Topic: My new mining rig - quad 7970 - Going for 3Gh/s - page 5. (Read 9702 times)

I guess 2mm is fine, I just didn't want some flimsy piece that I could dent by pushing on it with my finger.

Thing is now days the cards the old cards cost as much as the new ones.

I too would not spend that much on a setup. I'd put half into bitcoins, and use the other half to build a rig like mine  

But don't do what I did and buy an expensive motherboard. Go for a cheaper one and use riser cables to make them fit. I'd probably use powered riser cables, just because the cheaper boards aren't designed with 4+ high end cards in mind. If you did it that way you could fit more than 4 cards on a board, meaning less money wasted on cpus and mobos.

2mm thick aluminum would be cheaper and more than sturdy enough for any computer case. Last I checked a 4x10 sheet of 14 gauge aluminum was around $60 bucks. That's right around 2mm, and would also be plenty sturdy. Plus you could have it anodized and it would look wicked cool!

This case is made from 16 gauge stainless which is only like 1.5mm. It's plenty sturdy, so long as you get a few bends into it. I could stand on this one if I wanted, with the corners welded up that is

Meathelix - riser cables would solve the spacing problem, assuming you are using a custom case. Then you could run 4 cards spaced the same as they would be as two on one motherboard. I'm patiently waiting for my riser cables to come. With the extra space between these cards I don't think all these 120mm fans will have a problem keeping them all cool.

I'm even thinking about making some ducting to channel the air directly out of the heatsink... Anything ought to be possible if you can mount them freely!

The only way your cards will not over heat is by water cooling them all, All them fans arnt going to do much when your cards are squashed together like that, Since all your fans are doing is trying to force air be twin them in which case wont cool then down much due to the heat they are making is just over powering. It may drop a little bit but not much. Watercooling is the way to go if your cards are like that.

Why I have been told its better to get cheaper rigs with a few cards then it is to spend it all into one big machine. They will mine at the same speed but you wont have heating problems.

Thanks, that is really expensive for a sheet... I'm looking for some type of metal that is ~3mm thick that is cheap.

Now, if I were you, I would not blow that much money on a setup. Go for some old ATI cards that are rated really well for M/hashes and throw a bunch of them on a decent motherboard, but not an expensive motherboard like the EVGA one.

I just noticed that the fins are indeed not parallel to the board... stupid design IMO. Also, re-applying the thermal compound is alright with some manufacturers, but I'm not sure if Gigabyte is one of those. *IMPORTANT* If you do apply new thermal compound, please please only apply a super tiny amount. Less = More in this case and considering the GPU chip is less than half the size of a CPU, it should only be around a couple millimeters at most. Let me get a link for you that describes this, but for CPU's. Found it: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/What-is-the-Best-Way-to-Apply-Thermal-Grease-Part-1/1303

I am a CNC Machine Operator for a 3 meter by 1.5 meter sheet at 3mm thick is about $170 You would only use half that for a case.

I am thinking of doing the same as you but main problem is your cards over heating I was thinking of getting the "EVGA X79 Classified" motherboard since it has 3 graphics card slots evenly spreed out a lot of room be twin them.

How much did that setup cost you? I have around 5k to spend and am looking at getting 1 dedicated pc or 2-3 pc's with 3 7950's
What would you guys recommend to do I will be using it just to mine coins.

setup looks fantastic

I think due to the design on these cards there's no good way for me to place the fans. They draw air in from the front, and mostly exhaust through the top leading edge of the card. The heatsink fins run perpendicular to the length of the card, so not much air can make it out the end. The rear of the card does seem to vent a bit, but I'm pretty sure most of it comes out the top or directly inside the case.

I swapped the fans and it's not much better like expected. One card seems to run a tad bit cooler (90 instead of 95), but I still have it slowed way down. The others are all still running at 95 or so, throttling every now and then. I don't much care for the cooler design on these cards!

Thanks for the comments guys!

Edit: I think I might have a problem with the thermal compound on one of these cards. It sure seems to idle higher than the others. Taking the cooler off is going to void my warranty though, isn't it?

Well, the reason I said to flip the case and reverse the fans at the end of the cards is to help move the hot air away from the cards. The way you have it right now, the fans may be blowing air on them, but the air flow is all screwed up and the heat doesn't have a good way to escape so it sticks around the cards instead.

Love the case!

Awesome photos!  Definitely keeping my eye on this thread. 

Thanks Caesarsauce!

Notaek - I've thought about litecoin a bit, and the plan is to switch to that as soon as ASICs make GPU mining totally impossible. In the meantime I'm hoping to pay for this machine with bitcoins. If ASICs hold out for three months I should be good

Have you thought about mining Litecoin?  Its 1.3x as profitable as BTC right now.

Great looking setup.

Thanks for the comments on my case everyone, too bad it's not so functional right now haha

cgminer is a little improvement, at least in dealing with my hot cards. I'm getting an average 2.5GH/s now. The open air card still seems to do pretty good, so hopefully opening them all up helps!

I'm running diablo kernel -w256 and -v1, averaging around 690MH/s on the 70 degree card.

Random bit - I was thinking I could get away with around an inch of free space between the cards, assuming they stay in the little fan box. Are you just relying on the video card fans to cool them with that much spacing?

Tronath - Thanks! I've never bothered to learn to use Linux so I'm glad I don't have to start now lol

Diablo seems to be best for me so far, phatk was causing some serious artifacts. I'll need to try again when I get the temps under control I guess

Bitbrandon - I got the sheet from work, ordered in on a truck. I could hook you up with my supplier, but if you are out of their area their trucks run it won't do much good. It's made of 16 gauge stainless, and I forget exactly what a sheet runs. Luckily I don't work the purchasing dept lol

I haven't tried flipping the fans yet, but I'll give that a shot. I don't really see it being much help, but I guess it can't hurt.

Wolfgod - I believe we are out of luck as our cards are not the reference format. Universal blocks are the only real option, and I don't consider those an option lol

I do have a few mills at work though, making waterblocks for these cards would be simple. That's a lot of extra $$$ though, for radiators and pumps since I can't make those. I'd rather buy more air cooled cards personally.

I have 4 x gigabyte 7970s ghz edition and it over heats... does anyone know about water blocks for these cards? where can i get it? i saw frozencpu.com but im not sure if it will fit the PCB on that card.

Just curious how much that sheet metal cost and where you got it from.

EDIT: Thought I would give some advice for the airflow. Not sure how you have the fans blowing at the end of the card where the dvi ports etc. are, but those should be pulling air away and not blowing on the cards. Then have the ones at the back of the cards pushing air on them. Also, if possible, I would have the case flipped on the side so that the connector side of the cards are pointing up. This should help aid in removing the heat if you follow how I said you should have your fans blowing because heat rises.

I like your case 

Same Gigabyte cards I have, the way they dump heat from one card to the next is horrid, thought you had a great idea with plenty of fans but doesn't seem to have helped.  

Mine are spaced 2 1/2 inches between and still have heating problems.  Keeping and eye on this thread to see how you work it out, please keep us updated.

Very clean build, looks great