Topic: The PSU holy grail? (Read 1355 times)

Very nice, I wonder if 1200 is cutting it too close for two Antminer s5 with custom fans (2 scythe fans each), I might get this for my next pair of asics and worst case scenario underclock the s5's just a bit.

I found this PSU (the 1300W one) on the cheap and decided to give it a go.
20 minutes. I was still installing the OS when I heard a loud POP and everything went dark. No burnt smell though.
And I can't have been overloading it since the GPUs weren't plugged in at the time. Only CPU, mobo and HDD.

I spoke about it with a friend who often works with China and he told me it is common practice for some companies to replace capacitors with cheap ones and sell them (the capacitors) back to the manufacturer.
That's right, your brand new Asus motherboard (or EVGA PSU in that case) might not have the capacitors the manufacturer put on it...
They manage to make a profit because human labor is cheaper than the price difference between crappy capacitors and high-end ones. Unbelievable.

So take this as a lesson guys. A piece of hardware from a reputable brand shouldn't be bought from a non-reputable vendor, especially if the price is abnormally low.
Now I have to try to RMA this pretty expensive brick, and not insult their mothers in the process...
At least my rig didn't seem to suffer in the process. I slapped an old Corsair 550W in there and it seems fine.

It doesn't seem to have active power factor correction according to newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171095

This one is cheaper, and has active PFC http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104188
FSP is an OEM that makes a lot of PSU for companies like EVGA. I have a few EVGA PSU that were made by FSP powering my 750ti rigs and they are solid. The cooler master might have active PFC and it's just not listed on newegg so if you prefer that brand just confirm it has active PFC and it should be just as good as the FSP. The only other thing about the coolermaster is the cables are the seasonic/corsair type not the braided type. Some love them, some hate them. I don't love or hate them, but have had corsair cables that were too stiff and somewhat a hassle. If you don't mind the cables, a brand like corsair might be a safer bet since they sell replacement cables and even entire cable kits, seasonic doesn't sell replacement cables, not sure about coolermaster. Just something to consider when getting a new PSU.

also a useful site to check out who the OEM of a PSU is and find reviews for the unit http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page364.htm
I didn't see this PSU model number there, so it's probably a newer model, but judging by the cables the OEM is probably Seasonic which is a great manufacturer. But if you are shopping around for a new PSU that's a good site to check out before pulling the trigger.

I have two Corsair 550W gold that are perfect for 750Ti rigs. But given the 970 prices in France, my next cards are going to need more oomf...
I found a Seasonic 1250W gold for 255€ on the same website. It should be fine if I mix the cards. Something like 4 970 + 2 750Ti per rig should do the trick...

By far and away the cheapest option is to mod a Server PSU.
Theses are all platinum eff jobs that are designed to run  24/7 under load and can be brought ridiculously cheap.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IBM-BladeCentre-PSU-2000w-P-N-24R2710-FRU-24R2711-DPS-2000BB-/262052977748?hash=item3d03931c54


there are pinouts online but you will need a soldering iron and cabling and some kind of cooling solution needs to be rigged as there are no fans on these.

I did about 10 of these exact PSU 2 years ago and they outlasted all the fancy EVGA/Seasonc 1500W PSUs we used


this one looks good too as it has 4x fans onboard

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-373701-001-384779-001-P-Class-Blade-2000W-RPS-Power-Supply-Unit-DPS-2500AB-A-/331644387857?hash=item4d378bc211


 there uswed to be a tread over at litecoin talk  detailing this process.

Generally I'd agree with that statement but the PSU I mentioned is off the charts regarding performance per dollar:
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/SuperNOVA_G2_1300/9.html

I have terrible experience with lower capacity (<850W) EVGA PSU's though.

you can find french retailer in france from evga their website I think.
Personnally I wouldn't buy a cooler master (I had problem with one) go for corsair, seasonic and other reputable brand (wouldn't go for evga either because they are probably more expensive and you buy mostly the brand... probably the case with corsair too tbh and they probably just rebrand seasonic psu  )
yeah actually go for seasonic, they are building their psu...

