Gauging interest around some custom hardware and cabling for GPU rigs

methylminer

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Quote from: sidehack on October 19, 2016, 05:44:05 PM

PCBs and all components have arrived. I spent today verifying everything and setting up the pick-and-place for bulk manufacture. I ran one off to test calibrations, completed assembly on it and it's running right now with about 10A of output current on 5V with no trouble.

Tomorrow I'll do all the surface-mount for the batch and start on through-hole.

I got started cutting wires to run out cables last week but ran out of wire; my reorder has arrived. So tomorrow I'll also be finishing up cutting wire and start cable manufacture. I've got some better heatshrink than I had available for the test cables MarkAz got, which means the production batch should come out better. As of right now there doesn't look to be any reason I can't get initial orders shipped out Friday.

Great news!

sidehack

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Curmudgeonly hardware guy

PCBs and all components have arrived. I spent today verifying everything and setting up the pick-and-place for bulk manufacture. I ran one off to test calibrations, completed assembly on it and it's running right now with about 10A of output current on 5V with no trouble.

Tomorrow I'll do all the surface-mount for the batch and start on through-hole.

I got started cutting wires to run out cables last week but ran out of wire; my reorder has arrived. So tomorrow I'll also be finishing up cutting wire and start cable manufacture. I've got some better heatshrink than I had available for the test cables MarkAz got, which means the production batch should come out better. As of right now there doesn't look to be any reason I can't get initial orders shipped out Friday.

sidehack

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I'm not sure how many amps, but PCIe spec calls for up to 3A of 3.3V so if it's a linear regulator off 5V it could be that high. MarkAZ said his setup ran more like 2A each.

This board will push 20A on both 5V and 12V simultaneously.

yslyung

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Mine Mine Mine

what are those RX's sucking from the 5V off the molex sidehack ?

i didn't read all 5 pages.. apologies.

and this board will use the 12V & convert it to 5V but how many amps will it provide on the 5v ?

sub'd, looking fwd to more pix & info. might be interested to grab a few.

sidehack

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Curmudgeonly hardware guy

I also make custom cabling. PM me with a bit more detail on what you're looking for (expected power loads, lengths, gender of each end etc) and I'll see what I can come up with.

Also, expected delivery of the PCBs is tomorrow. I thought I'd have 'em by now as the shipping expectation was about the 11th, but according to tracking they weren't on the move until the 14th.

Ambros

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I am looking for some PCIE 8 Pin to 8Pin+4pin molex, someone is selling this kind of cables ?

They would remove a lot of "cable noise" in my rigs

deadsix

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Quote from: philipma1957 on September 23, 2016, 08:28:28 AM

@ markAZ. How much mh you got ?

I am now at 25 cards around 550mh.

I do no bios flashing and run pretty much stock 20/21 for rx 470 and 25 for rx 480

Hey Philip, I went ahead and got me a Biostar Z170 after reading your posts about it, and the board works perfectly with 4 cards so I owe you. Here is my two cents then :
With 25 cards ( RX 470/480's ) some simple bios mods and NO overclocking ( underclocking and undervolting infact ) they can easily get ~25.5Mh each, totaling to ~640Mh.
There is next to no reason to not do the bios mods, since there is zero chance of bricking (if you mod your own bios instead of flashing someone else's) and undervolting/underclocking insures your power draw and heat generation stays low. I currently have 28 RX 470 cards at 730Mh/- running in 6 systems with a combined power draw of ~3.1KW and all these are in my small house and the heat and noise are low enough to live with. I'm sure you can easily add more to your garage and hit that 1Gh mark

I wish I had 10KW capacity id go crazy and spend all my money on this stuff

supersonic

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Quote from: Za1n on October 03, 2016, 08:27:45 PM

Quote from: sidehack on October 03, 2016, 08:12:00 PM

The hardware discussed in this thread will cover your Molex needs. Something like a PicoPSU would power the motherboard. I can put you together a kit price estimate if you like.

Yes, a kit quote including everything I need would be appreciated. Thanks!

aye, id also like quote for such kit i already got psu and breakout boards, would like to use those with it

Za1n

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Quote from: sidehack on October 03, 2016, 08:12:00 PM

The hardware discussed in this thread will cover your Molex needs. Something like a PicoPSU would power the motherboard. I can put you together a kit price estimate if you like.

Yes, a kit quote including everything I need would be appreciated. Thanks!

xleejohnx

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Quote from: sidehack on October 03, 2016, 08:12:00 PM

The hardware discussed in this thread will cover your Molex needs. Something like a PicoPSU would power the motherboard. I can put you together a kit price estimate if you like.

if he doesnt i would like one

sidehack

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The hardware discussed in this thread will cover your Molex needs. Something like a PicoPSU would power the motherboard. I can put you together a kit price estimate if you like.

Za1n

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I have been reading through this thread and I am interested in trying out a few of these server power supplies, but I am unsure as to exactly what I would need.

I am looking to power a GPU rig, so it sounds like the 1200, 1500, or even 2000 watt server PSU's would work, but I need to know exactly what parts I need to be able to power all 6 cards, the motherboard, SDD, and risers from the same PSU.

