BFL ASIC mining board project

[mmmerlin]

fianl is board for 8 chips or 16 chips?

Final board is 8 chips.  We thought about 16 and decided the size, power and cooling would be issues.  However, our architecture fully supports 16 and we COULD make a 16 chip board in the future.  I'm just not sure either of us are willing to take on that much work and stress at this point. 

Also, is there any point really? Are there any upsides to not just running two smaller boards?

[1714606050]

1714606050

[mmmerlin]

Yes, a big thank you to both MrTeal and ChipGeek for making this a reality, incredibly smooth and professional!

Question: how are people going to house their boards? They have PCI brackets on them, but I have a lot of boards coming and would quite like to get some sort of casing that can hold rows and rows of PCI cards, but don't have a stack of old motherboards lying around, which would have worked.

Does anyone know of any cases for holding rows of PCI cards? Or have any other thoughts on how to handle this? (and obviously space needs to be left for the coolers in between)

I'll bet you could buy some old GPU miners' used frames for not too much.

My GPU mining wasn't at that kind of scale so I don't really know what sort of solutions they used - plus that required PCI risers and connections to motherboards, so you were always limited in density as v. few mobos would allow more than ~3-5 connections.

I'm just looking for a physical structure to allow the cards to be stacked and nothing more, as they obviously connect via USB rather than PCI. Anyone know of anything like that where you can bolt a whole bunch of PCI cards in? I had a google and couldn't find much (as it's not a very common use case as most things with PCI brackets also need a mobo!)

[MrTeal]

Yes, a big thank you to both MrTeal and ChipGeek for making this a reality, incredibly smooth and professional!

Question: how are people going to house their boards? They have PCI brackets on them, but I have a lot of boards coming and would quite like to get some sort of casing that can hold rows and rows of PCI cards, but don't have a stack of old motherboards lying around, which would have worked.

Does anyone know of any cases for holding rows of PCI cards? Or have any other thoughts on how to handle this? (and obviously space needs to be left for the coolers in between)

I'll bet you could buy some old GPU miners' used frames for not too much.

My GPU mining wasn't at that kind of scale so I don't really know what sort of solutions they used - plus that required PCI risers and connections to motherboards, so you were always limited in density as v. few mobos would allow more than ~3-5 connections.

I'm just looking for a physical structure to allow the cards to be stacked and nothing more, as they obviously connect via USB rather than PCI. Anyone know of anything like that where you can bolt a whole bunch of PCI cards in? I had a google and couldn't find much (as it's not a very common use case as most things with PCI brackets also need a mobo!)

I've used just a quick frame I made from back in the GPU days, which is basically something I threw together in 15 minutes out of 1" wood and a piece of aluminum angle.

For my boards I'm planning on using a proper 20 slot PCIe expansion chassis that's rack mountable.

[MrTeal]

The Chili is born.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=304250.0

[mmmerlin]

The Chili is born.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=304250.0

Very awesome post!!

[af_newbie]

Willing to sell my 128 chips for BTC20.

There is $3200 to pay to BFL.  The chips will be shipped before Sept 30.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=303224.0

Need to find a buyer today or tomorrow.

Only 48 chips left. Can be sold in batches of 16 for BTC5.5

Chips sold:

16 to Choadmeyer
64 to dat.le79

Expected delivery: next week.

[Doken]

I am selling my 4chip slot for 1BTC right now, 1st and 2nd half of the payments paid.
This is hashing power equal to 4 x 4 GH/s = 16 GH/s

https://www.bitmit.net/es/item/63445-16gh-bitcoin-asic-miner-slot-for-1btc

You can PM me if you are interested.



 

SOLD, THANKS

[RicRock]

I am selling my 4chip slot for 1BTC right now, 1st and 2nd half of the payments paid.
This is hashing power equal to 4 x 4 GH/s = 16 GH/s

https://www.bitmit.net/es/item/63445-16gh-bitcoin-asic-miner-slot-for-1btc

You can PM me if you are interested.

PM sent

[Dagger75]

Looking to buy 8 Chips for 2BTC from someone in one of MrTeals Groupbuys.

Send PM Please

[shmadz]

Yes, a big thank you to both MrTeal and ChipGeek for making this a reality, incredibly smooth and professional!

Question: how are people going to house their boards? They have PCI brackets on them, but I have a lot of boards coming and would quite like to get some sort of casing that can hold rows and rows of PCI cards, but don't have a stack of old motherboards lying around, which would have worked.

Does anyone know of any cases for holding rows of PCI cards? Or have any other thoughts on how to handle this? (and obviously space needs to be left for the coolers in between)

I'll bet you could buy some old GPU miners' used frames for not too much.

My GPU mining wasn't at that kind of scale so I don't really know what sort of solutions they used - plus that required PCI risers and connections to motherboards, so you were always limited in density as v. few mobos would allow more than ~3-5 connections.

I'm just looking for a physical structure to allow the cards to be stacked and nothing more, as they obviously connect via USB rather than PCI. Anyone know of anything like that where you can bolt a whole bunch of PCI cards in? I had a google and couldn't find much (as it's not a very common use case as most things with PCI brackets also need a mobo!)

I've used just a quick frame I made from back in the GPU days, which is basically something I threw together in 15 minutes out of 1" wood and a piece of aluminum angle.

For my boards I'm planning on using a proper 20 slot PCIe expansion chassis that's rack mountable.

