Data Center Mining Garage and Man Mining Cave

[yun9999]

Congrats Yun9999.

I like to follow your build but i calculated a bit.

I think it will never pay out the costs you invested.

If you need new gpus every 3 years (100 gpus but no risers no cpu no psu no mobo) and u pay electricity lets say 15 cent a kWh then its not more then a hobby.

But i like your work  

BR

I wouldn't even consider this hobby, if I had to pay 15 cents / kw.  I've been mining since the Antminer S3 days, so most of this is reinvested money.  As for GPU mining, I'll be fully ROI by June / July if I don't count the power upgrade and shed build.  This is not counting the equity I have in my gears.  If I were to sell off everything I have today, I'm in the profit.  

My purchasing cost for GPUs and most equipment are 19-29% cheaper than retail.  I don't always buy the most expensive or coolest new stuff.  I started off with only 2 windeevents for the garage intake ($150 / pair so they're not cheap) and 1 exhaust fan as well as cheap wooden rig frame that I make myself.  I now have 4 pairs of Windeevents and 2 exhaust fans still much lower of an investment compare to most people at my hash rate who's 1 high end exhaust fan would cost more than my entire setup.  I also started with IBM server PSU for the lowest cost per GPU to power.  I invested most of my money into mostly HASH over the past year, not the coolest new GPU or rig frame.  

Now that the income is steadier, I'm using some of that for Fancier upgrades.  I run custom ROMs that are FREE for me with the help of forum buddies like Kilo17, Marvell and many others.  I also get a lot of cool products that vendors and forum buddies send to me for free to try or as thank you gifts for helping them, such as Power supplies, break out boards, Fans, risers, etc.  Some of the products you'll be seeing me doing the reviews in this thread later on.

Am I making a ton of money?  NO, that's the hobby part.  I'm a 1 man show and if you count the numbers of hours I spend on this hobby vs what I get paid for my REAL IT day job, then you would say I'll never ROI in a million years.  Haha.  I love this hobby so to me, it never feels like work.  I could house everything I need in my garage without a shed or further power upgrades.  However, I have a friend who loves mining but is sick and tire of his hosting company and his electric rate is super expensive.  That's when I suggested he host his gears at my house.  2 of those Server racks are his.   Here is a picture of his journey loading up the rental to the max driving from California to Houston to bring his rigs.  We also built some more rigs while he was at my house.  I learned GPU mining from him so I felt very good to be able to give back.  He is also the devil whisper that keep on saying "Nhan, add more rigs" and I'll always be saying NO MORE, I can't handle all this heat.  This is what forces me to have to be more creative with my hosting solution as I'm twice as careful with his gears then my very own.  

[m1n1ngP4d4w4n]

Very nice topic and alot of awesome ideas !

Damn i would like to find those box fans in Europe, been searching for some for months, and nada... only the more normal kind.

[yun9999]

How many ampere do you use? Did you change your electrical installation?

I added dual 200 AMP Copper bus outdoor panel to support garage and shed.  Existing interior home panel was upgraded to 200 Amp but the wire is max at 150 AMP tops so I changed the Main breaker to 150 Amp for safety measures.  The new panel was upgraded to allow more more 30 Amp slots for breakers as compare to the old 125AMP panel.  For the SHED I used GFI only breakers.  Very expensive at over $100 for each breaker but safety is priceless.  I used lower cost, 30 AMP breakers for the garage and have over 20 x 30 AMP outlets.   Copper Bus for longevity, fast tripping and easier to repair in event of warping and high temp issues.

[navydude]

How many ampere do you use? Did you change your electrical installation?

I added dual 200 AMP Copper bus outdoor panel to support garage and shed.  Existing interior home panel was upgraded to 200 Amp but the wire is max at 150 AMP tops so I changed the Main breaker to 150 Amp for safety measures.  The new panel was upgraded to allow more more 30 Amp slots for breakers as compare to the old 125AMP panel.  For the SHED I used GFI only breakers.  Very expensive at over $100 for each breaker but safety is priceless.  I used lower cost, 30 AMP breakers for the garage and have over 20 x 30 AMP outlets.   Copper Bus for longevity, fast tripping and easier to repair in event of warping and high temp issues.

Just courious... Are you running your power supplies @ 240v or 120V? Im assuming with double pole breakers it would be 240 but ya never know.

[vapourminer]

that floor intake is nice, but what happens when snow is higher than the floor of the shed?

[DiCE1904]

Wow great project man, keep the pics comin

[yun9999]

that floor intake is nice, but what happens when snow is higher than the floor of the shed?

