Hashmaster 2000, outdoor mining in the arctic.

[Isokivi]

Any measurements here are metric, all temperatures are celcius, prices however are in usd. When considering any prices, do take in to account that Finland is an expensive country, just for an example if I'd buy an item of ebay costing 100$ with shipping, I would have to pay 23$ in taxes when picking it up from the post office.

My open frame rig was doing very niceley untill a litter of puppies rolled in around the 15th of march. But after they did the temperatures in the room they and my rig were in started climbing rapidly as I could no longer keep the window open whenever I felt like. The room heated to about 30-35c, which I found rather unpleasant... and worse yet it promised that the coming summer would be intolerable at best. So I started looking in to ways to vent out the heat and when I could not come up with anything viable I proceeded to looking in to alternative locations for my rig, I managed to find some, but none of them felt like the right one, untill the tought of taking the operation outside occured to me. I live in an apartment building so the only way out for me is my balcony, it's open and I live in a windy spot so I would have to deal with rain and snow to some extent. The temperatures my rig would have to face range from -34 to 35 celsius degrees. That is an whopping 69 degree difference. After taking a some days to think about the environmental conditions I deemed the circumstances tolerable and decided to continue planning this enterprise. I believe that I can negotiate my way trough the temperatures by applying different overclocking, undervolting and  airflow settigs for different times of year. Hence forth known as seasonal overclocking. I am almost certain that the most challenging circumstaces will be during long periods of hard  frost, especially during windy days and the occational snowstorm, to be more exact: preventing fine, light snow from getting in, on and under the rig. That stuff has almost no weight and moves amazingly freely in any direction with the wind.

I quite quickly dismissed building the housing from scratch, mainly because it seemed like the more expensive and slower way to go, also it was likely prove too big a challenge for my limited skillset.
   This might be a good point to ramble about me, just as an example and an encouragement to anyone out there considering taking on a project like this. I have, prior to getting in to bitcoin mining, assembled only two compters from scratch, I haven't got the faintest idea on how electricity actually works and my understanding of thermaldynamics is limited at best. Bottom line: if I can do this, anyone can.

   My first idea abouth the semi-premade housing was a chest or a wooden box with a lid on hinges. I found quite a few available online but none of them were particularly close to me and shipping something this size and weight would be costly. I felt like burning up to 130$ on the "case" and shipping, shipping seemd to make up 2/3rds of the price in almost every item I found.
   So I decided to head out to the local recycling center to see what they had lying around. Turned out there was nothing like the chest or trunk I had envisioned. What however caught my eye was this piece of furniture, I have no idea on what it's intended for nor called, but it would do.



 The material is chipboard, it's got wheels at the bottom, the metal bars on the top could be used for cable management and for hanging gpu's, it could be opened sufficiently for my big hands to fit in and it cost me a whopping 7$. The biggest con with it is that it is not large enough to house 2 motherboards whilst having sufficient airflow.

The limitations I need to take in to consideration when deploying the rig are:
   - It should not draw attention from my neighbours, so not be too noisy and absoluteley no unnecessary lights and it definetley should not look like a hemp growing operation. Luckily the side of the building my balcony is on is subject to near-constant round the clock traffic noise so an estimated up to 40db would most likely go unnoticed.
   - "The wife factor" my rig needs to appear and be safe and somewhat estethically pleasing. The latter I belived would prove challenging with my limited skills.
The rig must at most require two 10 amp fuses.
It must endure indirect rain and snowfall and the wide temperature-range of southern-Finland.

At first I removed the semi openable roofpart, took some measurements of my psu, motherboard and all the bits I intended to squeeze in there. Then I figured out whatkind of airflow I want and what size fans I would use. I also applide some silicone on the inside seams of the box as an additional guard against moisture and to ensure air was only getting in and out from where I wanted.


   My intial design was to use three 120mm fans at the bottom and lower parts to push cool air in and another three 80mm fans to the suck air out. Thus, atleast in theory, creating excess pressure within the case. I also planned on having the psu airflow separate from the rig-box, as it almost always is in computers... but ended up dismissing it as 2 fairly large holes would of have been needed and then I'd have to deal with protecting them from rain and such.
   I proceeded to remove the unnecessary looking bit of wood from withing the box. Cutting the holes on to the case proved an arguous task with my limited tooldbox and as I did not really want to spend a whole lot on tools and materials to be able to use they money to fill the rig with as many Mhs as possible. So I ended up working with what I had: a small electric sander that could be used as a drill, some sawblades, a metal file and sanding paper. It took me roughly 14 hours to cut, shape and sand four holes. At which point I became concerned with the structural integrity of the box if I cut it up anymore.


