Free power but need low sound and low heat. - page 2.

Dan The Man

hero member

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Merit: 500

Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on November 16, 2011, 12:48:05 PM

Power = heat.

Whatever power you rig uses it will be converted into heat.
So 1kW rig (at the wall) is going to produce 1kW of thermal output.

Having free electricity but a limit on heat is no different than a limit on electricity.

Not with an air conditioner plugged in it isn't.

A lot of companies get power at a fixed rate with no consideration of usage. That's why there office lights are on 24/7.

DeathAndTaxes

donator

Activity: 1218

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Gerald Davis

Power = heat.

Whatever power you rig uses it will be converted into heat.
So 1kW rig (at the wall) is going to produce 1kW of thermal output.

Having free electricity but a limit on heat is no different than a limit on electricity.

cicada

full member

Activity: 196

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Considering what your boss may be willing to lay down for power costs, perhaps you might want to look at FPGA solutions instead - low heat, low power, but higher upfront costs.

A 'few months' of powering ~180W 5830s could easily pay for a couple of the available solutions floating around the boards that only pull ~10W.

This is kind of a prime example for the argument that 'free power is never free - someone pays for it', since you actually interact with that someone it may be worthwhile to, you know, not suck them dry.

cicada

full member

Activity: 196

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1) Keeping hardware costs in mind, maybe a HAF-932 is overkill Wink

2) 5830s are noisy and hot. 6 of them will warm up any room, and will not handle an enclosed space well. If you can't vent in cool air / vent out hot air, 6 of just about any cards are too many.

3) Look at eg. 5770/6770 instead - they're relatively low power (100W?) and produce a decent hashrate (~180-200MH/s), pretty close to a 2 MH/w ratio. This doesn't matter as much since your power will be free, but lower power usage = less heat, so efficiency is a real concern here too.

To give some perspective, I ran 4x 5830 and 4x6950 in my basement in a well ventilated room, pulling *cold* air in from outside - even when the outside temps were 35-40F, they heated my entire house, to the point I often had to open more windows.

[edit] Additionally, make sure your boss understands exactly how much power is in question here - a rig with 6x 5830 is going to draw about 1-1.2KW at the wall. Sapping free power for bitcoins probably isn't worth your job Wink

El Cabron

vip

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Assuming I had free power for a few months but must keep my rig in a semi restricted area and keep it semi quite what would you recommend doing? The best I could think of was getting a full tower HAF-932 and trying to get 6 5830s going. Semi warm area as airflow via fan can not be provided.

My boss is interested in bitcoin and is 100% willing to donate a few months of power assuming it is not disruptive due to sound. It also has to work in an enclosed space so it can not get to hot. This also will not be running 24/7 so I have to keep hardware costs in mind. I am open to ideas. Thanks.

Topic: Free power but need low sound and low heat. - page 2. (Read 3023 times)