Tom, it's an EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2, 80+ Titanium, but only pulls about 750 or 800 watts (I'd have to check) out of the wall when crunching, if I remember correctly.

Thank you Al.

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A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

I have a dual e5-2670 system (16c/32t) running. And I still want a "bigger" box.

Just get a single Threadripper 2990WX.
32 cores, 64 threads in a single CPU.

@Grant @Keith

Thank you for the information. I need to focus onto two questions.

1) What kind of power draw at the wall socket? (I have that 15 Amp circuit limit to contend with).

2) If the proposed Threadripper will fit into a Mid-level tower I have that covered.

Please point me to a spec/cost estimate.
Case?
MB
Used?/New cpu
Memory (I believe Seti will run in 16GB, does it really need high speed memory?).
PSU (needed watts?/price)
I would probably start out by re-allocating gtx 1060 3GB's ( I have 4 spread around and could easily move one or maybe even two).
I have a spare HD.
I would be using LInux/CUDA91

Or if that is something of a problem, roughly what did you pay for yours? And the specs?

Thank you,

Tom

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A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

@Tom
Yes, a 2990WX system will run on a 15A circuit. IF you limit yourself to just 3 modest gpus like your 1060's alongside the cpu. You can get the cpu for $1750, a mainstream X399 motherboard for less than $300 and it will run fine on just 4 sticks of 2666Mhz DDR4 memory. Power it with a 1200W power supply for $300. So, we're talking somewhere under $3000.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

@Tom
Yes, a 2990WX system will run on a 15A circuit. IF you limit yourself to just 3 modest gpus like your 1060's alongside the cpu. You can get the cpu for $1750, a mainstream X399 motherboard for less than $300 and it will run fine on just 4 sticks of 2666Mhz DDR4 memory. Power it with a 1200W power supply for $300. So, we're talking somewhere under $3000.

Thank you. I needed some kind of ballpark to see if it would even be within stretch. Sounds like it might be.

2 questions: If I can find a discounted or used first generation 2990WX that is say $100 cheaper than a new 2nd generation one, will I care if I get the 1st Gen cpu?

If I drop a gtx 1080Ti (just one) on it, does it still seem to be within that 15 Amp circuit?

Thanks again.

Tom

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A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

Was pricing stuff and realized this didn't include the cpu cooling kit. Recommendations?

Tom

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A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

If you're looking for a new PSU, I'd suggest looking at the one I'd mentioned above from Nextwarehouse.com - EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2 Power Supply, they had it for $309.51 yesterday, today it's about $315 but still a good deal, and it gives you 1600w of power for future expandablity, plus a 10/12yr warranty. Remember, a 15a circuit is supposed to support an 1800w hair dryer, so unless you plug something else significant into that outlet/circuit, you should be more than fine. Especially if you aren't running into power headroom issues with the PSU, and you'd have to work pretty hard to do that, say maybe 3-4 1080Ti's, or more, and that TRv2 CPU. I know currently I'm not close to hitting the limit with mine right now. Does that mean I need to buy more stuff...? umm, no. lol

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If you're looking for a new PSU, I'd suggest looking at the one I'd mentioned above from Nextwarehouse.com - EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2 Power Supply, they had it for $309.51 yesterday, today it's about $315 but still a good deal, and it gives you 1600w of power for future expandablity, plus a 10/12yr warranty. Remember, a 15a circuit is supposed to support an 1800w hair dryer, so unless you plug something else significant into that outlet/circuit, you should be more than fine. Especially if you aren't running into power headroom issues with the PSU, and you'd have to work pretty hard to do that, say maybe 3-4 1080Ti's, or more, and that TRv2 CPU. I know currently I'm not close to hitting the limit with mine right now. Does that mean I need to buy more stuff...? umm, no. lol

the EVGA 1600T2 is probably one of the best high power PSUs you can get. Titanium rating is great. the P2 version is also a great buy. im really close to picking one up.

with power outlets, you really shouldnt load them beyond 80% for an all the time continuous load. i've gone beyond it up to over 90%, but it's not as safe and i kept a close eye on everything. when the wiring starts to get hot, the resistance increases, which drops the voltage, which increases the current, which heats the wire even more, and you can hit a runaway situation which ends up popping the breaker. just keep this in mind.

keep the load to that outlet below 1400W and you'll be fine (like if you plan to run more than one system off the same outlet). also keep in mind things on the same circuit, but a different outlet. if you have 2 15A outlets on the same 15-20A circuit, you cant load up each outlet to the limit at the same time, you'll pop the breaker.

