My journey to a 2-story man mining house...a work in progress!

[BeerMan81]

Yun9999's Man mining cave has totally inspired me!
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1761303.msg17588677#msg17588677
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1806061.msg17990500#msg17990500

Rig Porn inspiration
https://forum.ethereum.org/discussion/5594/rig-porn-post-your-pics

I originally posted this in Yun9999's thread, but i dont want to hijack his thread with my stuff.

 After some research, I have officially dived in!   The parts were ordered today! 9 cards and 2 Power Supplies. I split the cost 50/50 with the old man who lives in my spare bedroom.

After much planning last weekend, I decided to use my main daily driver, my dad's daily driver, and 2 spare PCs that we have and are not currently being used. So, after doing a lot of power calculations and planning. We have a planned phased approach.

Phase 1 - install graphics cards in existing PCs without any need for risers,  
My daily driver (PC 1) - install 2 MSI Armor OC RX 480s
My dad's daily driver (PC 2) - install 2 MSI Armor OC RX 480s
Spare Dell T3500 (PC 3) - install a higher wattage PS and install 2 MSI Armor OC RX 580s
Spare Custom PC (PC 4) - install a higher wattage PS and install 3 MSI Armor OC RX 580s

Phase 2 - convert Spare PCs to risers (9 risers, and 4 more cards), build wooden riser cases
Spare Dell T3500 (PC 3) - install 4 risers and add 2 more cards
Spare Custom PC (PC 4) - install 5 risers and add 2 more cards

Phase 3 - install additional cards and risers to max out the remaining daily driver PCs (10 risers, 6 more cards and 1 more PS)
My daily driver (PC 1) - install 5 risers and add 3 more cards
My dad's daily driver (PC 2) - install a higher wattage PS, install 5 risers, and add 3 more cards

So, by utilizing as much existing hardware, I should be able to get 9 cards up and running quickly while lowering our initial cost and risk! In a couple months, we will be doubling our hashing power with only a minimal incremental investments at each phase. Conservatively, 19 cards should net about 500 MH/s.

Also, the thought is to learn a bit on the way. Each phase has goals to meet. Not only to begin hashing, but to also test. Test capabilities of the 480s/580s, tweak and tune the cards, ROMs, etc. And then, learn the tricks of the riser setup. After that, we should be good to build a some more dedicated riser rigs from ground up.

Please, if you have some thoughts, or advice, I would love to hear from you. Most importantly, what do your wives think?

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[BeerMan81]

The first batch of parts  


I had my last final for the spring semester, so it was time to build. PC4 is mining with one card. In the next couple days, I'll upgrade the power supply and add 2 more GPUs.


This is my gaming PC. But, in reality it has just become my Plex Media Server with 11tb Raid 5 array. Until 2 days ago, it had a GTX 980ti in there. As you guys know, it is terrible for mining. Now, two cards are hashing away!


My old man has this brand new 5 year old Dell T3500 computer that was going to be thrown away. He saved it about 2 years ago, and today we have given it a new purpose in life. PS upgraded and 1 card installed.


Day one is complete, i was lucky enough to be able to work at home today due to a early morning tech support call! A blessing in disguise actually. Allowed me to dedicate a lot of time to testing, tuning, learning. I should mention how mad the wife was when she couldn't watch her shows because the Plex media server kept crashing (bad tunes). Here are the results:





Here is the link to the imgur album: http://imgur.com/a/hjiQi I am a newb here, so embedded pics are disabled

[spyshagg]

hi

where can I download that claymore manager v2.9 ?

[BeerMan81]

hi

where can I download that claymore manager v2.9 ?

I comes bundled with Claymore's Miner. Easy to set up too.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1433925.msg14501372#msg14501372

[spyshagg]

hi

where can I download that claymore manager v2.9 ?

I comes bundled with Claymore's Miner. Easy to set up too.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1433925.msg14501372#msg14501372

Thanks  

best of luck for your project

[eth4lyfe]

The first batch of parts  
http://imgur.com/JFzSPRv.jpg

I had my last final for the spring semester, so it was time to build. PC4 is mining with one card. In the next couple days, I'll upgrade the power supply and add 2 more GPUs.
http://imgur.com/kOgRgBL.jpg

This is my gaming PC. But, in really it has just become my Plex Media Server with 11tb Raid 5 array. Until 2 days ago, it had a GTX 980ti in there. As you guys know, it is terrible for mining. Now, two cards are hashing away!
http://imgur.com/a/hjiQi.jpg

