Hashmaster 2000, outdoor mining in the arctic.

[twoBitBasher]

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

[1713958823]

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[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.