Review of Panda Miner coming up.

[philipma1957]

Compatible Intel Broadwell-U CPU list (but BGA and soldering...):
http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/CPUs/Intel/Mobile_Celeron_Dual-Core/3215U.html

the best cpu  to put in it would be this one.


http://ark.intel.com/products/85213/Intel-Core-i5-5300U-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-2_90-GHz

this is stock

http://ark.intel.com/products/84810/Intel-Celeron-Processor-3215U-2M-Cache-1_70-GHz



but rework could kill the mobo  so it is not worth the risk.

if the company (pandaminer) sticks around    maybe they will offer one with a better cpu

[Prelude]

Why do you guys want a stronger more expensive CPU to mine with? Nothing is worth CPU mining right?

[philipma1957]

I don't the cpu that comes is good enough.  but  down the road  an i5 could come in handy with a new coin.

I have started my tests of reduced fan speed.  This unit comes with 2 fan headers

 one for 4 push fans
one for 5 pull fans

I hooked my controller up to the push fans which were using 40 watts at 12 volts.

they now use 22 watts at 9 volts.  gear is not as noisy.  and I am saving 18 watts.

of course  time will tell if the gear overheats.

if 1 controller works I will add the second

since that is for 5 fans  I may drop from 50 to 27 watts

thus a 40-41 watt savings  and noise relief



I also pulled heat sink for cpu and as we thought cpu is soldered in so rework would be needed to upgrade the cpu ie not worth it.

the only easy upgrade would be a taller heatsink this would allow a slower fan and I am not going to bother with that.

[m1n1ngP4d4w4n]

How much your "upgrade" for fan cost in all ? Also have a DB meter (like phone app) to do measurement without and with control ? How much difference of temperature after 1h of mining between stock fan and modded fan ?

Keep up the good work guys 

[Prelude]

I don't the cpu that comes is good enough.  but  down the road  an i5 could come in handy with a new coin.

That's what I thought. That's a big "if" which likely would never pay for the cost of upgrading the CPU.

[philipma1957]

How much your "upgrade" for fan cost in all ? Also have a DB meter (like phone app) to do measurement without and with control ? How much difference of temperature after 1h of mining between stock fan and modded fan ?

Keep up the good work guys  

here is what you need to make the fan much  quieter

this is $6.95  I got 3 sets of 2 and spent 21.00    but you need 1 set  if you do it correctly.   so $7.00
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CDKSV3C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

step down is 10.99

https://www.amazon.com/DROK-Voltage-Regulator-Converter-1-2-36V/dp/B00C4QVTNU/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1484594142&sr=8-7&keywords=drok+step+down

total cost is 11 + 7  = 18 bucks

I am now pulling  34 watts  vs 75-85 watts  so 50 watts = 1.2 kwatts a day  or 36 kwatts a month or $3.60 a month per unit  so in 5 months at 10 cent power the cost has paid off.

this mod make this a home miner.

I choose one of six or seven ways to wire the mod photos to come.

I will do sound meter in a bit.


no drilling needed for mod no stock wires to cut.

these feed the two rows of fans front and back


thread through the pci jacks slot






when done two ready for power  

one does 5 fans pull
one does 4 fans push



I am using an external 90% efficient 240 watt max  brick to feed the step down. I am sending in 13.04 volts

first test was 8.27 volts out

[m1n1ngP4d4w4n]

Thx for the infos man, really cheap mod indeed ! How about temps ?   Also do you think we could use "fixed" fan mod with cable and resistor to slow them down permanently so that the mod is kept "inside" ? in a good controlled environment that should be doable

[philipma1957]

Thx for the infos man, really cheap mod indeed ! How about temps ?  

I have resistors coming.  the down side of them is they do no save any power.
This mod saves power.
I am running 27 watts for the 9 fans.
I powered fans with external brick to determine power saved at 7.32 volts
power drop was really good.

I have resistor cables coming. they are lost in the mail seller is in NJ I am in NJ  the cables  went from NJ to WI  so I do not know when or if I will get them.

Resistor cables would be cleaner as they would fully be in the case.

I do not need an external brick to power the fans I can use the fan headers on the mobo if I want.




well temps are still hard to determine as gpu-z does not pick them up. My infrared shows case cover under 100f  and the case cover touches 4 of the 8 gpu heatsinks and uses a thermal pad to help cool the heatsinks.

I ran for an hour at 8,27 volts in a warm garage no issues  and the db's dropped from 71db to 67db


I am now testing 7.32 volts  which dropped db down to 64.4 at a meter

[m1n1ngP4d4w4n]

Not bad at all -3Db for each steps is enormous. thx for the mesurements.

[philipma1957]

Not bad at all -3Db for each steps is enormous. thx for the mesurements.

it is good enough for my purposes at 64.4db  and 27 watts vs 85 watts is huge.

