5830 x 4 Mining Rig, When to call it quits?

[hchc]

I'm running 4x 5830 with a 650w TX650 v2...really
It is running at 100% load but is stable

[FreeJAC]

Yeah that sounds more like it to me.

[FractalUniverse]

I wouldn't quit before costs exceed profits. but you can't know in advance when/if that happens because price of bitcoins can double in several months and future difficulty rises % are unknown..

your electricity cost is pretty low, here in europe we pay 2-3 times as much in some countries - so you have a big advantage compared to miners with much higher electricity bills for same results

Hey guys, I've been mining 24x7 for the last month and a half at about ~ 1207.00 MH/s with 4 x5830's and an 850Watt Supply.  My power cost here is 8.5 cents/kWh.  With these inevitable complexity increases when do you think I should call it quits?

[koopa]

I'm running 4x 5830 with a 650w TX650 v2...really
It is running at 100% load but is stable

Sweet. Should be able to squeeze enough juice out of my 800w Corsair GS800 for four 5830's then 

[BitCointransfers]

Full Spec.

CORSAIR 600T CASE, 3 FANS
UBUNTU 11.04, AUTO LOGIN/AUTO REBOOT EVERY 6 HOURS
4 x 5830 SAPPHIRE  / CLOCK 980, MEMORY 300  - 75 TO 85 DEGREES
MSI 890FXA-GD70 MOTHERBOARD
COOLER MASTER 850W SILENT PRO PS - 80Plus Bronze Certification
CHEAP AMD SEPRON QUAD CORE
1TB WD SATA

[Rob P.]

Full Spec.

CORSAIR 600T CASE, 3 FANS
UBUNTU 11.04, AUTO LOGIN/AUTO REBOOT EVERY 6 HOURS
4 x 5830 SAPPHIRE  / CLOCK 980, MEMORY 300  - 75 TO 85 DEGREES
MSI 890FXA-GD70 MOTHERBOARD
COOLER MASTER 850W SILENT PRO PS - 80Plus Bronze Certification
CHEAP AMD SEPRON QUAD CORE
1TB WD SATA

Bit, did you need any extenders for that MoBo / Case combination?  I'm currently running the exact same setup, but case-less.  The wife is getting itchy about the motherboards just sitting on my desk and is insisting I close them up.

How much space between the cards in that case?

[BitCointransfers]

Full Spec.

CORSAIR 600T CASE, 3 FANS
UBUNTU 11.04, AUTO LOGIN/AUTO REBOOT EVERY 6 HOURS
4 x 5830 SAPPHIRE  / CLOCK 980, MEMORY 300  - 75 TO 85 DEGREES
MSI 890FXA-GD70 MOTHERBOARD
COOLER MASTER 850W SILENT PRO PS - 80Plus Bronze Certification
CHEAP AMD SEPRON QUAD CORE
1TB WD SATA

Bit, did you need any extenders for that MoBo / Case combination?  I'm currently running the exact same setup, but case-less.  The wife is getting itchy about the motherboards just sitting on my desk and is insisting I close them up.

How much space between the cards in that case?

No extenders required, this MSI board can easily handle 4 cards.  Not much space left between them maybe 5-8mm, but enough for ventilation.  The case is very good space wise, it has 8 slots so plenty of room.  I hear you about the wife, mine has been complaining since day one about the rig before and after I cased it up.

[Rob P.]

Full Spec.

CORSAIR 600T CASE, 3 FANS
UBUNTU 11.04, AUTO LOGIN/AUTO REBOOT EVERY 6 HOURS
4 x 5830 SAPPHIRE  / CLOCK 980, MEMORY 300  - 75 TO 85 DEGREES
MSI 890FXA-GD70 MOTHERBOARD
COOLER MASTER 850W SILENT PRO PS - 80Plus Bronze Certification
CHEAP AMD SEPRON QUAD CORE
1TB WD SATA

Bit, did you need any extenders for that MoBo / Case combination?  I'm currently running the exact same setup, but case-less.  The wife is getting itchy about the motherboards just sitting on my desk and is insisting I close them up.

