Save the AC costs and instead invest the saved dosh to run faster crunching GPU hardware to keep you and the kitties warm over winter!


Happy fast crunchin',
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

They make split-system wall-units, too. You run the compressor and condenser somewhere convenient outdoors, and use a lineset to a wall-mounted evaporator and fan. The compressor end needs the most power, as the fan end is just a fan. That means you can hook the compressor up somewhere closer to your main panel. I've seen one of those in the server closet at a local business before. Works really well.

I looked online for the prices on them and they're not too much more than a good window unit ($300-500), and they're also like modern window units: they don't consume tons power. I had a modern window unit for a short period of time that was 15,000 BTU and an ammeter was showing 3.1A on 120VAC. I ran some quick math on it and determined that in a month, at 15 cents/kWh, it cannot consume more than $40 in power. The real number ended up being around half of that, and I had it set for 62.

Might be something to look into. I know you have day and night rates where you are though. My rates are the same all day. Used to be about 7.3 cents, but then the parent company for the local co-op decided to build some multi-billion-dollar power plant and could only get a fraction of the grants, so guess who gets to pay for the rest of it?

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

My rates are the same all day. Used to be about 7.3 cents, but then the parent company for the local co-op decided to build some multi-billion-dollar power plant and could only get a fraction of the grants, so guess who gets to pay for the rest of it?

Funny how that works, isn't it?

I've got an "extra" charge every month for "storm recovery" from Katrina. So, as a "publicly sanctioned monopoly" the taxpayers guarantee the utility a minimum return on capital and for several years granted rate increase after rate increase to help pay-for a nuclear power plant, much of the electricity from-which is on the grid and sent a thousand miles away from here.

People started cutting-back on their usage. Revenues, even at the higher cost dropped. Uh oh. The shareholders have a 5+% dividend rate that's in no danger. Using GAAP-basis accounting, the utility lost money. Uh oh. They have an operating margin of 12.5%, but that doesn't matter. We simply must begin looking into another rate hike...

What matters is the more money they spend, the more they drive their costs up, the more they drive their costs up the more they can charge since they are guaranteed a return, the more they charge, the more money they make in absolute dollar terms while they get to show a lower profit margin!!!

I know... that's "in the weeds" and takes a couple of synapses to think about, so most people don't, so the utility can do whatever it wants and raise rates to cover their losses and the poor suckers (I mean, customers) can just pay whatever they charge and try to conserve power.

("It's a by-pass. You've got to build by-passes.")

Which drives their revenues down. Which leads to losses. Which leads to rate hikes. Which causes people to conserve. Which leads to rate hikes. Which makes people conserve. Which leads to rate hikes. Which makes people conserve. Which leads to rate hikes.

Sooooo, what idiot approved the extra "storm recovery" charge and why should I, hundreds of miles from the coast, unable to enjoy the beach or fresh seafood or Gulf breezes, have to pay for the natural hazard costs of those who get to enjoy those things? Why aren't they picking-up their own bills?

I'd like to enjoy afternoons by my pool with waiters bringing me beverages and maybe have a chamber orchestra play me to sleep every night (since I don't have the ocean waves lapping on the beach to soothe my nerves). And with no breeze (I live in a swamp) I have to run my air conditioner just to keep from drowning. You suppose anyone on the coast wants to pay for that?

I'd love for the people on the coast to have shared-in the cost of getting my trees pruned and replacing a lot of frozen water pipes after the last ice storm we suffered --- They didn't freeze on the coast. They didn't pay.

I guess we need "publicly sanctioned" plumbers, tree-surgeons, PVC manufacturers... gosh, just think of the possibilities.

All other rigs are shut down and it's still 84f in the crunching den.

Just out of curiosity...if you can afford running that many power-guzzling rigs, why can't you just get an AC unit for a price of one rig? That way you'd need to shut down only one rig and let others crunch cool.

Well, not exactly.
I have but one window in the house that can accept an AC unit. I have the largest one I could get that will run on the 120v branch circuit in the garage.
14,700BTU...
That equates to about 4,300 watts.
My top 2 rigs can each draw about 950w when crunching shorties.
The #2 rig has a refrigeration compressor cooling the CPU which draws around 500w. My #3 rig is at about 750w, my daily driver around 450w.

