Data Center Mining Garage and Man Mining Cave

[yun9999]

@klimpa - Thanks for the kind words.  It's hard work and I'm spending ridiculous amount of hours for my rigs but boy when you love what you do.........it's hard to call it work?

@zimmsquad - I am very careless and abusive to my gear and fortunately never really have issues using dual PSU.  I don't bother with P2PSU.  Just make sure both the Server PSU and baby PSU are on the same PDU and you'll be fine as they will power on and off at the same time when you have a power outage.  The rigs won't power up until you hit the power from the ATX which controls the show anyways.  I've had it power up and off with 1 not on, etc.  No issues but also not recommended.  Its best to have the server PSU up first and then power on the rig via ATX.  ATX PSU control the show.

If you can over look the initial cost, I would definitely go with nice quality G2 650W EVGA used with warranty.  EVGA is the best in the biz for RMA and support.  
G2 baby PSU are exceptionally good baby PSU.  It must be G2 not G or HQ versions as those PSU are not compatible with EVGA G2 1200/ 1300 and are lower quality.  I like the G2 baby PSU as it's one cheap way to get cables that are usable for EVGA 1200 and 1300 (Sata / Molex / MB / PCI).  I have many used EVGA 1300 that I bought without MB cables for bitcoin mining so it's a nice bonus.  =)  They're very compact, quiet and have longer warranty then the cheapies.  They should have good resale value.  The higher efficiency will also repay for the premium difference over time.  They are often found used for $60-70 used.   Another good option is EVGA 700W that are often found for $45-50 used on Amazon.  It doesn't give you the cable compatibility, strong resell, etc but it does allow you to power 5 rigs cheaper than spending on 5 x G2 650W.  Either option is fine depending on your budget but also don't over spend else you're not really saving a lot of money going server PSU route.  In any event if you have a large farm you will always need at least 1 x 4kw Bundle just for the flexibility especially when we GPU becomes Power hungry again.

It's simply not worth the hassle, failures, headache with anything cheaper just to save $10 buck per PSU going with a 430-600W PSU.  Trust me, I've tried over a dozen different brands trying to save cost when I was first starting out.  That end up costing me so much money as I had to throw them out or stop using them due to SATA cables failing or limited SATA connections etc.  Also when they die, you don't really feel like spending $15 to ship the PSU for warranty replacement on a $30-40 PSU as you dont want to invest even more into junk.  Even the EVGA 600w is crap.  It will do the job but don't expect it to last long or survive hot temps when powering 7 rig GPU risers.

A good analogy is like buying cheap tires, in normal situations, they work just fine, in rough terrains, snow and other tougher conditions, you need better quality.  We're pushing our rigs super hard, quality is important.  Never a good idea to skimp on PSU. Find other ways to reduce cost such as using Simplemining.net for your OS to save the $40 on SSD and spend it on getting quality PSU.  Don't use 8GB RAM when you really only need 4GB. That's another common mistake I see many people make.  That only is $65 you just saved where you can invest in a quality PSU.

[Zimmsquad]

Sorry for noob question, but what is a PDU?

Also, could you explain why you choose to run AMD card rather than GTX 1070s? I will be buying soon and need to make a decision. As I see it, Eth will be switching to POS this year probably, so I think AMD cards will not be that useful then. I also feel that the increased cost of the GTX 1070 will be made up for when they are resold, and they will also have much more hash power when they are being used. However, Monero is becoming a popular coin that also excels on the AMD cards. I am truely torn. I guess I just need to figure out the best cards to buy TODAY.

[yun9999]

Are you going to switch to 6x pin powered riser and some other adapters to get rid of the baby PSU ? or do you think you will still one for the motherboard/harddrive ?

No as I prefer to test for stability and understand all the caveats first.  Pico solution is better in some area and worst in some area so it's not a 1 solution fits all.  It just opens up many more creative rig options choices with the space saving as the IBM PSU are in 2KW pieces and there is separate 2KW board for a more compact solution to throw into server cases for example.  I could also use a single 2KW to power 1 power hungry  7 GPU Fury rig, not that even a EVGA 1600 can handle that on Eth.  Zec it can but not Eth at over 260W for each GPU.  I'm sure Vegas 10 will be using good amount of juice too.  I already have these Server PSU so I am enjoying the flexibility it's bringing me.  Also the fact that they are 2KW to 4KW and the PSU is difficulty to be pushed to the max load, you're getting much better efficiency then say an EVGA 1300 powering 6 or 7 GPU and is above it's 80% load. 

