Project: Stealth Mining Rig

[ryepdx]

The case door fans push a lot of air into the card intake, and the front fans push a lot of air into the case.



I totally agree with you that it looks like it shouldn't work, but it does work just fine.  YMMV, and as noted, I wouldn't do it with AMD cards, but I've known people who packed 4 6990s into the same case and kept them perfectly cool while running.

Hmm... why is there a GPU missing? And 90c is a lot hotter than I like to keep my cards. I've heard 80c thrown around as a good rule of thumb for keeping your cards from getting damaged. But then again, most of my involvement in the mining scene was in early 2011. (Not rich, unfortunately. Stopped mining for most of 2011 and all of 2012 for various reasons.)

[nookiegirl]

I don't particularly like that case...

This is not the one I have. I only chose it to ask for the position of the fans. The case is still not settled yet.
I like the second case recommendation you made.

So another topic:

I have a friend who is going to make me a custom closed case out of aluminium (or another material in case there are better ones).
He is kinda professional in it, so If I give all the exact measurements of the final sketch, he is able to do that nicely.

For this I made a first raw sketch as so:

Red circles Where the fan's are going to be connected
Blue square Mainboard


Red circles Where the fan's are going to be connected
Blue square Mainboard
Purple thingy Graphics cards

And of course fan-holes above the card, so that the hot air can go out!

As I want it to be as small as possible I still have a few questions.

• How far do the cards need to be separated from each other?
• How far do the cards need to be separated from the psu (which will be at the top left in the picture)
• What do you think about the fan positions?
• The cards will be attached via riser-cables, what is the maximum length of such a cable, because the card-fixer (where they will be screwed tight are going to be fixed (in height) above the mainboard)

So obviously this is a first raw sektch made with mspaint, but it will be improved over the next week as questions arise and are solved.

[tom_o]

Get some sidewinder deltas and you shouldn't have to worry about the case too much - they push 3-4 cubic feet of air a second! That's probably close to the volume of the case!

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/de12tfexhisp.html

[ISAWHIM]

Stealth cases...

1: Large oven-top microwave. Gut it, it can hold 2 Mobo's and up to 14 (single-gpu) cards, 4 PSU's... Has kick-ass venting on most models.

2: Medium/large in-window AC unit. Gut it, it can hold same as above...

3: Fireplace insert. Can hold same as above... Heat can be ducted in to the house in winter, exhausted out the chimney in the summer. (Might want to provide supplemental "fresh-outside air" for the supply.)

4: Mini-Fridge. Gut it, add a vent and add a silent bathroom-blower-fan. Can fit 1-3 mobo's, depending on the size of the unit.

5: Dryer machine. Gut it, you can fit up to 6x mobo's inside. Needs a good green-house or oven blower to vent it. Set it up next to the real dryer, and blow exhaust into the dryer to save on drying bills. (Use that 240v line for more efficiency.) Add your water-in for your hot-water tank into the exhaust, and save money on hot water too.

6: File cabinet (tall). Can hold 4x to 5x individual setups, in a convenient pull-out access setup.

[namzycad3]

if your room is clean enough, i suggest that position all the fans blowing air into the case, and causing the air have no where to go other than GPU air exhaust outlet at the back. keep the GPU cool always with fresh air from outside. few more fans on top of the GPU, the back of the GPU also give out alot of heat.

the point is air is just like everything else, they are lazy as sheat. they will find the easiest exit ( least resistant ) if u got air from the front, and exhaust on top the casing, those cold air will just exit there.

hope my weird logic give u some idea.

[buddrulez]

Just out of interest why do you want a "stealth" rig?!

[massnerder]

Just out of interest why do you want a "stealth" rig?!

I wondered that myself but wasn't sure about asking.  Especially since it can be as loud as needed, why is 'stealth' such an issue?  Seems contradictory, but to each his (or her) own 

[nookiegirl]

Just out of interest why do you want a "stealth" rig?!

I wondered that myself but wasn't sure about asking.  Especially since it can be as loud as needed, why is 'stealth' such an issue?  Seems contradictory, but to each his (or her) own 

Openly Admitting:
So I got a couple of servers @work (smtp, dns, etc). I want to extend the services those computers do to mining.
I also do not want anybody get suspicious about them having 3-4 GPU's sitting inside. So I want to make them look normal and mine with them.

[crazyates]

Soooo by "server" you don't really mean "server". You mean you grabbed your 6 year old Dell and threw Linux on it, and now it's your "dedicated email server"? And now you want to throw a few 7950s in them, and hope your boss doesn't notice? Nice.

[neil_mccauley]

It's probably not a good idea to mine with any mission critical servers.  It would be better to build your own stealth rig and host it at the same facility, with management's permission of course.

[massnerder]

It's probably not a good idea to mine with any mission critical servers.  It would be better to build your own stealth rig and host it at the same facility, with management's permission of course.

Yea, it isn't always better to ask forgiveness than permission, especially after cgminer crashes your company dns server in the middle of the work day 

[spinx]

If not taking the moral question in consideration...

* Watercooled rigg = to expensive, atleast 100$ per card
* Lots of fans in combination with stock cooled cards = to much noice
* ASICS = no where to be found atm

Which leaves u to FCPGA mining, higher $/ Kh/s but consumes alot less power = less heat = less noice = less likely to be revealed.
Buy a bunch of them and place them inside a ATX chassie, and voila!

[nookiegirl]

If not taking the moral question in consideration...

