How to connect more GPUs to Xilense XP730R8 PSU?

[wilkas]

I have a rig of 4x GTX1060. Together they are drawing 350 W at the wall, which is much less than this PSU (730W) can handle. I would like to expand my rig to 6x GTX1060. But this PSU lacks 6 PIN connections and also SATA connections for raisers. You can check its connections here: http://www.xilence.de/en/products/power-supplies/performance-a-series/xn063.html

Are there any adapters to expand PSU connections? Is it safe to do?

[1713485741]

1713485741

[1713485741]

1713485741

[1713485741]

1713485741

[1713485741]

1713485741

[MATHReX]

I have a rig of 4x GTX1060. Together they are drawing 350 W at the wall, which is much less than this PSU (730W) can handle. I would like to expand my rig to 6x GTX1060. But this PSU lacks 6 PIN connections and also SATA connections for raisers. You can check its connections here: http://www.xilence.de/en/products/power-supplies/performance-a-series/xn063.html

Are there any adapters to expand PSU connections? Is it safe to do?

As this is a bronze rated PSU and not a modular one. I'll recommend not using any adapters to gain more connections for more GPUs. However, I'll recommend you to invest in a Gold rated PSU, Corsair RM850x is a personal favourite of mine. It can easily handle 8x GTX1060, and way durable to handle 24hr operation, so you won't regret investing in one.

[QuintLeo]

Using SATA connectors for risers is a BAD IDEA, SATA connections are not rated for the 75 watts (nominal, sometimes HIGHER) that a common GPU pulls from the PCI-E bus.

[wilkas]

As this is a bronze rated PSU and not a modular one. I'll recommend not using any adapters to gain more connections for more GPUs. However, I'll recommend you to invest in a Gold rated PSU, Corsair RM850x is a personal favourite of mine. It can easily handle 8x GTX1060, and way durable to handle 24hr operation, so you won't regret investing in one.

I'll take a look into it. I wonder if this Bronze unit (http://www.skytech.lt/m12ii750-evo-seasonic-m12ii750-evo-edition-750w-plus-bronze-retail-p-294241.html) is worth to get while saving 40EUR compared to Corsair? My wall draw will be max 550W.

Using SATA connectors for risers is a BAD IDEA, SATA connections are not rated for the 75 watts (nominal, sometimes HIGHER) that a common GPU pulls from the PCI-E bus.

Well I am running my GPU's not at full capacity, but downrated to get max MH per Wh of electricity and SATA wires are cold (with 3x GTX1060). On the other hand which connections are preferred to power risers?

[MATHReX]

I'll take a look into it. I wonder if this Bronze unit (http://www.skytech.lt/m12ii750-evo-seasonic-m12ii750-evo-edition-750w-plus-bronze-retail-p-294241.html) is worth to get while saving 40EUR compared to Corsair? My wall draw will be max 550W.

It is not worth saving 40EUR. The most common mistake everyone new in mining makes is going cheap on PSU. I'll still recommend going with Corsair. If you're planning to run only 6 GTX1060s, then Corsair RM750x should be okay but if you're looking for expansion and will go till 8 GTX1060s. Then I'll surely recommend RM850x.

Well I am running my GPU's not at full capacity, but downrated to get max MH per Wh of electricity and SATA wires are cold (with 3x GTX1060). On the other hand which connections are preferred to power risers?

I'm using SATA for over months now and never faced any issues. If you do it right, then you can surely use SATA. I'll recommend using a single chain of SATA to power only two GTX1060. Moreover, never forget to reduce power consumption by undervolting. In that way, you're perfectly fine using SATA.

[Cereberus]

I want to emphasize even more that you need a minimum of 750 watt gold rated PSU in order to run with 6x 1060 (with limited power consumption of course) and a minimum of 850 watt gold rated to go with 6 x 1060 in full power consumption. I suggest Corsair or Coolermaster. If you want to get top of the line and spend a bit more go for the Bequiet PSU-s.

[gregfromo]

one of the most stupid things in mining is buying a shit psu and connect gpus for several xxx $/€/???,
even if you don't pay for electricity.

on a rig with "cheap" electricity I use an Enermax Triathlor ECO 1000, but I won't buy it again, just too loud under load, compared to Corsair RM/HX is use on other rigs.  better spend more in quality and you can sleep good.

[QuintLeo]

As this is a bronze rated PSU and not a modular one. I'll recommend not using any adapters to gain more connections for more GPUs. However, I'll recommend you to invest in a Gold rated PSU, Corsair RM850x is a personal favourite of mine. It can easily handle 8x GTX1060, and way durable to handle 24hr operation, so you won't regret investing in one.

I'll take a look into it. I wonder if this Bronze unit (http://www.skytech.lt/m12ii750-evo-seasonic-m12ii750-evo-edition-750w-plus-bronze-retail-p-294241.html) is worth to get while saving 40EUR compared to Corsair? My wall draw will be max 550W.

