Thanks dogie!
Unfortunately, I already ordered two v2 blades along with all the items on your parts list for the v1. I'm planning to skip the backplane and HP serv psu, but I was wondering whether I've just wasted my money on all of these parts. Has anyone done this before? If so I'd definitely start and manage another thread dedicated to v2s. (Assuming my setup works!)
If you don't use a backpane, mounting can be a bit tricky and its up to you to find something. I believe V2s sit quite well on the side of their heatsinks as they're flush with the side of the PCB. Powering is the same as V1 so you've not wasted anything. V2s don't have a specific thread because they are almost identical to V1s physically, and their software also is.
I found that hanging the single blade with zip ties works quite well for a cheap mounting option. I used some folder racks I had laying around, basically the only thing touching this blade are the zip ties through the holes. My other blades are in my backplane but I have this PSU helping to power the fans on the backplane rig. This has two 120mm fans on the front (bottom blow, top suck), an 80mm up top sucking air out, and a 140mm fan blowing the back that can't be seen in the pic. Two of these fans and the PSU were sitting in a dead computer so I decided to put them to use, might be overkill but rather have it too cold than too hot. If I were to go out and shop for a cheap mount (non-backplane) I would probably just get a big tall folder rack from an office supply store and hang the blades with zip ties.
I tossed my whole backplane in a plastic milk-crate thing I used to keep car cleaning supplies in. With the HP power supply it fits like a glove and gives good protection with great fan mounting options, actually doesn't look bad either because the size is perfect. I don't have a good pic uploaded of it but I can post if anyone wants to see it. Once these blades get going on a solid setup they are quite nice, plugged in a new one tonight and was mining within 5 minutes.
I was never able to get a long Ethernet cable to work with my router and the switch for some reason. Solved everything by using a short crossover cable from my 10-year old laptop to my switch and bridged the WiFi network connection (or something like that, honestly I barely understand why it's working so well with the crossover cable/laptop combo, but it was hours of agonizing/endless bullshit/errors through the router via Ethernet). I guess whatever works reliably at this point is perfectly good by me; no point questioning when it works especially if I can avoid running a 70ft cable
Edit: took pics of the backplane crate
and the rack
Well, okay, maybe it is all a little ugly, but in person it doesn't look so dangerous... I need to get a tube for that cable wrapped in black, it's just powering fans and since then I got 2-pin adapters if I decide to run them off the blades, not in any rush to make changes though.