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Cheap power?

M

mkrohn

2[H]4U
Joined
Apr 30, 2012
Messages
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I stumbled upon this: http://www.xodustech.com/projects/bitcoin-mining-farm and sure enough, they're like $13 area shipped. I think I'm going to order a couple and pull out the soldering iron. I wonder how well these run... If they can even run 2 big cards or 4 small I'd be very happy with it.

the 6950 poweredge appears to have 1500w in the $30 area.

I realize I have to do a bit of soldering and still use a "standard" PSU to power the board and drives but for the graphics instead of spending hundreds on big units I could just pop in like a 500w for the system and then power the cards from these things. In the $15 range for the other ones I'd likely just put at least one of those on any system with more than 2 cards. I'll have to look and see how much the 6 and 8 pin connectors are from monoprice but I'm gonna try a $15 one
 
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Yeah the 650W watts just for 12V, if true could power 2 cards for cheap.
 
When you said big cards I was thinking more along the lines of 290x.
 
Ultima99 said:
When you said big cards I was thinking more along the lines of 290x.
Click to expand...

yeah 2 of the big cards or 4 of the smaller ones. should be doable on one of these. If I have good luck with this I'll get a 1500w
 
i have a couple of these power supplies from an old dell server, pretty sure they are either 550w or 650w, if anyone is interested i can check to make sure, just let me know
 
bigted said:
i have a couple of these power supplies from an old dell server, pretty sure they are either 550w or 650w, if anyone is interested i can check to make sure, just let me know
Click to expand...

I ordered one with my ebay bucks so it basically ended up FREE for the 650. Basically I'm just gonna solder 2 wires to touch together to turn it ON then solder some 6 pin power connectors on and try it out. I'm going to of course do my testing on low end cards.

Anybody how efficient server PSU's are? With it only having to power the graphics I'd assume they'd work pretty nicely.
 
I remember reading a thread similar to this idea a year or two ago where people were converting server power supplies into generic 12V power sources (RC chargers, benchtop power supplies, etc).

Here's an example:
https://sites.google.com/site/tjinguytech/my-projects/HP47A

I think it would behoove you to find the specs on the power supply you use (many of them are sourced from Delta) and see if you can run it differently based on shorting other pins (voltage adjustment, fan adjustment, etc).
 
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That Dell PSU gets really hot so opening them up and having fans on them is a MUST. For the sanity of my setup I'm going to try one of these next: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Del...-/380818764469?pt=PCA_UPS&hash=item58aa9132b5 has fans and its 930w for $19

In my current setup I only need the 600w to power a pair of 7870's and a 7850 because I already had enough PSU's to power everything. The only power problem I had is when I started switching to 4-5 cards per system. I'm planning on putting 5 280x's together in a single rig
 
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My 1500w has been in shipping for a week now LOL fedex smart post bounced the box all over the place.

You guys notice that on the specs for most of these PSU's they say things like 240v: 1500w or 110v like 600w?
 
mkrohn said:
My 1500w has been in shipping for a week now LOL fedex smart post bounced the box all over the place.

You guys notice that on the specs for most of these PSU's they say things like 240v: 1500w or 110v like 600w?
Click to expand...

Yes, you cannot pull 1500W from a standard 110V 15A outlet since the outlet is supposed to be de-rated at 80% (I believe). I have a few SuperMicro servers with 1400W power supplies that go down to 1200W if running on 110V.
 
brilong said:
Yes, you cannot pull 1500W from a standard 110V 15A outlet since the outlet is supposed to be de-rated at 80% (I believe). I have a few SuperMicro servers with 1400W power supplies that go down to 1200W if running on 110V.
Click to expand...

I'm kicking myself for not going 240v when I put these circuits in for mining. Where do you find the 240v PC power plugs? I searched last night and the frickin plugs to the power supply are all like $30
 
I got a couple of the 240v 2000watt delta PSUs. They will be placed into action soon as I get some wire and supply in, in a few days. I'll let ya'll know how it goes.

mkrohn, you can get 20A 240v plugs on amazon for like 13$ This I got red, just for cool factor, lol. Running a 2/2/2/4 line from my main load center to a 100amp 20 slot load center and going to run 120 and 240 lines from that. This is srsbusiness.
 
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Let me know how your experiment goes mkrohn, I might follow suit although my soldiering skills need the dust blown off.
 
I can't seem to get the 1450 working and upon reading more it's only a 240 PSU. I can't get it to turn on with my normal outlet.

the 600w that I have gets goofy when I connect/disconnect things from power. Basically I have to turn that power unit off when I juggle the cards that it is powering and its fine.

I think I'm gonna order some different PSU's and put this one aside for when I do a 240v build in my next rack.
 
Ah wow. That mining setup could prove to be a great source of a fire, if done wrong.
 
It's a proven idea, but yes, if you don't know anything about awg or ampacity then it could prove interesting.

Ice storms delaying my packages. Haven't gotten my setup running yet. grrr.
 
The adapter the write up uses is $13 from digikey. They're $9 at vertical but you have to order 6. Still a cheap source of power though. I saw a write up about a 2000w version, but got turned off at the 240v part. I didn't know smaller 120v versions existed. Might have to grab a few for my farm.
 
So if anybody finds a nice and beefy 120v one hit me up. I'm going to be looking later today and hooking a 240v to a 120v line it will NOT turn on as I found out today but luckily I'm planning a 240v setup for my inlaws basement. I guess if a fire happens in THAT setup it could be a very good thing for me :)
 
Also those adapters aren't NEEDED technically you can solder to the pins on the underside of the PCB easily but of course more caution is required.
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/380799802322?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 $18 and yeah its only 240. I'll order another for powering the next rack and have basically 3kw for the new setup for only $36 but for my current home setup I'm sticking with 120 so I'll try that one you linked. I like how it has fans in it already so I can just put it at the very top of my rack and run the wires down to wherever I need them instead of having them open and having one of my box fans blowing on it.
 