Yeah, I forget about that. The G2 1300W have 6 x 8 pin and 2 x 6 pins so yeah that's a limiting factor but I have plenty of different PSU cables lying around mostly from the 750 Ti rigs, I could have 5 Gigabyte GTX 970's which each require one 8 + 6 pin.

But I wouldn't do that though, as I personally use 4 x 970 and 2 x 750 Ti's which comes down to a about 900-1080W at the wall depending on the algo which is a healthy 69-83% usage.
Beyond that I think it's risky to run it 0-24h and the efficiency also drops off.

Then, the EVGA wouldn't be enough either at 1300W. We'd have to go 5 GPUs, or 1500W PSUs, which are significantly less cost efficient.


The main online retailers (LDLC, materiel.net) simply don't list EVGA PSUs, at all.
After a bit of digging, I found a smaller one that's not too shady and sells it for 230€. Looks great!
It even lists a Super Flower Leadex 1600W - 80+ Gold at 290€...

Now, the specs say 2 cables are 2*8pin, and 4 cables are 1*8pin. So you would still need adapters...

While TDP does not mean real world consumption it does correlate to it pretty well; with high OC (1520 mhz) a 970 Windforce OC model is pulling 197W mining quark but try mining something like Groestl which will pull 220W even on stock speeds.
With sysnthetic stress tests you can get even closer to the TDP figure:

(source)

And with more and more optimizations for different algos the power consumption will also increase so I personally like to use actual power consumption figures rather than what the advertised specs say.

I live in Central EU and there are 6 retailers selling the Evga PSU in my country and only one of them selling the Cooler Master V1200 so I have to assume there must be some webshops in France too selling the G2 for a reasonable price (260€).

TDP is not real world consumption: my Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming (insane overclock out of the box: 1430 Mhz) pulls 180W from the wall mining Quark. 145W mining Lyra2v2.
If you really wanted to stay on the safe side, you could always replace 1-2 cards with 950s...

The EVGA looks nice too. But EVGA is a very US-centric company: it seems impossible to find in France. The only one I could find was on amazon.fr for 438€. So that's a no-go for me...
There is also the Enermax Platimax EPM1350EWT 80PLUS Platinum for 295€, but it only has 8 8pin connectors...

Any alternatives?

Most 970's have a 250W TDP so 6 (1500W) is way too much.

Also 6 pin power connectors can output 75W and 6+2 connectors can (should) output 150W so having 12 of them is somewhat pointless since you can't utilize all of them (1800W).

I use EVGA SuperNova G2 1300W PSU's and I think they are better than what I have have read about the Cooler Master V1200.

The G2 1300W is cheaper, have 3 years more warranty (10 instead of 7) and have lower ripple levels on the 12V rail.
It's "just" gold, not platinum but the difference in efficiency under standard mining load (70-80%) is negligible:
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/SuperNOVA_G2_1300/6.html
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/CoolerMaster/V1200/6.html

Apparently they are louder than the V1200 but I never heard any of them even under heavy load, or at least much quiter than other components like GPUs.

Look into it and decide for yourself.

It's hella strong, but it can't power an S7, Bitmain has a 1600W PSU on the market, I know at least a few companies with 2000W PSUs but I think this PSU, being available on coolermaster's main website (making it more easily accessible to every day miners) will push GPU mining further in development!

What do you guys think of this PSU for Nvidia GPU mining?
http://www.coolermaster.com/powersupply/enthusiast-v-series/v1200/

- Single rail, no connector headache
- 1200W platinum. Should power 6 GTX 970s while staying above 92% efficiency.
- 6 separate 2*8pin PCIe cables. No need for those pesky fire-prone adapters
- 3*3 molex cables. Should be able to handle 2 powered risers each
- 2*4 SATA cables, in case you want mine burst on the same rig ;-)

At 280€, it seems like a pretty good option to me. What do you think? Do you know a better one?