My old man has this brand new 5 year old Dell T3500 computer that was going to be thrown away. He saved it about 2 years ago, and today we have given it a new purpose in life. PS upgraded and 1 card installed.
http://imgur.com/B0sgerY.jpg

Day one is complete, i was javascript:void(0);able to work at home today due to a early morning tech support call! A blessing in disguise actually. Allowed me to dedicate a lot of time to testing, tuning, learning. I should mention how mad the wife was when she couldn't watch her shows because the Plex media server kept crashing (bad tunes). Here are the results:

http://imgur.com/sOEoxYf.jpg
http://imgur.com/6MIZu9w.jpg

Use a raspberry pi with Kodi! Don't waste a PC just to watch movies

[spyshagg]

The first batch of parts  


I had my last final for the spring semester, so it was time to build. PC4 is mining with one card. In the next couple days, I'll upgrade the power supply and add 2 more GPUs.


This is my gaming PC. But, in really it has just become my Plex Media Server with 11tb Raid 5 array. Until 2 days ago, it had a GTX 980ti in there. As you guys know, it is terrible for mining. Now, two cards are hashing away!


My old man has this brand new 5 year old Dell T3500 computer that was going to be thrown away. He saved it about 2 years ago, and today we have given it a new purpose in life. PS upgraded and 1 card installed.


Day one is complete, i was javascript:void(0);able to work at home today due to a early morning tech support call! A blessing in disguise actually. Allowed me to dedicate a lot of time to testing, tuning, learning. I should mention how mad the wife was when she couldn't watch her shows because the Plex media server kept crashing (bad tunes). Here are the results:

Use a raspberry pi with Kodi! Don't waste a PC just to watch movies

Can it handle tos-link (DTS DD) and x265?

[antantti]

Until 2 days ago, it had a GTX 980ti in there. As you guys know, it is terrible for mining.

It never shined on eth but it is still very profitable on equihash and some other algos.

[BeerMan81]

Until 2 days ago, it had a GTX 980ti in there. As you guys know, it is terrible for mining.

It never shined on eth but it is still very profitable on equihash and some other algos.

No worries, ill just put it on eBay.

[BeerMan81]

The first batch of parts  


I had my last final for the spring semester, so it was time to build. PC4 is mining with one card. In the next couple days, I'll upgrade the power supply and add 2 more GPUs.


This is my gaming PC. But, in really it has just become my Plex Media Server with 11tb Raid 5 array. Until 2 days ago, it had a GTX 980ti in there. As you guys know, it is terrible for mining. Now, two cards are hashing away!


My old man has this brand new 5 year old Dell T3500 computer that was going to be thrown away. He saved it about 2 years ago, and today we have given it a new purpose in life. PS upgraded and 1 card installed.


Day one is complete, i was javascript:void(0);able to work at home today due to a early morning tech support call! A blessing in disguise actually. Allowed me to dedicate a lot of time to testing, tuning, learning. I should mention how mad the wife was when she couldn't watch her shows because the Plex media server kept crashing (bad tunes). Here are the results:

Use a raspberry pi with Kodi! Don't waste a PC just to watch movies

What do i need that for? PC is already built. Only 3TB left on that array.

[BeerMan81]

Weekend update:

Home office upstairs was getting hot because of the 3 cards running my main PC and the low air flow from the overhead vent. I mustered up the courage to go in the attic and found some restricted air ducts. Fixed that! Oh, the the relief! Right away I could feel a HUGE increase in cooling from the AC vent! I think at it highest it was 86 F in that room. . We also added a second fan to the room (Push-pull), and that really helped! A few hours later we were looking at 79F in the office and 76F upstairs. A 3-degree delta! Progress! Downstairs, an icebox, like 72F or something! I will need to spread the rigs around the house soon.

Everything was good until Sunday afternoon.

PC 1/3/4 running through the night with no issues (3/2/2 Cards) mining around 160-165MH/s. I was thinking "Everything is great, what next?" 2 things to do today. Add the last 2 cards to the old man's PC and determine what parts we need to buy at home depot for open air frames. We have a bit of thermal throttling 2 of the PCs , so we need to move some cards out of the PC cases and put them in open air frames. After I was reviewing some plans for open air wooden frames on the net we settled on this one: https://youtu.be/Cscm8blV40c This seems doable!

