Topic: [ANN][TAG] TAGMining.Com is now the official pool of Tagcoin! - page 36. (Read 45656 times)

I have run two variations of the 280X so far...

Gigabyte GV-R928XOC-3GD and the Sapphire Dual-X R9-280X

The Gigabytes run cooler, but only run about 720Kh/s while the Dual-X run hotter but cruise at a solid 750Kh/s... I can try to post some screen shoots if you want.

I under-volt the Dual-X to 1.180 and the Gigabyte to 1.160... the Dual-X run at 1080/1500 and the Gigabyte at 1036/1500... for some reason the hashrate just plummets on the Gigabytes above 1038 on the GPU.

That's not bad since it's summer down there. I wish I could tell you a good life expectancy, I'm not sure though. I can tell you my experience so far. My 7950's have been in use since late September/early October, with the temps in the mid to high 70's for a long time, a few hit the upper 80's because it was hot here. I have some other of the same model which I got second hand from a guy who'd had them in use for about 3 months, in the low 70's.

So far, only 1 card has failed, and it was one of the ones he gave me. That's about 6 months of use with mixed temps in the 70's. The rest are still chugging away just fine. So if I can expect 6 that's awesome, I'm hoping for 9, 12 or even more.

My estimation is, with an aftermarket cooler, you'll increase longevity. The MSI 7950's have sucky VRM cooling. 2 SCR's (or similar) aren't cooled at all, and 1 of the RAM chips is also not cooled. The Prolimatech fixed all of that, and I'm sure any aftermarket cooler (especially an Arctic product) would do the same.

The MSI R9 280X models have better VRM cooling, but it appears 2 RAM chips are uncooled. The RAM chip cooling may not be as important, but I still want to try to squeeze every hash out of these.

All my cards are running in the high 70C's... I do my best to keep them below 80C even if it is 79C... also it is summer time here with outside temps approaching 35C or more... we had a cool day not long ago and all the cards were running in the high-60C's.

What is my life expectancy on my cards at these temps?

Forgot to mention, these are the fans I'm using on the coolers: http://www.amazon.com/Prolimatech-Blue-Vortex-14-Fan/dp/B0045FE3V8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387256228&sr=8-1&keywords=vortex+14+fan

You can get them from Newegg through ebay for $1 cheaper, but they limit you to 5 per order.

I have no doubt!


Thanks, I'm fond of them


Long version:

I haven't liquid cooled a mining rig, I have done it for a regular sysem. For a mining rig there's a few "sensible" options for liquid cooling, specifically a simple closed-loop system like the Arctic Accelero Hybrid. There's some DIY setups as well which use the same design for about half the price. Here's how I came about the Prolimatech (In Silver and In Black:

My situation wasn't the normal "gamer looking to cool his GPU", I'm looking to cool racks. The stock TwinFrozr III setups started to die slowly, and I was having MSI replace them for free ($10 shipping on my part). But that isn't ideal. And cooling means longevity, and that's what I need in a rig. SO I needed a new cooler. And I needed many of them, at least 12-16 to try out, with the availability to purchase more and more.

The goal was, in this order: Reliability, Cooling, Silence, Ease of installation. The solution also had to support the modular setup of my racks, so it had to be physically tied to the PVC framework in case I moved them. I researched about 100 places with reviews on many coolers. I ran across a forum where a person has dedicated their bank account to reviewing 7950/7970 cards & setups of all brands, along with all possible cooling options. This was cool, and is what led me to my decision.

Basically it boiled down to a closed-loop liquid cooling option, like I linked above, or the Prolimatech MK-26 (The DeepCool Dracula needs mentioning, as it's essentially nearly the same, but is 2x as much and you can't find them anywhere). In every review I could find, the Prolimatech and Hybrid were pretty much dead even for noise level and ability to dissipate heat. In 2 independent reviews, however, the Prolimatech came out quieter than the liquid cooling option as measured by several devices. I started leaning toward it at that point.

Upon further analysis, the decision was clear: Prolimatech. What nailed it for me: It's a universal cooler, it will work for 20+ GPUs, and most future GPU's as well. It comes with a bunch of fittings. So it will be useful beyond the life of the GPU rig. It was $25-75 cheaper than the liquid cooling solution (even the DIY systems), and easier to install.

More important was reliability. If a pump fails on the liquid cooler, the GPU is dead. If a fan fails on the Prolimatech, the cooler is actually capable of dissipating the heat without the fan (up to 300watts without fans -- I checked this myself running them without fans and they stayed on par with the stock cooler).

TLDR; Prolimatech was the clear winner for noise level, cooling, availability, price, ease of installation and ease of maintenance (zero maintenance). It will also fit many other cards. So far I've bought 3 crates of them LOL. Amazon, FrozenCPU, Newegg and various outlets on ebay must wonder what I'm doing with them. When I say it's silent, I'm not joking. You have to put your ear onto the fans to hear them. It gets the wife approval as well.


The MSI R9 280x's I just got are currently running at 59*C @ 740kh, one of them is at 68*C because it isn't spread apart from the GPU next to it. The fans are running around 2700rpm which I believe is 85% (in comparison, the Prolimatech fans run at a static 1000rpm). This is with a low gentle breeze of 40*F coming from my cold air fan about 4' away. I'm waiting on my next shipment of risers so I can spread it apart--it would be around 59*C as well if it was spread apart.

The TwinFrozr IV cooling system these come with is very impressive, the cooling is close to the Prolimatech (though still about 5*C shy of the Prolimatech), but it's nowhere near as quiet. It is MUCH quieter than the TwinFrozr III setup though (they sound like jets). This just sounds like a low whir. So I would definitely say the TF4 is probably the superior "stock" GPU cooler out there right now.