My builds would require:
GPUs - single 8-pin PCIe connector each (total 6)
Motherboard - 24-pin & 8-pin power connections, 2 Molex connectors (depending on MB)
Sata SDD - (I suppose I could use a Molex to SATA adapter here)
USB Risers - 6 more Molex (9 total including MB and SDD)

So far I gather that I will need the server PSU, a compatible break-out board which I believe takes care of the PCIe connections. I will then need something to take care of the Motherboard and Molex connections. Can someone fill in the missing pieces for me?

Thanks

sidehack

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I have put up an official sales thread in Group Buys.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=940317.40

kilo17

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aka "whocares"

Quote from: nerdralph on September 23, 2016, 08:05:49 AM

Quote from: kilo17 on September 22, 2016, 09:12:09 PM

Quote from: nerdralph on September 22, 2016, 04:57:42 PM

Quote from: kilo17 on September 22, 2016, 01:53:03 PM

I have switched to exclusively using the following risers: They are 9.5" and I do not have any issues with them at all unlike the USB risers which have a short half life. They are sourced from Padrino. I definitely need to order some stuff from Sidehack. Love your new stuff.

I'd say you have been lucky. PCI-e signals are in the hundreds of Mhz, and are spec'd to use differential pairs or impedance-controlled PCB traces. USB 3.0 cables are designed for high-speed signalling, while flat ribbon cables often will have problems once you get much over 100Mhz, even for low-voltage signals like PCIe. I still use ribbon risers because they are cheap and I can get away with powering them from the mobo, but I have a couple of USB3.0 risers for testing when I have a bad ribbon riser.

You're also generally better off with the shorter ribbon risers (15 or 20cm), since the longer cables attenuate the signal more.

Not sure how much the signal translate to mining issues but I know that fried and non working USB risers cause a lot of downtime and headaches. I point out on another thread that I have a BIG box of fried and nonworking USB risers.

One of the biggest problems came when using Claymore's Dual Miner (which I abandoned a while ago due to the extra stress on the hardware). I fried 20+ USB risers which causes a lot of downtime. The weakness is in the molex/sata wires which frequently burn but also they just stop working. It occurs more after a couple of months but it happens and I have yet to have a problem with any of the above ribbons.

(I agree on the shorter ribbon cable but they are a little to short for 6+ GPU rigs.)

So your problem is crappy molex/sata adapter cables, not the USB risers. When using USB risers, I power them from the PSU molex connectors. If you test the wires on the cheap chinese-made SATA->molex adapters, you'll probably find they are nowhere near 18AWG.
http://nerdralph.blogspot.ca/2016/06/when-does-18-26-when-buying-cheap-cables.html

I want you to know that sometimes the answer is in front of my face and I look right past it. I am aware of cheap wires (but I have read through your blog because it is a nice read). The one thing I never thought about and I am almost embarrassed to say it is just hooking up the PSU molex to the USB riser.

What makes it worse is that I do exactly that on the ribbon risers and just never even considered it on the USB. The good news is that I will NEVER need to buy new risers again because I replaced a ton and I bet I have 200+ USB risers in a box.

On second thought - it gives me a good reason to add more miners - lol

philipma1957

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Quote from: sidehack on September 23, 2016, 04:06:25 PM

I'll have a GB/Sales thread up in the next few days. Probably use USPS Small flat rate for shipping the little orders like that, Phil.

Yeah was hoping for that as it is cheap and fast. Should just about 51 or so with shipping. I will watch for it.

sidehack

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I'll have a GB/Sales thread up in the next few days. Probably use USPS Small flat rate for shipping the little orders like that, Phil.

philipma1957

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Quote from: sidehack on September 23, 2016, 03:31:13 PM

I'm gonna go ahead and say one board with three 18" cables is $20. Sheathing currently is some extra expense and a lot of extra hassle, so one board and three 18" cables is $22.30

I will probably set up a group buy thread. I'm not so much for preorders, but since this is a proven design and PCBs are already on order and so are pretty much all the components, I'm not too worried about it.

Okay 2 x 22.30 = $44.60 plus shipping let me know when to pay I am onboard for two of these.

sidehack

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I'm gonna go ahead and say one board with three 18" cables is $20. Sheathing currently is some extra expense and a lot of extra hassle, so one board and three 18" cables is $22.30

I will probably set up a group buy thread. I'm not so much for preorders, but since this is a proven design and PCBs are already on order and so are pretty much all the components, I'm not too worried about it.

HerbPean

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Quote from: philipma1957 on September 23, 2016, 01:14:21 PM

Quote from: sidehack on September 23, 2016, 12:28:40 PM

Little farther off topic than ideal right now.

Sorry my fault I lead him down that road.

I won't need much, but 2 little boards with pcie in and four pin out and the pcie to four pin cables that come with it.

so 2 boards and I guess 6 cables is what I will need.

two sets of this:

** removed picture **

I would like to buy the same thing !

Thanks

Herb

sidehack

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The standard cable as I've done it so far has a single Molex. If your riser has a separate PCIe for 12V you probably won't have to worry about overloading the adapter's 12V throughput, so the 5V demands would be the only real limit. I could make a cable with two Molex ends if you wanted, or just use an off-the-shelf splitter.

I don't know what you want for an adapter, because I don't know what you have for a cable. I just use 5-15P everything so it doesn't take anything special here.

Topic: Gauging interest around some custom hardware and cabling for GPU rigs (Read 6181 times)