That's 3600 watts for 4 rigs, leaving 700 watts for the other 5 rigs.
Even assuming the AC would always run at peak efficiency, which drops as the ambient goes up, you can easily see why the AC cannot possibly cope with the heat output of the farm. In addition, the AC is at one end of the house, and the crunching den is at the other, so I have to use booster fans to get the cool air going one way and the hot air back to the AC.

And obviously, I would be paying the electric bill to generate the heat, and just as much to run the AC to get rid of it.
So, in a nutshell, I shall run what I can cooling with ambient air, and if temps outside go much over 85f, the rigs go down and the AC goes on to keep myself and the kitties in acceptable comfort.

Not sure if you have looked into something like this or not, but it doesn't actually need a window. It comes with a kit to connect to a window, but two dryer vents through the wall would do just as well, and of course a third hole for the water drain.

http://friedrich.com/products/residential/portable/zoneaire/model-specifications

(The company that makes this is just one of many - but it was the first company that I found with decent images, decent specs, and products that look like they would do what you need. Dig more and you can probably find a better fit.)

The bigger ones are comparable to your main unit now, as you described it.

Okee dokee....
Got the Marvel driver installed, now getting 73 Windows updates....

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Okee dokee....
Got the Marvel driver installed, now getting 73 Windows updates....

lol.. yeah, I remember that. 73 updates, then you get SP3, and then there's.. collectively another 90-120 after that. Have fun.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

Mark, I hope the updates have done by the time you read this, which I guess should be after you well earned "zeds collection period" with the kitties.

Yup, building (rebuilding) always takes twice as long as the greater of (your guessed time)or(the time available).....


Then there's the "fun" period of getting it back to stability - when everything is exactly as it was before the HD died.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Mark, I hope the updates have done by the time you read this, which I guess should be after you well earned "zeds collection period" with the kitties.

Yup, building (rebuilding) always takes twice as long as the greater of (your guessed time)or(the time available).....


Then there's the "fun" period of getting it back to stability - when everything is exactly as it was before the HD died.

I am at a standstill for the night.
Was working well, doing the updates.
Then I started getting disk I/O errors, and at times the HD is not detected upon bootup.
Tried the Seagate again, same thingy.
I dunno. Perhaps the mobo is giving up the ghost and the Sata ports are not functioning properly.

It's an old Asus P5K Deluxe.....has given many years of hard service.
My first core2 duo processor, for sentimental reasons, I hate to give up on it.

Might try a brand new drive and see if I get the same results.
And/or set the bios to block stock defaults.....but I am not sure the processor will cotton to that, given the beating it has taken over the years.

If all else fails, I do have a mothballed rig in the back room. Don't remember what mobo that is. Or why I took it out of service. Failure mode, or just because of upgrades.

Oh well, I still have the Boinc on the thumb drive from the failed HD.
Only thing is, the WUs are gonna start expiring.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Oh burger :-(

It is sad when a faithful old PC dies, but sometimes you just have to bite your lips and say "Farewell, thou good and faithful servant"

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

It's an old Asus P5K Deluxe.....has given many years of hard service.

I owned 3 of those back in the day. They worked OK when the i7s were introduced. Two of them have failed over the years. When they fail, they fail hard; there is no getting them back in my experience. I transferred all components, CPU, RAM, PSU to a new mobo and they are crunching happily as I type. I have other ASUS mobos including dual Xeon server mobos which have been crunching nearly 10 years without a problem. The P5K series was a temporary problem I hope, but it was a bad one. I have shied away from ASUS mobos in the past few years as a result. There are a lot of horror stories on the net about the P5Ks.

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--
Classic 82353 WU / 400979 h

Oh burger :-(

It is sad when a faithful old PC dies, but sometimes you just have to bite your lips and say "Farewell, thou good and faithful servant"

Yes, the time does come.
What is frustrating is that the old HD certainly had problems related to the broken SATA connector, and I wrote it all off to that. That problem had been ongoing for months. I had a rock (yes, a rock) propped up on top of one of the vid cards to keep pushing the connector into the HD....LOL. Hi tech stuff, that.

And the rig has been so heavily OCd for so long, that I am not sure it relates to stock settings anymore.
Which, with all the screwing around, it is back at.

I dunno right now. I'll sleep on it.

Snore, maybe.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

It's an old Asus P5K Deluxe.....has given many years of hard service.