EVGA = Great resell value, better individual rig power on and off control. Outstanding support and RMA services.
Server PSU - Flexibilities are endless.  Exceptional value for 3 rigs plus or power hungry rigs.  Cheap to start and build up based on needs.  Cheap replacement parts.


I LOVE EFFICIENCY and COST SAVINGs.   That to me is SEXY.

[Pennywis3]

So the GPU's u are using are the MSI Gaming X series? Those are RX 480 8GB's?

[m1n1ngP4d4w4n]

Are you going to switch to 6x pin powered riser and some other adapters to get rid of the baby PSU ? or do you think you will still one for the motherboard/harddrive ?

No as I prefer to test for stability and understand all the caveats first.  Pico solution is better in some area and worst in some area so it's not a 1 solution fits all.  It just opens up many more creative rig options choices with the space saving as the IBM PSU are in 2KW pieces and there is separate 2KW board for a more compact solution to throw into server cases for example.  I could also use a single 2KW to power 1 power hungry  7 GPU Fury rig, not that even a EVGA 1600 can handle that on Eth.  Zec it can but not Eth at over 260W for each GPU.  I'm sure Vegas 10 will be using good amount of juice too.  I already have these Server PSU so I am enjoying the flexibility it's bringing me.  Also the fact that they are 2KW to 4KW and the PSU is difficulty to be pushed to the max load, you're getting much better efficiency then say an EVGA 1300 powering 6 or 7 GPU and is above it's 80% load.  

EVGA = Great resell value, better individual rig power on and off control. Outstanding support and RMA services.
Server PSU - Flexibilities are endless.  Exceptional value for 3 rigs plus or power hungry rigs.  Cheap to start and build up based on needs.  Cheap replacement parts.


I LOVE EFFICIENCY and COST SAVINGs.   That to me is SEXY.

Yeah i have to agree with that EVGA are good psu's, and i can understand your point of view on keeping some things separated, it's also probably more cost efficient on the long run

What are your take on using server PSU's against normal ones, in my day job i do alot of datacenter stuff, and im kinda afraid of using server PSU's because they're super noisy, how much noise they do the one you use ?

Sorry for noob question, but what is a PDU?

PDU = power distribution units

Basically a power bar with many electrical outlets, usually rackable, and some are monitored/metered or/and remote controlled (like APC rack pdu's)
'
example

[yun9999]

Sorry for noob question, but what is a PDU?

Also, could you explain why you choose to run AMD card rather than GTX 1070s? I will be buying soon and need to make a decision. As I see it, Eth will be switching to POS this year probably, so I think AMD cards will not be that useful then. I also feel that the increased cost of the GTX 1070 will be made up for when they are resold, and they will also have much more hash power when they are being used. However, Monero is becoming a popular coin that also excels on the AMD cards. I am truely torn. I guess I just need to figure out the best cards to buy TODAY.

PDU = Power Distribution Unit.  IN Layman's term - a High Powered power strips.

I've bought 14 x 1070 before from 3 different brands.  Great for gaming and efficiency, for mining I think their drivers still sucks for it.  I think that's why Claymore is so slow on the development front for Nvidia.  Crashes all the time and its' very challenging to fine the right settings that would work for all the cards.  All you hear on the forum is people bragging about how awesome they are and you end up buying it just to find out, they don't live up to the hype.  I bought them with the promised of 37MH for Eth.  Never happened.  Some lucky lottery winner guy prob have 1 GPU that have perfect RAM that can clock at that speed.  When you have 7  GPU in 1 rig, if all 7 are not created equal, they will crash.  It's too much work to tweak individually when you're running a large farm hence why I'm a 100% AMD place.  Sold all 1070.  Power saving wasn't all that great either but during that time Simplemining OS wasn't available, it could simply be a lot better in Linux.  For the cost to hash ratio, I still prefer AMD.  It will take a long time to ROI for the 1070 and as the best hashes for ZEC requires Nicehash which pays you much less than normal mining tools so really don't get paid for the full SOL hash rate.  I was so excited seeing a 1070 able to do over 420 SOLs just to find out Nicehash pays based on certain card type so the pay doesn't really match what whattomine.com shows will net you for those hash rates.  It's WAY lower.