But then, we realized it was no longer an ice box downstairs, it was getting hot! Oh shit! No cold air coming from the vents What happened?!? Checked the nest...80F...What? It's set to cool...cycled the breaker, turned the AC off for a bit...nothing. Meanwhile, 85F upstairs and 90F in the office AC fan wont kick on outside    Family: Open all the doors and windows! Should i stop mining? AC is dead! Will the PCs overheat? Fuck it...we will mine! GPUs will throttle if needed... Down to 150MH/s    Fans are exhausting out the upstairs window.

Made a service ticket with the home warranty company. $75 service fee. "We've received your request for service and assigned the job to XXX company. They will reach out to schedule your appointment in the next 24 business hours. Nooooo! Meanwhile, it peaks at 87F in the house. OMG, called the AC company...No answer...They are closed. Oh well...what can we do?...Let's go shopping at Home Depot! Enjoyed their kick-ass AC while we found the frame parts, while the wife and kid suffer in the heat on Mothers' Day...Picked up some smoothies on the way home!

Here is what the office looks like. Only took one pic in the chaos.

[eth4lyfe]

Weekend update:

Home office upstairs was getting hot because of the 3 cards running my main PC and the low air flow from the overhead vent. I mustered up the courage to go in the attic and found some restricted air ducts. Fixed that! Oh, the the relief! Right away I could feel a HUGE increase in cooling from the AC vent! I think at it highest it was 86 F in that room. . We also added a second fan to the room (Push-pull), and that really helped! A few hours later we were looking at 79F in the office and 76F upstairs. A 3-degree delta! Progress! Downstairs, an icebox, like 72F or something! I will need to spread the rigs around the house soon.

Everything was good until Sunday afternoon.

PC 1/3/4 running through the night with no issues (3/2/2 Cards) mining around 160-165MH/s. I was thinking "Everything is great, what next?" 2 things to do today. Add the last 2 cards to the old man's PC and determine what parts we need to buy at home depot for open air frames. We have a bit of thermal throttling 2 of the PCs , so we need to move some cards out of the PC cases and put them in open air frames. After I was reviewing some plans for open air wooden frames on the net we settled on this one: https://youtu.be/Cscm8blV40c This seems doable!

But then, we realized it was no longer an ice box downstairs, it was getting hot! Oh shit! No cold air coming from the vents What happened?!? Checked the nest...80F...What? It's set to cool...cycled the breaker, turned the AC off for a bit...nothing. Meanwhile, 85F upstairs and 90F in the office AC fan wont kick on outside    Family: Open all the doors and windows! Should i stop mining? AC is dead! Will the PCs overheat? Fuck it...we will mine! GPUs will throttle if needed... Down to 150MH/s    Fans are exhausting out the upstairs window.

Made a service ticket with the home warranty company. $75 service fee. "We've received your request for service and assigned the job to XXX company. They will reach out to schedule your appointment in the next 24 business hours. Nooooo! Meanwhile, it peaks at 87F in the house. OMG, called the AC company...No answer...They are closed. Oh well...what can we do?...Let's go shopping at Home Depot! Enjoyed their kick-ass AC while we found the frame parts, while the wife and kid suffer in the heat on Mothers' Day...Picked up some smoothies on the way home!

Here is what the office looks like. Only took one pic in the chaos.

https://i.imgur.com/4I8GYol.jpg

IMO you're wasting air on that window (and probably have bugs flying in?), you should cut a large box and tape it to the wall above the fan so that there isn't any wasted air.

[BeerMan81]

IMO you're wasting air on that window (and probably have bugs flying in?), you should cut a large box and tape it to the wall above the fan so that there isn't any wasted air.

Wasting air, how do you mean? The AC is broke right now...waiting on the AC guy to come!

86F in the house and rising

[Prelude]

I like your ambition, but you're going about it wrong. MSI makes fantastic cards, but the Armor cards are the exception. They have TERRIBLE coolers, you really shouldn't have more than 1 in a regular PC case. They'll suffocate each other.

I'd say stop wasting your time (though you are learning, so can't really be considered a waste) and get on that wooden frame. Build 2 of them. Your method is very inefficient. Get yourself 2 motherboards with 6 or 7 PCI-e slots (and accoutrements), make sure your frame is wide enough to leave 3" of clearance between each card so they can breath, and get all of your cards on them. Your 1200w PSUs can easily handle 7x RX GPUs if they have enough connectors. If you're going big, get yourself set up with 240v. 120v is not adequate for mining.

Have fun!