The fans I used are:
Arctic Cooling F12, 9$ a piece.
Nexus Real silent case fan 80mm, 9$ a piece.

So I proceeded to fitting and installing only four fans. If need be I will be able to add multiple even smaller fans (im thinking the size cpu fans were roughly a decade ago 60-70mm? ) on the bottom and a single large fan on the top of the case. As the outside temperatures start climbing in the coming months we'll see if this becomes necessary. As I tested the arflow with the four fans I felt confident I was good for my four gpu's and fairly sure adding two more would not pose a problem, I remember thinking this thing can suck in a fullgrown sparrow.

   The final step of installing the fans was applying gasket sealant around them. Gasket sealant because I a) had it available and b) knew it will endure the temperature differences. Had I tought of gasket sealant instead of regular silicone-paste when doing up the inside seams of the box I would of most certainly used it there aswell.

I used insulation tape on the edges of the roof, Im fairly sure the kind I used is far from optimal when dealing with moisture and will propably replace it as a better solution catches my eye. In terms of sealing heat and airflow it does seem good tough.


   At this point I needed to start dealing with preventing rain from getting in. I fould a nice solution for the outbound air during my first supply run, unfortunateley I only bought one and by the time I decided I want anothe the store I found it in had sold them out, so the protection on the other side became different. This propably will not be a problem as it will be on the side of a wall and thus fairly protected, also having 2 of the storm protected vents, theres a flap in there that closes should the air start flowing the wrong way, would of have clearly been a restriction on airflow. These bit's cost me 5$ and 11$. The protection of the air intakes is simple pvc-plumbing with a 30 degree angle at a cost of 7$ a piece.



Supply run 1

   I figured the wheels at the bottom were sinked so low that I needed to somehow lift the enrire rig up to ensure neither the ethernet- or powercable get damaged, so I aqquired a pallet from a a store I frequent. They'll most likely give them to you free of charge, but you might want to look for a senior enough emplyee who can determine if the pallet in question has cost the store a deposit. When you get one or anything like this free from a store be sure to make a purchase. I can tell you it's fairly frustrating having performance-related pay and seeing potential customers, whom you've never seen before nor ever will again walk a way with their random free crap without buying anything after you've taken the time to accomodate their needs.
   The pallet also effectiveley prevents water from the balcony floor from getting in the rig and lifts it high enough for me to miss a day or three of shoveling should snowfall reach the balcony-corner for a long enough time to pile up.

I also drilled a small hole for power and ethernet cables at the bottom, I intend to leave the hole as it is atleast for now, I feel it provides a nice additional passive air intake point.

   At this time I felt like it was time to get some hardware in the rig and get it running so even tough it had been a long day of assembly and I should of have been heading to bed I ended up installing the psu, mobo and three gpu's.To begin with the cards I wanted in there were and still are 2 x 5870, 5830 and 5770. A total of 1,4Ghs and a thermal load of approximateley 535 watts before undervolting and clocking. I believe the longest period I slept during that night was around 45 minutes... I kept waking up to check on the rig, so anyone going at a project like this might want to figure out when it's time to call it a day. The next day at work sucked donkey balls an d I actually ended up loosing build time as I needed the following evening to recover. The rig did fine appart from my half ass intial configuration which hosted about a dosen typos and several incorrect overclocking values. After I got them ironed out the rig started showing uptimes of 48 hours and succesfull reboots after a hung gpu.



    The ennvironmental factors it's so far seen incude temperatures of -5degrees to 18 degrees, light snowfall and rain. These have caused no problems.
   Whilst the rig was up and running I painted it, for two reasons: 1. the chipboard will undoubtably suck up moisture if given the chance and 2. It needs to seem less threathening to "the wife". The paint I used is red, intended for brake calipers, once again because I had it lying around. A lighter colour would of have been better when considering the sun heating the rig from outside during the summer. I however am certain that I will be able to provide it shade so I didnt concern myself with this minor detail too much.