Here's a picture of my 1070 rig which is on the black network rack.  




The white ones are the Asus tiny compared to the red MSI 1070 which looks identical to the AMD MSI 480. I dump them after a a few months due to the frustrations of lack of support via Forums.  I only see people bragging but no one was able to prove it or provide the proper guidance.  I was getting 30MH using 150W plus.  I can do that with my Reference 480 using 110W.  For $400 I can get double the hash at 220W.  Unless someone can prove me otherwise, I don't see any big advantage for the 1070 for the popular coins, ETH, ZEC, XMR.  It's hard to recommend any cards right now as new GPUs are about to come out and revenue for existing are dropping fast.  But I would think any 2 AMD cards will be better than 1 Nvidia card especially with the right ROM.  Ref 480 and RX470s are very easy for ROMs as you're just copying Mem strap down and there's hundreds of places and youtube video on that.  Non reference 480 is a bit more challenging when copying straps alone doesn't do the job well.  


On that Note ***********   Don't be shy folks.  Still need help with MSI RX480 ROM that is good for ETH for MSI RED 480 and Armor 480 4G ****************

[yun9999]

So the GPU's u are using are the MSI Gaming X series? Those are RX 480 8GB's?

MSI RX480 RED.  Yeah I think they are Gaming X. There is only 1 MSI RX480 that are RED.  The Armor are white.


@m1n1ngP4d4w4n  - The Power supply doesn't make any noise.  It's the cooling fans that do.  With the IBM 2880W, those are NASTY LOUD and takes some skillz to replace the fans.  The IBM 2KW doesn't come with any fan.  You buy the custom FAN mount from Finksy which is very good and dirt cheap.  They help combine 2 x 2kw IBM PSU.  The unit is very compact if you can size it up in my picture against a rig.  The breakout board have the built in 2 fan connectors.  If you look at my fan review, all 3 of those fans are plenty sufficient to keep the server PSU cool in normal environments.  Finksy's fan will be the loudest but also the most powerful.  The noise is not Antminer or 2880W or even Dell server annoying loud type, it's a nice Strong white noise LOUD.  I don't recommend running it inside your house but inside garage and hosting site, the box fans or exhaust will wash out the sound.  The other 2 fans are less noisy and a little less power.  Hawkfish and Finksy's fan are ball bearing, Scythe is not.  Scythe is also way more expensive so they're no longer my option as in the past they were the best option as they were way cheaper than Noctua which.  If noise is your biggest concern, get Hawkfish fan.  If max power and noise is less of a concern as you're hosting or running in garage, get Finksy fan.  If you work in the data center, you're probably hearing the annoying high RPM smaller fans. those are annoying sounds.  I have a 850W Dell server PSU and that is ridiculous loud vs the fans I'm using for the IBM 2kw.  Also the pitch of the sound is what makes something untolerable not just the loudness. 

[yslyung]

congrats to OP !! awesome build & much work done especially the PASSION.

I do build my own rigs & so called DIY DC as i'm also a DIY man.

Following your thread, much to learn. Sharing a rig that i built "lucky7" (same mobo), rig is sold to the highest bidder in my little telegram group. Will build couple more of them with improvements soon.

[yun9999]

Oh so sexy and so clean clean!!! Is this server PSU powered?  This is very pleasing to the eyes!  Yes feel free to share here as I support forum member's business and encourage others to do so.   Show more details on the connections please.   

