Build Log - Miney

[Moonzy]

Ayo, welcome to my Miney's build log!

It's name is Miney because it's my mining rig, it will be Miney 01 if I decide to expand into more rigs, we shall see where this goes!

This will be my 3rd main PC, alongside Desky and Beddie (very self explanatory names)

 

Miney was actually in use back when I was mining on 2x 1070 and 1x 2070S, while I used my GTX970 in my main rig, but I decided to move everything onto my main rig to save on electricity as idle CPU and other parts still consume power.

 

Since I'm adding more GPU now, Desky ran out of PCIE slot, so I'm bringing it back!

It's also actually been a hassle to pause certain GPU and CPU cores if I wanna game on Desky, so the migration is nice.

 

Parts:

Old stuffs:

1. Core 2 Duo from my old old home PC, mining doesn't need a lot of CPU horsepower so it's good enough
2. 2x2GB + 2x1GB DDR2 RAM + Gigabyte EP45-UD3R are given to me by a friend who bought a new PC.
3. Casing is from my old home PC, I actually modded it slightly so it fits longer GPU if plug in directly into the board (removed the drive cage)
4. 120GB Patriot Burst SSD was bought when I first built Miney.

 

New stuff:

1. Corsair HX1000 PSU was ordered online for $250 (MYR 998)
2. RTX 3090 MSI Gaming X Trio was ordered for $2000 (MYR 8299)
3. 2x RTX 3060 Ti iChill  each was $550 (MYR 2299)
4. RTX 3060 Ti TUF was bought at $650 (MYR 2599)
5. 4x PCIE 1x to 16x Riser was bought for $3.50 ea (MYR 14.79)

 

Photos:

Spoiler

GPU stacking!

 

The 3090 comes with a friggin COMIC BOOK!!! ASDFGHASDF!!!

 

Waiting for the PSU was tough, I couldn't even play with the parts I have until it arrived!

 

PCIE Risers are pretty self-explanatory, they use USB cable to carry PCIE signal, it DOES NOT carry USB signal and plugging in a USB device will most definitely damage something

 

 

The Build:

I actually livestreamed the build process for funsies, but it's a silent stream of me (I don't talk much) just fiddling with PC stuffs, don't judge my poor man's stream setup

The motherboard is screwed into the casing already from previous build, so I just have to start building from there

 

But first, I plugged in the modular cables, and boy there's a ton that I need:

2x Sata Chain

5x PCIE 2x6+1-pin

1x 24-pin

1x CPU 8-pin

1x Molex (added after)

 

Left = not used, Right = used (I took out 2 Sata chain too many, wanted one sata harness for each GPU but eh, didnt go that route)

 

BUT if you're familiar with the HX1000, you may say "ey, that PSU only comes with 4 PCIE power harness"

and you're right, I actually had to use one from a RM850i that I used for a friend's build, he didn't want to keep the spare cables so more for me!

Corsair PSU mostly used the same modular cable: https://www.corsair.com/us/en/psu-cable-compatibility

 

Plugging in the cables before inserting into the case because spacing is very tight!

Using all of the 8-pin 12V rail of the PSU lol

 

-swings magic wand-

It is assembled! only took me 30 minutes haha

If you noticed, the PCIE riser doesn't have their foam on the bottom

I've seen foam like that cause fire so I'm not taking my chance

I make sure nothing touches the PCB so there's no risk of shorts.

 

I made sure it posted in stream before I turned the stream off for further diagnosing (more on this later)

 

 

Diagnosis, Performance + Tuning:

It posted but problems start appearing, it wouldn't enter into Windows and it kept BSOD-ing (Boot drive error)

Long story short, I swapped boot drive to another group of SATA port and it worked.

 

I ensured all 4 GPUs were detected by the system.

 

Then I proceeded to move Miney back to its nest, my ancient 20 year old computer table that have a spot for CRT monitors, Miney sits in that hole.

 

If you have keen eyes, you'll notice that the 3090 is standing upright instead of laying down as in the previous pictures.

That is because while I'm running tests on it, it seemed to show odd behaviour such as fan spinning up to 100% even though the GPU core temps are way below 70c, I spent some time diagnosing, and noticed that clocks were weird, and made a status update about it.

Quote

 

Turns out, the 3080 and 3090, specifically the GDDR6X modules on these GPU run REALLY hot

TechPowerup, Nicehash Blog

So I stood the 3090 up and place a fan blowing directly on the backplate

It didn't lower the temps(108-110c), but the card did not thermal throttle much anymore.

The backplate temp was 48-50c, measured on my taped on thermal probe without paste, hot enough to burn your skin.

 

Well someone once said that if a GPU is inadequately designed, Miners are the first to know

I never relate more to that statement now haha

So anyone wanting to buy a card with G6X , especially ones with modules on back of PCB, pay close attention to the cooling for them.

 

Final look, it ain't pretty but it works!

Get a personal rave party upstairs with all dat RGB *-*

 

I stayed beside it for ~2 hour to monitor it, make sure it reach equilibrium (and not on fire hahahaha) and probed few location temps, namely PSU intake and exhaust temps because I don't want my HX1000 to die.

