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Ok cool, pool is recording my contributions, 0.03 XMR so far (so about $13). Thinking about buying 3x 1080TI to stick in my server. Would double my hashrate, at XMR=$445 and $750/GPU would recoup capital expenditure in ~8mo, and my apartment would finally be warm. Hmmm.
pulled the trigger and picked up 2x1080 and 1x1080TI my server board can handle 3x double slot cards but might get a bit tight with 3x1080TI, so going to relocate the 1080 in my casual box to the server and stick the 1080TI in that machine should still be Plenty
Some new capital goods arrived https://t.co/c17pAOqclh
Evidence of mining capacity expansion: AMZN is out of stock on high-end PSUs. Had to debase myself with a Corsair and pay for rush on Newegg. Earlier, ended up getting another 1080ti, figured out I can cram 3x1080 in my consumer rig and 3x1080ti in my workstation.
Okay. Pulling in about $8/day in XMR with CPUs, $17.50 in BTC from @NiceHashMining with 3x1080 and 1x1080ti. The 1080ti hashrate is double any one 1080 (!!!). Stacking 3 gpus in my workstation is getting a little toasty (85c even with a box fan), SO . . .
@NiceHashMining . . . in the interest of learning and also because I realized the case (Mercury S8) can be converted to a GPU rack with a little modification, I'm going to grab some risers and see if I can extend my GPU working life by spacing them out. Pics to follow when set up.
Came home, house was 71F. Mission accomplished. Unfortunately, also dug around downstairs and saw this https://t.co/ml3Wl4g8Av
So: two circuits serving the apartment, one for hardwired lights, one for everything else. Hmmm. Guess I could take down a chandelier and rewire it to an outlet. Or just make use of an existing set of wires from the ceiling https://t.co/4SFDA5dHk6
Interesting. Flipping the switch disables lights *and* outlets. Possibilities: 1. Single circuit, 20A 2. One breaker switch controls two 10A circuits First possibility would be the most convenient. Unsure how to test. Need to read up on breaker notation next I think.
Helpful mutuals assure me (1) it's a single fixed 20A circuit and (2) fucking with the circuit breaker will result in literal face melting, so spent the evening playing with GPU optimization. Heat actually a major bottleneck when 3 GPUs arrayed with no space, surprising no one.
So, working around this. Earlier plan for 16x -> 1x risers for my case won't work since *all* the slots in my board are x8/x16 form factor. Instead, repurposing my pseudo-NAS box to hold one 1080, and going to kludge a different solution with a ribbon riser in my workstation.
Rearranged things a bit more, jammed one of my 1080s into the mATX rig I was using as NAS. Probably consumes ~300W full tilt, which is more than my refrigerator. Wiferobot is going to want to store perishables, so I'm renting space for it in my DM's house at $25/mo + electricity
Capital delivery https://t.co/nLMXGH7NFu
Semi-final setup. Consumer rig, workstation, converted NAS. Calibrating now. Worried about toasting my 20A circuit and also about heat dissipation and finally about long-term fan noise irritating my cat, so workstation cards likely to be throttled Bonus: cat https://t.co/w7b8KE2Rxi
25cm 16x to 16x riser arrived today. Workstation final form 😎 https://t.co/j2Axf5uavW
Now digging around my apartment with my landlord trying to track down (i) the source of the electrical short in my unit and (ii) the source of a strange smell something like Trail's End popcorn Hoping they are not the same thing
It might be contained unsure https://t.co/RdpLWvdI08
Can't wait for the electrician to arrive https://t.co/TWJ6B3AN9O
Ok SO Apparently, issue was a shorted jank-ass wire off the main circuit, probably installed 50y ago. Supplied power to outlets on a post near my breakfast bar. The outlets had 3 prongs but were not actually grounded This was the spot I had all my boxes plugged in, ofc
Going to be a little more deliberate about electricity use going forward. Having one of these things delivered tomorrow for GPU power calibration, til then going to leave the workstation off https://t.co/RT4enWf8fO Also so my landlord doesn't see a box with a GPU running on top
a poem, for no particular reason https://t.co/Q9nCMXOnVb
bit of quick computation 20A maximum instantaneous load is 2400W; maximum continuous load, 1920W turns out a continuous load runs >= *3 hours* this is actually great news for me, refrigerator turns on only intermittently and probably draws substantially less than 480W
Apartment rewired today, still stuck on 20A. Landlord bought me a bottle of cheap whiskey for my troubles, though he also helped himself to a few shots of my tequila https://t.co/Jkie2OgBqC
Got my Watt meter, going to do some testing. Also installed a 1080 on a Rosewill 1x riser. Mobo recognizes the card, but not showing up in Windows . . . going to try driver reinstallation. Rig pulls about 120W mostly idle, incidentally https://t.co/Z2dwHAhnPI
That did it! Ordering some Thai while it benches for nicehash. Then, onto power testing. Goal will probably be to maximize power use by cards, conditional on total power use <= M M tbd, will mostly be a function of observed refrigerator and monitor draw.