[ATX_COIN]

  Wow, what an awesome project!
I have been considering building my first real farm but still don't have the business model worked out quite yet and I am new to farming so please bear with me if some of this sounds like common knowledge.
Just want to be sure of a few things before I throw 30k at a side project.
I am looking at starting with one 48U Rack, 6 rigs, built exactly as yours are, using the same M5 MOBO or the ASRock H81 Pro BTC R2.0. Still contemplating GPU's since prices are dropping and new product lines are about to release. We are going to be install solar panels on the property with Tesla powerwall(s) for backup.
1. What CPU did you use?
2. Heat sink?
3. What RAM and how many GB did you use? Are you able to utilize the RAM in any way?
4. Did you use m.2 SSD's or just standard SSD's?
5. Is there any performance decrease or increase in GPU Hash rate by using PCIex1 or PCI-EGen3?
6. How much power is each rig or the rack of 6 rigs pulling?
7. What is your average hash rate per rig for whatever you are mining? I would assume XMR/ETH?
8. How much data/bandwidth are you going through on average per month?
9. Is there anything you would have done differently in hindsight?

Any advice or tips from anyone would be greatly appreciated!

Your thread has been extremely helpful. Keep up the good work. I'll be sure to throw some BTC your way once we get going.

[citronick]

Once I had this issue and via troubleshooting, swapped to a Corsair PSU  BOOM, one of my RX470 exploded!!!!

by any chance this explosion sounded like a "loud cracking of the whip" ?

I got something like that awhile back.... but after inspection of all rigs... seems business as usually ... what could it be?

[bughatti]

@yun9999, great thread, been watching it for a couple of days.  I see you use the msi gaming 5 board z97, I use the same one.  I reached out to pinksy for the 4k psu and next week will work on putting in a 220 in my breaker box, im not as big as you yet.  The couple of questions I have is, what gpu do you suggest.  I read your post on the 1070s, I actually have a rig of 6 asus 1060 4gb.  I get about 1750 SOL/s with zec/zcl out of it with 650 power.  If I wanted to go the route of AMD's, what do you suggest that I could find around 200 used.  and did you have to do anything special to get 7 gpus working on the msi z97.  I tried 7 nvidia cards in windows 10 on mine and it was a no go due to resource constraints so I am guessing I will have to go with linux (what flavor) and amd cards to get 7 on this motherboard.

Thanks, and keep up the dedication cause it pushes alot of us to follow

[yun9999]

Once I had this issue and via troubleshooting, swapped to a Corsair PSU  BOOM, one of my RX470 exploded!!!!

by any chance this explosion sounded like a "loud cracking of the whip" ?

I got something like that awhile back.... but after inspection of all rigs... seems business as usually ... what could it be?

Similar to that........If it's still working then I'm not sure.  This is the sign of death for the 470s for me and my friends but it appears to be mostly affected in the first batches.  I have over 100 plus RX470s and the rest appears to be in better shape.  I even have Sapphire RX470 where they are stupid enough to put the serial number right on the protection tape where you are supposed to peel off.  So no more SN after that!  They fixed that issue fast.  My RX470 farm have been rock solid since and are on track to be profitable very soon since I start mining them since Sept at $165 each via Jet.com discount back when they first came out.

[yun9999]

Wow, what an awesome project!
I have been considering building my first real farm but still don't have the business model worked out quite yet and I am new to farming so please bear with me if some of this sounds like common knowledge.
Just want to be sure of a few things before I throw 30k at a side project.
I am looking at starting with one 48U Rack, 6 rigs, built exactly as yours are, using the same M5 MOBO or the ASRock H81 Pro BTC R2.0. Still contemplating GPU's since prices are dropping and new product lines are about to release. We are going to be install solar panels on the property with Tesla powerwall(s) for backup.
1. What CPU did you use?
The cheapest Intel Celeron 1820 or 1840 whichever is cheaper at the time I order

2. Heat sink?
Free and included with CPU

3. What RAM and how many GB did you use? Are you able to utilize the RAM in any way?
DDR 3 and 4GB Max.  Any DDR3 is fine.  Just make sure you change your Virtual memory to 16GB, it will just page whatever is over 4GB to SSD which is extremely fast so it's not like the old days where you're using spinning disk and RAM is much more important then.

4. Did you use m.2 SSD's or just standard SSD's?
Standard SSD for Windows and 16GB USB 3.0 Flash drive for Simplemining.  I get 16GB as 8GB was the same price.  =)

5. Is there any performance decrease or increase in GPU Hash rate by using PCIex1 or PCI-EGen3?
No difference.  Set it either to Auto or Gen1.  I find compatibility issues with Gen3.  Some people recommend Gen 2 but I didn't get as much love with Gen 2.  Also whenever you disconnect any PCIe connection, the BIOS may reset back to Auto and you may have to go back in to change that.