The intake temp is 40-41c. exhaust is warm at 45-47c, it's warm but it's rated for 50c so I'm not too worried.

 

Performance of the rig:

Spoiler

These are the OC im using:

No    Model                  Pow   Mem    Hash Rate (ETH)   Power Consumption
02    3060 Ti TUF         60      1025    59.74  MH/s           121W
03    3060 Ti iChill        55      1150    60.45  MH/s            120W
04    3060 Ti iChill        55      1150    60.11   MH/s           120W
05    3090 MSI             85      1200    117.78 MH/s           300W(?) unknown, but it should be around there

 

with a total of around 300MH/s, power consumption measured from the wall is ~730W, the income as of writing is:

 

Estimated ROI for current config:

3x 3060 Ti = $1750, I owned them since December-ish, so they already mined about ~$700 at the time of writing after including electrcity cost, almost half way to paying off

 

so remaining $1050 + $2000 +$250 = $3300, about 5-6 months at current rate

 

Closing comment + Future ideas:

Why did i go for a 3090? Well let's say that no other GPU that made sense were available, 3060 Ti prices were jacked up to $1000 by the time I'm shopping for more (and have to import from China, so no local warranty) and the 3080 just doesn't exist anywhere.

I actually preferred if it was a 3080 instead of a 3090, but 3080 that I found were $1250 + I had to buy a full system along with it, pushing the price over a 3090.

 

So the 3090 at double the hash rate of 3060 Ti at double the price makes decent sense, to me anyways.

It does have less perf/watt, but it's not too bad, 240W on 2x 3060 ti vs ~300W on a 3090.

Plus, I get to play with a 3090, I'll probably never get to have another good reason to buy top end GPU to have fun with anymore, so yea.

 

Right now I can fit in 3 more GPU without making Miney 02, so it'll be a while before I buy another rig to replace Beddie, which will become Miney 02.

I'm looking to buy more GPU as I go, hope it goes well  Play-by-ear.

 

Given that the 3090 is running at (personally feeling) non-ideal conditions, I probably won't sell it because I cant't guarantee its well-being in the long term.

So it'll probably stay with me for a very long time.

 

How far can I feel the heat of this machine? Let's just say my entire upstairs living room feels warm when I come up the stairs.

But it's not the only contributor as Desky is also mining at around ~300W in the same area.

But no one stays in this space so it's all good.

 

I guess that's it for now, thanks for reading this long ass build log!

 

Update 1 (1 day): My living room temp raised from 25c to 28c, it's noticeably warmer, and if i probe higher, it reaches 29c haha

the rig is operating as expected, very pleased with it

 

Update 2 (2 days): added one 80mm fan on rear as intake to provide fresh air to PSU, and added another 120mm to pull exhaust of PSU away from the rear fan, it works quite well

PSU intake drop from 41c to 37c.

Though I think it affects the fan that I use to cool my 3090 backplate so I'll do further testings

[porina]

That physical layout! I've done similar for unusual Crossfire configurations for benchmark before, but wouldn't like to run normally like that.

[refinedskillz]

I find it so cool - even though I am not into mining or can even afford any new parts - that this kind of stuff is doable at home. I didn't even know you could connect 4 different GPU's to a system. Nice.

[Moonzy]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

That physical layout! I've done similar for unusual Crossfire configurations for benchmark before, but wouldn't like to run normally like that.

I'm more of a functional >>> looks person

 

it's easier to do maintenance + steal gpu from it occasionally to have fun 

 

[DoctorNick]

Super cool!

You still make any $$$ mining?  

[Moonzy]

2 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

Super cool!

You still make any $$$ mining?  

right now the rig is producing about $550 per month at today's rate, after taking out electric fee

[DoctorNick]

4 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

right now the rig is producing about $550 per month at today's rate, after taking out electric fee

Ok what country are you mining in? That is more than I expected 

[Moonzy]

5 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

Ok what country are you mining in? That is more than I expected 

Mars! the electric fee is $0.1 USD per kWh, though I'm partially on solar

 

yea it's been insane since December, usually the profit isnt this much

[flashiling]

33 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

Mars! the electric fee is $0.1 USD per kWh, though I'm partially on solar

 

yea it's been insane since December, usually the profit isnt this much

mining on mars must mean you're elon's ai?

 

jokes aside cool rig.

what you mining though?
 

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, flashiling said:

what you mining though?

right now would be ethereum

 

Spoiler

1 hour ago, Moonzy said:

Performance of the rig:

  Hide contents

These are the OC im using:

No    Model                  Pow   Mem    Hash Rate (ETH)   Power Consumption
02    3060 Ti TUF         60      1025    59.74  MH/s           121W
03    3060 Ti iChill        55      1150    60.45  MH/s            120W
04    3060 Ti iChill        55      1150    60.11   MH/s           120W
05    3090 MSI             85      1200    117.78 MH/s           300W(?) unknown, but it should be around there

 

with a total of around 300MH/s, power consumption measured from the wall is ~730W, the income as of writing is:

 

Estimated ROI for current config:

3x 3060 Ti = $1750, I owned them since December-ish, so they already mined about ~$700 at the time of writing after including electrcity cost, almost half way to paying off

 

so remaining $1050 + $2000 +$250 = $3300, about 5-6 months at current rate

 

 

 

[flashiling]

Just now, Moonzy said:

right now would be ethereum

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

neat.

also think ETH is gonna go up a bit in the near future so gl with it!