I owned 3 of those back in the day. They worked OK when the i7s were introduced. Two of them have failed over the years. When they fail, they fail hard; there is no getting them back in my experience. I transferred all components, CPU, RAM, PSU to a new mobo and they are crunching happily as I type. I have other ASUS mobos including dual Xeon server mobos which have been crunching nearly 10 years without a problem. The P5K series was a temporary problem I hope, but it was a bad one. I have shied away from ASUS mobos in the past few years as a result. There are a lot of horror stories on the net about the P5Ks.

I swear by Asus mobos.......
And occasionally, swear at them...LOL.
But I shall never buy any other.
The Rampage IIs that I have are doing very well, as are all others in the farm.

Fact is, the farm is aging. I have not had the funds to buy myself a new mobo in a couple of years now.
Truth be told, most of the upgrades I have been able to do in the last year or two are due to a couple of very generous benefactors and fellow teammates from the GPUUG.

Most recent Asus and other enthusiast targeted mobos have had solid caps for a long time now, and they take a beating.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Have you tried to format one of the failling disks in another (reliable) host?
If they go through the full format on the other system then you will be sure that the issue is in the mobo, but if they also fail there then you'll know that there is still hope for the mobo.

Also, there are some utilities for HDs that are able to do a low level format of the disks, marking bad sectors and inaccesible areas and so allowing the OS to succeed formatting them... But this utilities are closely related to the brand of the disk, so Im not sure if you will be able to get the right one...

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What I am going to suggest as a method to rule out HDD or mobo.. since they are SATA, take the suspect drive, put it in another rig, and acquire HD Tune. The free version allows you do to a surface scan and will show green blocks for good and red blocks for bad, though it won't tell you what LBA addresses are bad. That's a quick way to rule out where the problem is.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

I'm giving it one more go right now with a brand new Seagate Constellation HD.

Another possible snag reared it's head this morning.
With the power switch on the PSU being off all night, this morning the bios had reset and the clock was at default.
So the backup battery has gone away. Should not affect HD operations, but those silly little batteries have done strange thingys when they peter out.
I don't have any spares on hand, so that's another thing I shall have to rule out in the next week or two.

A kittyman's work is never done...LOL.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Okee dokee....
Got the Marvel driver installed, now getting 73 Windows updates....

Mark I assume that you have integrated SP3? I download all the other update using WSUS Offline Update & instal either over my network to PC in question or via external hard drive.

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Okee dokee....
Got the Marvel driver installed, now getting 73 Windows updates....

Mark I assume that you have integrated SP3? I download all the other update using [url=http://www.wsusoffline.net/[WSUS Offline Update[/url] & instal either over my network to PC in question or via external hard drive.

Knock on wood, so far the new HD is behaving.
Using Windows update. Got the initial 73 updates, then SP3, now another 69 updates. I'll keep going until update does not find anything else it thinks I need.

---

"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Okee dokee....
Got the Marvel driver installed, now getting 73 Windows updates....

Mark I assume that you have integrated SP3? I download all the other update using [url=http://www.wsusoffline.net/[WSUS Offline Update[/url] & instal either over my network to PC in question or via external hard drive.

Knock on wood, so far the new HD is behaving.
Using Windows update. Got the initial 73 updates, then SP3, now another 69 updates. I'll keep going until update does not find anything else it thinks I need.

If you recreate you XP CD with SP3 integrated it will save you bandwidth & time installing updates

---

Okee dokee....
Got the Marvel driver installed, now getting 73 Windows updates....

Mark I assume that you have integrated SP3? I download all the other update using [url=http://www.wsusoffline.net/[WSUS Offline Update[/url] & instal either over my network to PC in question or via external hard drive.

Knock on wood, so far the new HD is behaving.
Using Windows update. Got the initial 73 updates, then SP3, now another 69 updates. I'll keep going until update does not find anything else it thinks I need.

If you recreate you XP CD with SP3 integrated it will save you bandwidth & time installing updates

I'll have to research again how to do that.
I do have 3 more rigs that are going to require the exact same upgrade path.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

I never had good luck with integrating SP3 into an SP2 CD. Before getting any updates, it would show SP3, but then get the 73 updates, and download SP3 again anyway. I use WSUS anyway, so it is nice when the machine in question downloads 150MB of updates and maxes out 100mbit links.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)