator-hex]

You need to open the case and blow the dust out of the heatsink, a can of compressed air off ebay works good.

If that doesn't work you need to remove the heatsink and replace the thermal contact paste between the chip and the heatsink.

[Dalkore]

I imagine that would cool it off, permanently.  Probably wouldn't hash so well after that, though.

I cleaned off some of the caked-on dust from the side grills, and it's back down to 64° C for the moment.  I'll see if it holds.

I'd take them apart and give them a good cleaning and see if I could improve their performance, but the ASIC shipping has been just around the corner for so long, I thought I'd just be shipping them back soon, anyway.

You refused to put then in A/C, they are electronics.  And, you had caked on dust.   You may want to treat them better and that will help tremendously.  BTC.02

[johnyj]

This year's cooling discussion will start  

This is for 20 mini-rigs

[dave3]

You refused to put then in A/C, they are electronics.  And, you had caked on dust.   You may want to treat them better and that will help tremendously.  BTC.02

My excuse for the dust is that they're waiting to get shipped back to BFL any day now, anyway.

They don't get to enjoy the A/C in my office because they're making too much noise.  Running an A/C in the spare room just for them would probably cost an extra ~ $100/month, so as long as they'll hash it's not worth it.

[k9quaint]

You refused to put then in A/C, they are electronics.  And, you had caked on dust.   You may want to treat them better and that will help tremendously.  BTC.02

My excuse for the dust is that they're waiting to get shipped back to BFL any day now, anyway.

They don't get to enjoy the A/C in my office because they're making too much noise.  Running an A/C in the spare room just for them would probably cost an extra ~ $100/month, so as long as they'll hash it's not worth it.

Dust destroys the ability of heatsinks to dissipate the heat into the air. Invest in a $2 can of compressed air.

[Dalkore]

You refused to put then in A/C, they are electronics.  And, you had caked on dust.   You may want to treat them better and that will help tremendously.  BTC.02

My excuse for the dust is that they're waiting to get shipped back to BFL any day now, anyway.

They don't get to enjoy the A/C in my office because they're making too much noise.  Running an A/C in the spare room just for them would probably cost an extra ~ $100/month, so as long as they'll hash it's not worth it.

Well if you not willing to sacrifice some noise in your office or make a quiet box then I don't know what to say?

[dave3]

Well if you not willing to sacrifice some noise in your office or make a quiet box then I don't know what to say?

They seem to be happy now that I removed the dust from the outside of the case.  And they'll be boxed up and shipped back in a matter of days, anyway, I'm sure.

[crazyates]

If you like taking some stuff apart, there's some stuff you can do:

1) Take it out of the case, and leave it in the open air.
2) Take the heatsink off, and repaste the 2 chips.
3) When you're putting the heatsink back on, swap the top fan, so that it's blowing air down.
4) Remove the dinky little bottom heatsink/fan, and add a big ol' honkin CPU heatsink to the back.
4a) Make sure you find a heatsink that can fit properly and evenly on the back, small enough to fit between the solder joints protruding from the back.
4a) Add a nice big fan (80mm or 120mm, depending on what heatsink you're using).

I went from barely being able to run the 832 to running the 880 with some impressively low temps.

[allinvain]

Please hurry up and get here super quiet and efficient Single SC ASICs.  If you're quiet enough I'll even let you stay in my cool office.

LOL 

[dogie]

Please hurry up and get here super quiet and efficient Single SC ASICs.  If you're quiet enough I'll even let you stay in my cool office.

LOL 

Yeah I was just going to quote the same thing. I think you're going to cry when you see what they actually, if ever, ship. Jalapeño is going to be 3x the size and with a 60CFM fan on it by this rate.

[squall1066]

Please hurry up and get here super quiet and efficient Single SC ASICs.  If you're quiet enough I'll even let you stay in my cool office.

LOL 

Yeah I was just going to quote the same thing. I think you're going to cry when you see what they actually, if ever, ship. Jalapeño is going to be 3x the size and with a 60CFM fan on it by this rate.

Not to mention the extra power usage (still less than Avalon but still 3-4x what they promised), And your worried about $100 PCM for air-con?

[dave3]

But weren't they saying the new SC was going to be really quiet?  That's one of my complaints about the FPGA units.  The fans are so noisy I can hear them from the other side of the house.

Hopefully they won't have to cut a hole in the bottom of the case and mount an extra heatsink and fan this time. 

[Bogart]

But weren't they saying the new SC was going to be really quiet?  That's one of my complaints about the FPGA units.  The fans are so noisy I can hear them from the other side of the house.

Hopefully they won't have to cut a hole in the bottom of the case and mount an extra heatsink and fan this time.  

The Bitforce FPGA Single consumed ~80W.  400% of its designed power target.

The Bitforce SC Little Single consumes (so far) ~180W.  600% of its designed power target.

I'm envisioning a box of fans.

So far as cleaning dust buildup, I like to vacuum mine.

[dave3]

I'm sad about the power thing with the SC's.  Especially at $0.25 per kWh.  At first I'll just be happy to be mining with them and the coins should help ease the electric bill pain.  But that probably won't last forever.

I appreciate they're doing what they can and hope they get something decent out soon, though.

I've got tile floors in this house so I don't own a vacuum cleaner, anymore.

I'm feeling a bit of Déjà vu with this whole situation.  I know they're saying they're going to be able to ship in large quantities when they start, but I'm remembering how painfully slow the old FPGA units went out in the beginning.  So many things haven't worked out like they've planned.