Topic: Summer Heat - 140 cards in the basement - Help me (Read 390 times)

Yes, you need powerful delta fans if you want to put GPUs in cases. You already know how hot the inside of a case can get with so many GPUs if you don't have enough airflow, and delta fans are expensive and very loud.

In the end all you need is prevent the heat from one GPU to affect other GPUs, doesn't really matter how you achieve this. If you manage to split the hot air from the cold air and have enough airflow so the hot air doesn't affect any GPU, you should be fine. If your GPU temperatures are still too high, you may need to replace their thermal paste.

My very first miner was built in a 4u rack case. Put 7 cards in there and the heat was cooking my cards so I switched to open-air.
Afterwards I read that normal case fans in such a config are useless, and I'd need to get some high power fans like from an antminer for example to really push the air out.
The added fan expense (and loudness) put me off that path then
Open air worked fine when I had <100 GPU but that setup is showing it's limitations now.


Thanks for the video link. That's indeed a very nice setup. His rackmount enclosures are what allows him to make it work though, clever setup to mimic an asic design.
My open air racks would need to be fully re-done for this to work for me.
I did notice though that in his video he has no intake fans, and instead the exhaust ones are pulling in everything through that big top vent. Good to know that this works, if insulated well.


I have 16 GPU per each Ikea Omar rack.
I'll think of some way to perhaps enclose each, and use use a bunch of boxfans as a wall. I don't have any opposing windows, so would need to make some air tunnel.



Thanks for the responses guys.

What you need to do is basically make an enclosure and put some rigs into it, say 3 rigs of 6 GPUs each so 18 GPUs total. Think of it as a big computer case for the GPUs. Then you pick windows which are across from each other, in one window install a vent tub with a blower fan in it, and do the same to the other window from across.

So you have a push-pull configuration going. You are getting cool outside air from the ambient temp outside, pushed thru the 18 GPUs and exhausted outside thru the other window. This way your GPUs aren't sitting in 50C heat instead they are cooled with temps outside which can be 20C and makes a big difference. And your house won't be hot either. However your neighbours might complain about the loud fans running all day and night.

You should try a hot / cold wall something like this guy knows his stuff! https://youtu.be/PD0pjasImTo

My recommendation would be to put all GPUs in cases, and create hot/cold chambers to separating the hot air (case exhaust) from the cold air (case intake). I know this involves spending more money that could otherwise go to buy more GPUs, but it will definitely solve your heat problem. You don't even need an exhaust fan on the wall, the case fans would be enough.

You need to cut holes and put an exhaust, that is the only way.

What about geothermal cooling?

4 x 24 inch fans must eat quite a bit of power, and be loud My 16" is about 230W at max speed, so you're looking at over 1000W for yours. Just like a 1 ton AC unit.

Each miner is like a 1200W heater, so having that upstairs during summer is not a good idea
In the basement I can use the open air as a heatsink, and the ceiling/floor as a "zone" separation to keep heat downstairs.


Today I ended up removing that big exhaust and reverting to my house heatpump AC.
Coded a little check that would automatically shutdown or start miners in a staggered fashion depending on the temperature.

outside   35+   0 miners
outside   <35   1 miners
outside   <33   2 miners
outside   <31   3 miners
outside   <29   4 miners
outside   <27   5 miners
outside   <25   6 miners
outside   <23   7 miners

I ran at only 2 miners most of the day, but it was livable and I could work upstairs OK.

I'll see how that goes over the next day or so, but I'm seriously considering adding a 12,000 BTU window AC or mini split. I don't see how I can accommodate 4x24" exhaust fans in my basement besides cutting the foundations :/

Why not spread a few rigs out? You can scatter some through out the upstairs to cut down some heat down.

May not be ideal, but least you be moving some heat around.

You can also continue to down clock the cards, cutting power where you can and save some kwh and heat for 3 months.

Good luck with whatever you choose! It's a battle I'm fighting but for just a few rigs lol

I battled the same thing in my garage with the same amount of cards.  Only way to fix it is good airflow into the basement and out.  I have 2 windows open and four 24 inch fans where the garage door use to be exhausting the hot air and that works to keep the temps same as outside.  Not sure on the specs you need but you need to move a lot of air. 

I currently have 112 GPUs mining in my basement, and have a box of 28 more that are still not installed.
Basement is an unfinished cement open space of a 1950's little bungalow, about 1000sqft. Cards are installed into wireframe racks with 3" spacing between each gpu.

So far I've been dealing with heat with my house AC. It's a 2-ton unit. Works quite well. It works 24/7 and is able to keep the upstairs comfortable for 9 months out of 12. June/July/August things get hot. It doesn't help that I keep growing my miners every year.

The summer heat is really starting to annoy me. We have our first heat wave this week, and this is the first time ever that I needed to shut down miners so that I may live OK upstairs without cooking like a rotisserie chicken.

Last summer I tried putting my miners in a grow tent and exhausting this outside, but the 400cfm fan I had was inadequate, and cards were reaching 85-90c so I moved them back out.

This year I decided to get a 16" shutter fan, and mount it in a window. Based on https://www.accu-tech.com/hs-fs/hub/54495/file-17645763-pdf/docs/cooling_enclosures_101_4-16-12.pdf I figured that I'd need about 1400cfm for 11Kw (140 cards), and the fan has 1800cfm at it's lowest setting. This should work I thought.

I sealed off all the AC vents in the basement to force all AC air to go upstairs. Opened the front basement windows just a little to let some air in without allowing rain to come in.
The first two days it seemed to be working quite well. I noticed though that the bathroom was unusually cool in the morning.

Then yesterday the Heat Wave arrived. And that was the real test of the setup, and it failed. My setup isn't working out quite like I wanted.

It seems like the 16" exhaust fan is sucking all the air conditioned air from upstairs as well as the hot basement air. That cool morning bathroom, it was due to the cool outdoors morning air being forced into the bathroom through the bathroom ceiling fan conduit. I taped it shut. Indoor temp reached 31.5c in the afternoon and didn't start going back down until 1am.

I'm doing a test now and shut down all my miners, and left the basement exhaust fan running. After a few hours like that, the upstairs cannot get lower then 28.5c. The big exhaust fan is clearly causing issues.

Based on what I read, what I'm experiencing was to be expected. I would also need some air intake with an identical cfm as the exhaust.
Before I go and spent more money on this, is anyone else having success in a similar setup as me?
As mentioned my basement is a raw unfinished one, and when looking up, I see the floor of the upstairs, meaning there is no insulation. I'm worried that even if I install an intake fan somehow and rearrange the airflow, it'll still find a way to mess the upstairs AC setup.

Alternatively I can just connect a 1-ton portable AC in the basement and deal with the extra electricity cost for 3 months.

I also thought about building a shed outdoors, but this being a small city lot I don't have lots of space, and the cost of extending my electrical setup 30-40ft to outdoors plus shed building would be more expensive then just running an extra portable AC in the basement.

What do you advise?

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For those that just came for a picture, my setup looks like this:
https://pasteboard.co/JajJM2n.jpg
This was in January 2019. I now have a few more of those metal racks in the back of the wooden frame.