[DoctorNick]

8 hours ago, Moonzy said:

Mars! the electric fee is $0.1 USD per kWh

Just for reference I pay 0.36 USD/kWh

[Moonzy]

4 hours ago, DoctorNick said:

Just for reference I pay 0.36 USD/kWh

As of right now it's still profitable up to $1 power kwh I think, based on the calculator

As in, you'll still be in the green, but getting few cents a day barely breaking even lol

 

But yea, 36 cents is a lot

[Moonzy]

Miney just went down for a bit today, made me disassemble it to diagnose and stuff

 

Which somehow loosen the RAM, probably, because reseating it allowed to boot.

 

Am unhappy with the PSU intake temp being at 41c, so I added two fans after fixing the boot issue and brought it down to 37c.

 

Exhaust temp is dropped from 51c to 48c, so it's also nice

[DoctorNick]

5 hours ago, Moonzy said:

As of right now it's still profitable up to $1 power kwh I think, based on the calculator

As in, you'll still be in the green, but getting few cents a day barely breaking even lol

 

But yea, 36 cents is a lot

Yeah and with the prices on gpu's and parts in generel right now.. It's too risky imo.. It's 50/50 if prices go up or drop off at this point.

[Moonzy]

Just now, DoctorNick said:

Yeah and with the prices on gpu's and parts in generel right now.. It's too risky imo.. It's 50/50 if prices go up or drop off at this point.

Yeah there's always the risk of not getting your money's worth back

 

It's risky if you build a dedicated mining rig like I did, but it's basically risk free if you already own a gaming pc and want to get some of the money back

 

Though I don't recommend this hobby to everyone, only if you know how to take care of your hardware if you care about your PC

[DoctorNick]

3 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

Yeah there's always the risk of not getting your money's worth back

 

It's risky if you build a dedicated mining rig like I did, but it's basically risk free if you already own a gaming pc and want to get some of the money back

 

Though I don't recommend this hobby to everyone, only if you know how to take care of your hardware if you care about your PC

I agree. Yeah it's not happening with my sig rig.  And my apartment is too small for a mining rig. Unless it was 100% silent. I rather buy some at the next drop. 

[Moonzy]

Beep beep update, I bought 3 3070s so they're going into miney while the 3060ti are going back onto Desky

 

 Because desky only have 850W psu, so miney can handle the slightly higher load

 

Total power from both rig is ~1500W from the wall

[A1200]

Wow interesting setup - wouldn't mining be quicker still with modern CPU/Mobo/RAM? Never done it so don't know much much other components beyond the GPU contribute.

[Moonzy]

1 hour ago, A1200 said:

Wow interesting setup - wouldn't mining be quicker still with modern CPU/Mobo/RAM? Never done it so don't know much much other components beyond the GPU contribute.

Mining is very GPU dependent, the CPU is only to give the GPU tasks, so there's no point going higher than very basic stuffs

 

There's no hash rate difference between this machine and if I plugged the cards into my 3900x rig

 

The bandwidth of pcie needed isn't high either, so pcie 1.1 at 1x lane is also sufficient

[A1200]

5 hours ago, Moonzy said:

Mining is very GPU dependent, the CPU is only to give the GPU tasks, so there's no point going higher than very basic stuffs

 

There's no hash rate difference between this machine and if I plugged the cards into my 3900x rig

 

The bandwidth of pcie needed isn't high either, so pcie 1.1 at 1x lane is also sufficient

Very interesting thanks for the explanation.

[MultiGamerClub]

Weird question, are the gpu's really just laying ontop of the pc for better air intake to the gpu(s)? Also how's the rig going

 

Noticed this in your signature so found it interesting
(Also seeing its only 1-2 months old i dont necro something lol!)

[Moonzy]

5 minutes ago, MultiGamerClub said:

Weird question, are the gpu's really just laying ontop of the pc for better air intake to the gpu(s)?

Main reason: I'm too lazy to get a proper mining rack for them, as they're fine as is

 

Secondary reason: good airflow, except for the 3090 which prefers to have some airflow going thru the backplate, thus why it's vertical in the last photo with a 120mm fan blowing on the back

 

7 minutes ago, MultiGamerClub said:

Also how's the rig going

It's been doing very well

But there has been a recent change that I didn't document because I kept changing hardwares (am at 19 ampere GPU now, so much for can't buy a GPU lul)

 

It's currently holding:

3090

3080 x2 (one more on the way)

3070

3060ti

Ax1600i PSU

Z490 asus prime p

i5 10400 (integrated GPU is useful for these rigs, I swear)

 

Might change and add more build logs, will see how it goes, my hardware is almost finalised