   After a week of running the rig it became obvious it was accumulating dust within, I had not yet found a suitable solution for a dust guard, so I went out looking for mosquito nets, fishing nets and anything alike. What I eventually found were some sunblockers intended for car windows costing me 4$. I cut one up and tested it with a loose fan, the airflow wasnt quite as good as the filters from my gaming computer's case (Fractial design Define R3), but I figured they were good eonough so I attached them to the air-intakes with rubber bands. I then cleared the dust from within with an airduster and a vacuum cleaner. I will be posting followups on coming dust accumulation. So far it looks good, the improvised airfilters appear to be collecting dust on the outside. I figure I need to clean them on a weekly basis.
   The lower seem of the front door I insulated with multiple layers of duct tape. The upper seem and sides will be covered with a thin plastic sheet. Before this I intend to tape it up for a while and make sure the temperatures remain within the ok-range. Also I should be dropping in 1-2 more GPU's later this week so I dont want to attach the sheet of plastic while I constantly have to open the box. To attach it I will be using the same material that is holding the PSU in place.


I've also added a simple digital thermometer to sit on top of the rig and to measure the ambient temperature in and outside the rig. Im also adding a fan control unit when the one I ordered arrives.

With the curent setup temperatures are as follow:
Ambient: 7,4
Case: 24,4
Gpu-range: 46-60

Late at night when traffic entirely stops you can hear the rig's fans up to distance of 10 meters, so I'll gladly announce it silent enough.

Current record uptime is 75h (and counting), if I add up the time it had before I rebooted it were well past 100h.

As I mentioned I will be dropping in atleast 2 more cards this week and finalize sealing the front door seams. I will be posting temperatures and voitages as I do. I also intendo on posting temperatures as the outside temperatures start rising.

I would like to thank:

The crew of the finnish bitcoin irc-channel I frequent for their help, suggestions, answers and mostly for putting up with my endless flood of questions.

forrestv and other p2pool developers, if you dont mine there you should.

Lordcrappo for he's extensive work on bamt, if you run dedicated rigs this is the only way to go.

Arctic cooling, their products are quite simply superior, I run 4 of their gpu-coolers and 5 fans atm.

If you have any questions, suggestions or concernes feel free to ask/point them out.
If you find this project helpful and would like to ensure my eagerness on keeping updating it as it proceeds then feel free to make a small donation to: 1F2E2tShUV9VNCzZ25qFU96M6N38WGAZzM

If someone would like to buy adspace on my rig (mainly seen here, the post your rig thread, the upcoming annual rig building contest and at an upcoming finnish btc-site) do contact me via PM, I can accomodate stickers, or make a simple stencil/spraypaint solution.

If someone has a "this sticker adds 5MHS" – sticker I would love to get my hands one.

[1715625711]

1715625711

[Cablez]

That is really great work Isokivi!  I think you covered the bases pretty well.  Let's see what happens when summer arrives, you may need higher cfm fans...but maybe not. Yeah Finland.

[Gabi]

Nice job!

[melmo]

The big red box on the balcony doesn't draw attention from the neighbours?  Fantastic work though!

[mitak64]

Some pics from inside would be nice. Otherwise great job !

[Isokivi]

Some pics from inside would be nice. Otherwise great job !

Here you go, couldnt find "the wife's" camera so it's cell phone quality.


I will propably be moving the mobo a bit (10 cm ish) to the left as I add cards, cable management is something to do also.

I should propably also mention that I've hit record temps for this spring:
Ambient (thermometer resting on the box) : 21.8c, direct sunlight ... Im starting to question how accurate my 10$ meter is, the nearest weatherstation is reporting 3,4c
Rig: 34,1c
Gpu range: 51,5-65c

[mitak64]

I would have totally changed the position of the cards by 90 degrees.
You'd have much better air flow. Also I would set fans on the same box side, blowing in the same direction.
Also intake fans placed on the bottom, exhaust fans as closer to the top as possible.
This way you will have a steady current (i.e. from left to right) and the cards would not obstruct the air.
I run a similar setup on my balcony, probably will share pictures later on.

[Mousepotato]

No disrespect, but wow. Your project looked so nice in the beginning and it ends up looking like it got into a fight with a rose bush filled with angry kittens

[Isokivi]

I would have totally changed the position of the cards by 90 degrees.

Thats a usefull tought, Im starting ro consider rotating the entire mobo,

You'd have much better air flow. Also I would set fans on the same box side, blowing in the same direction.
Also intake fans placed on the bottom, exhaust fans as closer to the top as possible.
This way you will have a steady current (i.e. from left to right) and the cards would not obstruct the air.
I run a similar setup on my balcony, probably will share pictures later on.

Please do.

[Isokivi]

No disrespect, but wow. Your project looked so nice in the beginning and it ends up looking like it got into a fight with a rose bush filled with angry kittens

I know and it will not remain this way, I just didnt feel like getting in to the cable management untill I have all the GPUs I want in there. This is also the reason why my intitial post did not include a picture of the inside.

