Antminer s5 PCI-e connector help

[mariogrip]

Hello miners,

I have ordered a Antminer s5. I also ordered a 600 Watt power supply (it was on sale, 30 bucks), it can give 552W on +12V rail. The antminer uses 590 W at the wall, if we calculate with a 90% efficiency power supply 590 / 100 * 10 = 59 | 590 - 59 = 531W usage if the wattage was measured with an 90% efficiency power supply. 531W < 552W = OK!  so a 600 Watt power supply should be fine (not if you overclock). but my question is, can the Antminer s5 run with two PCI-e pins? (one pin on each board), or do i need to mod the power supply?

I'm studying electronics so i kinda know what i'm doing :=P

-mariogrip

[philipma1957]

wait 1 minute

fast answer is maybe.

detailed answer is

if the machine starts up with your psu and you get into the gui go to freq setting drop freq to 300 asap.

300 freq will do   about 970-990 gh at about .52 or .54 watts per gh   this is about 520 to 550 watts

if you psu is using 16ga wires for the  pcie cables  and the cables are separate  not 1 cable with 2x plugs at this setting they will not over heat.

after 2 hours bump to freq 325

wait 2 hours  bump to freq 350

wait 2 hours feel the cables for warmth.

If the psu is using 18 ga cables the 2 pcie  cables are rated for less which means you will not do well running at freq 350

[Prelude]

Your 30$ "600w" PSU will be dead in 2 days. If you're lucky, it won't take the miner with it.

[mariogrip]

wait 1 minute

fast answer is maybe.

detailed answer is

if the machine starts up with your psu and you get into the gui go to freq setting drop freq to 300 asap.

300 freq will do   about 970-990 gh at about .52 or .54 watts per gh   this is about 520 to 550 watts

if you psu is using 16ga wires for the  pcie cables  and the cables are separate  not 1 cable with 2x plugs at this setting they will not over heat.

after 2 hours bump to freq 325

wait 2 hours  bump to freq 350

wait 2 hours feel the cables for warmth.

If the psu is using 18 ga cables the 2 pcie  cables are rated for less which means you will not do well running at freq 350

I was thinking about changing the cables to short 1.5 mm^2  that should lower the resistance in the cable so it do not generate that much heat. 1.5 * 6  = 9 mm^2 on each.

or i can short the cables...

[mariogrip]

Your 30$ "600w" PSU will be dead in 2 days. If you're lucky, it won't take the miner with it.

I will hook my multimeter up to it, with a arduino (connected into multimetes circuit) so it can watch and cut the power (with a relay) if it uses too much amps... Don't worry the PSU will survive

[stonerider]

Your 30$ "600w" PSU will be dead in 2 days. If you're lucky, it won't take the miner with it.

I will hook my multimeter up to it, with a arduino (connected into multimetes circuit) so it can watch and cut the power (with a relay) if it uses too much amps... Don't worry the PSU will survive

Your $30 "600w" PSU will die in 3-days; when it dies, it will take your miner, multimeter, arduino, grandma, grandpa, and your mom and dad, along with it.

What's your next glib answer?

[Shazam!!!]

or...Go to New Egg, order a 750w with 4 pci-e cables that DO NOT need to be Spliced together. Might cost 80-100usd.

Good Luck with your Studies!!!

[sidehack]

Or I have 750W server PSU kits with 16AWG cabling for $50 plus shipping.

[pekatete]

Just to reply to your question:-
1. Yes, your S5 will start and run OK with that PSU
2. Yes it can run on just one 6 pin PCI-E connector to each blade.

I say thus because I have run an S5 off a 550W server PSU at stock freq, albeit for a short time, approx 2hrs. The reason I did that was to test some 6 pin PCI-E cables that I had made myself and also to see whether I could get away with it!

Sine you are an electricals' guru I suppose that will suffice, but I shall add that the reason I decided against running it further was I'd never experienced that brand of server PSU (of which I have loads and been powering several EOL asic miners) blow that hot air before! That somewhat freaked me into using a separate PSU for each blade and confirmed that my cables were working OK.

[notlist3d]

Your 30$ "600w" PSU will be dead in 2 days. If you're lucky, it won't take the miner with it.

I will hook my multimeter up to it, with a arduino (connected into multimetes circuit) so it can watch and cut the power (with a relay) if it uses too much amps... Don't worry the PSU will survive

Your $30 "600w" PSU will die in 3-days; when it dies, it will take your miner, multimeter, arduino, grandma, grandpa, and your mom and dad, along with it.