[Marvell1]

Weekend update:

Home office upstairs was getting hot because of the 3 cards running my main PC and the low air flow from the overhead vent. I mustered up the courage to go in the attic and found some restricted air ducts. Fixed that! Oh, the the relief! Right away I could feel a HUGE increase in cooling from the AC vent! I think at it highest it was 86 F in that room. . We also added a second fan to the room (Push-pull), and that really helped! A few hours later we were looking at 79F in the office and 76F upstairs. A 3-degree delta! Progress! Downstairs, an icebox, like 72F or something! I will need to spread the rigs around the house soon.

Everything was good until Sunday afternoon.

PC 1/3/4 running through the night with no issues (3/2/2 Cards) mining around 160-165MH/s. I was thinking "Everything is great, what next?" 2 things to do today. Add the last 2 cards to the old man's PC and determine what parts we need to buy at home depot for open air frames. We have a bit of thermal throttling 2 of the PCs , so we need to move some cards out of the PC cases and put them in open air frames. After I was reviewing some plans for open air wooden frames on the net we settled on this one: https://youtu.be/Cscm8blV40c This seems doable!

But then, we realized it was no longer an ice box downstairs, it was getting hot! Oh shit! No cold air coming from the vents What happened?!? Checked the nest...80F...What? It's set to cool...cycled the breaker, turned the AC off for a bit...nothing. Meanwhile, 85F upstairs and 90F in the office AC fan wont kick on outside    Family: Open all the doors and windows! Should i stop mining? AC is dead! Will the PCs overheat? Fuck it...we will mine! GPUs will throttle if needed... Down to 150MH/s    Fans are exhausting out the upstairs window.

Made a service ticket with the home warranty company. $75 service fee. "We've received your request for service and assigned the job to XXX company. They will reach out to schedule your appointment in the next 24 business hours. Nooooo! Meanwhile, it peaks at 87F in the house. OMG, called the AC company...No answer...They are closed. Oh well...what can we do?...Let's go shopping at Home Depot! Enjoyed their kick-ass AC while we found the frame parts, while the wife and kid suffer in the heat on Mothers' Day...Picked up some smoothies on the way home!

Here is what the office looks like. Only took one pic in the chaos.

Using AC to cool a mining farm is a losing propostion , install maybe a whole house attic fan or 2 to remove some of the hot air

[omonuyak]

Weekend update:

Home office upstairs was getting hot because of the 3 cards running my main PC and the low air flow from the overhead vent. I mustered up the courage to go in the attic and found some restricted air ducts. Fixed that! Oh, the the relief! Right away I could feel a HUGE increase in cooling from the AC vent! I think at it highest it was 86 F in that room. . We also added a second fan to the room (Push-pull), and that really helped! A few hours later we were looking at 79F in the office and 76F upstairs. A 3-degree delta! Progress! Downstairs, an icebox, like 72F or something! I will need to spread the rigs around the house soon.

Everything was good until Sunday afternoon.

PC 1/3/4 running through the night with no issues (3/2/2 Cards) mining around 160-165MH/s. I was thinking "Everything is great, what next?" 2 things to do today. Add the last 2 cards to the old man's PC and determine what parts we need to buy at home depot for open air frames. We have a bit of thermal throttling 2 of the PCs , so we need to move some cards out of the PC cases and put them in open air frames. After I was reviewing some plans for open air wooden frames on the net we settled on this one: https://youtu.be/Cscm8blV40c This seems doable!

But then, we realized it was no longer an ice box downstairs, it was getting hot! Oh shit! No cold air coming from the vents What happened?!? Checked the nest...80F...What? It's set to cool...cycled the breaker, turned the AC off for a bit...nothing. Meanwhile, 85F upstairs and 90F in the office AC fan wont kick on outside  >  Family: Open all the doors and windows! Should i stop mining? AC is dead! Will the PCs overheat? Fuck it...we will mine! GPUs will throttle if needed... Down to 150MH/s    Fans are exhausting out the upstairs window.

Made a service ticket with the home warranty company. $75 service fee. "We've received your request for service and assigned the job to XXX company. They will reach out to schedule your appointment in the next 24 business hours. Nooooo! Meanwhile, it peaks at 87F in the house. OMG, called the AC company...No answer...They are closed. Oh well...what can we do?...Let's go shopping at Home Depot! Enjoyed their kick-ass AC while we found the frame parts, while the wife and kid suffer in the heat on Mothers' Day...Picked up some smoothies on the way home!

Here is what the office looks like. Only took one pic in the chaos.