[mitak64]

I recently got 2 metal cabinets, hight is probably 3 times hight of your box.
Doors on the front and back, which will help me with my plan.
I have to figure out how to combine them to create a full size server rack cabinet.
Will be a lot more comfy for access, maintenance etc.

Now I saw I said "I run a similar setup", when I meant "I will run a similar setup"

Pics are still coming though !

[Isokivi]

I recently got 2 metal cabinets, hight is probably 3 times hight of your box.
Doors on the front and back, which will help me with my plan.
I have to figure out how to combine them to create a full size server rack cabinet.
Will be a lot more comfy for access, maintenance etc.

Now I saw I said "I run a similar setup", when I meant "I will run a similar setup"

Pics are still coming though !

I considered some metallic options myself, mainly enclosures intended for electronics, but ended up dismissing them because working with metal would of have been harder and I figured resonance might prove to be a problem. On the other hand a metallic enclosure could prove very nice in terms of heat dissipation... the entire case working to atleast some extent as a large heatsink.

[mitak64]

My thoughts exactly 
My balcony gets about 38C in the summer (mind you, it's facing north and no direct sunlight), so I went with metal ones.
Last year I was using plastic cabinet like this one, but need something bigger this year.

[johnyj]

Impressive work! 

[lightlord]

Great effort

[twoBitBasher]

So no idea on the inside conditions yet while the ambient temp is way below zero?

[Isokivi]

So no idea on the inside conditions yet while the ambient temp is way below zero?

Nope, not really because it's spring here now, I'd guesstimate the ~1600 Mhs I got in there right now will be able to keep the entire enclosure at 5-10c + . If not, then I just adjust fan speeds.

[Isokivi]

I havent had the time to update this thread as I went along, but a lot has changed in a short time:
- I got scammed for the price of a 6990.
- I bought a 6990
- I swapped out the mobo/processor/memory... just couldnt get the pci-e 1x slots working on the last one.
- I had to add ventilation for the 6990, the case now has an outblowing fan on the backside and a somewhat ugly but efficient ventilation hole in the front door. For those of you unfamiliar with 6990:s the stock fans on these can be used to dry hair with proper overclocking and at 100% speed they sound like a leafblower in the room with you. Needless to say im not running the fan at 100% Atm Im pulling 858Mhs from it and the core temps are 64.5 and 67.5c. It dosent appear to be very efficient, the right Mhs/w is down to 2,2 atm, but Im not done yet.
- I added a fan coontrol unit, wont be needing it for 6+ months tough, could come in handy come winter.
- I broke some risers, they hate to be bent multiple times : /
- I fried a card (inside my apartment, nothing to do with the outdoor enclosure, just me sucking and failing.)
- I redid the entire cable management in there, it's slightly neater. But nowhere as good as I'd like.
- I had to pull out a 5830 from the rig, wierd shit with it's temp rising to 86c in multiple different locations within the rig, however now at an indoor open-frame rig it's doing just fine.

Pictures are coming, eventually.. I've been very busy even without all the mishaps, just to get to this point I've missed many a hot-meal and quite a few hours of sleep.

[twoBitBasher]

scammed how 
Nice work btw!

[Isokivi]

scammed how 
Nice work btw!

Localized e-bay style site, paid the item with a bank transfer, never recieved the card... got some explanations for a while, nothing now. A police report has been filed, however I doubt I will ever see any of the money.
I have done about buys/sales online, of which ~300 on this particular site and this is the first time anything like this happened.

[twoBitBasher]

That sucks! 
Well at least the scammer now gets a criminal record if nothing else.
Huuto I assume was the place... Just out of curiosity did the scammer have a brand new account with no positive feedback?

I just bought a used 5970 and It arrived today. I hope this works when I plug it in.

[Isokivi]

That sucks!  
Well at least the scammer now gets a criminal record if nothing else.
Huuto I assume was the place... Just out of curiosity did the scammer have a brand new account with no positive feedback?

I just bought a used 5970 and It arrived today. I hope this works when I plug it in.

You're correct about the place, a fairly new account with some positive feedback. What did you end up paying for a 5970 if I may ask ? ..also any warranty left, stock cooler.. ?

[MXRider]

You should also inform the scammer that you have filed a police report. Maybe that will make him realize that he will not get away with it. You have probably googled his name and address and they are real? If you want you can PM them to me and if he lives nearby I can pay a visit

I recently got scammed for about 800€. Guy lives in Germany. A lot of detective work, some threats (few calls to his wife) and a police report finally made him pay me back. Police can't do shit. Scammer just gets a criminal record and continues his life like nothing happened. Usually they don't have much to lose if they are so stupid that they cheat people in Huuto.net with their own name.