Early findings: (i) i7-5820k @ 3.8GHz draws only an extra 30W when full-tilt running CryptoNight (350H/s), that's awesome (ii) running a 1080TI FTW3 @ 100% pulls an extra 269W, about spec. Every 10% reduction in power target reduces draw by about 30W. Will test performace drop.
Fascinating. 1080TIs seem to see 1:1 gains in hash rates as power increases until about 80% TDP, when the return drops off dramatically 1080s drop off dramatically at . . . 65% TDP? Less? Interesting implications for power use optimization anyway
Ok. Final tally, for 4x1080TI @ 80%, 3 x 1080 @ 70%, 35 CPU cores >= 3GHz is . . . 1779 Watts Comfortably under my 1920W continuous limit although a bit dull numerologically main remaining concern is the fridge. rated 6.5A full-load, which would be (eep) 780W, insta-game over
GOTCHA 160W, pathetic. Can't believe I was worried about that damn food hole Modem (<7W) + router (<8W) basically negligible, as is Penny's Litter Robot (<4W rotating). Monitor + speakers + usb dock are 70W together tho, gotta watch that
Okay, off to catch up @ work but I think I'm set. Last task: replace one more 1080 on top of my workstation after a guy comes in to finish fixing the ceiling tomorrow Overall have say, the fire what burned through my ceiling was a small, basically-insignificant bump in the road
Do I need to pay self-employment taxes if I already max out SS/Medicare tax at my day job? Does wiferobot's rental duplex fuck things up further? What about quarterly estimated taxes? Join me as I investigate these and other exciting issues and slip deeper into anarchocapitalism
My apartment is toasty, and I'm still miles above my shutdown threshold. Even so, o u c h. Waking up every morning and computing my past day's net take has been unpleasant. Love to everyone out there taking a more direct beating.
hahahaha frig just got my first post-launch electrical bill APPARENTLY seattle city light has a tiered billing scheme, after a certain point they start charging nearly double the base rate for power (~$0.13/kWh vs $0.07) still way in the black, but . . . gurk
in better news, transferred my first 0.1BTC to an exchange although somehow a single Satoshi was lost en route so my balance is 0.09999999BTC which is going to irritate me for the next month got 0.5XMR in a private wallet too feel like a rich man, still thousands to recoup tho
what's the easiest way to sell used GPUs? AMZN, EBAY? Still have all the original packaging and plastic bits and such as I'm still turning a profit but it's 70 Fahrenheit in Seattle and @tradwiferobot wants to be able to use the oven without logging in and killing my workers
Have bids on 3 cards already, from a Russian. I panicked for a second at the thought of paying to ship across the Pacific, but fortunately eBay restricts to domestic addresses by default. Hmm. If I'd been more thoughtful + had higher n, could've run some experiments . . .
in other news, for the first time in months my apartment is REALLY CHILLY. Looks like a few weeks of sweaters indoors. https://t.co/QmPrlX8dYP
All right. Six cards sold, roughly for what I paid for them (or at a slight profit adjusting for the fact that I sold my old 1080 and kept one of the 1080Ti FTW). Still mining Monero with my E5 2687W-v4 chips, but I might cut back on that once it really warms up. Full circle!
Overall, I think I made about $1500 net of electricity. Purely as a function of the hours I burned on this project, this was an economic loss given my marginal value of time. But factor in the value of learning, experimentation, heating, and entertainment, and I made a killing.
Thanks for following along, everyone. I'll be sure to document the next slightly-unhinged project I start out on. (This wasn't my first--ask my pal @Lexirad about living with me sophomore year--and it sure won't be the last.) xoxo