Fun with GPU's

[Terry1953]

If it lives up to its promises it ought to be both quieter and cooler, and lots so.
So we're not only interested in the temperature drop, but we also would like to know about the obtained new level of 'quiet'ness.
(and perhaps the productivity of the GPU increases with the better cooling as well!)

I think it will be quiet the fan seems to be very high quality for both the radiator and on the GPU shroud. Since it will be in the shed the noise is secondary but the temp drop will be everything. Right now I'm running 1 6870 and 1 6970 at stock speed due to temp and if this works out and I can OC and multi wu process then I'll buy more. The nice thing is that they adapt to so many GPS it should be good for a long time.

[Terry1953]

CRAP!!! Restarting everything for the 4th time tonight. I found the "tipping point" in my electrical service it's the second 6970 I guess. I keep sitting here in the dark due to a blown circuit. I just decided that I'm going to have a separate 200 Amp service run to the shed so this problem goes away. I have run 2 extra circuits to the bedroom but these systems and the GPU's seem to eat breakers for breakfast. Somehow it would seem that I am pulling more than the 80 amps in these lines. It might be the fans on top of everything else I guess. But I'm tired of restarting systems and they\re just going to sit for the rest of the night. I'll head into Lowe's in the morning and pick up the service box and get it wired in and Monday I'll swing by the elec. co. and pick up a meter base. I think I still remember how to wire a weatherhead. As I remember the weatherhead for a 200 amp service takes 3/0 gauage wire it sucks to work with. Oh well everything always changes and for the better most times.

[vaughan]

Be careful playing with that stuff - electricity is known to bite.

[Terry1953]

Be careful playing with that stuff - electricity is known to bite.

Very true! You just have to respect it. When I was younger I used to wire new home construction to pick up extra money. You just have to remember that it's just like plumbing "what comes in must go out" the trick is to not be in the way when it's doing either.

[Jason1478963]

Wow... I cant imagine anybody needing that large a service for their systems. I think there has to be something else there that isn't quite right. How many of these have old power supplies as power supplies with poor power factor will be using more current(apparent power) to do the same job. I run a majority of my machines on one 20 amp circuit. The other circuits i use are for races and even then my whole house with 22 systems running uses around 5KW according to my Energy Detective. If your kicking a 100 amp breaker you have to be using a large amount of power or have most of the load on one leg. One thing to keep in mind with another service as they deregulated here they started charging a customer fee that might be based per service. I believe mine is around 20 dollars now to be hooked to the grid.

What brand was the power supply that couldn't run the two 6xxx cards together? It seems a 750 should have 4 pci-e power connectors. I also had to use a molex to 6 pin but I try and use the better quality ones and put them on multiple molex lines to spread the load while keeping them as close to the power supply as possible. This seems to work well for a system with 3 5850s on a 750 watt power supply. If you have a look at some of the bitcoin machines you don't usually see the 1000watt power supplies until 3 plus cards in a system. There are also people running two smaller power supplies in one machine. I believe they make a relay that aids in turning on your second power supply.

[Terry1953]

Jason,
Most of my PS's are the old cheap things as until about 5 weeks ago I didn't run any large GPU's or any gpu's to speak of now I have an Asus 6670, a MSi 6850, 2 MSI 6870's 2 6970's, and am looking for 4 5870's to buy and I'm sure there will be some 7000 series in the mix before long 7970's for now and 7990's when the price comes down some, I know that it sounds like over kill but I'm kind of looking to the future. When I move out to the shed I'll have some power tools that will suck a little power too. (table saw, belt sander, air compressor, plus the heat and air...etc) and as far as the "customer charge" it's $25 a month here and I can live with that to have the separate service. As I upgrade I'm sure the usage will come down but the number of systems will go up so it might even out. The guy I bought this house from had no concept of what a ground wire was for and I'm having to replace that one circuit at a time and in a log cabin that's a monumental pain in the toocus since most circuits are hidden in the chinking between logs. But I love my 8" thick outside walls. It's a little frustrating to finally get to an output of over a million a day on Moo and have to drop back since my goal is to get to 3 million a day I'd like to kick Mikey off the top of the hill for awhile. I've been watching the systems have put together and there won't be anymore AMD 965's but I do see a few Intel 3770k's in my future.

