WhitePhantom
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July 24, 2012, 10:00:25 AM Last edit: August 25, 2012, 12:08:57 AM by WhitePhantom |
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Sorry for the delay on pics and video. My wife went into labor the day after I got my mini-rigs and things have been pretty crazy (eg. no sleep) since then. We've been blessed with a beautiful baby daughter, though! Quick answers to questions I've seen floating around: - The Mini-Rig is about as loud as your average Dell rack-mounted server, such as a PowerEdge 2970. In a data center with 3 PowerEdge servers, I was unable to tell when I ran a single Mini-Rig.
- According to my Kill-a-Watt, one Mini-Rig uses about 1140 watts when mining on a 120v circuit.
- I get about 50.8 GH/s out of my two Mini-Rigs combined, but I've read on the forums that some people get 52GH/s out of two of them.
Video (sorry, some of it's out of focus): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66KHMmbnQ_YPics: http://imgur.com/a/UanjrOne of the USB-to-Serial adapters seems to have failed, causing an FPGA to go offline, so I'll probably be getting back into one of the mini-rigs this weekend, just in case there are any additional video/picture requests. Edit: The "USB-to-Serial adapter" is actually built into the card...Not sure how I missed that. If I can't get it working again, I'll have to send in the failed card for warranty replacement.
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kano
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July 24, 2012, 12:03:50 PM |
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No one has ever posted here about a dead unit other than ngzhang, so presumably they have RMA stock sitting on the shelf in case of issues.
Well I'm in the middle of upgrading my desktop (where I also have my 1xBFL and my 2xIcarius) so I moved them to my kids PC ... windows ... Yes this BFL has been acting bizarre for over a week now. I made some changes to cgminer to fix a possible hang if something went wrong with the BFL (bug which I found coz things did go wrong with my BFL) Thus on one morning when I found it had been dead for 3 hours, I powered it off, switched the software and to my surprise the BFL went back to mining full speed for almost 2 days. Of course it's clearly some stupidity in the throttling hardware, since it was running 10C higher and not throttling for almost 2 days until it went back to half hash rate. Anyway, since it's now connected to a windows box I tried easyminer and it firstly failed (the BFL showed up then disappeared from the screen) I tried cgminer again and it was still happy to mine at half speed Anyway, went back into easyminer and this time it didn't disappear ... Ran a short test and it said all tests failed ... odd since it was still able to mine happily at half speed (which I tested again after with cgminer and it was again mining at ~half speed) Then I tried putting the 800 bitstream in it. cgminer seemed happy to hash at a lower speed and a lower temp of course (~35°C) and was running both FPGA fine - total ~792MH/s ... and then I thought, what the heck I'll try the fastest bitstream ... and it's now running fine at ~870MH/s for over 90minutes ... 48.70°C So back to what I said when I first got it - the throttling hardware in these things suck badly. If only they had left that to software to deal with it properly instead of the crap they put in them to deal with it so poorly ... Lets see how long this thing lasts at 870MH/s ...
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Cablez
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July 24, 2012, 12:38:46 PM Last edit: July 24, 2012, 01:00:35 PM by Cablez |
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Hey Phantom, very nice indeed. I can't believe i squealed like a little girl when I saw you did inside pics. Thanks for that. anyway congrats on the bundle of joy. EDIT: Ugh, what a rats nest!!! I thought they had a nice control board with sata ports and would not need hot glued usb hubs (unpowered from the look of it)? Also the power distribution system could be better. They raped that PSU and used snap together terminals, what is this an 18yr olds car audio system in his mom's oldsmobile? It is a wonderful piece of hardware guys but please evolve it into something a little bit more elegant for 15grand.
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Tired of substandard power distribution in your ASIC setup??? Chris' Custom Cablez will get you sorted out right! No job too hard so PM me for a quote Check my products or ask a question here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74397.0
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sinkillerj
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July 24, 2012, 01:00:03 PM |
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Just as a update to everyone, after taking the "if you want something done right, do it yourself" approach and fixing the thing myself it works well so far, the boards seam fine, its when they put them in the cases that things go wrong, probably hiring cheap local labor lolz.
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rjk
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1ngldh
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July 24, 2012, 01:00:41 PM |
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One of the USB-to-Serial adapters seems to have failed, causing an FPGA to go offline, so I'll probably be getting back into one of the mini-rigs this weekend, just in case there are any additional video/picture requests.