Then you move to Houston where I live and you don't have to worry about Snow.  =)


Looking back at the old picture.  This is when my garage was the cleanest.  It's a mess right now with so many Racks inside until the build is complete.  =)  Those white rigs are the Chinese rigs I have which will be migrating to the Shed along with my legacy Rack and original wooden rigs.  =)  I use those portable wooden rig as my space heaters.






Just as I finished 1 batch, more stuff arrived!  The H81 Motherboards are used for my Furies Farm.  I can only fit 6 inside the Rosewill so no point being wasteful and the MSI MB eats into the width of the super long Fury cards.



My Dell PDUs also arrived.  These are very good PDU and you can monitor load, setup alerting, etc via the browser.  They also have plenty of connectors for both C13 and C19 cables.  I get them at very good prices, so if anyone is interested, let me know.   I can hook it up via 1 of my vendors.  These pdus goes nicely inside the rack and gives me a quick view of any rack that have issues as I'm familiar with what amperage each Rack should be at.  I'm standardizing my rack based on these PDUs so I ordered 20 of them total to start.  Happy with them so far.

[vapourminer]

that floor intake is nice, but what happens when snow is higher than the floor of the shed?

Then you move to Houston where I live and you don't have to worry about Snow.  =)

yeah that could work

[citronick]

that floor intake is nice, but what happens when snow is higher than the floor of the shed?

Then you move to Houston where I live and you don't have to worry about Snow.  =)

yeah that could work

LOL....

btw, how do you keep crawlies out since you basically have a gaping hole on the floor.

Perhaps some wire mesh to cover the hole?

I would imagine some dust problems. Any solutions to address that?

[m1n1ngP4d4w4n]

LOL....

btw, how do you keep crawlies out since you basically have a gaping hole on the floor.

Perhaps some wire mesh to cover the hole?

I would imagine some dust problems. Any solutions to address that?

Yeah i agree with so much heat you probably want to keep bugs & rodent out of the way (even small animals like cats), for the dust i don't think it would be this problematic if the negative pressure is enough.

I totally agree with your approach to choose a compact space, as long as you keep enough CFM/negative pressure to keep air replaced fast, you shouldn't have any temp issues and with a compact design it's much easier to reach this goal at a much lower CFM/noise level.

How is your roof made, is that shed a cube with the roof above it or is the roof part of the "interior" spacing ? be careful of roofs, because with hot hair going up you could have an issue with hot air being trapped in the roof spacing. if possible i would have added another fan in the back & front of the shed at the limit of the roof's top, to evacuate the hot air (depending on the neightbor FoV). You could also add floor fan's to help with the air intake (not direct to avoid moisture, using a curved intake pipe)

[yun9999]

that floor intake is nice, but what happens when snow is higher than the floor of the shed?

Then you move to Houston where I live and you don't have to worry about Snow.  =)

yeah that could work

LOL....

btw, how do you keep crawlies out since you basically have a gaping hole on the floor.

Perhaps some wire mesh to cover the hole?

I would imagine some dust problems. Any solutions to address that?

No crawlies.  If you look closer at the picture, there is 2 layers.  First layer is a wire mesh to keep mosquitoes and bugs at bay.  The second is a metal frame layer (reused from my RACK shelves.  =) ) to keep my clumsy self from falling in and keep the rodents out.  If I want to add a 3rd layer which is a pollen filter for the Spring, I could as well.  Dust not any worst then my garage as it's worst if coming from a window intake.  From the ground the grass n dirt catches a lot of it.  Either way, nothing a good compressor can't handle when it's time to sell the GPU.  The last batch of 390s I sold probably have less dust on them then the GPU inside my computer in the house.  Pollen is my biggest fear as Houston yellow pollen can covered an entire car.  I'm very allergic to pollen and being trap inside a shed with pollen won't be fun.  =)


@m1n1ngP4d4w4n -  The Shed have a standard angle roof and I upgraded it to add Radiant barrier call TekShield.  The supporting frames is made of Pink wood which is also more moisture and fire resistant than normal wood.  I also have ridge vents so the roof can breath.  LED lights which is low wattage and super bright so I never have to even bother turning it off which is good for my Security camera.  


https://i.imgur.com/8XzbQDB.jpg



Pollen is similar to dust, if you're letting it get to the point that it's smothering your gear, that means you're not maintaining it well.  This won't be any different then running it in your garage or in a dusty warehouse.  Monthly or even every quarter compressor cleaning is more than sufficient.  I actually never had to do it at all for any of my GPUs, they're actually very clean.  My guess is that my flow is so strong that it never have a chance to accumulate?  This is my 3rd Spring / Summer season mining, so I'm very confident it should be ok. 