Using AC to cool a mining farm is a losing propostion , install maybe a whole house attic fan or 2 to remove some of the hot air

The major problems is the cost of electricity. Using air conditioner as a mode of coolerAa for your mining tools may end you lose in the long run.  But if you have large capital to invest in solar energy then this is a fantastic plan and mining farm

[Farstdury]

I like your ambition, but you're going about it wrong. MSI makes fantastic cards, but the Armor cards are the exception. They have TERRIBLE coolers, you really shouldn't have more than 1 in a regular PC case. They'll suffocate each other.

I'd say stop wasting your time (though you are learning, so can't really be considered a waste) and get on that wooden frame. Build 2 of them. Your method is very inefficient. Get yourself 2 motherboards with 6 or 7 PCI-e slots (and accoutrements), make sure your frame is wide enough to leave 3" of clearance between each card so they can breath, and get all of your cards on them. Your 1200w PSUs can easily handle 7x RX GPUs if they have enough connectors. If you're going big, get yourself set up with 240v. 120v is not adequate for mining.

Have fun!

His way of doing that is a learning process.

[BeerMan81]

I like your ambition, but you're going about it wrong. MSI makes fantastic cards, but the Armor cards are the exception. They have TERRIBLE coolers, you really shouldn't have more than 1 in a regular PC case. They'll suffocate each other.

I'd say stop wasting your time (though you are learning, so can't really be considered a waste) and get on that wooden frame. Build 2 of them. Your method is very inefficient. Get yourself 2 motherboards with 6 or 7 PCI-e slots (and accoutrements), make sure your frame is wide enough to leave 3" of clearance between each card so they can breath, and get all of your cards on them. Your 1200w PSUs can easily handle 7x RX GPUs if they have enough connectors. If you're going big, get yourself set up with 240v. 120v is not adequate for mining.

Have fun!

His way of doing that is a learning process.

Yes, learning a lot for sure. AC is working now...the guy came out today to replace a blown capacitor. What a relief! It is a huge unit so, cooling is not an issue at this time. I am aware of the efficiency loss, so optimizing is on the horizon! But, one thing at a time! Thank you for the comments.

The Armor OCs are doing well (what would you suggest instead?) in the machine that has a space in between. Card/empty slot/card and no throttling. Running 2x 580s @ 49-50 MH/s, about 60C, no vBios modding, only tuning with Afterburner. My original idea was to worry about risers later, but that is part of the learning process as you say. I did not realize how much heat these things put out (OMG, the heat!). So, conversions to open-air rigs with risers are on the to-do list for this week.

I have 2 different batches of risers (6+6) coming this week. I also ordered 7 more cards and all the parts for a 7 GPU rig. So, after i get the dedicated rig running, I will be relocating the "inefficient PCs" to a 5 slot open-air frames to maximize the GPU density a per-rig basis. The desktop PCs that we have on hand can only handle 5/5/5/4 cards. So, after I get enough mining profits, reinvestment in additional cards will happen and subsequently the conversions will occur.

More updates soon!

[BeerMan81]

Conversion to risers has begun! 12 Risers came in the mail, and some more cards.

The MB in my media server is an MSI X99 Gaming 7 https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/X99A-GAMING-7.html. It has already has 6 PCIE slots! My plan was to leave one GPU in the case and have 4 cards outside the case connected via risers. But for some reason, I couldn't get get the MB to see the 5th card Do all the cards need to be connected via risers to see more than 4 cards? Is it the order that they are in?? Very strange. Also, i am at capacity of my UPS...Could this have something to do with it?

Slot 0 GPU
Slot 1 empty (cant get to it)
Slot 2 GPU
Slot 3 GPU
Slot 4 GPU
Slot 5 MB wont detect



Thoughts?

[miner417]

Conversion to risers has begun! 12 Risers came in the mail, and some more cards.

The MB in my media server is an MSI X99 Gaming 7 https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/X99A-GAMING-7.html. It has already has 6 PCIE slots! My plan was to leave one GPU in the case and have 4 cards outside the case connected via risers. But for some reason, I couldn't get get the MB to see the 5th card Do all the cards need to be connected via risers to see more than 4 cards? Is it the order that they are in?? Very strange. Also, i am at capacity of my UPS...Could this have something to do with it?

Slot 0 GPU
Slot 1 empty (cant get to it)
Slot 2 GPU
Slot 3 GPU
Slot 4 GPU
Slot 5 MB wont detect



Thoughts?

A lot of motherboards with enough PCIE slots still can't do that many cards. You should check in the bios for PCI speed setting and if there's an option for Above 4g decoding. Mess around with those, but if it doesn't work, then most likely the mobo doesn't support it.