That's interesting; so they are using USB hubs instead of the "X-link" board that we saw that has SATA connectors. I wonder if the SATA is for a different application or if USB was deemed more reliable or what.
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BlackPrapor
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July 24, 2012, 07:15:02 PM |
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Sorry for the delay on pics and video. My wife went into labor the day after I got my mini-rigs and things have been pretty crazy (eg. no sleep) since then. We've been blessed with a beautiful baby daughter, though! Quick answers to questions I've seen floating around: - The Mini-Rig is about as loud as your average Dell rack-mounted server, such as a PowerEdge 2970. In a data center with 3 PowerEdge servers, I was unable to tell when I ran a single Mini-Rig.
- According to my Kill-a-Watt, one Mini-Rig uses about 1140 watts when mining on a 120v circuit.
- I get about 50.8 GH/s out of my two Mini-Rigs combined, but I've read on the forums that some people get 52GH/s out of two of them.
Video (sorry, some of it's out of focus): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66KHMmbnQ_YPics: http://imgur.com/a/UanjrOne of the USB-to-Serial adapters seems to have failed, causing an FPGA to go offline, so I'll probably be getting back into one of the mini-rigs this weekend, just in case there are any additional video/picture requests. Thanks a lot for very professional pictures and video . At last, someone made it the way it should be done!
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jddebug
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July 24, 2012, 07:18:30 PM |
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One of the USB-to-Serial adapters seems to have failed, causing an FPGA to go offline, so I'll probably be getting back into one of the mini-rigs this weekend, just in case there are any additional video/picture requests.
That's interesting; so they are using USB hubs instead of the "X-link" board that we saw that has SATA connectors. I wonder if the SATA is for a different application or if USB was deemed more reliable or what. I may have some comments about this soon. Doing some testing.
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uuidman
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July 24, 2012, 07:20:14 PM |
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Sorry for the delay on pics and video. My wife went into labor the day after I got my mini-rigs and things have been pretty crazy (eg. no sleep) since then. We've been blessed with a beautiful baby daughter, though! Quick answers to questions I've seen floating around: - The Mini-Rig is about as loud as your average Dell rack-mounted server, such as a PowerEdge 2970. In a data center with 3 PowerEdge servers, I was unable to tell when I ran a single Mini-Rig.
- According to my Kill-a-Watt, one Mini-Rig uses about 1140 watts when mining on a 120v circuit.
- I get about 50.8 GH/s out of my two Mini-Rigs combined, but I've read on the forums that some people get 52GH/s out of two of them.
Video (sorry, some of it's out of focus): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66KHMmbnQ_YPics: http://imgur.com/a/UanjrOne of the USB-to-Serial adapters seems to have failed, causing an FPGA to go offline, so I'll probably be getting back into one of the mini-rigs this weekend, just in case there are any additional video/picture requests. Wow big thanks to you for the photos and video and congrats for your daughter.
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Pipesnake
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July 24, 2012, 07:26:25 PM |
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Just take off the case and mine without it. My bottom fan died after about one month of usage . At first I was pissed about the quality and that I had to fix it but the show must go on. I like them better naked... Are the temps lower or higher with the case off? I can't stand the misalignment (random disconnects) and would happily shed the case if temps are same (or lower).
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TechCF
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July 24, 2012, 08:51:17 PM |
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Thanks. Not too impressed with the velcro and hot glue solutions, and wire-out-the-hole-in-the-back. The chassis though, looks like a sturdy well built box. I hope BFL will put some resources into getting the cabling and build quality for the ASIC units, and not all on the chips. The PCB and cooling in my single is great. Too me it looks like the build quality of the single is better than the minirig.
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MrTeal
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July 24, 2012, 09:07:42 PM |
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Thanks. Not too impressed with the velcro and hot glue solutions, and wire-out-the-hole-in-the-back. The chassis though, looks like a sturdy well built box. I hope BFL will put some resources into getting the cabling and build quality for the ASIC units, and not all on the chips. The PCB and cooling in my single is great. Too me it looks like the build quality of the single is better than the minirig. That looks like a nightmare inside. Not what you'd expect from a $15,000 piece of hardware. Yeeesh.
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Cablez
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July 24, 2012, 10:59:16 PM |
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I would expect more myself.