Using SATA connectors for risers is a BAD IDEA, SATA connections are not rated for the 75 watts (nominal, sometimes HIGHER) that a common GPU pulls from the PCI-E bus.

Well I am running my GPU's not at full capacity, but downrated to get max MH per Wh of electricity and SATA wires are cold (with 3x GTX1060). On the other hand which connections are preferred to power risers?

 PCI-E 6 pin to feed the riser is best.
 Molex is tolerable, the connectors are at least rated to handle the 75 watt draw mining cards normally pull from the PCI-E bus (the connectors themselves are rated over 100 watts but the WIRING to them is usually not sized for that unless you limit to using one connector per chain).
 SATA is bad, they are only rated 45 or so watts MAX, using them is a serious risk and has a significant probability of causing overheated connector and MELT/BURN issues over time.
  There is NO way to "do it right" using SATA on risers, as there is no way to control how much power the GPU tries to pull out of the PCI-E BUS connector - dropping the TDP normally drops the draw out of the PCI-E BUS connector on the GPU, NOT the draw out of the PCI-E bus.


 I use almost all Seasonic X-Series Gold power supplies in my rigs, but I have a few with G12 Gold series on smaller machines - they are good power supplies.
 The M12 Bronze series should be comparable on reliablity (VERY good), at a small cost in efficiency.

 I would be very cautious on Corsair - they have widely variable quality between their different lines depending on who makes each line (some are Seasonic or Super Flower made and very good, some are just junk).
 I would avoid Coolermaster, can't remember ANY of their supplies being made by a GOOD manufacturer.

[wilkas]

I want to emphasize even more that you need a minimum of 750 watt gold rated PSU in order to run with 6x 1060 (with limited power consumption of course) and a minimum of 850 watt gold rated to go with 6 x 1060 in full power consumption. I suggest Corsair or Coolermaster. If you want to get top of the line and spend a bit more go for the Bequiet PSU-s.

According to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbaL6UFvK7g&index=12&t=1906s&list=PLPE4Rqliaxw6hucL_Oe6fBgXXEBADS8zk 6x GTX1060 draws about 575W and I get proportional results with 3x GPU.

Full power consumption makes no economical sense since profitability decreases considerably, plus component life is shortened.

Bronze PSU is just 5% less efficient than Gold PSU, but price of Gold PSU is much more than 5% higher. Speaking of my 6x GTX 1060 rig, that would theoretically make a difference of ~28W. For me it would take 1,65 years to mine with this rig to save the price difference between these PSU. And when its time to sell used PSU, will you get that much more for Gold PSU compared to bronze one? Is it worth it?

[wilkas]

PCI-E 6 pin to feed the riser is best.

I dont understand this. The priciest PSU's have only 6x 6+2-pin PCI-E connectors.  Do you use two this expensive PSU's to power one rig with 6x GPUs?

[QuintLeo]

PCI-E 6 pin to feed the riser is best.

I dont understand this. The priciest PSU's have only 6x 6+2-pin PCI-E connectors.  Do you use two this expensive PSU's to power one rig with 6x GPUs?

 I'm not using 750 watt PSUs in my rigs - I'm using 850, and so far only ONE of them is intended to be a "full riser" rig.

 Limit of connectors CAN be an issue though - which is why one of my risers on the "pure riser" rig is running on a dual-Molex to PCI-E adapter I had as a left-over from one of my older GPU purchases, and why I'm not buying any more Aorus cards (2 x 8-pin is a PAIN when a lot of PS makers put either a 6+2 and a 6-pin or an 8-pin and a 6-pin on their "dual connector" cables).

 Keep in mind I designed that particular rig to run 1080 ti cards, ALL of which have 2 power connections (6+8 for some, 8+8 for the rest) with a minimum of a 250 watt factory default TDP.

 3 cards per 850 is MARGINAL if I was running them at 100% TDP, and NOT ENOUGH if I was running 3 cards at 100% AND the rest of the rig on one PS - only reason I can get away with the 850 is that I'm aiming for more like 200-220 watts per 1080ti, and the PS that runs the MB/CPU/RAM/HD will have a pair of 1080ti and something lesser (1080 1070ti or 1070 depending) as the third card.

 A lot of my rigs are 3-card "no riser" rigs, left over from my Folding days (where you NEED a lot of bandwidth to fully utilise the cards) - those rigs were usually a pair of 1080 at 180 watts each and a 1070 at 150, or a pair of high wattage 1070s (Gigabyte Windforce or G1 models) instead of 1080s, or a single high-wattage 1080 (Gigabyte Windforce) at 200 and a pair of 1070s "pushed" a bit to 160-170 watts - and they ALL had at least a quad-core CPU in them to keep the cards busy so the base system power draw is rather higher than a "pure mining" rig normally draws.
 Those rigs mostly have the CPUs doing BOINC work to earn some Gridcoin, but eventually I'll probably shift them over to Monero mining.
 Folding needs a LOT more CPU work and transfers a lot more data to/from the cards, it's not like Mining where the data transfer is small (except ETH/clones during DAG file loadup) and you can get away with using a 1x PCI-E 1.0 connection with little or no impact on your hashrate.