TwoBitBasher, if I may ask, where do you mine? Sometimes in DB but not right now?

[twoBitBasher]

I think I got a good price of 340€ including a nickel+acetal fc 5970 ekwaterblock. No warranty left I think... the GPU block would have had void it anyways. I mine at DB prop mostly during nights when I got all of my computing power at hand. At day time I do mostly pps / dgm pools... you know which ever looks most promising at the time

After this card is installed I think I need to go shopping for some tubing and set the radiators outdoors.

[Isokivi]

I think I got a good price of 340€ including a nickel+acetal fc 5970 ekwaterblock. No warranty left I think... the GPU block would have had void it anyways. I mine at DB prop mostly during nights when I got all of my computing power at hand. At day time I do mostly pps / dgm pools... you know which ever looks most promising at the time

After this card is installed I think I need to go shopping for some tubing and set the radiators outdoors.

I for one would love pictures of the building of your outdoor radiator.

[Isokivi]

You should also inform the scammer that you have filed a police report. Maybe that will make him realize that he will not get away with it. You have probably googled his name and address and they are real? If you want you can PM them to me and if he lives nearby I can pay a visit

I did inform him, the only reliable docs I have are 2 e-mail adresses and a bank account, I also have a phone number I have not called yet that I know is atleast a working one, but the nubmer cannot be docxed further. I know one of the emails belongs to a female who's (or atleast was some years ago) married and being cheated on and who has some years ago traveled to Bulgaria. I know the other email belongs to a person who played a lot of xbox during 2011 and that he has an youtube account with some music content on it. I also have an address I havent yet attempted docxing yet, and a name + bank account of another induvidual, pressumably the female.
You wouldn't happen to live anywhere near Savonlinna ?

I recently got scammed for about 800€. Guy lives in Germany. A lot of detective work, some threats (few calls to his wife) and a police report finally made him pay me back. Police can't do shit. Scammer just gets a criminal record and continues his life like nothing happened. Usually they don't have much to lose if they are so stupid that they cheat people in Huuto.net with their own name.

Nice, I am the sort of petty person who just "might" choose to take revenge over a matter like this.

[Isokivi]

The additions/ changes to the airflow are:

One more outblowing fan, on the back side of the box, protected like the ones initially installed.


The second, and far more efficient tweak was to cut a hole for the 6990 I installed to breathe out of, this effectively dissipates a third of the heat produced by the 6990, at a fan speed of 60%.

I know it's ugly, but man does it work. Had the card been further away from the case-door I propably would of have added a tube of somekind.

I had no idea on how these "stock-cooled single small red fan" -type cards cool them, untill I got this one. The solution I stumbled on is very little short of excellent. When you have either side of a card like this close to the rigs outer walls, cutting and shaping an opening that allows the card to blow out heat is very effective. I have been running the card for 859Mhs (at clocks of: cores 970Mhz, memory 200Mhz, core voltage 0.9v, stability: 37h and counting... no crashes, just havent had it running that long at these settings) at temperatures of 63-70,5c, while the outside temperatures have been swinging between 0 - 9c. I'll propably have to throttle down a bit for the summer but Im happy.

The bottom line here: I am now a firm believer of treating dual-gpu cards with stock coolers like PSU's in regular computer cases: separate it from the rest of the airflow where possible, obviously this does not apply to open-frame rigs.

I also redid the entire cable management thing whilst swapping the motherboard, I'll post a large picture of it when Im able, but atm Im holding out for the wifes camera. It's better, not good, It wont ever get good in this case : /  I used ~50 cable ties, but theres simply no place to hide any wires neatly.

I also pulled out the 5830, I have no idea whats up with the card... It started getting temps of 86c nomatter where in the rig I put it. It's now running indoors in a rig labled "I hope this crap dies in a fire". Personally I wouldnt reccomend getting one of those cards for anyone. Mine is a reference-model asus, with stock cooling it was hot loud and horrible, with an arctic cooling fan it's still warm, silent and crappy. The efficiency is just utter shit. It's either undervolted or stable, never both.

[dunand]

I made a box last summer to mine outside. You need a good air flow or the box will become a furnace. Look at the youtube video of the fan.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=27764.0

[Isokivi]

I made a box last summer to mine outside. You need a good air flow or the box will become a furnace. Look at the youtube video of the fan.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=27764.0

Nice!
That is pretty much the neat, nothreathening-looking design I was initially going for. What are the cards in there, and whats the exact fan you used ?

