Topic: My second ZEC + XMR+ ETH thread builds info links thoughts and photos. - page 14. (Read 147935 times)

I do not use the SATA to 6 pin PCIe adapter.  I just plug a 6 pin PCIe cable in from my PSU directly into the USB riser.  I believe that is the best way to power them.  I did not get the SATA to PCIe adapter, but from the pictures the gauge of the wires look like they are of a heavier gauge than the regular SATA or Molex ones but I'm not 100% sure on that.

This is quite interesting!  So, to make sure I understand correctly... these risers are powered by converting the sata plugs coming from the PSU to 6-pin PCIe-type power (instead of either sata to molex or molex to molex)?

Is this a legitimately better way to go than the sata to molex type?  I had always avoided that on my GPUs since I heard several people saying that this caused problems due to wrong voltage pull or something like that. So, I had always gone molex to molex, but of course, that is also why I am always short on molex connectors since I would need 3 x 2 for GPUs and 1 x 2 to power my BTC pro r2 Mobo.  Needing 8 molex on 4 cords sucks when even 1200W Plat PSU only comes with 2 x 2.

So, if I understand this correctly, using these 6-pin adapters, I could make use of the extra sata cables/connectors for 6 GPUs... meaning I would really only need 2 molex to power my mobo?  If true, is there still a limit of 2 GPUs per string?  Or could I reasonably put 3 per string?

Totally agree PSU is the one thing you really need to get a good one

also for memory yeah it's really overkill, 4GB is enough for a mining rig, 8 is already pushing it, 16 is total overkill. I have several w10 zcash mining rig with 6 gpus, and with 4GB memory stick it use only ~54% of available memory.

Thanks Citronick, I appreciate your insight on this issue.  I understand and agree with what you said about sticking with the reputable brands. In fact, my 2 mining PSUs are both Rosewill Quark (1kw and 1.2kw), both of which I like very much, hence looking at another Rosewill for rig #3, just Gold vs Platinum. By all appearances on NewEgg, this Capstone appeared to be inline quality wise with the Quarks as both had 4-star reviews. However, the difference became evident between the 2 in reading the in-depth reviews that Phil linked to.  If it was just the 2% difference between Gold and Plat, I would buy that Gold right now, but the build quality appears to be noticeably worse, even though from same brand, which is why I opted not to buy it.  I will probably just wait until that 1200w Quark drops in price again and stick with that.

As to your comments about RAM and GPUs, I'm not sure it can help much in my specific case. Firstly, I am not in the market for multiple sticks of RAM (at least not past the 2 i will need for rig #3), so there would be no possibility for volume discounts there.  However, I do have a question about quantity of RAM needed for mining.  Both of my rigs so far have 16GB of RAM (2x8GB).  Is this overkill?  Could I get by with 2x4GB instead?  I would primarily be GPU mining ETH/XMR/ZEC and CPU mining XMR, so maybe this is an area I can save in?

As for bulk discounts on GPUs, I doubt that 6 would qualify me for this. I'm under the impression that I would need to be more in the 15-20 range for a distributor to even talk to me, and that's not going to happen any time soon. I think i will be good at 3 rigs for now, unless of course crypto prices go crazily high in the near future.  Of course, I said the same thing after planing rig #2, so who knows 

I like them  not sure is they can carry a 0.80 amp max load.

For 12 bucks I will order them now.  They could make the miner much quieter.

When my pandaminer does zec  the heatsinks are only about 40c

Phil  did you ever see these?


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA27C3GN8656

They have a resistor  and plug inline for 3 pin fans.  5 for 6 bucks.  So 2 orders for 12 dollars  would be enough for all 9 fans in the PandaMiner.

his bitfury  will be 1th  at 100 watts  maybe  in Feb.

 So if you want  100th  he may not be what you want.

But  if you want 10th-25th  he could be good for you.

His gear will be able to over and under clock plus over and under volt.

Translation :

 speed it up to the max  more hash less efficient ----------  say .13 watts a gh
 slow it down less hash more efficient ---------------------- say  .08 watts a gh

I will send a pm today.

PM me when you are ready to sell some mobos+gpus , I will compare the cost (including oversea shipping) to check if it's better than local offers ! (pretty high actually).


Maybe due to translation, lack of knowledge and number of page in his thread, I didn't get exactly what sidehack is going to offer. Is he trying to build somethig better than antminer S9 ? or only small things ?

Yes  in my case  I have power 3x 30 amp 240 volt circuits   or 72 amps.   but the area in the  barn for mining is not huge.

So fitting pandaminers is easy compared to fitting rigs. see photo at the bottom


I wrote that signature with the idea to get donations to sidehack's  projects so to be clear:
the whole kit and kaboodle  

the twopacs  with antminer chips

and the bitfury  work in feb.

I can do 2 racks in the solar array
so  for me  the pandaminers would be better.
BTW  I most likely  won't do it due to all the gpus I have and the multiple rigs.

As it is  I would need to sell  a lot of gear to switch to panda miners.
And people don't buy fast in market place
I no longer sell on ebay  as buyers have become really bad.

