Topic: Mining rig extraordinaire - the Trenton BPX6806 18-slot PCIe backplane [PICS] - page 11. (Read 169531 times)

I've been considering that. Not exactly sure how well the angle connectors will conduct current though, some seem to be plastic, and others are bolted with a metal connector. It would suck to have the slightest loose connection, which is why I was considering copper busbar.

BTW, I could use some help in determining the correct sizing of the bus bar, as well as the best way to attach things to it. Each PSU is good for 200 amps, and there probably won't be more than 4 of them (or 5 at the most), so 800 to 1000 amps at 12 vdc. I can use crimp connectors on the 6 AWG wire, and then bolt the connectors to the bus with copper bolts, but how should I connect the dozens of little 16-18 AWG wires that go to the 6/8-pin connectors? Perhaps each connector could have its of pair of bolts, and each bolt gets 3 conductors using ring terminals? Like so:

        ===X==*=*=*=*==X==*=*=*=*==X==*=*=*=*==X==*=*=*=*==X===

= is Busbar
X is large power terminal
* is small load terminal

Also, I have been in contact with Advantech about getting a VT-d capable host board, but it will run me about a grand, including the Xeon E3-1225 and 8 GB of RAM . has anyone been able to test the "multiple x sessions" theory to see if it would work for many video cards (instead of VT-d)? I think an earlier poster mentioned that they were going to test it, but I'm not sure who and whether it ever happened.

Why not simply bolt all ground connections to this aluminum frame? It probably sports lower resistance than traditional power cables. Only relatively short stub ground cables would go to the graphics cards, and, of course, the conventional +12V cables.

Thoughts?

Its only 17 by 41 inches.  One of the key features of this tray is its flexibility.  The placement of all the floor "beams" are adjustable (horizontally), along with the vertical placement of the PCI and extra GPU support beams.  Plus all manor of hardware can be attached to all of those t-slots.   

Quoted so the pic gets more air time.  Drool

Don't anyone ever accuse me of under-sizing my wiring. Each PSU puts out about 200 amps of 12vdc, across 2 negative and 2 positive terminals. I couldn't find a consistent reference across the internet as to what size wire to use - some said 10 gauge was fine, and others said no you must use 2 AWG, with varying opinions in between. So I eventually went with 6 AWG battery cable, and split it across both terminals, like so:


Lots of solder and a bit of flame to make this work.


Special connectors to fit the PSUs I have.


Plugged into the PSU.

The next thing to do is get some copper bus bar and shrink tubing or similar and start hooking it all up as soon as I have the new frame in my grubby hands.

I'm not actually 100% sure of the exact dimensions, but Spotswood could probably tell us.

I haven't even messed with them yet. I need to find a c19 plug somewhere, and then a multimeter so I can start poking around the signal pins hoping it doesn't blow up. I also need to find out the best way to make a common 12v bus for so many amps, as well as a way to attach all the 6/8-pin connectors to it. It will probably be some manner of copper bus bar, with the connectors scavenged from old power supplies.

 

Beauty!

Hi, can you provide more info on the power supply please ? (the Dell 2000w) how did you wire it up and is it running now ?

Thanks.

That thing is a beast!!!!   What are the outer dimensions if I might ask?

Nice now get those components in !

Guys, check out the pure awesome radiating from this thing. What a beast.

Thank you for the helpful forum usage tips !

Any other such features that may not be obvious but highly useful ?

Thanks again !

I think the issue is that most folks don't realize that they can click the little tiny word "NEW" the appears at the end of the thread title. What that does is bring you straight to the most recent message in the thread that you haven't read. So it doesn't go all the way to the end, it starts where you left off. It makes my forum-browsing life so much easier.

Yeah, I need to get into the habit of reading the thread before replying

That made my day right there.  Not just a cool free tool, but a library with computer part models.  Yay!!

Read up the page just a little bit...:

Solidworks is great for doing stuff like that, I don't know what he's using though.

This is progressing really well though. Looks awesome!

I see. If you find a solution it'll make for some very interesting possibilities. Wish you the best of luck on that.

I'm fairly swamped at the moment, but if I can find some time I'll give it a try and see how it works, then report my results.

Yes, but I have yet to hear from anyone that has tested it much. Luke-jr is the only one that I know of that has actually mined with a video card in a virtualized OS, using KVM passthough virtualization. But that was only one card, and the system was somewhat unstable. Others have mentioned that since the drivers run in usermode with X, that I might be able to run multiple X instances. But I don't really know enough about how that works to know how to set it up, or even whether it would work at all.