Enough Power?

[DeathAndTaxes]

Like I said - pie-in-the-sky - but what made me think about it seriously was this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/260836521449 only $650.
I estimated $2000 for the SHB host card because it wouldn't need to be the top-end model with all the latest stuff.

Wow nice find.  Significantly cheaper than the cheapest I have ever seen.  If it weren't for FPGA I might be crazy enough to try something like that.  I wired a 240V, 30A circuit w/a locking NEMA L6-30R connector and a used ADP 30A PDU.   Nice setup BTW.  Solid, clean power, and no issues w/ overloading circuit in the rest of the house.  It is enough for 20 5970s (40 GPU total) or ~14GH if I wanted to expand.

Still FPGA worry me for anything w/ a ROI beyond a year.

[1714922967]

1714922967

[rjk]

Still FPGA worry me for anything w/ a ROI beyond a year.

So I decided to run some more numbers, and found out just exactly how bad of an investment this could potentially be.
So lets assume that IF a 7990 had 2 cores capable of 600 Mhash/s each at stock clocks, and IF they pulled the full maximum of 375 watts for a PCI Express card (2x 8pin @ 150watts each = 300 watts, plus 75 watts from the slot), and IF I could get all 18 slots populated and working with virtual machines or whatever technology, and IF it cost me a conservative estimate of $25,000........

.......that would mean numbers such as the following:
21.6Ghash/s per rig
~7500 watts power draw at the plug(s) (assuming 95% efficiency, which is more common in server-grade power supplies)
6-8 U rack spaces, depending on how it was architected.

Now, if we assume for a moment that the BFL Rig Box exists and works at the numbers stated, that is as follows:
~$25,000
50 Ghash/s
2500 watts
unknown rack spaces

I suppose this serves to illustrate how badly FPGAs have the potential to kick  whomp  BLAST the ass of video cards into next week.

Since my power is 9 cents kw/h, I decided to do an ROI calculation. For the custom monster machine with 18 video cards, ROI is slated to be ~250 days, assuming the difficulty and price remain the same (yeah right ). For the Rig box, it is 95 days. Of course, the video cards and waterblocks have known resale value, but damn.... less than 100 days. I STILL am not sure whether I want it to be true or not.

EDIT: minor spelling corrections.

[bulanula]

Still FPGA worry me for anything w/ a ROI beyond a year.

So I decided to run some more numbers, and found out just exactly how bad of an investment this could potentially be.
So lets assume that IF a 7990 had 2 cores capable of 600 Mhash/s each at stock clocks, and IF they pulled the full maximum of 375 watts for a PCI Express card (2x 8pin @ 150watts each = 300 watts, plus 75 watts from the slot), and IF I could get all 18 slots populated and working with virtual machines or whatever technology, and IF it cost me a conservative estimate of $25,000........

.......that would mean numbers such as the following:
21.6Ghash/s per rig
~7500 watts power draw at the plug(s) (assuming 95% efficiency, which is more common in server-grade power supplies)
6-8 U rack spaces, depending on how it was architected.

Now, if we assume for a moment that the BFL Rig Box exists and works at the numbers stated, that is as follows:
~$25,000
50 Ghash/s
2500 watts
unknown rack spaces

I suppose this serves to illustrate how badly FPGAs have the potential to kick  whomp  BLAST the ass of video cards into next week.

Since my power is 9 cents kw/h, I decided to do an ROI calculation. For the custom monster machine with 18 video cards, ROI is slated to be ~250 days, assuming the difficulty and price remain the same (yeah right ). For the Rig box, it is 95 days. Of course, the video cards and waterblocks have known resale value, but damn.... less than 100 days. I STILL am not sure whether I want it to be true or not.

EDIT: minor spelling corrections.

Funny that some of you still think or dream about the 25K top grade unicorn being real. Getting 50 ghash/s with 32 singles at 800 mhash/s each does not compute. Probably will get only around 25 ghash/s in the end LOL and draw 10 000W.

Paying $25k and getting 6 month warranty on a product that is TOTALLY USELESS outside of this community = too much risk for me.

Maybe others can stomach that cost and risk etc. but not me. Good luck with your backplanes.

[rjk]

Funny that some of you still think or dream about the 25K top grade unicorn being real. Getting 50 ghash/s with 32 singles at 800 mhash/s each does not compute. Probably will get only around 25 ghash/s in the end LOL and draw 10 000W.

Paying $25k and getting 6 month warranty on a product that is TOTALLY USELESS outside of this community = too much risk for me.

Maybe others can stomach that cost and risk etc. but not me. Good luck with your backplanes.

Not sure if you chose to notice, but I specifically worded my post to point out that it is obvious that the item does not exist and is difficult to believe that it does exist. This does not mean that I am "dreaming" of such a thing. I was simply using it for comparison to what I actually was dreaming about.

You appear to be deathly afraid of it, if it were true. I think that if we gain such capabilities, miners in general will embrace the technology. Whether or not it exists is a completely different and unrelated matter.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Even compared to FPGA which do exist the return isn't worth the risk. 

As a tech lover it sucks that cheapo CPU, cheapo RAM, usb stick, decent MB + lots of GPU = winz.

As a capitalist I own 5 such rigs. 

I also am not just thinking of CURRENT FPGA but a year is a long time in silicon world.  FPGA designs will only get more cost effective.  28nm chips likely will be reasonably available this year.  Who knows what the pricing is but FPGA getting 25% or 50% higher efficiency (MH/$ and MH/W) is certainly a possibility. 

All that puts a damper on long payback periods on GPU tech.

[bulanula]

Even compared to FPGA which do exist the return isn't worth the risk. 

As a tech lover it sucks that cheapo CPU, cheapo RAM, usb stick, decent MB + lots of GPU = winz.

As a capitalist I own 5 such rigs. 

I also am not just thinking of CURRENT FPGA but a year is a long time in silicon world.  FPGA designs will only get more cost effective.  28nm chips likely will be reasonably available this year.  Who knows what the pricing is but FPGA getting 25% or 50% higher efficiency (MH/$ and MH/W) is certainly a possibility. 

All that puts a damper on long payback periods on GPU tech.

Do you have some pictures of your rigs, D&T ?

I have great respect for you and your knowledge in all things mining !

[DeathAndTaxes]

No but I will take some this evening if anyone is bitcoin nerdy enough to see a 240V L6-30R circuit (handles up to 7.2 KW load) with high current PDU looks like.  I don't know of anyone putting one in their garage before.

[rjk]

No but I will take some this evening if anyone is bitcoin nerdy enough to see a 240V L6-30R circuit (handles up to 7.2 KW load) with high current PDU looks like.  I don't know of anyone putting one in their garage before.

I just got something similar to that, but I must have the wrong model because it refuses to talk to my KVM switch

[P4man]

I don't know of anyone putting one in their garage before.

Amateur. I have 380V in my garage!

[DeathAndTaxes]

I don't know of anyone putting one in their garage before.

Amateur. I have 380V in my garage!

Well that one stumped me.  Where do you live that you have 380V mains?

[P4man]

I have 3 phases entering the house (120V each). Of course almost everything uses just 2 at 220v, but I have an oddball self-built sawing machine in the garage that needs 3 phases.

[Intention]

I thought I'd pop in to say I got the Cooler Master GX650 and all is good, at the moment I'm only running a 5850 I ordered a 5830 from EPiSKiNG so I'm waiting on that, however I was using a similar device to a kill-a-watt from Canadian(eh) Tire and originally was reading 1000watts which must be horribly wrong but with the GX I'm getting 200watts which is more reasonable.

Any ideas? Possible witchcraft/sorcery?