The card below is a good deal and will only get better yet no one has purchased it.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/sold-xfx-hd-7970-for-sale-daily-mark-down-sale-sold-1734829

I am going to sell  multiple mobos and gpus to get more pandaminers


here is my 24 card rack with gpus.
it would become a 48 card rack with pandaminers

6 four card rigs  = 24 cards
6 psus
6 eth cables
an 8 port dvi switcher
1 key board
1 mouse


or 6 pandaminers   = 48 cards
3 ibm 2980 psus
6 eth cables
an 8 port dvi switcher
1 key board
1 mouse

Im not so sure about this last statement. Back in the Bitcoin GPU mining days there was a company/pool by the name of CoinLab. They wanted to share/rent GPU miners out to anyone who needed the power. It never went far, Im not even sure if they ever got a single client.

Im also not saying that just because they failed, everyone else will too but know that this road has been walked before and without much success.

Yes, my rationale on the Panda similar to Phils.

The Pandas will somewhat refocus the whole mining gameplan for me and group.

Yes, the tinkering and experimentation on open rigs & DIY have given me hundreds of hours of "satisfaction" and sleepless nights -- love those challenges.

But on the other hand, the commercial side of things is also important and ROI and profits needs to come in to pay bills.

I have been trying very hard to look for cases and chassis for the open rigs so that someday it can be transported and powered by cheapest source of power available. All of this to improve profitability at the end of the day.... to be honest, this is very hard to do.

The Pandas are a game changer, esp for large GPU farms, cooling cost, footprint, IMHO.... all it needs is smart software.

No worries on resale or repurpose of these multi-GPU Pandas... there will always be buyers or renters (think.... local universities Deep Learning labs).

and when you have a minute, could you sum up what is the sidehack project you are supporting with your signature ?

I made my math, I can get more hashes with less money if I build my own rigs instead of using Pandaminers. (and I don't even considered in the maths the fact that Pandaminer will arrive with shipping cost and customs fees..)

The solar array should not change the results ! with real GPUs (actual 470/480s), you should ROI faster and still be able to sell the gear later , no matter if this is 580s time or 680s time !

Did I miss something ?

  My circumstances are different then most.
I have the solar array deal.  My power costs allow for running the pandas with the rx 480s  until  rx 680s come out.
So when the rx 580s show in JUNE -AUG  I won't need to replace  the rx 480s.
I would get  1 extra generation to use them.
The solar array  could do 72 amps max.
So that could be :

 6 pandaminers
 4 s9's
 5 avalon 7's

would keep me  and buysolar diverse.

Do you really think the panda miner is such a good deal ? Ok it's a clean setup, but

It seems expensive, and harder to sell in the end. (only to miners, not to gamers)

Somebody tried that risers ?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/311716467457

Do you have any tips to help finding a GPU supplyer ?
in EU , all GPUs prices are high nowadays (higher than 2016) , no good deal forn the moment.
Maybe a direct distributor would be better, but how to find it ?

Mostly true.  Except for rose will as they are directly linked to newegg.

And with rose will the quark psu has been a real good psu for me.

Buying seasonic two or three at a time or evga two or three at a time is what a lot of home builders do.
For me. I max at 6kwatts if the weather is cold.  So 12 x 750 watt or 12 x 850 watt psus works for me.
If I was to go 12 biostar rigs with four Msi rx 470 gpus I would want either 12 evga plats or 12 rose will 850 plats.

Of course I have a mix of gear not the above.

I would love to have 6 panda miners with three IBM 2980 psus.

That would be the cleanest smallest way to run 48 gpus

IMHO, it's not worth "saving pennies" on PSUs, because your entire investment, ie. mobo, gpus, ram, cpu, etc., could be harmed in many ways due to a sub-standard PSU. Be careful on so called Platinum PSU selling at "attractive" pricing -- there are too many scams out there.

Standardizing on a good PSU brand will save you power bill, stability of rigs, consolidated warranty to some extent, etc, over time.

The more expensive PSUs, esp Platinum ones from EVGA, Corsair, Rosewill are well above 100 for Gold or 200 bucks for Platinums, for a reason - its simply using quality & better components resulting good performance and efficient power consumption for the rigs. I standardized on EVGAs because of the build and reputation, and also the 10-year warranty.

To save on overall rig costs, find a reliable and cost-efficient supplier of RAM and GPUs instead, because these items are bought in multiple quantities therefore the savings realised are much meaningful.

To go even further, study the supply chain for the RAMs and GPUs, and buy direct from distributor if you are buying in bulk, rather than buying from Newegg or Amazon.

That USB riser is still working perfectly for me thank you very much.  Before putting that riser in I was getting constant system crashes and reboots with the old riser.  The old riser had a molex connector on it and the molex to sata adapter melted a little it.  It was not noticeable until I removed it from the system and you could see some of the melted bits.  Using the 6 pin PCIe directly so far I've had no problems nor do I expect any power problems with this riser.  Thanks again Phil!

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/a-review-and-an-apology-to-forum-member-itop-1744064

http://www.itopshop.net/pcie-1x-to-16x-pcie-riser-with-6pin-power-connector-version-6-p-303.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/272456808280?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649