Will My One GPU Rig Cause Problems With its Heat This Summer?

[dhouse]

I have a 4 GPU rig (rx 580s) in the basement. Been mining since January. I live in the midwest USA and it gets hot in the summer. My basement is usually significantly cooler than upstairs though. I'm running the cards on stock settings, no bios modding yet, just haven't had time to really understand how to do it correctly.

Is this going to be a problem in the summer because of the heat it puts off, or not so much since it's just one rig? What about adding one more rig, possibly in a different location in the house?

[1714505635]

1714505635

[hashestohashes]

You're probably fine, 4 cards is pretty small. Air conditioner may run just a tad longer.

[bobo012]

I have a 4 GPU rig (rx 580s) in the basement. Been mining since January. I live in the midwest USA and it gets hot in the summer. My basement is usually significantly cooler than upstairs though. I'm running the cards on stock settings, no bios modding yet, just haven't had time to really understand how to do it correctly.

Is this going to be a problem in the summer because of the heat it puts off, or not so much since it's just one rig? What about adding one more rig, possibly in a different location in the house?

It depends how much space there is and how much air can it gobble. I have 8 cards in a small space and it gets insanely hot during the summer, but it isn't in the basement

[dhouse]

You're probably fine, 4 cards is pretty small. Air conditioner may run just a tad longer.

 

It depends how much space there is and how much air can it gobble. I have 8 cards in a small space and it gets insanely hot during the summer, but it isn't in the basement

Huh yeah it's a ton of space, big open basement area of probably 1k sqft.

I just found a really good deal on some GPUs and really want to start just building up a mining farm, but the whole idea of building a ventilation system makes my head spin.

[Midcrypto]

You're probably fine, 4 cards is pretty small. Air conditioner may run just a tad longer.

 

It depends how much space there is and how much air can it gobble. I have 8 cards in a small space and it gets insanely hot during the summer, but it isn't in the basement

Huh yeah it's a ton of space, big open basement area of probably 1k sqft.

I just found a really good deal on some GPUs and really want to start just building up a mining farm, but the whole idea of building a ventilation system makes my head spin.

It will be completely fine. Especially being in the basement will mean its around 15f degrees cooler than the main floor ambient temperature. Try to put it as far away from the HVAC system as possible so the minimal heat it creates does not affect the efficiency of your cooling. Depending on what type of all in one solution you have, if you see the cards getting too hot (over 80c degrees) then remove the enclosure and let the ambient air cool it.

[dhouse]

That's reassuring. What do you think is the cutoff point in terms of number of GPUs in this kind of basement setup, where you would want to do some construction to have air pumped in and out?

[Midcrypto]

That's reassuring. What do you think is the cutoff point in terms of number of GPUs in this kind of basement setup, where you would want to do some construction to have air pumped in and out?

A open floor plan 1000 sq/ft basement located in the Midwest will have an ambient temperature of around ~65 degrees Fahrenheit. To heat this up to the point where it will substantially affect cooling to the individual cards will take a good amount of them certainly over 20. However this all depends on how you setup the miners.

For example if they are all in a corner and the air doesn't naturally get cycled then it will create a static hot air pocket and you could very quickly have heat issues.

At the very least have a fan blowing in or out of their general vicinity.

[tg88]

In the summer you can mine cryptonight that heats less.

[carlfebz2]

I have a 4 GPU rig (rx 580s) in the basement. Been mining since January. I live in the midwest USA and it gets hot in the summer. My basement is usually significantly cooler than upstairs though. I'm running the cards on stock settings, no bios modding yet, just haven't had time to really understand how to do it correctly.

Is this going to be a problem in the summer because of the heat it puts off, or not so much since it's just one rig? What about adding one more rig, possibly in a different location in the house?

It depends how much space there is and how much air can it gobble. I have 8 cards in a small space and it gets insanely hot during the summer, but it isn't in the basement

Since those cards are placed on the basement then usually it would only be a small space with less windows on where air can get through but well no one knows yet op didnt say whats actually the are of such basement but just basing on my own experience even no matter how small it is,It wont really make any effect yet those 4 cards are too small on numbers which can give you an uncomfortable heat even on summer.

[gotminer]

In the summer you can mine cryptonight that heats less.

 

[sigtmerchant]

Just arrange some ventilation pulling hot air out. Even 4 card rig can produce a decent amount of heat.

[Didi CC]

they are running on stock, tweaking the clocks will also bring temps down. Another algo could help, if it is a little room, you could use an AC

[vlad230]

I think the best thing you can do is monitor the temperature you're getting on the cards when you get hot days and make sure they're not overheating.

What kind of temperature difference (outside in the shade vs. in your basement) are you seeing when it's a hot day outside nowadays?