[QuintLeo]

Found the actual specs tonight.

 Molex connectors (technically AMP Mate-N-Lock but they got commonly MIScalled Molex a long time back) are rated for 13 amps per pin - one pin on 12V (and 2 ground pins, though one is really intended for use on the 5V connection) gives 156 watts power capacity, PLENTY to power the PCI-E bus on a riser with lots of capacity to spare - the limit is usually going to be the WIRING.

 SATA power connectors have 3 12VDC pins (and 5 ground pins) but each pin is only rated 1.5 amps, so 4.5 TOTAL amps at 12vdc = 54 watts WHICH IS NOT ENOUGH TO HANDLE THE 75 WATT RATED POWER DRAW FOR THE PCI-E BUS SAFELY.
 Forget the wiring, the connector ITSELF is not rated for the power load needed for safe operation.

 PCI-E 6-pin connectors are rated 75 watts by the PCI-E spec but they're actually good for 8 amps per pin and at least 2 are connected to 12VDC (the third is sometimes used for a "sense" line), so even 2 pins 8 amps each = 16 amps at 12VDC = 192 watts.
 PCI-E rates the power connectors VERY VERY conservatively - but again, be cautious about the wiring which often is NOT that far overrated.




 

[wilkas]

Found the actual specs tonight.

 Molex connectors (technically AMP Mate-N-Lock but they got commonly MIScalled Molex a long time back) are rated for 13 amps per pin - one pin on 12V (and 2 ground pins, though one is really intended for use on the 5V connection) gives 156 watts power capacity, PLENTY to power the PCI-E bus on a riser with lots of capacity to spare - the limit is usually going to be the WIRING.

 SATA power connectors have 3 12VDC pins (and 5 ground pins) but each pin is only rated 1.5 amps, so 4.5 TOTAL amps at 12vdc = 54 watts WHICH IS NOT ENOUGH TO HANDLE THE 75 WATT RATED POWER DRAW FOR THE PCI-E BUS SAFELY.
 Forget the wiring, the connector ITSELF is not rated for the power load needed for safe operation.

 PCI-E 6-pin connectors are rated 75 watts by the PCI-E spec but they're actually good for 8 amps per pin and at least 2 are connected to 12VDC (the third is sometimes used for a "sense" line), so even 2 pins 8 amps each = 16 amps at 12VDC = 192 watts.
 PCI-E rates the power connectors VERY VERY conservatively - but again, be cautious about the wiring which often is NOT that far overrated.

So how do you connect your cards?
According to this data one should use 2x SATA to Molex|6PIN adapters for connecting SATA to risers and Molex can be connected directly, right?

[QuintLeo]

That would be correct - single PCI-E, single Molex, are both OK to power a riser, 2 x SATA via an adapter should be OK.

 Mine right now are all connected via PCI-E, but I'm starting to think about changing on future rigs to move to Molex for powering at least some of the risers.

[wilkas]

Mine right now are all connected via PCI-E.

So 6x GPU rig would need at least 12x PCI-E connections. Where do you find such PSUs?

[QuintLeo]

As I already stated, my current 6-card rig runs 1080 ti cards - and 2 power supplies to handle the load.

 Both the Seasonic X-850 and EVGA G2 850 have 8 PCI-E connectors as stock cabling.

[fgm]

I have Seasonic m12ii750-evo. I run 6 x gtx 1060 on it. Power draw is at 650 at the wall. Been running like that since july. It's a great psu.
I also have Evga G2 led 750 in the same setup  but it only has 4 x pcie connectors.

[QuintLeo]

I have Seasonic m12ii750-evo. I run 6 x gtx 1060 on it. Power draw is at 650 at the wall. Been running like that since july. It's a great psu.
I also have Evga G2 led 750 in the same setup  but it only has 4 x pcie connectors.

 Probably 4 connectors on the power supply but 2 of the cables are "dual" cables for a total of 6 PCI-E connectors?

 EVGA does a lot of "use a cable with a 6+2 pin AND a 6-pin" to add connections to their G2 series power supplies - as does Seasonic on the X-series and the SnowSilent series.

[fgm]

I have Seasonic m12ii750-evo. I run 6 x gtx 1060 on it. Power draw is at 650 at the wall. Been running like that since july. It's a great psu.
I also have Evga G2 led 750 in the same setup  but it only has 4 x pcie connectors.

 Probably 4 connectors on the power supply but 2 of the cables are "dual" cables for a total of 6 PCI-E connectors?

 EVGA does a lot of "use a cable with a 6+2 pin AND a 6-pin" to add connections to their G2 series power supplies - as does Seasonic on the X-series and the SnowSilent series.

Nope, it only has 4 pcie.
PCIE   4 x 8pin (6+2) from https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=220-GL-0750-X1

But it's a solid psu, if you're curious check the review:
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/SuperNOVA_G2_750/