[grue]

Wait, how did you prevent dew/condensation from accumulating inside the box?

[twoBitBasher]

There is exhaust in the top of the case. Moist air comes in in the bottom it heats up end rises up where the fan blows it out. It would probably work perfectly even with out the fans. Temps would skyrocket but still it would be dry in there. Dunno how it's gonna cope with rainy days when the humidity approaches 100% though. Or this being arctic how it is going to handle frost when it's below -20c. Our ac(termal pump outdoor unit for heating) produces a bucket of condensation a day when its that cold.

[ssateneth]

Wait, how did you prevent dew/condensation from accumulating inside the box?

Holy shit, how do people STILL not get this?

Water condensates from hot air onto a cold surface, NOT the other way around. Have you ever seen condensation on the outside of a hot cup of coffee? No. The air is cold (and already very low in humidity) and the computer is HOT. The heat will allow MORE water to retain in the air, preventing any condensation.

[ssateneth]

There is exhaust in the top of the case. Moist air comes in in the bottom it heats up end rises up where the fan blows it out. It would probably work perfectly even with out the fans. Temps would skyrocket but still it would be dry in there. Dunno how it's gonna cope with rainy days when the humidity approaches 100% though. Or this being arctic how it is going to handle frost when it's below -20c. Our ac(termal pump outdoor unit for heating) produces a bucket of condensation a day when its that cold.

Because you have a cold surface within a hot environment. Does your computer have anything that gets colder as it runs? I highly doubt it. Please, l2physics.

[twoBitBasher]

Yeah that is true. What I was referring to is the buildup of frost to the intake of the box which forms a nice icey ring around the intake.

[Isokivi]

There is exhaust in the top of the case. Moist air comes in in the bottom it heats up end rises up where the fan blows it out. It would probably work perfectly even with out the fans. Temps would skyrocket but still it would be dry in there. Dunno how it's gonna cope with rainy days when the humidity approaches 100% though. Or this being arctic how it is going to handle frost when it's below -20c. Our ac(termal pump outdoor unit for heating) produces a bucket of condensation a day when its that cold.

Should the entire rig come to an halt, lets say a power-outage, during winter I'll propably have to bring it in and let it dry before restarting, during the summer the residiual heat within the case will keep condensation from happening, atleast to my experience: the longest power-outage I've seen lasted 1h 15min and thats in 30 years.

[Isokivi]

Yeah that is true. What I was referring to is the buildup of frost to the intake of the box which forms a nice icey ring around the intake.

That's pretty much something I havent tought of yet, sadly I got next to no testing at sub-zero temperatures worth mentioning, I'll just have to see how this goes in 6 months or so. I doubt it will be fast to happen.. one solution I can think of is hacking up a switch that would reverse the direction of all the fans, any toughts on that ? Reversed airflow for 1h/day would prolly clear up all the buildup within the remaining 23h.

[ssateneth]

FWIW, I had 2 computers completely outside in the winter air of northern wisconsin (easily had some -30c nights) and nothing bad came of it, except for possibly one of the power supplies (no longer allows more than 60% of its rated output before shutting off on its own). It was a PC Power & Cooling 1KW-SR Turbocool. The computers themselves though were unaffected.

[Isokivi]

Short update: 6gpu's and 2Ghs in there, pulling ~840w atm and the cooling seems sufficient atm, Im looking to cram in one or two more gpu's as soon as I find solid info on what is the maximum for linux. Efficiency is fairly shitty 2,39MHS/J, mostly because of the 6990, I just might have to let that one go. Unless I manage to hack up a working bios with 0.9v and 150mem.

[twoBitBasher]

8 is the limit, but your mobo might need everything extra(e-sata, firewire, usb3, sound, etc) switched off to be able to boot.

[Isokivi]

8 is the limit, but your mobo might need everything extra(e-sata, firewire, usb3, sound, etc) switched off to be able to boot.

Everything except usb3 is allready off to save every possible amp, and I can drop it too, just need to figure what ports are the regular usb's and what are usb3.

[twoBitBasher]

that shouldn't be too difficult usb3 using blue connectors usually

[Isokivi]

A four/five month follow-up.