How much space between the cards in that case?

No extenders required, this MSI board can easily handle 4 cards.  Not much space left between them maybe 5-8mm, but enough for ventilation.  The case is very good space wise, it has 8 slots so plenty of room.  I hear you about the wife, mine has been complaining since day one about the rig before and after I cased it up.

I have the same board.  Which slots are you using the cards in?  Right now I have 3 cards with like 1" of space in between each, but am thinking of getting this case and that will require me to shuffle the cards.

Looks like I'd have to put them in PCI-E 16x slots:  1, 2, 4, and 5, leaving 3 empty (going from the slot closest to CPU as 1).  True?
Did you get a right-angle SATA cable for the Motherboard port?  The ones that came with the board seem to bump the GPUs up and they won't sit flush, so I used one of the SATA on the back panel.

Thanks for info.

[BitCointransfers]

Thats right, I'm using slots 1, 2, 4, and 5.  As for the Sata connector, I'm using a regular straight in cable, just bent over 90 degrees to avoid the video card above it...

[Rob P.]

Thats right, I'm using slots 1, 2, 4, and 5.  As for the Sata connector, I'm using a regular straight in cable, just bent over 90 degrees to avoid the video card above it...

Bit, sorry to bother again, had a question.

I just got my Corsair 600T and LOVE the case.  Tons of room and that cable routing system is incredible.

I got 4 Sapphire 5830s installed and they fit great on the Motherboard.  However, with the case fans at 100% and my GPU fans at 100%, I can't keep the cards cool enough to be stable at 990/600.

Did you do anything different?  I know you're running RAM lower than I did, but does that really change the temp by 10C / card?

Did you stick with the stock fans?  Or replace them?  Did you connect the fan headers to the case controls, or to the motherboard?

Did you replace the TIM on the GPUs?

Sorry for all of the questions, but you and I have the exact same rig, so I'm trying to make improvements.  With 3 cards in my case (and the case closed up) my cards run to the high 80s and into the 90s, which is too hot for me, with 4 cards they just heat up and freeze.

Thoughts?  Really appreciate any insights you have.

[chungenhung]

Your still making good profit, but your hardware will be worthless if you wait esp 5830s b.c they have no use besides mining, gamers are not buying them...

worthless?
please give them to me.

[chungenhung]

I'm running 4x 5830 with a 650w TX650 v2...really
It is running at 100% load but is stable

I know corsair makes good PS, but u r overloading it wayyyy over.
i use 2x 650 for my 4x 5830 OCed rig. I like to make sure my PS can run smoothly and don't crap out on me due to excessive heat.

[Rob P.]

Thats right, I'm using slots 1, 2, 4, and 5.  As for the Sata connector, I'm using a regular straight in cable, just bent over 90 degrees to avoid the video card above it...

Update:  I clocked the RAM down to 300, so I'm at 990/300.  They appear stable, but still too hot in my opinion, so any suggestions would be great.  This is still with only 3 5830s, no idea how you're keeping 4 at a lower temp, as mine now have about 1.5" between each card.

Code:

Adapter 0 - ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series  
            Sensor 0: Temperature - 90.50 C

Adapter 1 - ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series  
            Sensor 0: Temperature - 79.50 C

Adapter 2 - ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series  
            Sensor 0: Temperature - 88.50 C

Yep, as I was typing this my GPU1 hashrate dropped below 200, so I had to shut it down.  I can only run 2 cards with the case closed up and am going to have to pull everything out of the case and back on the motherboard box in open air to run safely...  Sigh.

[AngelusWebDesign]

Keep in mind that 5830's (or any other card) tend to crap out once you hit 84 degrees C if they're overclocked.

The other day I forgot to manually turn the fans on (via aticonfig), and I started up the miners on all 3 cards -- the card on top reached 90+ degrees, but the machine didn't freeze up.

That's because I also forgot to run the overclocking script.