6. How much power is each rig or the rack of 6 rigs pulling?
Depends on your GPUs

7. What is your average hash rate per rig for whatever you are mining? I would assume XMR/ETH?
This is too much data to put here as it all depends on too many variables.  GPU types, ROM people use, etc etc.  I have too many types to list them here now.  This info is readily available on Ethereum forum with specific threads for hash rates.

8. How much data/bandwidth are you going through on average per month?
Mining doesn't use much bandwidth, definitely less than 1 HD movie my kids watch via Netflix a month.

9. Is there anything you would have done differently in hindsight?
SO SO SO MANY............Everything I do is trial by error as there's no such thing as experts in this field as what you know now will change 6-18 months from now.  What people think will work for you may not as every situation is different and we have to consider the different variables unless it's an exact same configuration or design.  What I mean by that is someone who have a similar layout as my shed but he uses over 34 box fans and going on to 40 plus 2 x 7200 CFM Giant fans to cool his setup.  Mine won't require even 1/4 of that as the rack layout, flow and designs are different even though the mining room shape is the same.  He definitely scared me so I started off over engineering and tested with 2 x48" 17K CFM Fans, as you can never have too much?  No you definitely can have too much.   Plus it's so loud!!!But he did have great recommendation on the exhaust muffler designs so it's best to be open minded and hear everyone's recommendation and see what makes sense for you.   

What you can't see in my mining history is that I went thru many, many different iteration of designs and rework to get to where I want to go.  Lots of expensive mistakes made, lots of personal sacrifices and it wasn't always this pretty.  It's important to have the End Design in mind but not necessary start building that from the beginning as the budget and time may not work out from the start.  Start small, invest in quality products even if that means buying used as GPU and GPU related product have exceptional great warranties and RMA support unlike Bitcoin mining junks.  This is a game of mathematics, the low cost guy will always outlast the high cost guy and win in the end as difficulty will drop when others can't afford to stay in the game.   Only invest with what you're ok with losing and don't think that if a coin is hot, it will always be.  Any coin can go to zero value.  Reinvest some of the coin, spread the eggs across different basket (wallets, coin types, etc). 

Any advice or tips from anyone would be greatly appreciated!
My biggest advice is DO IT FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME, not the money.  Then you will always win regardless.  If you're passionate about what you're doing, YOU WILL find a way to WIN.

Your thread has been extremely helpful. Keep up the good work. I'll be sure to throw some BTC your way once we get going.
Not necessary as I want to foster a community where we can help each other without expecting something in return for advice and tips.  The best way to thank me or anyone that helps us is by supporting the small Forum vendors who work really really hard for tiny profits just to get us quality stuff rather than for us to pay and learn the hard way.  They work hard on their normal day job and make tiny profits on this side business but the succesful ones are the ones that do it for the LOVE of the GAME.  They will always bend over backward to support you.

See comments above.

[DebitMe]

Where do you generally buy your equipment from?

[yun9999]

@yun9999, great thread, been watching it for a couple of days.  I see you use the msi gaming 5 board z97, I use the same one.  I reached out to pinksy for the 4k psu and next week will work on putting in a 220 in my breaker box, im not as big as you yet.  The couple of questions I have is, what gpu do you suggest.  I read your post on the 1070s, I actually have a rig of 6 asus 1060 4gb.  I get about 1750 SOL/s with zec/zcl out of it with 650 power.  If I wanted to go the route of AMD's, what do you suggest that I could find around 200 used.  and did you have to do anything special to get 7 gpus working on the msi z97.  I tried 7 nvidia cards in windows 10 on mine and it was a no go due to resource constraints so I am guessing I will have to go with linux (what flavor) and amd cards to get 7 on this motherboard.

Thanks, and keep up the dedication cause it pushes alot of us to follow

I had a bad experience with NVIDIA 1070 due to high expectaction and getting poor results so my opinion is very Biased.  I sold the 1070 before ZEC was out so I don't have much experience with that but with Eth it was horrible and so painful to get even 6 cards working.  When I finally got it working, I tried not to look at the rig because if I do, it may Artifacts and crash.  =) On top of this, every time I see a Nvidia FAN brag about how much faster and efficient it is, I asked them nicely how they get it and never really get a good response so I don't think they even got those results but probably relay what they've heard instead.   I bought those cards based on the rumors but when it comes to the test and Killawatt results = Not so impressive.  It took me a while just to get them stable.  I dont have as much cycles now as I did back then so there's no way I'm going to be chasing the "promised" land anymore.  

