Chance of computer catching fire from mining?

[elektra]

I am completely new to mining and I have been thinking of letting my GTX 980 ti do some work in mining while I am not at home or sleeping. I did download the NiceHash program and let it do a bit of mining and I was thinking of letting it be on over night but I got a bit concerned. What are the chances of a computer catching fire from mining like this on high intensity for hours on end? I guess it is very low probability, but there must have happened sometimes? It does feel a bit uneasy to leave the computer running like this over night or when not at home.. But maybe it is completely safe?

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[MATHReX]

Depends on many factors mate, like the temperature of GPU, your whole cabinet, ambient temperature. I don't think this should pose much of a problem unless the temperature is in range. You can always desktop monitor your computer from home via Teamviewer to check on temps and shut it down remotely if you feel sceptical about it.

[adaseb]

Since you actually have it inside an actual PCIe slot and inside an actual computer case, then chances are very rare of it catching fire.

Fire usually happens when people have like a 6 GPU mining rig with risers melting and mounted on a wood rig.

[elektra]

Since you actually have it inside an actual PCIe slot and inside an actual computer case, then chances are very rare of it catching fire.

Fire usually happens when people have like a 6 GPU mining rig with risers melting and mounted on a wood rig.

Is there some temp limit that it needs to get up over to catch fire? If I am under 100 C should it be ok? I have Afterburner so I am thinking maybe I should make a special profile that only allows it to go up to a certain temperature? You can also specify power there so maybe you can put down the power a bit to mine safely at a little lower intensity? Maybe you could also set fans to max? Or is there something negative with fans on max apart from higher noise?

So far I have not seen my temp in afterburner go over 75 when mining.

[eth4lyfe]

Pro tips:
Don't mine on carpet
Don't use extension cords that are rated below the amperage you require
Ensure there's proper airflow
Don't let your cards exceed 75*C
Never use more than 80% of the circuits maximum load

[eth4lyfe]

Since you actually have it inside an actual PCIe slot and inside an actual computer case, then chances are very rare of it catching fire.

Fire usually happens when people have like a 6 GPU mining rig with risers melting and mounted on a wood rig.

Is there some temp limit that it needs to get up over to catch fire? If I am under 100 C should it be ok? I have Afterburner so I am thinking maybe I should make a special profile that only allows it to go up to a certain temperature? You can also specify power there so maybe you can put down the power a bit to mine safely at a little lower intensity? Maybe you could also set fans to max? Or is there something negative with fans on max apart from higher noise?

So far I have not seen my temp in afterburner go over 75 when mining.

"If I am under 100 C should it be ok?"
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

Once you get close to 90C you're going to start melting shit. My cards are all running at or below 60C, that's colder than most, but I never let it exceed 70C.

[leowonderful]

Bare floor or aboveground metal racks. Never put miners on carpeted floors. Wooden frames work well but metal ones are better. I've helped several people build wooden rigs and not one of em has caught fire. Just gotta use the right precautions. Don't use noname PSUs, server ones with bbs works well. LEPA PSUs are horrible and should never be bought.

[whitrzac]

Its actually quite probable. Space heaters and Christmas trees start fires all the time.

[philipma1957]

75c is a good safe temp  for the max setting of your gpu's

[h311m4n]

Its actually quite probable. Space heaters and Christmas trees start fires all the time.

Actually, it isn't that probable. It's only probable if you do things like an idiot...:-)

Card temps are mildly important. What matters is using the correct hardware and doing things correctly.

-Do not use molex > sata adapters but instead, plug in the PSUs given molex cables.

-Put your mining operation on separate jumpers with electrical wire that is rated for high amps.

-Avoid carpets and rooms with no ventilation.

-Undervolt/underclock your cards so they heat up less.

-Use some industrial fans for airflow

-Avoid rooms with water proximity or very humid places

The list can go on but it's pretty much common sense things!

[RentGPU]

The most important tip ever: don't mine with a closed air machine bigger chance of overheating.

[Juggar]

Its actually quite probable. Space heaters and Christmas trees start fires all the time.

What the hell does a space heater that uses electrical resistance to glow an element RED HOT have to do with a mining rig that might, on a bad day reach 90C?