Summer is (finally) over and I can move back to overclocking, it was not a particularly hot one here in Finland, thankfully. But it did teach me a lot. There were some hardware changes along the way, and eventually the rig settled to containing 6 gpu's (2 x 5870 and 2 x 5970). Along the way I had a 6990 in the mix, but ended up using it in my dedicated pc, mainly because it just didnt play nice with the airflow in close proximation to ther cards. I have had one major failure: at 3am on a cold May night the entire rig died. Up to this point im not sure what actually happened, but I ended up with a dead motherboard and a dead psu. Both of which had warranties luckily. It was not raining when the failure occurred, nor was there any sign of moisture within. The psu did not entireley die, whenever started it would spin all the fans for 2 seconds or so before giving up. In my opinnion there is no evidence that the unconventional location of the rig had anything to do with this.

Observations and things I've come to realize:

-When I started building this rig I did had not used a single reference-cooled gpu in a dedicated rig. Hence the airflow was and quite far still is designed wrong. What I initially whipped up worked great on my 5870's with arctic coolings solutions. But when I introduced a reference 6990 in to the mix I ended up having to cut an additional opening for it to simply "breathe out". This opening proved to be decent enough solution and even after swapping out the 6990 I am using similiar openings on one side for my reference 5970's to push hot air out.

- Direct sunlight is a mighty foe, the paint I chose was wrong, white is teh winrar. I did not change this, just ended up adding a make-shift shade for the rig.

- Pollen also is a worthy adversary: any filter I could device for air intakes was either too restrictive, or let it in. In the end I settled with using no filters at all and vacuuming/blowing out the dust once a month or so.

- Operating temperature makes a major difference in power drawn. With my current "between-seasons" setup the rig is working at 2370 Mh/s and depending on the ambient temperature is drawing 940-990W. This is with the current outside temps fluctuating between 17 and 11c. I know this is pushing a 1000W psu, but it's late in the GPU-game and I am determined to maximise my output. Hopefully within a few weeks as the temperatures continue to decline I can add more overclocking, Im certain that I can reach 2500Mh/s at under 1000W once it's cold enough.

- Cheap fans are cheap for a reason 2$ ones from china fail in 1-3 months for me.

- Gasket-sealant is superior to silicone in every way. It lasts better, makes the seams more tight and even looks better.


I added this vent on the roof, underneath within the casing is a 12cm fan blowing out. If i recall correctly this solution alone dropped my temps by 2c. On the door you can see the protection I have for the reference cards "blow air out" - holes and the pipe protecting a newly added big intake fan.


The inside of the "door", with the big intake fan and openings for reference 5970's to breathe out.


The gpu setup and locations I ended up using. I did somewhat give up on cable management.. it just cant be done neatly.

[jago25_98]

I recommend trays of rice to further help on moisture.

[Isokivi]

I recommend trays of rice to further help on moisture.

Those would only be effective if I have downtime, but it's a good idea. I'll prolly toss in those little silicone-packs that are used to draw moisture from packaged goods of various sorts.

[Isokivi]

I made a video of the rig:

http://youtu.be/nhqCcQlIEMI

[gyverlb]

You wrote that you had fan failures. If you can you may want to put your cards straight to avoid putting too much stress on the fan's bearings. They are designed for vertical or horizontal use. I'm not sure this applies to graphic card fans, but it applies to disk drives: I've had 2 brand new ones die in a row because a diy suspension system put them at an angle... Better safe than sorry.

[Isokivi]

You wrote that you had fan failures. If you can you may want to put your cards straight to avoid putting too much stress on the fan's bearings. They are designed for vertical or horizontal use. I'm not sure this applies to graphic card fans, but it applies to disk drives: I've had 2 brand new ones die in a row because a diy suspension system put them at an angle... Better safe than sorry.

Never had a single gpu fan problem with this setup, not even noise.

[gyverlb]

You wrote that you had fan failures. If you can you may want to put your cards straight to avoid putting too much stress on the fan's bearings. They are designed for vertical or horizontal use. I'm not sure this applies to graphic card fans, but it applies to disk drives: I've had 2 brand new ones die in a row because a diy suspension system put them at an angle... Better safe than sorry.

Never had a single gpu fan problem with this setup, not even noise.

- Cheap fans are cheap for a reason 2$ ones from china fail in 1-3 months for me.

I was assuming you were speaking of replacement fans for graphic cards, but you probably meant the fans for your case.

[Isokivi]

You wrote that you had fan failures. If you can you may want to put your cards straight to avoid putting too much stress on the fan's bearings. They are designed for vertical or horizontal use. I'm not sure this applies to graphic card fans, but it applies to disk drives: I've had 2 brand new ones die in a row because a diy suspension system put them at an angle... Better safe than sorry.