To be scale big and be successful, it's best to settle on a solution that works, have great community support when you need it, rather than the "chance" or the hope it works solution.  This is another reason why I didn't jump into Linux before even though it was slightly faster.  The driver update and support was much more limited and slow.  This all changed with Simplemining OS.  He made it super simple, even a Monkey can Mine and the support is FANTASTIC.  The OS developer's nick is Tytanik and using his usual tone of voice "MEABY.........NVIDIA is better with Linux".  That I don't know.  The Meaby part is only funny if you follow his thread and understands how he talks.  He's a funny cat and super awesome guy.    No NVIDIA for me for a long time until someone can SHOW ME THE MONEY...............$$$$$$$

It's hard to recommend a card now due to same hash rate but much higher difficulties.  I still see good values in the RX480 as you can get them cheaper than $180 via Purse.io.  They can be fine tune to handle most coins and depending on the ROM, the wattage can be as low as 98W and as high as 180W.  It's all about good ROMs for the 480 since a ROM designed for ZEC will do horrible on Eth and vice versa.   I had some OK roms but it's been a while I've done ETH so I'm forgetful on how I got the better than normal hash.  On top of that if you have 1 card with less than ideal RAM in the rig, it will crash.  I'm impress with your hash rate for the 1060.  They are relatively cheap so getting 290 Sol / card is impressive.  IS this with claymore or Optiminer?


P.S It's Finsy not Pinksy.  You might get different products if you look for Pinksy.  =)  Tell him Nhan Do sent ya.  He'll hook it up, great guy.  Everyone on the Forum knows Finksy.  If you need risers, including the 6 pin PCI version, hit Hawkfish007 up.  They operate on razor thin profit margins as they're doing it for the LOVE of the GAME and to help our mining community.  Compare their prices to the market and you will see.  You get quality stuff and much better support than Crappy Ebay vendors, etc.  Best to support guys like these.

[yun9999]

Where do you generally buy your equipment from?

Depends on what place give me the best price.  Jet.com, Newegg.com, Ebay, Amazon thru Purse.io, etc.  I also try to purchase from forum members whenever possible, Finksy, HolyScott, Hawkfish007, Sidehacks, Spotswood, etc.  For used stuff, forum members have also been really really good to me.  I buy stuff in bulk at ridiculous buddy prices.

[Zimmsquad]

Where do you generally buy your equipment from?

Depends on what place give me the best price.  Jet.com, Newegg.com, Ebay, Amazon thru Purse.io, etc.  I also try to purchase from forum members whenever possible, Finksy, HolyScott, Hawkfish007, Sidehacks, etc.  For used stuff, forum members have also been really really good to me.  I buy stuff in bulk at ridiculous buddy prices.

I just found out about purse.io today. What discount percentage can you recommend and/or could you explain anything else that I may need to know about the site?

[yun9999]

Where do you generally buy your equipment from?

Depends on what place give me the best price.  Jet.com, Newegg.com, Ebay, Amazon thru Purse.io, etc.  I also try to purchase from forum members whenever possible, Finksy, HolyScott, Hawkfish007, Sidehacks, etc.  For used stuff, forum members have also been really really good to me.  I buy stuff in bulk at ridiculous buddy prices.

I just found out about purse.io today. What discount percentage can you recommend and/or could you explain anything else that I may need to know about the site?

Depends on market conditions.  It's all trial and error but 15% is the minimum discounts you can get easily.  Try higher if you're not in the rush up to 23%.  There are many scammers so be aware but Purse does help fix those issue for you so it's ok.  Never order more than 2 GPU per order and you'll be fine. 

[Zimmsquad]

Yeah I noticed when I go from 23% discount to 24% it drops from 85% success to 50% so I'm assuming 23% may be the safest to do for reasonable speed.

Do you know what it means by "success"? Like is there a chance I just lose my money?