Christmas trees light up if they dry out fully and get heated to the point of combustion, a total non issue with LED christmas lights, by the way.

Be smart, use metal racks, and I think this is paramount, USE HIGH QUALITY PSU's with SUFFICIENT gauge wire for the power you need! The goes double for risers.

Monitor the power draw at the wall and be sure to stay under your circuits rated capacity.

[elektra]

Since you actually have it inside an actual PCIe slot and inside an actual computer case, then chances are very rare of it catching fire.

Fire usually happens when people have like a 6 GPU mining rig with risers melting and mounted on a wood rig.

Is there some temp limit that it needs to get up over to catch fire? If I am under 100 C should it be ok? I have Afterburner so I am thinking maybe I should make a special profile that only allows it to go up to a certain temperature? You can also specify power there so maybe you can put down the power a bit to mine safely at a little lower intensity? Maybe you could also set fans to max? Or is there something negative with fans on max apart from higher noise?

So far I have not seen my temp in afterburner go over 75 when mining.

"If I am under 100 C should it be ok?"
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

Once you get close to 90C you're going to start melting shit. My cards are all running at or below 60C, that's colder than most, but I never let it exceed 70C.

I rather be safe than sorry, so 70C sounds like a low safe limit? My default setting in Afterburner is 83C as temp limit.
I tried to drag it down to 70C instead, but that automatically also drags down the Power Limit to 76 (is 100 by default), is this ok?
What happens btw if you have set the limit to 70C? Does that mean it will freeze the computer if it reach 70C?

Btw, I use NiceHash to gpu mine, should I redo benchmarks or something if I do this, since the card is slower now with less power? Or does that not matter?

[smaxz]

JUST BUY THE COIN

[m0bilitee]

Well that got out of control quickly.  Har har har.

[elektra]

How about CPU mining also? Is there change of overheating on CPU mining?

I use Minergate for CPU mining and currently I use intensity level 11/12 which puts my cpu working at 100%, is there any danger to this?

[elektra]

How about CPU mining also? Is there change of overheating on CPU mining?

I use Minergate for CPU mining and currently I use intensity level 11/12 which puts my cpu working at 100%, is there any danger to this?

Do yourself a favor and research MSI's afterburner graphs to understand what your temps are really. Most of the time what the 100% power limit is talking about is the Power Target, the Temp Target shouldn't be higher than 84c, moving it down will actually undervolt the card, you should aim to keep the cards below 65c, if they go above you might be losing some hashrate(Depends on the cards, but I've had it confirmed for my cards).

Also do yourself a favor, stay away from CPU mining in general, its not as profitable as it was back in the day. Now adays its literally horrible! Also stay away from MinerGate(Keeps your funds on their end, and sends you it when they feel like it, plus their software is clunky and not optimized for mining in general)

In all honesty, if you want to avoid Fire situations, learn how to build a computer from the ground up first, make sure you learn the ins and outs of it and make sure to use GOOD QUALITY components, and don't for any reason skimp out on any Power supply or wireing.... its basically a fire waiting to happen.(Or even better just hire someone to help you I'm sure there are people out there that will build you mining rigs for a price)

But if you have to come out on here asking what will start fires for pc's and if its safe to run overnight, I guess you haven't done much research on google(Or your favorite search engine) or on youtube about mining 24/7. Some videos and guides tell you about the safeties of mining 24/7.

I don't have any stat in Afterburner called "Temp Target". I have one called "Temp Limit" and I have set it to 70C. You think I should decrease it to 65C?
Where is "Temp Target" located though?

About CPU mining. I have MinerGate on in the background and while I have only made about 5$ on it in the couple of weeks or so I don't feel like it is doing any harm? I mean I can use the computer completely fine while it is running without any slowdowns (for GPU mining I use nicehash, but I can't GPU mine while working on the computer because it slows everything down to a crawl). So while it is true that you make very very little by CPU mining, why stay away from it? Is it hurting the computer in any way? I mean $5 is very little. But say the crypto price would increase 10.000% over the next 10 years, which is completely possible, that $5 now would actually be worth $500 later.

I am trying to find out and research how I can mine on my computer safely, that is what I am doing now by asking others in this forum. I would think that limiting my temp to 70C would keep me safe, but again you think I should lower to 65C to be safe?