I bet if I had overclocked but forgot to turn fans on, the machine would have required a reboot.

[Syke]

Update:  I clocked the RAM down to 300, so I'm at 990/300.

How do you get it to 990? Did you modify the bios?

They appear stable, but still too hot in my opinion, so any suggestions would be great.

Turn the fan speeds up.

[Rob P.]

Update:  I clocked the RAM down to 300, so I'm at 990/300.

How do you get it to 990? Did you modify the bios?

Code:

#Allow Overclocking of GPUs
DISPLAY=:0 aticonfig --od-enable --adapter=all

# Overclock GPU to 990MHz/300MHz
DISPLAY=:0 aticonfig --od-setclocks=990,300 --adapter=0

This is in Ubuntu 11.04 running ATI Catalyst 11.6

They appear stable, but still too hot in my opinion, so any suggestions would be great.

Turn the fan speeds up.

Very helpful.  (They're at 100%, I tried 101% and it didn't work)

[Syke]

I must have a different model. Mine only goes up to like 875.

[Rob P.]

I must have a different model. Mine only goes up to like 875.

When running aticonfig here is what my cards look like:

Code:

% aticonfig --odgc --adapter=all

Adapter 0 - ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series  
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    990           300
             Current Peak :    990           300
  Configurable Peak Range : [600-875]     [900-1200]
                 GPU load :    99%

Adapter 1 - ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series  
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    990           300
             Current Peak :    990           300
  Configurable Peak Range : [600-875]     [900-1200]
                 GPU load :    99%

You'll see that the "Configurable Peak Range" only goes to 875 for the GPU and down to 900 for the RAM.  However, with the Catalyst 11.6 drivers, you can over and underclock those as evidenced by the "Current Clocks" I have configured.

[BitCointransfers]

Hey Rob,  the 600T case is incredible quality wise but the fans are too slow.  For adequate cooling on a  4x5830 rig you must reverse the fan flow on the front fan so that it exhausts the air out the front..  The 5830s exhaust to the front and back of the cards, so a lot of heat builds up at the back since its competing with the front fan pushing air in... You will also need to operate it without the side case and get another fan to blow air directly on to the top of the cards...  I use a table fan, but you could use a small highspeed fan and attach it to the top of the four cards...

Adapter 0 - ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
            Sensor 0: Temperature - 76.00 C

Adapter 1 - ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
            Sensor 0: Temperature - 77.50 C

Adapter 2 - ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
            Sensor 0: Temperature - 69.50 C

Adapter 3 - ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
            Sensor 0: Temperature - 76.50 C

[Rob P.]

Hey Rob,  the 600T case is incredible quality wise but the fans are too slow.  For adequate cooling on a  4x5830 rig you must reverse the fan flow on the front fan so that it exhausts the air out the front..  The 5830s exhaust to the front and back of the cards, so a lot of heat builds up at the back since its competing with the front fan pushing air in... You will also need to operate it without the side case and get another fan to blow air directly on to the top of the cards...  I use a table fan, but you could use a small highspeed fan and attach it to the top of the four cards...

Adapter 0 - ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
            Sensor 0: Temperature - 76.00 C

Adapter 1 - ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
            Sensor 0: Temperature - 77.50 C

Adapter 2 - ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
            Sensor 0: Temperature - 69.50 C

Adapter 3 - ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
            Sensor 0: Temperature - 76.50 C

Thanks Bit.

I hadn't thought of reversing the front fan.  Off to do that now.

I also found this (and just ordered it):
http://www.corsair.com/cases/case-accessories/graphite-series-600-side-panel-with-windowed-and-mesh-inserts.html

Comes with a mesh screen that can mount 4 x 120mm fans.  I got 4 Scythe ULTRA KAZE series DFS123812H-3000 fans to mount on the screen to blow into the case, with the hopes I can leave the side panel on.

I think I'm also going to remove the 200mm fan at the top and replace with 2 high-speed 120mm fans to improve exhaust out the top.

Thanks for the response.