Pictures of your mining rigs!

[ssateneth]

I use these to get more PCI-E power plugs. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812198018
If I -have- to use a molex to get more PCI-E power plugs, I use the ones included with Sapphire cards. They're single molex, not double, and there are no missing wires in the PCI-E pwoer plug, unlike the ones I see in this thread. Their wires are pretty thick, so they don't get hot.

I avoid using them because I noticed some instability when I used one of those Sapphire 1x 4pin molex to 6pin on my then 5830.

When the cables get hot, that usually means that the psu is overheating and/or under severe load.

I had a 750W power supply powering two gigabyte 5850's off of a molex line. Didnt draw more than 450 watts at the wall, but the wires melted at the modular connection between molex and power supply. Power supply was not overheating or under severe load. It was the load on the wires. Too many amps.

Also there's some wrongly wired molex to PCI-E out there. I had one that had a 5v wire attached to a ground pin. I threw that away immediately. Dead short = not good. Yes some molex to pci-e use red wires but properly attach ground to ground, but this one was dead short.

[1714216402]

1714216402

[vdragon]

I use these to get more PCI-E power plugs. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812198018
If I -have- to use a molex to get more PCI-E power plugs, I use the ones included with Sapphire cards. They're single molex, not double, and there are no missing wires in the PCI-E pwoer plug, unlike the ones I see in this thread. Their wires are pretty thick, so they don't get hot.

I avoid using them because I noticed some instability when I used one of those Sapphire 1x 4pin molex to 6pin on my then 5830.

When the cables get hot, that usually means that the psu is overheating and/or under severe load.

I had a 750W power supply powering two gigabyte 5850's off of a molex line. Didnt draw more than 450 watts at the wall, but the wires melted at the modular connection between molex and power supply. Power supply was not overheating or under severe load. It was the load on the wires. Too many amps.

Also there's some wrongly wired molex to PCI-E out there. I had one that had a 5v wire attached to a ground pin. I threw that away immediately. Dead short = not good. Yes some molex to pci-e use red wires but properly attach ground to ground, but this one was dead short.

 5 series was pulling much more power then the 7... And when you said wrongly wired, i went through all of my spare cables. Found 2

[ssateneth]

I use these to get more PCI-E power plugs. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812198018
If I -have- to use a molex to get more PCI-E power plugs, I use the ones included with Sapphire cards. They're single molex, not double, and there are no missing wires in the PCI-E pwoer plug, unlike the ones I see in this thread. Their wires are pretty thick, so they don't get hot.

I avoid using them because I noticed some instability when I used one of those Sapphire 1x 4pin molex to 6pin on my then 5830.

When the cables get hot, that usually means that the psu is overheating and/or under severe load.

I had a 750W power supply powering two gigabyte 5850's off of a molex line. Didnt draw more than 450 watts at the wall, but the wires melted at the modular connection between molex and power supply. Power supply was not overheating or under severe load. It was the load on the wires. Too many amps.

Also there's some wrongly wired molex to PCI-E out there. I had one that had a 5v wire attached to a ground pin. I threw that away immediately. Dead short = not good. Yes some molex to pci-e use red wires but properly attach ground to ground, but this one was dead short.

 5 series was pulling much more power then the 7... And when you said wrongly wired, i went through all of my spare cables. Found 2

Doesn't help that the gigabyte cards are voltage locked to something far above 1.0875v (Stable at 1015MHz at supposedly 1v? yeah right). Anyways, I have 2 5970 and 4 5870, all reference connected to one mobo and one PSU. 3.02 GHash @ 1v, 965 watts or 3.13 Mhash/joule. Not too bad for GPUs

[vdragon]

Doesn't help that the gigabyte cards are voltage locked to something far above 1.0875v (Stable at 1015MHz at supposedly 1v? yeah right). Anyways, I have 2 5970 and 4 5870, all reference connected to one mobo and one PSU. 3.02 GHash @ 1v, 965 watts or 3.13 Mhash/joule. Not too bad for GPUs

 Which Gigabyte cards? From 7 series only voltage locked cards are newer 7970s. Rest can be flashed with old BIOS

[ssateneth]

Doesn't help that the gigabyte cards are voltage locked to something far above 1.0875v (Stable at 1015MHz at supposedly 1v? yeah right). Anyways, I have 2 5970 and 4 5870, all reference connected to one mobo and one PSU. 3.02 GHash @ 1v, 965 watts or 3.13 Mhash/joule. Not too bad for GPUs

 Which Gigabyte cards? From 7 series only voltage locked cards are newer 7970s. Rest can be flashed with old BIOS

gigabyte 5850 is voltage locked (likely also with 5830 and 5870. other manufacturers have some sort of voltage changing, and reference cards are great with 0.0125v steps)

[Hippie Tech]

Thx for the tips, Beyondo.

[vdragon]

Doesn't help that the gigabyte cards are voltage locked to something far above 1.0875v (Stable at 1015MHz at supposedly 1v? yeah right). Anyways, I have 2 5970 and 4 5870, all reference connected to one mobo and one PSU. 3.02 GHash @ 1v, 965 watts or 3.13 Mhash/joule. Not too bad for GPUs

 Which Gigabyte cards? From 7 series only voltage locked cards are newer 7970s. Rest can be flashed with old BIOS

gigabyte 5850 is voltage locked (likely also with 5830 and 5870. other manufacturers have some sort of voltage changing, and reference cards are great with 0.0125v steps)

 Ah sorry, I thought its about 7 series. Because there are some Gigabyte 7950s that come with locked FZ1 Bios, but can be flashed via DOS/atiflasher to F2

[Beyondo]

Thx for the tips, Beyondo.