As for the brand on the 750 watt it was a Coolmax the real problem was the cord to the wall was hot to the touch (bad grounding I suspect). You have to keep in mind that I have an all electric house. I do have a 200Amp service but we have the heating and air, water heater, stove, 2 deep freezes, 2 refrigerators, 4 big screen TV's misc video games, flood lights outdoors... and on and on. And 2 teenagers that switches are only used to turn things on with.

[Jason1478963]

I suspect the power supplies are not helping you as active power factor correction is a big help. I haven't had Coolmax power supplies in a long time and probably won't be getting another. The new power supplies are 80 plus certified (includes the very important active power factor correction in the standard)and usually have a mail in rebate which end up being corsair or PC Power and Cooling. The hot power cord could be a bad receptacle, cord end or the cord that came with the power supply should have been upgraded to a heavier gauge wire. I try not to run more then 1000 watts through my killawatt as to avoid the heat. Heat is usually a poor connection or undersized conductor that eventually causes failure. Power strips are also good for having poor conductors and connections at the plug. It is a good thing for all of us to pay attention to as we add more GPUs or systems to a circuit.

I would also keep in mind that more and more projects are moving to an openCL client. The 5xxx cards in the near future may be limited to projects your not that interested in running because of the poor openCL. I jumped the gun and got 2 5850 and 1 5870 for WCG and one 7770 ended up beating 3 5850 in the openCL app. I believe the 7xxx generation also has a bit better energy efficiency because of the die shrink. The best of luck on your quest for 3 million points a day.

I have seen people pull a 200 amp service from the 200 amp house service as the utility wouldn't let them have two services for the property. It may be something to thing about as 25 a month adds up. I don't expect you'll need much heat in a well insulated shed with all them systems in there. The house without computers is a different story. Did we add a slab to the shed with hydronic heat by chance? It may be possible to dump some liquid cooling into that. Best of luck on the shed and service for it.

[Terry1953]

Jason,

Thanks for getting me to stop and research the 80 Plus...etc rating. Now until there is something better it's all I'll buy. I have two 850 Corsair 80+ coming and that should be a help. I have one 6870 that is still sitting so as soon as those come in I'll fire it up. I have moved 2 systems to my son's room and everything is ok for the time being. Once the last 6870 and a 6670 that I have are up the rest can wait till the shed is done. If it ever quits raining for more than a day. Yesterday it didn't rain but it did hit 91 degrees here and no hobby will get me out in that heat to build a shed.

[Jason1478963]

Anytime... I haven't purchased to many 80plus gold yet, but it may be worth the added efficiency when running multiple power hungry GPUs. I hope you like the corsairs as they have worked well on my systems(Corsair 750tx running an FX8350 with 2 7870XTs). It should be able to handle the dual high end GPU that the cooler max didn't from my experience. The hard part will be keeping the case temps down. I lucked out that I stumbled on the new power supply standard when power factor info was being covered in the apprentice program. I also was working on a school job where my journeyman discussed up sizing the neutral when it was shared on a 3 phase system when for use on computers(also true for old fluorescent fixtures). I also confirmed older power supplies with bad power factor with my meter(Watts up or killowatt). That is sounding like a rather large amount of crunching power you have.

I cant blame you for not wanting to work in either of those conditions. I imagine it was a humid 91 with the recent rains. The bright side of things is your rain barrels should be full.

[Terry1953]

The Corsair came a bit ago they are HX850's and I'm impressed. I love the semi modular design. The things came with everything attached to run my system with one 6870 and the add on wires to add tons of other stuff lots of 6+2's and 8's plus extra sata 4 to a string and extra molex with fan plugs. Well worth the money.