P.S Don't waste money on these crappy product, it doesn't do a good job even for cleaning a keyboard.  Just buy a cheap 4-6 gallon compressor for $60 is better.

[m1n1ngP4d4w4n]

that floor intake is nice, but what happens when snow is higher than the floor of the shed?

Then you move to Houston where I live and you don't have to worry about Snow.  =)

yeah that could work

LOL....

btw, how do you keep crawlies out since you basically have a gaping hole on the floor.

Perhaps some wire mesh to cover the hole?

I would imagine some dust problems. Any solutions to address that?

No crawlies.  If you look closer at the picture, there is 2 layers.  First layer is a wire mesh to keep mosquitoes and bugs at bay.  The second is a metal frame layer (reused from my RACK shelves.  =) ) to keep my clumsy self from falling in and keep the rodents out.  If I want to add a 3rd layer which is a pollen filter for the Spring, I could as well.  Dust not any worst then my garage as it's worst if coming from a window intake.  From the ground the grass n dirt catches a lot of it.  Either way, nothing a good compressor can't handle when it's time to sell the GPU.  The last batch of 390s I sold probably have less dust on them then the GPU inside my computer in the house.  Pollen is my biggest fear as Houston yellow pollen can covered an entire car.  I'm very allergic to pollen and being trap inside a shed with pollen won't be fun.  =)

Pollen would also smother your rigs fast, depending on the type of pollen with the heat it would melt a bit and clutter up fans & stick to stuff, that would be bad

[BTCBusinessConsult]

Nice setup, love seeing the pictures. Makes me kind of envious because the last 3 years I have plenty of money, time, knowledge...

But with renting and having a wife super against anything crypto it limited me to just playing around with 2 GPUs in my personal PC. Sad days.

[yun9999]

Nice setup, love seeing the pictures. Makes me kind of envious because the last 3 years I have plenty of money, time, knowledge...

But with renting and having a wife super against anything crypto it limited me to just playing around with 2 GPUs in my personal PC. Sad days.

I completely understand.  Another expensive hobby of mine is Reef tanks.  However, I quickly learn that sometimes living it thru others is not so bad plus it's less work / cost and maintenance.  Also you can avoid the occupational hazzards.  I have more scars and cut from the work I do for the mining stuff then I did growing up, street fighting.  These are the only few recent ones.  Mind you that I'm not a very handy person, so most of the heavy lifting are done by my buddies and contractors, so this is pretty pathetic.  =)

[DebitMe]

Do you have any interest in selling complete kits that have everything needed to plug and play in the rack design?

[yun9999]

I would highly recommend you search AriesV, he's one of the forum member who's sole business is to sell these.  I would hate to take away someone's business / source of income and also don't want to turn this into a selling thread as it would reduce my credibility for product reviews.  I must warn you though, it's not cheap but if you tried to build 1 yourself, you will understand why it is priced with such high premium.    His solution as well as Spotswood didn't meet my need for a solution that would fit 6 super long Sapphire Furies so me and my buddy just created our own version.  

[m1n1ngP4d4w4n]

that floor intake is nice, but what happens when snow is higher than the floor of the shed?

Then you move to Houston where I live and you don't have to worry about Snow.  =)

yeah that could work

LOL....

btw, how do you keep crawlies out since you basically have a gaping hole on the floor.

Perhaps some wire mesh to cover the hole?

I would imagine some dust problems. Any solutions to address that?

No crawlies.  If you look closer at the picture, there is 2 layers.  First layer is a wire mesh to keep mosquitoes and bugs at bay.  The second is a metal frame layer (reused from my RACK shelves.  =) ) to keep my clumsy self from falling in and keep the rodents out.  If I want to add a 3rd layer which is a pollen filter for the Spring, I could as well.  Dust not any worst then my garage as it's worst if coming from a window intake.  From the ground the grass n dirt catches a lot of it.  Either way, nothing a good compressor can't handle when it's time to sell the GPU.  The last batch of 390s I sold probably have less dust on them then the GPU inside my computer in the house.  Pollen is my biggest fear as Houston yellow pollen can covered an entire car.  I'm very allergic to pollen and being trap inside a shed with pollen won't be fun.  =)


@m1n1ngP4d4w4n -  The Shed have a standard angle roof and I upgraded it to add Radiant barrier call TekShield.  The supporting frames is made of Pink wood which is also more moisture and fire resistant than normal wood.  I also have ridge vents so the roof can breath.  LED lights which is low wattage and super bright so I never have to even bother turning it off which is good for my Security camera.  


https://i.imgur.com/8XzbQDB.jpg



Pollen is similar to dust, if you're letting it get to the point that it's smothering your gear, that means you're not maintaining it well.  This won't be any different then running it in your garage or in a dusty warehouse.  Monthly or even every quarter compressor cleaning is more than sufficient.  I actually never had to do it at all for any of my GPUs, they're actually very clean.  My guess is that my flow is so strong that it never have a chance to accumulate?  This is my 3rd Spring / Summer season mining, so I'm very confident it should be ok.  