[m1n1ngP4d4w4n]

Not bad at all -3Db for each steps is enormous. thx for the mesurements.

it is good enough for my purposes at 64.4db  and 27 watts vs 85 watts is huge.

Agreed it's really good !

[ps_jb]

Not bad at all -3Db for each steps is enormous. thx for the mesurements.

it is good enough for my purposes at 64.4db  and 27 watts vs 85 watts is huge.

Can be heat sinks changed on custom made from copper?

[philipma1957]

Not bad at all -3Db for each steps is enormous. thx for the mesurements.

it is good enough for my purposes at 64.4db  and 27 watts vs 85 watts is huge.

Can be heat sinks changed on custom made from copper?

well  the heatsink on the cpu comes off easy  and it could be higher/bigger  by a lot.  So a custom made heat sink  would be easy upgrade for the cpu.
The heat sinks for the gpus are heavy and high quality  I would leave them alone.



As for the heat sinks  on my  little drok controller  I think they could be upgraded to copper.


I also think my controller could be put inside the case near the ram   or near the cpu heatsink.

[vapourminer]

I also think my controller could be put inside the case near the ram   or near the cpu heatsink.

that would be slick.

no probs stacking them and much neater.

[miropp]

How many fans inside? 9 or 10 ?
On Pandaminer web are photos with 10, also in some reviews 10. But in another reviews only 9.

[citronick]

How many fans inside? 9 or 10 ?
On Pandaminer web are photos with 10, also in some reviews 10. But in another reviews only 9.

I believe its 10 vents holes (5 in front and 5 at the back) but only 9 fans.

For my unit;

Fans for front and back for all GPUs.

Each pair of fans for 2 x GPUs each (placed both sides of motherboard).

8 x GPUs will use 4 pairs of fans.

That leaves 1 fan left to bring in airflow over the CPU heatsink.

No fans for vent out for the CPU

[miropp]

How many fans inside? 9 or 10 ?
On Pandaminer web are photos with 10, also in some reviews 10. But in another reviews only 9.

I believe its 10 vents holes (5 in front and 5 at the back) but only 9 fans.

For my unit;

Fans for front and back for all GPUs.

Each pair of fans for 2 x GPUs each (placed both sides of motherboard).

8 x GPUs will use 4 pairs of fans.

That leaves 1 fan left to bring in airflow over the CPU heatsink.

No fans for vent out for the CPU

But on their photo there are 5 fans (no empty hole)...
http://pandaminer.com/default/product_detail?id=2

[citronick]

How many fans inside? 9 or 10 ?
On Pandaminer web are photos with 10, also in some reviews 10. But in another reviews only 9.

I believe its 10 vents holes (5 in front and 5 at the back) but only 9 fans.

For my unit;

Fans for front and back for all GPUs.

Each pair of fans for 2 x GPUs each (placed both sides of motherboard).

8 x GPUs will use 4 pairs of fans.

That leaves 1 fan left to bring in airflow over the CPU heatsink.

No fans for vent out for the CPU

But on their photo there are 5 fans (no empty hole)...
http://pandaminer.com/default/product_detail?id=2

For my unit..... I have only 1 fan for air inflow for CPU side without outtake fans.

Philip - did you have full 5 pairs of fans?

[philipma1957]

How many fans inside? 9 or 10 ?
On Pandaminer web are photos with 10, also in some reviews 10. But in another reviews only 9.

I believe its 10 vents holes (5 in front and 5 at the back) but only 9 fans.

For my unit;

Fans for front and back for all GPUs.

Each pair of fans for 2 x GPUs each (placed both sides of motherboard).

8 x GPUs will use 4 pairs of fans.

That leaves 1 fan left to bring in airflow over the CPU heatsink.

No fans for vent out for the CPU

But on their photo there are 5 fans (no empty hole)...
http://pandaminer.com/default/product_detail?id=2

For my unit..... I have only 1 fan for air inflow for CPU side without outtake fans.

Philip - did you have full 5 pairs of fans?

Nine fans. Only one for the CPU .

If you put your hand by the CPU fan it is far cooler then the gpu fans.  So you truly need one fan.

The gpus use say 200 watts.  The CPU uses 15
So the gpus need powerful fans.
If you think about this tearing the unit down pulling the cpu fan out and keep it as a spare for the eight gpu fans.
Put in a lower speed fan for the CPU fan.  There is no way the CPU needs a high speed fan.

The pandaminer has quite a bit of tweak factor for a home miner.
Back to my fan mod.   The garage gets to 91f when I close the back door.
At this temp the reduced speed at 8.5 volts is not good enough .  So for now I bumped fans to 9 volts.
The 9 fans are using 38 watts and the gear is stable.

[m1n1ngP4d4w4n]

Nice to see more numbers,

What is in place of this phantom 10th fan ? a empty hole with no fan, nothing (no hole no fan) ?