What's your next glib answer?

That would be my biggest worry is it taking things with it.  Luckily I have never had it on my ASICS.  But I had one GPU i saved a buck on and it had a cheap y splitter included with cheap psu... used to much electricity for the gauge wire.... and burnt the crap out of the Y splitter wire luckily it did not take the GPU with it.

[Prelude]

Your 30$ "600w" PSU will be dead in 2 days. If you're lucky, it won't take the miner with it.

I will hook my multimeter up to it, with a arduino (connected into multimetes circuit) so it can watch and cut the power (with a relay) if it uses too much amps... Don't worry the PSU will survive

I'm not worried at all, but I would be if that PSU was powering one of my machines in my home. It's a fire hazard. You can't cheap out of power supplies when you mine. I guarantee you that PSU is under built Chinese shit. Get something made by Seasonic, Flextronics, Superflower, or Delta. Server PSUs are also a great idea, as mentioned by sidehack. He's a pleasure to deal with BTW, don't hesitate to take him up on his offer. You won't do better for 50$.

[Prelude]

Forgot to add that your monitoring the amps won't help you if you believe that PSU will actually supply 46A continuously without shitting  the bed. I wouldn't trust it past 25A.

[Zich]

Hello miners,

I have ordered a Antminer s5. I also ordered a 600 Watt power supply (it was on sale, 30 bucks), it can give 552W on +12V rail. The antminer uses 590 W at the wall, if we calculate with a 90% efficiency power supply 590 / 100 * 10 = 59 | 590 - 59 = 531W usage if the wattage was measured with an 90% efficiency power supply. 531W < 552W = OK!  so a 600 Watt power supply should be fine (not if you overclock). but my question is, can the Antminer s5 run with two PCI-e pins? (one pin on each board), or do i need to mod the power supply?

I'm studying electronics so i kinda know what i'm doing :=P

-mariogrip

What is the psu brand & type?
But with almost 97 % load(your calculation), i feel sorry for the psu.

[MrTeal]

As people said, what power supply? It will depend on a bunch of factors
1. Single Rail or not?
2. Is it a cheap group regulated Bronze model? If so, it might not like running at 100% load on the 12V rail with nothing on the 5V rail.

You can get some reasonably good PSUs for $30 if you happened to get a good sale on one, but this doesn't sounds like one. A high quality 600W PSU would have no trouble running 24/7 long term, but a crap (not necessarily cheap) one will probably be dead pretty quickly or just not work.

[Prelude]

I'd be surprised if it was 80 Plus certified, let alone bronze.

Do you have a link to the PSU, mariogrip?

[sidehack]

Whatcha reckon, bridge rectifier with no PFC into a big fat linear regulator at 10% efficient?

[MrTeal]

I'd be surprised if it was 80 Plus certified, let alone bronze.

Maybe, hopefully he doesn't have [urlhttp://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=71]something from this pile.[/url]

If you're buying singles or small quantities, $30 can get something reasonable in that size. I picked up three of the OEM version of these 850W PSUs for CDN$125 shipped and 5% taxes in after a rebate, and they've worked great running full out on and off for a year and a half. That's US$100 at the current rate, though the Canadian dollar was stronger then.

[MrTeal]

Whatcha reckon, bridge rectifier with no PFC into a big fat linear regulator at 10% efficient?

You should see the PSU I built for my class AB 2kW sub amp several year ago. It was straight linear with two 2kVA toroids that would easily put out 200A continuous into +/-100V rails in a 4U rackmount case. It weighed well over 100lbs. That's just the PSU, the amp was in its own 4U case.

[sidehack]

Jeeminy friggin' Christmas! What did you use for pass transistors?

[MrTeal]

Jeeminy friggin' Christmas! What did you use for pass transistors?

Unregulated. The load regulation of the transformers was quite good, and there was a massive amount of capacitance. I can't recall with certainty off the top of my head, but I believe it was twelve large 22mF per rail, so over a half farad at 100V of total capacitance.

I never ended up using it other than for some load testing. It was just too big to deal with, so I bought a 2000W class D PA amp. I did take it apart to use as a big DC supply to simulate a solar panel in some other testing I was doing, and I think it's still in pieces in my basement.