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Seti@Home classic workunits: 29,492 CPU time: 134,419 hours

The 2990WX is only a second generation chip, there never was a first generation. Maybe in 2 years when Ryzen 3 on 7nm starts shipping, they will come out with a 3990WX chip so the 2990WX will get cheaper.
If you keep to the 3 gpu limit, you probably can get away with the 1200W psu for substituting a 1080Ti for one of the 1060's. The 1080Ti is a whole nuther beast when it comes to how much power it pulls.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Well AMD demonstrated the 2990WX on the WraithRipper air cooler by Coolermaster so there are air cooled solutions for cpu cooling the 2990WX. But it is supposed to cost $120 and for just $30 more you could get the Enermax Liqtech TR360 AIO which would probably would cool better.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

If you're looking for a new PSU, I'd suggest looking at the one I'd mentioned above from Nextwarehouse.com - EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2 Power Supply, they had it for $309.51 yesterday, today it's about $315 but still a good deal, and it gives you 1600w of power for future expandablity, plus a 10/12yr warranty. Remember, a 15a circuit is supposed to support an 1800w hair dryer, so unless you plug something else significant into that outlet/circuit, you should be more than fine. Especially if you aren't running into power headroom issues with the PSU, and you'd have to work pretty hard to do that, say maybe 3-4 1080Ti's, or more, and that TRv2 CPU. I know currently I'm not close to hitting the limit with mine right now. Does that mean I need to buy more stuff...? umm, no. lol

the EVGA 1600T2 is probably one of the best high power PSUs you can get. Titanium rating is great. the P2 version is also a great buy. im really close to picking one up.

with power outlets, you really shouldnt load them beyond 80% for an all the time continuous load. i've gone beyond it up to over 90%, but it's not as safe and i kept a close eye on everything. when the wiring starts to get hot, the resistance increases, which drops the voltage, which increases the current, which heats the wire even more, and you can hit a runaway situation which ends up popping the breaker. just keep this in mind.

keep the load to that outlet below 1400W and you'll be fine (like if you plan to run more than one system off the same outlet). also keep in mind things on the same circuit, but a different outlet. if you have 2 15A outlets on the same 15-20A circuit, you cant load up each outlet to the limit at the same time, you'll pop the breaker.

Ian is exactly correct to state you should stick to only 80% load capacity on a circuit for full time loads. Yes, the 1800W hair dryer might be able to be used for the typical 2 minute hair drying session, but it will pop the circuit breaker after 15 minutes. The typical 15A circuit breaker is rated for a 40° C full time temperature. At 80% load on the circuit it will be running right at 40° C. At least mine do. I am pulling 18A on my 20A circuit and the breaker temp is right at 40° C. I had to do a bit of breaker moving to put that one on the very end of the busbar so it didn't have another breaker on one side limiting its heat dissipation.

Running the EVGA SuperNOVA 1600T2 power supply. The UPS shows the i7-6850K host to be using 1000W +/- 50W with 2 1080's, 1 1080Ti and 1 1070Ti. The circuit also supports a host with a Ryzen 2700X with a 1080Ti and 2 1070's. That host uses 780W +/- 50W. Also 2 ceiling fans and 3 pedestal fans to cool the room and pull the hot air into the rest of the house.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Actually, I had thought that circuits were designed at 15a with the requisite overhead built into them, even when ran at full load. I had thought that you should be able to run a circuit at it's rated capacity all day with no problems, unless the wiring is undersized or the run length is too long, but that would show up in some nasty voltage drops as well. I did some digging, and came to find out that it all depends on the quality of the breaker in your panel. If you have a typical 80% breaker, then the above advice applies, but if 100% rated one, then go ahead and run it flat out all day.

Came across an interesting blog post at Schnider Electric regarding Clearing up Confusion over 80% vs. 100%-rated Circuit Breakers, and although I know it's talking about a data center application, would not the same thing apply to your residence as well? As long as you have the properly rated breakers, you should be good to go at 100% 24/7? I am pretty sure your power company would love you, though... :-/ The good news is, breakers are not terribly expensive, and really easy to switch out, so if it came down to it, you could always just swap out the higher rated one and call it a day.

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if you run at 100% capacity all the time, you'd probably trip the breaker often as loads fluctuate. it would be a nuisance more than anything.

but the situation i was describing was more about thermal runaway caused by overloading the wire itself, not necessarily the breaker. increased temp = volt drop = current rise = more heat = repeat until current draw exceeds breaker's trip point.

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Seti@Home classic workunits: 29,492 CPU time: 134,419 hours

If you're looking for a new PSU, I'd suggest looking at the one I'd mentioned above from Nextwarehouse.com - EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2 Power Supply, they had it for $309.51 yesterday, today it's about $315 but still a good deal, and it gives you 1600w of power for future expandablity, plus a 10/12yr warranty.

Thank you Al.

Currently I am wobbling. I can get exactly what I want, pre-assembled, with water cooled cpu, and more fans for around $2,700, It doesn't include the gpus, the Hard Drive or the OS.