But, I like "silent" and the fact the Prolima's can take hardcore abuse and not even require a fan, thus tomorrow I'll be putting some Prolimatech's on them.

Vesper,

Thanks for sharing... what a great set-up!!!

Do you like the Prolimatech MK-26(can't find them for sale in Australia) better than liquid cooling? My 16-year-old son is determined to water-cool everything!!!

Curious what temps you run on the 280X's as mine run about 77C-80C... and pretty much everything you said about BAMT was 'greek' to me... I never used a batch file until cgminer a few weeks ago!!

Damn, Vesper... that's pretty slick, man.  I'll get there one day... one day.

And... the whale is back. woot.

I have a write-up somewhere on my particular bamt modifications if you're interested. I've got this rack currently pointed your way Fuse, with all it's 8mh fury lol.

My rack setup, $14 plastic shelving w/modular individual PVC framework. I can deploy these 1 shelf at a time, or stack them to any height. Just add power and ethernet cable.:


"Air intake" side, 120mm silent fans push air between cards:


Best GPU cooler ever, the Prolimatech MK-26 setup (from the rear) dual 140mm silent fans cool the GPU, while this large heat sink on the back helps dissipate heat as well:


That's my general rack deployment setup. Low quality image but it gives you an idea. The 2nd unit from the top are the new R9 280x's I just threw up there to warm up. Going to take them out in a few to replace the TwinFrozr IV with the Prolimatech MK-26.

24kilo, I take bamt 1.1 and then upgrade it and add some tweaks to it (to satisfy my tastes). If I'm doing it from scratch, I burn the image onto a USB stick (8gb adata professional, it's like $9), change the user password, change the admin password, and then github the latest cgminer. I then pick a particular version from the repository (I'm peculiar), which I know will work for sure. Install all required dependencies then build cgminer. Then I modify some of bamt's scripts to suit my tastes, pointing it to the new cgminer (keeping the old one as a backup), adding some custom commands to make remote monitoring easier basically.

While I like bamt's built in web monitor, I don't use it, as I just SSH in and take a look at cgminer.

For anyone curious, all of my GPU rigs use the Prolimatech. The rack you see is absolutely silent, keeping most cards in the 50*C range, sometimes 60's depending on how bad off the cores are, and also depends on the ambient temperature and some other factors. The GPU's are spaced very far apart, I use a double riser for the end card to spread them out; it's hard to see. The cooler itself sticks about 4" past the GPU, it's a 3 slot cooler.

Thanks... it has been a fun and addictive journey so far... always thinking about getting the next rig... would you elaborate more on the modified BAMT that you are using?

Thanks!

Thanks... your dad and I have a lot in common... I am pretty old school with silver and gold in reserve as well.

I will check out the programs that you mention... thanks!

Congrats man. I use my own modified version of BAMT on all my systems. I'll see if I can dig up a photo of one of my racks. I just got 3 MSI R9 280x's up. Going to change the cooler out already lol

24kilo... I pretty sure you can remote monitor with BAMT.  CGwatcher/monitor will work too, but they run on a windows box to monitor your miners.  CGmonitor looks pretty slick though.  I'd post a picture of my main rig, but it's under about an inch of dust ATM.  I call it thermal insulation.

Looks like we're on the up and up.  Just got off the phone with my pops who hears nothing but bitcoin all day on the news and wants to get it.  He's an old school silver, gold, coin, gem kinda guy.  I told him, "yeah, dad... I can mine (cough cough cough)coin for you."  So we're discussing a rig as we speak.  Probably looking at around 3-3.5MH for him.  To the interwebs!

Here is my veggie crate miner...



Still struggling with cooling, but should average about 1.5Mh/s dedicated to the pool.

I need to get some PCI-E riser cables, which will eliminate the heat issues. Still trying to figure out Linux and Ubuntu, so I do not have to install Windows on the next rig. Also looking for some remote monitoring software as well. This is a whole new game for a veggie farmer!!!

I found another block... #17690... maybe my luck is changing.

Christmas for some folks who had been looking forward to a new graphics card for basic computer purposes, will be less than happy lol.

I've heard some of the non mining folks cursing us miners to all sorts of hells and back.

Yeah i buy them in Austria when i have the chance. Here in Netherlands every store is empty.
I try'd to get 2 extra HD6990 but some are being sold for the new price 2 years ago. So that is a no go.

Even if you can decide on what cards.. finding them in stock for a decent price is the hard part. As soon as I was ready for another purchasing round of MSI 7950's, they disco'd them. R9 280x's came into light and before I could complete the order, they were depleted.

Black Friday + Folks just starting to  get into Crypto mining. Some OEM's were wiped out at the factory level even.

Friday I was able to snag 3 MSI R9 280x's from Amazon which are being delivered right now. I have all the cards I want in a single HTML list, and am constantly refreshing the page. As soon as a vendor shows in stock (for MSRP, I ignore the markup pricing), I buy them.

I have backorders still waiting to be filled over a week later, with no estimated shipment.

The market is crazy right now. Fuse, like I said before, let me know of 'offbrand' 7950/7970 or R9 280x's, and I will try one to see how I like it.

Im not worried. But was jsut something i saw today.
When i have money again i gonna build a extra miner. Only problem..... Dont know yet which cards

Buying TAG now it is cheap haha

TAG is going to take off like a jet once it's really 'released'. Best to hoarde up now.

You're probably right but I think that Mark the tagbond/tagcoin czar isn't quite ready for TAG to go to the moon.  I have no doubt that he has a long term strategic plan for the coin but would prefer for it to fly under the radar for the time being.