WOW!
All you guys with lots of expensive rigs.
I'm just a poor hobbist trying to make a couple of extra $$.
My pile of U1/U2/U2+ isn't photo ready yet, I have a new heat sink for those. I'm calling it my "Ant Farm." I'll post pics of the heat sink that I have.
Here's my single S1 in a case I built for it. Added a pull fan to the back, tested power supplies in various positions for cooling, they seem to like being back-to-back on their sides
There will be hinged cover on the back soon but I wanted to at least test to see if the airflow was going to work right.
First pics are on the bench while testing power supplies, installing heat sinks, and testing overclocking.
Unit is overclocked to 393.75 and with the cheapie power supplies, draws just a little over 470W when hot. Draws 460W when cool.
Pictures of the initial layout of the "Ant Farm" and the heat sink I'm using.
Looking good so far. How much did it all cost, in total?
Not sure about total cost at this point.
S1 was $375, power supplies were $28 each, heat sinks were a cost but not sure what the breakdown is, the second fan and grille are salvage, the plywood is salvage, the watt meter cost $16, the U1/U2/U2+ cost anywhere between $40 when I started to $18 each for the last batch.
The Anker hubs probably cost about $40 each.
Again, unknown cost of heat sinks for all the chips on 18 of them.
Huge heat sink was free. Salvaged from an old UPS. The hold-downs I'm making are also free aluminum scrap bits that I've cut down to use. The fan and covers for the heat sink are all going to be free salvaged materials as well.
Part of this is the fun of doing something that actually makes a few $$ back in return.
With the S1 in the loop, I've made back 2/3 of its cost in less than a month.
I plan to resistor mod and get a decent boost out of the U1/2/2+ setup once mounted to the new heat sink.
The S1 does a pretty reliable 200GH/s and the U1/2/2+ do a reliable 38GH/s.
Other than putting a back panel on the S1 and maybe painting it's case, I'm done with that.
The real project is getting the Ant Farm done in the next few days.
Of course, I can never leave well enough alone. Just bought a Gigampz board and a $17 HP power supply. Cost comes up equal to the two cheaper supplies and is supposed to provide 800+ Watts depending on 115/240VAC connection. It's also supposed to be more efficient, so I hope that its around 400 watts. This should also be able to easily power the Ant Farm with a 12VDC to 5VDC adapter.