[remauto1187ma]

Unless your basement is a finished one then why would you want to put electronics (GPU's) in a high humidity environment. Unless the basement is air conditioned too then your concrete floors are wicking water out of the ground and it is in the air of your basement. Take a look at any of cooling duct work in the basement in the summer.  Where do you think those water droplets come that are on them come from? Its from the humidity.  And humidity is 1 of 4 main killers of electronics. The other 3 being dirty power, static electricity and heat.  
If you can keep the humidity down to under 10% then you should be ok. I live in the midwest and it sure as heck aint no 60 something degrees in my basement in the summer like someone else mentioned here.  Its close to outside ambient temp.

1500w/h of power consumed generates 5100 BTU/hr.  That is almost 1/2 ton of cooling to remove the heat that is generated (Not taking a/c efficiency into account).  A ton of cooling would be 12000 BTU a/c window unit.  Average house has 3-3.5 ton cooling units.(split system with outdoor condenser AKA Central Air)

[Bigdrago]

Put them outside. I have all my rigs outside. A guy have posted video on youtube. Mine survived the winter down to -30C

[juanichiloco]

I didn't have any issues last summer with a 4xRX570 rig, just try and make sure the room is ventilated properly. As others have also mentioned the algo can make a big difference, my rig runs much cooler mining cryptonight coins.

[dhouse]

Thanks for all the input. (On a related note, would water cooling mean that heat wouldn't really be an issue? Forget the fact that they are too expensive to be worthwhile.)

Just arrange some ventilation pulling hot air out. Even 4 card rig can produce a decent amount of heat.

How do I arrange that. I'm a software engineer not a real engineer lol. I am terrible at any type of construction.

Put them outside. I have all my rigs outside. A guy have posted video on youtube. Mine survived the winter down to -30C

That's cool. I saw the florida one with boxes in the screened patio, and several with shacks. I don't really want to wire up a shack and ventilate it, see above comment.

Unless your basement is a finished one then why would you want to put electronics (GPU's) in a high humidity environment. Unless the basement is air conditioned too then your concrete floors are wicking water out of the ground and it is in the air of your basement. Take a look at any of cooling duct work in the basement in the summer.  Where do you think those water droplets come that are on them come from? Its from the humidity.  And humidity is 1 of 4 main killers of electronics. The other 3 being dirty power, static electricity and heat.  
If you can keep the humidity down to under 10% then you should be ok. I live in the midwest and it sure as heck aint no 60 something degrees in my basement in the summer like someone else mentioned here.  Its close to outside ambient temp.

1500w/h of power consumed generates 5100 BTU/hr.  That is almost 1/2 ton of cooling to remove the heat that is generated (Not taking a/c efficiency into account).  A ton of cooling would be 12000 BTU a/c window unit.  Average house has 3-3.5 ton cooling units.(split system with outdoor condenser AKA Central Air)

It has AC

I think the best thing you can do is monitor the temperature you're getting on the cards when you get hot days and make sure they're not overheating.

What kind of temperature difference (outside in the shade vs. in your basement) are you seeing when it's a hot day outside nowadays?

it's still cold out. In the summer it'll get to the mid 90's (Fahrenheit), basement is maybe 70ish usually.

[grendel25]

My experience is similar where I ran a rig in my basement but I also ran a smaller rig in my bedroom desktop PC with just two cards.  The 6 card rig in the basement needed a box fan in the summer but was fine without it in the winter.  As for the bedroom desktop... damn it gets hot in there!  lol... I'm thinking of building a second rig and removing the cards in my bedroom desktop or swapping them out for something that produces less heat!

[NiklasFalk]

Water cooling a a good technique to move heat somewhere else, but the heat must be shed somewhere (but heat in water is easily and silently exchanged to other fluids). Never worth the effort in ROI sense, but could be interesting from an engineering point of view.

I solved my localized heat in my basement by adding a simple fan to make the whole basement the same temp. This does not change the heat output of the rig, but it makes the whole basement absorb the heat and transfer it more efficiently to the rest of the house.
But when the summer comes it will be a question of lowering the power to the cards and increasing efficiency (per W, not per s).

There are some videos about using a grow tent and effectively make the rig use filtered outdoor air (byt having flex hose through a window.

[valjean]

Your cards run at stock setting and that is the problem but also part of the solution.

I have a similar rig with 4 rx 570 in a 10 m2 room, the rig was really warm and the room temperature was about 30 degres and it was a pleasure in winter time but no more in spring.

I was looking for solutions like moving it to a shelve or building an outdoor frame but before that I started optimising its consomption.

I have been undervolting the cards and the rig temperate has been dropping a lot. The air in the room is now not really warm and everything works perfectly, I don't have to move it anymore.

Cryptonight algo is also better than ethereum temperature wise as it does'nt require as much watt as ethereum (one of my card is 71 degrees on ETH but only 64 degrees when mining XMR)

Hope this can help you