And please link to some videos about safely mining 24/7. When I search for that I only get safety instructions for real mining (underground mining etc)

[grape_tectonics]

what if I told you.. the stock temp limits on your hardware are there for a reason

what if amd and nvidia actually knew wtf they were doing while writing the spec and people didn't have to go around pulling numbers out of their asses??

crazy amirite but that's the world we live in.

[DrG]

Some good advice in here, and plenty of bad advice. I'll throw in my 2 satoshi

1) Know your breaker panel and all devices on a circuit. Know if you're 110 or 220 and 15, 20, 30, or 40A etc.
2) Keep total load on a circuit at a maximum of 80%. A 20A circuit with nothing but  miners on it should safely handle sustained 16A if it was done correctly.
3) As mentioned above, if you're using extensions don't buy cheap ones. No point of having a 20A circuit and using 16 gauge extension that can only handle 8A.
4) Try to buy PSUs that have been well reviewed. It doesn't necessarily have to be Gold or Platinum but unless you have free electricity as well as free cooling you might as well spend for the difference - it pays for itself.
5) GPU core temps shouldn't matter under 90C unless you have a bottom of the barrel card. But you need to ask why is the card running at 90C. It might need a repaste or better airflow. If you overvolted it like crazy then you're asking for trouble. Now some cards will throttle if they get too hot, that's a problem you'll have to address.
6) More important than GPU core is VRM temps - and some cheap cards don't have cooling methods. Sure every card gets aluminum/copper heatpipes but that's pointless if the VRMs don't contact them to dump heat.

I live in Southern California and my idle temps even before I begin mining are higher than the max temps for some of you miners out there. I have 6 390s blasting away at ETH nonstop for over 15 months and just finally had to shut the rig down because one fan finally bound up entirely and I felt bad running the card at 96C core/106C VRMs (I ran it that way for 2 months and decided to RMA it).

Having had over 500 cards I have not had a single card die due to bad cores. I have had plenty of fans die. I had 2 RMA 2 XFX 380s because the HDMI ports died. I even had a Seasonic 750 MKII toast a 6/8 pin connector on a 7970 that wasn't even clocked - it's just luck of the draw sometimes.

[elektra]

Sorry, I meant to say Power Limit, by adjusting that it actually undervolts the card that you're using. You can technically do whatever you wish for the temp of your card as long as you don't mind it dieing faster or slower on you, it's really up to you. You can have it running at 100c 24/7 non stop for months on end and it might be fine if you get a good bin on the card, but for most of us, we prefer to keep the temps down to 65c if not 70c max, reason being is heat output, and electricity costs. The lower the temperature, the better, anything under 40c mining on air is literally a crazy good temp(Mostly achievable through watercooling)

The reason why I said to stay away from CPU mining on minergate is because if you only get that little amount, you need to factor in the electricity cost of your rig per day(Total TDP, and cost of electricity e.g. $0.12/KwH) If your cost of electricity coming from your rig doesn't even out in your earnings or if your not making more than the cost to run your rig, its not worth mining such little worth of cpu mining or miner gate.

Also the reason why I suggest staying away from minergate is due to the fees, most pools offer better fees rather than minergate, plus they'll actually send it to your
"Own" wallet, not a wallet in their servers then charge you extra just to take it out of "Your" wallet to send to another wallet you "own". Pools will send it to any address you want when mining(which doesn't go to the pools wallet, it goes to your wallet without the extra fee of hosting a wallet in their server)

I'd recommend staying away from NiceHash unless its the only option you have as well, reason being is you could probably mine better at different pools like Yiimp, or Zpool(Not really recommended, but better than NiceHash) or even SuprNova.cc . It all depends on your mining hardware.

Also to mine safely it depends on your computer's hardware quality, the biggest thing to not skimp out on is the Power Supply, make sure its a trusted brand and is 80+ Gold rated or higher, anything less and your going to end up replacing it sooner rather than later.(You can argue with me on that, but just for safety reasons go with Gold or Platinum, shoot if you can get a Titanium for the best.)

How about auto mining that starts to mine when you are not at the computer? Is that worse or better than having the machine mining all the time? For example now it triggers when I go to eat or when I poop. Then when I get back to the computer it automatically stops mining.