* Watercooled rigg = to expensive, atleast 100$ per card
* Lots of fans in combination with stock cooled cards = to much noice
* ASICS = no where to be found atm

Which leaves u to FCPGA mining, higher $/ Kh/s but consumes alot less power = less heat = less noice = less likely to be revealed.
Buy a bunch of them and place them inside a ATX chassie, and voila!

Where do I get those FCPGA's?

[spinx]

If not taking the moral question in consideration...

* Watercooled rigg = to expensive, atleast 100$ per card
* Lots of fans in combination with stock cooled cards = to much noice
* ASICS = no where to be found atm

Which leaves u to FCPGA mining, higher $/ Kh/s but consumes alot less power = less heat = less noice = less likely to be revealed.
Buy a bunch of them and place them inside a ATX chassie, and voila!

Where do I get those FCPGA's?

ModMiner Quad is legit.

840mhash @ only 40 watts, 1069$

http://modminerquadstore.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=50

[crazyates]

If not taking the moral question in consideration...

* Watercooled rigg = to expensive, atleast 100$ per card
* Lots of fans in combination with stock cooled cards = to much noice
* ASICS = no where to be found atm

Which leaves u to FCPGA mining, higher $/ Kh/s but consumes alot less power = less heat = less noice = less likely to be revealed.
Buy a bunch of them and place them inside a ATX chassie, and voila!

Where do I get those FCPGA's?

ModMiner Quad is legit.

840mhash @ only 40 watts, 1069$

http://modminerquadstore.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=50

You will never earn back your investment if you plop down $1,100 for a ModMiner (including shipping). Hardware break-even point is 337 days, and that doesn't include a network that is massively growing. The network could double, and your break-even point shifts to almost 3 years. A FPGA is the worst thing you could do right now.

[tom_o]

If not taking the moral question in consideration...

* Watercooled rigg = to expensive, atleast 100$ per card
* Lots of fans in combination with stock cooled cards = to much noice
* ASICS = no where to be found atm

Which leaves u to FCPGA mining, higher $/ Kh/s but consumes alot less power = less heat = less noice = less likely to be revealed.
Buy a bunch of them and place them inside a ATX chassie, and voila!

Where do I get those FCPGA's?

\

Since you say noise isn't an issue; Just get two Delta TFB1212GHE on the intake and either tape over any airholes that are before the area in the GPUs are located, or make a nice duct with some plastic folders and electrical tape.

They'll be plenty cool enough if you're replacing the entire volume of the case every second.



To give you an idea of the power: it can propell itself along quite easily
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7e3eZVitGc

[nookiegirl]

If not taking the moral question in consideration...

* Watercooled rigg = to expensive, atleast 100$ per card
* Lots of fans in combination with stock cooled cards = to much noice
* ASICS = no where to be found atm

Which leaves u to FCPGA mining, higher $/ Kh/s but consumes alot less power = less heat = less noice = less likely to be revealed.
Buy a bunch of them and place them inside a ATX chassie, and voila!

Where do I get those FCPGA's?

\

Since you say noise isn't an issue; Just get two Delta TFB1212GHE on the intake and either tape over any airholes that are before the area in the GPUs are located, or make a nice duct with some plastic folders and electrical tape.

They'll be plenty cool enough if you're replacing the entire volume of the case every second.



To give you an idea of the power: it can propell itself along quite easily
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7e3eZVitGc

Looks powerful :-)

[buddrulez]

Yeah just be carefull mate. I read somewhere that someone at an IT company just got busted for doing something like this. Just saying. Best of luck to you though if you know what your doing!

[tom_o]

Yeah just be carefull mate. I read somewhere that someone at an IT company just got busted for doing something like this. Just saying. Best of luck to you though if you know what your doing!

Yeah it would probably be best to get ask; better to be asking for permission rather than forgiveness

[glitch003]

Just out of interest why do you want a "stealth" rig?!

I wondered that myself but wasn't sure about asking.  Especially since it can be as loud as needed, why is 'stealth' such an issue?  Seems contradictory, but to each his (or her) own 

Openly Admitting:
So I got a couple of servers @work (smtp, dns, etc). I want to extend the services those computers do to mining.
I also do not want anybody get suspicious about them having 3-4 GPU's sitting inside. So I want to make them look normal and mine with them.

It seems like every few weeks we get someone on here looking to steal electricity from their employer to mine Bitcoins.  Not only is this ethically wrong and also illegal, it will most likely get you fired.  And for what, a few measly bitcoins? 

People have been fired for this.  People have had their lives ruined by this.  Please think long and hard about the risk/reward ratio here.  Realistically, even with 4 7970s, you'll make about .1BTC a day (difficulty is going up, so this number will be going down, not staying constant).  So in a 30 day month, that's 3BTC (maximum).  The next month will be less, and so on.

Is risking losing your job really worth an extra $300 a month?  Wouldn't it be easier to just ask for a raise?   

Not to mention that what you're trying to do is infeasible anyway.  No way in hell you're gonna get 4x7970s properly cooled and quiet in a server enclosure.  Even if they're full tower ATX size cases, it's still gonna be tough.  On top of that, any given server will not have a big enough PSU to support those GPUs.  What are you gonna do, switch out the PSUs with beefier ones?  And most servers have 1 single PCI-E port if they even have any.  So are you going to install a second motherboard in the existing server enclosure to support your graphics cards?  Impossible to fit. 

The hardware isn't there to do what you want to do, and you'll get fired in the end anyway. 

Think about this: you're looking at a spending over $1000 in hardware to try and scam your employer.  Does that sound like a good idea?  Does that sound like it will end well?

But if you do go through with it and manage to pull it off, keep us updated, because mining rig setups are interesting.