Never had a single gpu fan problem with this setup, not even noise.

- Cheap fans are cheap for a reason 2$ ones from china fail in 1-3 months for me.

I was assuming you were speaking of replacement fans for graphic cards, but you probably meant the fans for your case.

Yes that was me referring to a set of 90mm case fans, bought 3 an on average they ended up lasting a bit over 2 months each

[Isokivi]

What plans do you have for the upcoming winter?

Adding overclocking and a light cover so that snow dosent get under, on or directly next to the rig. But ultimateley as the difficulty clibs I'll eventually sell off the hardware, I do hope that asics take their sweet time

[Isokivi]

Were now slightly below zero clecius here in Finland and Im pleased to report that the rig's power consumption is down 65 watts, nearly 7% from the summer daytime peaks. System efficiency: 2.62 MH/s/W currently.

[Fiyasko]

You seriously need to reduce the wattage used, Your are GOING to blowout the PSU.

[Isokivi]

You seriously need to reduce the wattage used, Your are GOING to blowout the PSU.

1000watt psu using ~95% of that at most, wheres the problem ?

[Luno]

You're right, 95% PSU loading gives highest efficiency. They guys talking about 50% as safe and clever, don't know what they are talking about. FET's in the PSU driven close to their max, have higher efficiency and I guess that your PSU is power factor corrected? I run 2 X 5970 + 1 x 5830 on a 650W PSU.

[Meatball]

You're right, 95% PSU loading gives highest efficiency. They guys talking about 50% as safe and clever, don't know what they are talking about. FET's in the PSU driven close to their max, have higher efficiency and I guess that your PSU is power factor corrected? I run 2 X 5970 + 1 x 5830 on a 650W PSU.

True, but running a PSU at or very near it's max threshold for long periods of time is going to put extra stress on the PSU's components and lead to greater likelihood of failure.  I'm not saying running 95% load is going to catch your PSU on fire, but it'll certainly die a lot sooner than a PSU that was run at lower loads.

I don't think it's a big deal, but if you really want to be safe, you might want to pick up a spare PSU to have on hand just in case.

[Fiyasko]

You're right, 95% PSU loading gives highest efficiency. They guys talking about 50% as safe and clever, don't know what they are talking about. FET's in the PSU driven close to their max, have higher efficiency and I guess that your PSU is power factor corrected? I run 2 X 5970 + 1 x 5830 on a 650W PSU.

True, but running a PSU at or very near it's max threshold for long periods of time is going to put extra stress on the PSU's components and lead to greater likelihood of failure.  I'm not saying running 95% load is going to catch your PSU on fire, but it'll certainly die a lot sooner than a PSU that was run at lower loads.

I don't think it's a big deal, but if you really want to be safe, you might want to pick up a spare PSU to have on hand just in case.

I always felt that 85% was "best effeciency" the two times i've pushed a PSU into 24hr >93% power, It blew out (granted they were like 450W PSU's from 2003)
So theres my .02BTC

[Luno]

the higher temperature, the shorter the lifespan. 85-90-95% is fine if the cooling is adequate. I had troubles with thermal shutdown this summer but funnelling cold air from a north side window to my PSU, kept everything cool. If you place your PSU an inch above the floor with the fan facing down, it will suck on the cold bottom layer of air like some gamer pc cases. The rule of thumb is that if the air flow from the PSU feels warm, you need more cooling or a lower load / bigger PSU.

[johnyj]

Today my open mining rigs on balcony experienced the first wave of cold snap here: -7c degree at the time when I'm writing now.

My usb stick could not boot successfully if I restart the rig, had to use a hair dryer to help. 5870 card temp will go as low as 15c degree even with overclock (Accelero extreme 5870 cooler)

[Meatball]

Today my open mining rigs on balcony experienced the first wave of cold snap here: -7c degree at the time when I'm writing now.

My usb stick could not boot successfully if I restart the rig, had to use a hair dryer to help. 5870 card temp will go as low as 15c degree even with overclock (Accelero extreme 5870 cooler)

Oofah, -7 and it's not even deep winter yet, where in the world are you?

[Isokivi]

Today my open mining rigs on balcony experienced the first wave of cold snap here: -7c degree at the time when I'm writing now.

My usb stick could not boot successfully if I restart the rig, had to use a hair dryer to help. 5870 card temp will go as low as 15c degree even with overclock (Accelero extreme 5870 cooler)

-6c here las night, my rig is nice an toasty inside the casing (18c) and keeps going.