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Tired of substandard power distribution in your ASIC setup??? Chris' Custom Cablez will get you sorted out right! No job too hard so PM me for a quote Check my products or ask a question here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74397.0
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WhitePhantom
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July 24, 2012, 11:40:46 PM |
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Thanks. Not too impressed with the velcro and hot glue solutions, and wire-out-the-hole-in-the-back. The chassis though, looks like a sturdy well built box. I hope BFL will put some resources into getting the cabling and build quality for the ASIC units, and not all on the chips. The PCB and cooling in my single is great. Too me it looks like the build quality of the single is better than the minirig. That looks like a nightmare inside. Not what you'd expect from a $15,000 piece of hardware. Yeeesh. Personally, I was totally satisfied with what I found inside. Nothing breaks when I move them around and they're practically maintenance free. This one chassis is far superior to anything I'd have come up with to fit 50 GH/s worth of Singles into a small space. Just gotta get the one faulty USB-to-Serial adapter replaced this weekend and I'll be back to 100%. I paid the money for hashing power, which works awesome...No regrets. I LOVE my mini-rigs!
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jamesg
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July 24, 2012, 11:43:05 PM |
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Personally, I was totally satisfied with what I found inside. Nothing breaks when I move them around and they're practically maintenance free. This one chassis is far superior to anything I'd have come up with to fit 50 GH/s worth of Singles into a small space.
I paid the money for hashing power, which works awesome...No regrets. I LOVE my mini-rigs!
1000% agreed. I'm not quite sure what you guys are expecting. It's not like BFL has been in business as long as Apple and has as reality distortion field. I'm sure in a couple iterations of the case and connections, you'll see a much improved mini rig.
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Cablez
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July 25, 2012, 12:12:28 AM |
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Of course you guys are fully satisfied with your rigs, you have to be. You plunked down treasure, waited seemingly forever and finally were rewarded with gold in a box. You better be satisfied by this point. The perspective from the outside though is that when one plunks down 15grand or better yet 30+ as you both have shown along with darkice that you get something that is a little more polished as well as 'just works'. My thoughts are that they just don't have the time/resources to put a nice coat of polish on the insides as they are constantly in the innovators seat which moves fast. I don't imagine we will see newer revisions of these rigs because ASICs are getting closer every day supposedly and that will be a whole new ballgame.
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Tired of substandard power distribution in your ASIC setup??? Chris' Custom Cablez will get you sorted out right! No job too hard so PM me for a quote Check my products or ask a question here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74397.0
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jamesg
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July 25, 2012, 02:13:01 AM |
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Of course you guys are fully satisfied with your rigs, you have to be. You plunked down treasure, waited seemingly forever and finally were rewarded with gold in a box. You better be satisfied by this point. The perspective from the outside though is that when one plunks down 15grand or better yet 30+ as you both have shown along with darkice that you get something that is a little more polished as well as 'just works'. My thoughts are that they just don't have the time/resources to put a nice coat of polish on the insides as they are constantly in the innovators seat which moves fast. I don't imagine we will see newer revisions of these rigs because ASICs are getting closer every day supposedly and that will be a whole new ballgame. perfection === iteration Do you think the ASIC rigs are going to use multiple PCBs in a box? If so, it's the next iteration of the previous design.
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Cablez
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July 25, 2012, 04:06:58 AM |
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I am not even looking for perfection, just a bit of elegance that shows some thought and love went into the current box. The next go round will be the next go round albeit cleaner I hope.
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Tired of substandard power distribution in your ASIC setup??? Chris' Custom Cablez will get you sorted out right! No job too hard so PM me for a quote Check my products or ask a question here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74397.0
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mrb
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July 25, 2012, 04:34:32 AM |
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That's interesting; so they are using USB hubs instead of the "X-link" board that we saw that has SATA connectors. I wonder if the SATA is for a different application or if USB was deemed more reliable or what.
Of course not. I am sure that BFL were initially planning to use the X-link board and Raspberry Pi to make a much more polished mini rig, and then decided to do without them in order to cut corners and not be (more) late on their schedule.
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Dargo
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July 25, 2012, 05:08:34 AM |
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I'm not quite sure what you guys are expecting.
That's a thought I have quite often on this forum.
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Turbor
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July 25, 2012, 11:23:21 AM |
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Just take off the case and mine without it. My bottom fan died after about one month of usage . At first I was pissed about the quality and that I had to fix it but the show must go on. I like them better naked... Are the temps lower or higher with the case off? I can't stand the misalignment (random disconnects) and would happily shed the case if temps are same (or lower). The temps are lower with the extra fan. I also turned the top fan around.
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