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Those built-in fans are nice but probably make more noise than all your GPUs put together :)
Or at least are as annoying cause they are usually very high frequency generators...
If your room is isolated shouldn't be a problem.
 
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Dell-Po...-/191008460155?pt=PCA_UPS&hash=item2c78fdcd7b

$40, brand new and actually from the same place I ordered the other 2.

91.7A on the 12v using the 110v which is 1101w or 1570 on the 240

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Del...-/191053303312?pt=PCA_UPS&hash=item2c7baa0e10
that one is used and $20 but

76.5A 12v at 110 for 930w

I might just order one of each and play around with them.

I have my mining rack in the basement in a room that is out of the way. I can't hear a thing when I'm in that room no matter what. the 290x reference blower wheel is the loudest thing I've come across.

My new rack I might have to just factor in a section of the box fan to just blow over PSU's.
 
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Can anybody tell me what these little clip things are they plug into the power supply? http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=534505

My thinking is building something like this and having those screw down speaker wire ends on the outside which I can then just run a single speaker wire to each video card. This specific model used in this is the 240v ONLY beast I have sitting here that was like $18 for 1500w. My plan is a pair of those powering my next rack and something like this with a pair of the 1100w 120v PSU that cost me $40.

I'm just trying to come up with the best way to create a power bank and I like the way this one looks. The digikey adapters are still rather ugly and I won't have a way to properly and quickly add or remove power lines as needed. Add is probably the key in my case.
 
Core32 said:
I may be looking at the wrong picture but those look like large terminal lugs with crimp rings.
My guess is he soldered them directly to the PSU output pins???
I may be wrong but that does not look flexible, in the least.
Click to expand...

I was hoping it was a quick clip... its hard to tell if they're soldered onto the PSU or not which is why I was asking. That guys project at least gave me the idea of using the speaker wire ends at least. What happens inside the box is less important
 
cool thread -- thought it was going to be cheap electric rates so I got all excited as I just renewed my electric contract in North Texas with Pennywise for 7 months at 5.5 cents per kwh (avg price, includes delivery fees)

Energy charge by itself is only 1.4 cents per kwh :)
 
collegeboy69us said:
cool thread -- thought it was going to be cheap electric rates so I got all excited as I just renewed my electric contract in North Texas with Pennywise for 7 months at 5.5 cents per kwh (avg price, includes delivery fees)

Energy charge by itself is only 1.4 cents per kwh :)
Click to expand...

so just like cable by ending the monopoly your power bills went way down. I live in pretty close proximity to TWO nuclear power plants yet somehow I'm paying $.14 total. Government made monopolies piss me off but my $65/mnth 30Mb comcast isn't as bad as some places not too far from here.
 
I know there were others talking about getting these server PSU's. Anybody get them up and running yet? Other than the fan noise I'm lovin how I have the big guy setup. I need to do one last restructuring of how I have some cards mounted.

1) 7850's are way further apart than they need to be.
2) 6950's need to be spaced out more
3) 270x's need to be on the bottom of one of the box fans because the BOTTOM of a box fan somehow is pumping noticeably more air out than the top half. Perhaps cardboard ducts or something to redirect some airflow or something.

I just ordered a second one of the big guys and will probably run to radioshack for a potentiometer to dial the fans back.

Once I do some final adjustments to wires and stuff my rack will officially be full and I'll be done messing with my setup. I've considered going through and upgrading a bunch of rigs to 290's to improve the density but I'm torn between not messing with a good thing and having something so awesome.
 
mkrohn said:
so just like cable by ending the monopoly your power bills went way down. I live in pretty close proximity to TWO nuclear power plants yet somehow I'm paying $.14 total. Government made monopolies piss me off but my $65/mnth 30Mb comcast isn't as bad as some places not too far from here.
Click to expand...

Consider yourself lucky,

I live 15 miles from one of the top 5 largest Hyrdo plants in the country (2500 MW) and 70 miles from a Nuke, yet my total power rates are $0.15 KW/h
 
mkrohn said:
I know there were others talking about getting these server PSU's. Anybody get them up and running yet? Other than the fan noise I'm lovin how I have the big guy setup. I need to do one last restructuring of how I have some cards mounted.

1) 7850's are way further apart than they need to be.
2) 6950's need to be spaced out more
3) 270x's need to be on the bottom of one of the box fans because the BOTTOM of a box fan somehow is pumping noticeably more air out than the top half. Perhaps cardboard ducts or something to redirect some airflow or something.

I just ordered a second one of the big guys and will probably run to radioshack for a potentiometer to dial the fans back.

Once I do some final adjustments to wires and stuff my rack will officially be full and I'll be done messing with my setup. I've considered going through and upgrading a bunch of rigs to 290's to improve the density but I'm torn between not messing with a good thing and having something so awesome.
Click to expand...

Which ones did you get? I have fanless ones, think i'd rather a big watt model with a fan.
 
I have this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/191008460155?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 3 fans that are making my ears bleed but there's already instructions for reducing the fan speed printed out along with the full pinout.

They sold out of those at $40 but hell even at $80 I'm tempted. To avoid the work of building an enclosure and adding fans I am going to go with models with fans from now on. I am going to look around for other models with fans that will pump out a ton of juice at 120 or 240v
 
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