P.S Don't waste money on these crappy product, it doesn't do a good job even for cleaning a keyboard.  Just buy a cheap 4-6 gallon compressor for $60 is better.

Very nice, i guess you thought about it well  

Totally agree with you, compressor is the way to go for maintenance

Yeah as i said earlier with enough negative pressure, the dust/pollen is always in movement and shouldn't clutter your rigs, and a compressor maintenance every week or two on the fans should be enough to keep the ensemble pretty clean.

Nice work there man ! This is really impressive/inspiring work * tipping the hat *

[yun9999]

My Network

Dual Internet - DSL via Consolidated Communication and Comcast for Cable Modem.  The cost of any internet outage is very costly and sometime can cost more than few months if not the entire year of Internet service so I figure it's best to have redundancy.  I have redundant ethernet connection from the shed to the DSL and cable modem and likewise for the Garage and my office.  Doesn't really help when I lose power though, haven't solved that issue yet.  =)

I'm very fortunate that my good friend and local miner Lac gave me these Enterprise class Rack mounted switches.  They are awesome!  No more cheap Linksys junks.

Garage - Cisco Catalyst 48 port switch




Shed - HP 24 port switch

[m1n1ngP4d4w4n]

Can't agree more with you, i feared network/internet outage alot.

I use pro-grade netgear switch cascaded with a dual copper/optic fiber ring trunk allowing 4 level of redundancy (network, switch, media, port), and for internet connection i have a quad aggregation with 2x DSL lines, one satellite line, and one 4G lines, the 2 DSL lines are aggregated and supply the normal internet, in case of failure i can fallback to the sat one, and in case this fail the 4G one. The 2x aggregation box are custom made and use a licenced custom OS from OVH to run it (useful to get the custom static IP, i could have done it open-source otherwise but it's the same cost with or without the custom OS ^^) so far never had to fallback to sat or 4g, but as we say, better safe than sorry  

for power redundancy i have 2x separate electrical supply lines (pro line and home line) if i have any trouble with the pro-line i will switch to the home line for powering the rigs, even if the electricity cost twice more on the normal line, it's best to not lose mining time so far i had maybe a 2h switch on the home line in the last 6 months so it's not bad. Im still a noob miner, but learning everyday.

Thanks to show us how years of experience speaks for themselves 

[yun9999]

Sounds like you have a wonderful setup!  Dual power would be a dream as every time my neighborhood lose power, my wife and kids give me the dirty looks like it's my fault.   My neighbors look at me like I'm draining the town of all power.  




The Heart of POWER for the SHED

I really love my IBM 4KW server PSU bundle for it's low cost per GPU powering option if you're powering 2 or more rigs.  It's also very compact and very quiet when used with recommended fans which I will discussed shortly.  I wouldn't run it inside an office but you won't hear these when box fan are running unlike the 2880W server PSU fans which are screetchingly loud.  

I love the fact that I can power up to 5 x RX470/480 rigs very cheaply and efficiently.  These are beasty PSUs and I've ran them in my garage in 115F temps with no issues provided that you pair them with good fans.  They do have thermal shutdown protection to prevent failures and issues.  I've used the same server PSU carried over from the S7 mining so durability is fantastic as I've very abusive and rarely run them below 75%.  I've actually ran them close to REDline most of the time with the 3 x S7 OC which is over 4200W.  So I guess with the GPUs and the help of the baby ATX PSU, I'm finally letting it work less as hard.  =)





Example of 8 rigs powered by 2 x IBM 4KW server PSU Bundle.  I used to have them power 10 rigs but I figured for the shed I want to keep simple, plus the Fury rigs eats up double the PCI connections.  If you're interested in these, you can contact Finksy, he's very well known on the forum is also a great wealth of information regardless of whether you buy from him or not.



The cabling is so sexy and so fresh and clean......clean.  =)


The server PSU cable are 6 pins to 6 pins but you can buy 6 pin to 6+2 pins or in my case use 6pin to 8 pin adapters for my old legacy 6 to 6pin cables.