No prob.  Others on this forum have posted this stuff way back over a year ago.  I've lurked for almost 2 years now 

If you sift through all the threads you'll find some very useful tips for Windows and Linux and mining in general.

[vdragon]

And since I have seen where the discussion is going, this is Room 3, actually by time, it was Room 1 - my first bitcoin project - for those who like more cards on one motherboard, and custom built solutions. My 5970s and 6950s - only problem is they pull too much power. 



and




 Good old days when I had the nerve for it

[crazyates]

And since I have seen where the discussion is going, this is Room 3, actually by time, it was Room 1 - my first bitcoin project - for those who like more cards on one motherboard, and custom built solutions. My 5970s and 6950s - only problem is they pull too much power. 

and

Good old days when I had the nerve for it

I fixed your [img] tags, and added [url] ones. Now we can actually see the whole picture at once, or click to zoom into certain parts. Much better for threads like this.

[Hippie Tech]

It just occured to me that some or all of these adapter failures happened because of the initial heat damaged caused by the gpu(s). eg. About a month ago, I had to reroute the gpu's cables because they were being slow baked by the 5850's vrm heat.

[vdragon]

I fixed your [img] tags, and added [url] ones. Now we can actually see the whole picture at once, or click to zoom into certain parts. Much better for threads like this.

 Thanks, will resize them next time before uploading, forgot to do that again.

[chungenhung]

NEVER use a SATA to PCIe connector - don't know who the hell thought of that idea but that is just asking for a problem since the SATA connectors were never designed to deliver that much power.

How much power is SATA cable rated for?
I have 5830's that's undervolted, and was thinking of using SATA to PCI-E power cables.

[king_pin]

How much power is SATA cable rated for?
I have 5830's that's undervolted, and was thinking of using SATA to PCI-E power cables.

Don't!!!
It can handle no more than 5 amps so no more than 50-60W. And the connector is the problem, not the cable, the connecting surface is too small.

[ssateneth]

NEVER use a SATA to PCIe connector - don't know who the hell thought of that idea but that is just asking for a problem since the SATA connectors were never designed to deliver that much power.

How much power is SATA cable rated for?
I have 5830's that's undervolted, and was thinking of using SATA to PCI-E power cables.

IMO, just use PCI-E plug splitters. Some power supplies split a set of 6 wires (3 hot, 3 ground) to 2 6+2 plugs already (300 watts!). With SATA, you only have 1 hot and 2 grounds, and they are likely thinner gauge wire, plus the connectors are not rated for a significant power draw.

Here are the PCI-E power plug splitters that I use. They take in a 6 pin plug (or 6+2, but it only takes in 6) and output 2 6+2 plugs, essentially adding one additional PCI-E plug per splitter. I love them. They are $3 each with free shipping if bought in volume at newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812198018

[abracadabra]

How much power is SATA cable rated for?
I have 5830's that's undervolted, and was thinking of using SATA to PCI-E power cables.

Don't!!!
It can handle no more than 5 amps so no more than 50-60W. And the connector is the problem, not the cable, the connecting surface is too small.

been running 5830s on sata->pcie power connectors for over a year.  no problems.

[superfastkyle]

Your lucky then. I used mine for a while too. First failure killed the power supply. Short circuit protection failed I guess. They after I thought I had gotten rid of all of them I discovered I still had one on the 6 pin on my 7970 which failed. Now I'm still waiting for my 7970 back from rma. They short in the connector itself (heat melts plastic just enough to short 12v and ground which conveniently are right next to each other), like the other guy said its not the wire that fails. Its not worth it.

How much power is SATA cable rated for?
I have 5830's that's undervolted, and was thinking of using SATA to PCI-E power cables.

Don't!!!
It can handle no more than 5 amps so no more than 50-60W. And the connector is the problem, not the cable, the connecting surface is too small.

been running 5830s on sata->pcie power connectors for over a year.  no problems.

[vdragon]

How much power is SATA cable rated for?
I have 5830's that's undervolted, and was thinking of using SATA to PCI-E power cables.

Don't!!!
It can handle no more than 5 amps so no more than 50-60W. And the connector is the problem, not the cable, the connecting surface is too small.

been running 5830s on sata->pcie power connectors for over a year.  no problems.

 My 7950s (well some of them), are heavily undervolted, and they run fine on those adapters, but... I woudnt try to run a 5 series on them, they are power hungry bastards

[vdragon]

BTW, reinforcements are here, 33 more 7950, I simply couldnt resist the price. Pictures to be soon. If I am correct, I will be at 80GHs now

[abracadabra]

BTW, reinforcements are here, 33 more 7950, I simply couldnt resist the price. Pictures to be soon. If I am correct, I will be at 80GHs now

Gutsy move with asics around the corner.  Right now you are looking at maybe $65/month gross assuming no change in diff.  Expect that to be reduced to $20/month in about 1 month and less than $5/month after that. I'd be surprised if you see a payback period under a couple of years.