How do you rate the performance of that dual-white-fan in the middle? <edit> How do you rate the performance of your various cooling methods? The best and quietest one for cooling the chips would seem to me to be the tower style one in front but I notice you've got a little fan blowing at the vrm's. Have you tried putting a second fan on the back of the tower in a push-pull formation to try and get more airflow over the vrm's? would heatsinks like the ones they have on motherboards be helpful? </edit>

Are there any reference type coolers (the ones with the blower on one end) that would be feasible on this platform?

(btw, awesome job with this you guys. BFL should just send their "monarch" chips directly to you so this can be done right!

[MrTeal]

How do you rate the performance of that dual-white-fan in the middle? <edit> How do you rate the performance of your various cooling methods? The best and quietest one for cooling the chips would seem to me to be the tower style one in front but I notice you've got a little fan blowing at the vrm's. Have you tried putting a second fan on the back of the tower in a push-pull formation to try and get more airflow over the vrm's? would heatsinks like the ones they have on motherboards be helpful? </edit>

Are there any reference type coolers (the ones with the blower on one end) that would be feasible on this platform?

(btw, awesome job with this you guys. BFL should just send their "monarch" chips directly to you so this can be done right!

I don't think there's enough of a difference between the closed loop water cooler, the Hyper212 Evo and the Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo II to make a difference at least with my setup. You are probably better off spending the money on improving the thermal interface of your gap filler pad.
I would say this one is good (note that with careful cutting that's enough to do 12 boards) while this one (enough for 24 boards) is the best. They make smaller sizes too.
I don't recommend greases; while I'm pretty confident the pro assembly house will have more consistent ASIC heights than me doing the test boards by hand I am still not confident enough myself that I will get good contact on 8 chips that way.
Also note that whatever cooler you have really needs to have a backplate. You just won't be able to get adequate pressure on the ASICs without introducing too much board flex if you don't.

I would say that the Hyper 212 Evo is a good reference cooler based on price and performance, my only reservation about it is that it can be kind of fiddly to mount since the ASICs are much lower than a CPU would sit. The included standoffs are a little too long, but replacing them with four of these fixes the problem nicely.
The GPU coolers are easier to use, since they're designed to have a die that's ~1mm off the PCB. The biggest thing is finding one that has a large enough mounting pad to cover all 8 ASICs. I know both the Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo II and the Mono Plus both work. I would guess some of the other AC ones might as well, but they're more money and you really don't need that much cooling.

Also, some people have asked me where you can get PCI brackets. I got mine at Mouser, they're Keystone item 9203
http://ca.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Keystone-Electronics/9203/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtzcnMBgC2bs6gC270mlsjAcmixu2SULFc%3d

[mmmerlin]

You are probably better off spending the money on improving the thermal interface of your gap filler pad.
I would say this one is good (note that with careful cutting that's enough to do 12 boards) while this one (enough for 24 boards) is the best. They make smaller sizes too.

Wow, the price difference between those two is crazy! 

Is it worth it (in your opinion)?

[BrimStone]

I am going to order the "Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo II" units for my boards.  What would you recommend for the backplate?  Does this unit come with one?

-Brim

[agibby5]

Will this board work with anything less than 8 chips?

[djjacket]

I am going to order the "Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo II" units for my boards.  What would you recommend for the backplate?  Does this unit come with one?

-Brim

Doesn't look like the Arctic comes with a backplate - I too am looking for suggestions for sourcing the correct backplate.

[MrTeal]

I'm not sure if any GPU coolers come with a backplate. I just used some of the ATI HD5xxx style heatsink retention brackets since I have a few laying around from my GPU mining days temporarily, and I might eventually just use a piece of 2.5" aluminum flat with some kapton tape on it and then thermal grease. I figure if you're going to use a backplate it might as well move some heat.

For other cooler ideas, I was wanting to buy a few of these to test, my quick measurements make it seem like they should work
http://store.antec.com/Product/clearance_items/kuhler-shelf/0-761345-77081-1.aspx
They won't sell them to me in Canada though, which is unfortunate. Performance is actually pretty poor for what was at the time a $50 heatsink, but a lot is forgiven when you're selling a heatpiped cooler with a backplate and a good assortment of mounting hardware for $10.

[djjacket]

I'm not sure if any GPU coolers come with a backplate. I just used some of the ATI HD5xxx style heatsink retention brackets

Anyone know where to source these since I do not have any extras around?

[MrTeal]

I'm not sure if any GPU coolers come with a backplate. I just used some of the ATI HD5xxx style heatsink retention brackets

Anyone know where to source these since I do not have any extras around?

I don't, I'm sorry. You can buy CPU backplates at Frozencpu if your cooler doesn't include one.
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/12547/cpu-pro-07/Prolimatech_LGA_Series_Replacement_Backplate_LGA_775_115x_1366.html

It's too bad, it's so close to the half brick DC/DC hole pattern that you could almost use those.
http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/VHS-45/102-1488-ND/1016696
Out of curiosity, if I were to mill those so they have 53.2mm holes and you could use them as a backplate, would anyone be interested in that? They'd probably take up an extra slot so it's not desirable if you're looking at high density, but it might be interesting if you aren't trying to pack them in tight.

[Dagger75]

Just picked up a 1/4 sheet of the Fujipoly 11W/mk which should be sufficient for pads.

Are the sample chips you tested with Rev 2 BFL Chips MrTeal?  Interested to see if these will make any differences as Josh said they are more willing to reach higher mhz in the Singles.

Also, is there a specific date we should have our BTC into you by?  So I/We don't get delayed? 

[mmmerlin]

Are the sample chips you tested with Rev 2 BFL Chips MrTeal?  Interested to see if these will make any differences as Josh said they are more willing to reach higher mhz in the Singles.

Josh says a lot of things, don't get your hopes up...