For near the same price via NewEgg.com I can buy the parts for an air cooled system and basically upgrade what is now my one e5-2670 box. That basically means I am not buying a case and I am trying for an Air cooled solution. The difference would be even bigger if I could shoehorn this thing into an 850 Watt PSU which I already have :)

Or I can
1) Do nothing (really cheap choice :)
2) Upgrade two cpus for around $450 and go from 2.6GHz(16c/32t) to 3.00GHz(20c/40t).
3) Upgrade one cpu box with either a $200 MB that has a better brand (Intel built it) and also has "simple overclocking" built-in, and/or the e5-2690 v2 I was writing about in #2.
4) Upgrade my dual cpu box from dual gtx 1060 3GB's to a single Gtx 1080Ti which I think will run past 100,000 RAC on the gpu alone :) No, I wouldn't run running any GTX 1060's beside it. Its already running a bit hot from my overclocking experiment.
5) Sit on my hands and see what I give myself for Christmas.....



ROFLing.



I definitely need to sleep on this.

Thank you everyone for applying your knowlege and experience to help me NOT shoot myself in the foot on my power circuit issue.

Tom

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A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

Try and buy any 100% rated breaker at any "big-box" home improvement store. They don't carry anything other than 80% breakers. You would need to special order it or go to a proper electrical supply distributor that carries a full line for contractors.

I had a 20A breaker on that circuit I described. Ran fine at that load for 5 months. Then started tripping regularly. The breaker had been operating at full load for so long that the bimetallic thermal contacts fatigued and started tripping at lower than the 40° C. trip point. Breakers do wear out especially when operated at max capacity. The case that Ian described of thermal runaway was in play. The no load voltage on that circuit is typically about 122-125VAC. I see it down as far as 115-118VAC when operated at full load because of voltage drop and the high current flow in the circuit. Which heats up the wire, outlets and breaker thermal contacts, which increases resistance, which increases current draw, >> repeat cycle.

I investigated all the outlets on that circuit and saw that I had built them with backwired outlets which were legal back in 1986. I thought the NEC had outlawed that by now but when I went to the store to buy proper tag screw terminal outlets, saw backwired outlets still for sale. ??? Guess I need a newer NEC book. Anyway since I knew how much I pull out of the outlets so I spent the $6 for a good quality outlet over the $1 backwired low grade outlets. I still am trying to remember how I wired that room during construction. I thought that each outlet was daisy chained to the next but discovered that isn't the case. I have a star point connection to that room somewhere but I need to crawl under the house and trace how I get to that room from the breaker panel. Could be in a junction box somewhere in the wall too. I can't remember and I didn't document every junction box on the blueprints. I do have each outlet on the blueprint and what circuit breaker number feeds it so that helps.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Besides the breakers it self not forget the wire gauge.
Normaly the wires on a house are rated for a max sustained load around 500-1000VA (120VCA) (some even less) or the double in the 220/240VCA locations.
They could handle bigger loads of course but they start to get hot, and hot wires or connectors is something not good.
So if you plan to run a host who use sustained (24/7) high loads (like the heavy crunchers), my sugestion is to use a separate high capacity circuit for it. On a 120 VCA a 20A breaker plus a 20A capacity wire/power connectors cost a little more but give you a good margin of safety.
On the other hand, if you can use the 220-240V VCA line, go for it. Most of the high power PSU like the higher voltages.

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It's rare to find 240VAC circuits in current U.S. house construction except for one dedicated clothes dryer circuit and maybe a electrical range/stove circuit if a house is all electric and no natural gas installations. All electrical construction was very popular in the States back in the 60's when that design was considered futuristic. If a room hasn't been pre-wired for 240VAC outlets, then the cost to do so is expensive involving new electrical panels, 10ga wiring runs and 240VAC outlets. If your wall/floor/ceiling construction is conducive, it might not be too hard to pull a 240VAC circuit from the panel but it won't be an hours job.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

From the American Wire Gauge Chart:

AWG gauge  Maximum amps for power transmission
10	15A
11	12A
12	9.3A
13	7.4A
14	5.9A

This is what i tried to explain, a 10 AWG wire could sustain a 15A draw but i not believe most of the wires who connect the electric outlets are a 10#, Most of them are 12 or even smaller. Drawing continuously 1000VA from a common house electric outlet is not common. At least in Brazil (not know the US standard) the common electric outlets are 200-300W rated only.
That's is why i sugest to look if the wire who power a hungry host is at least #10 AWG and use a 20A breaker. Exactly what you use in your instalation.
BTW My host crunching 24/7 with 2x1070+2x1080Ti with all it's accessories (WU,fans, HDD, Monitor, etc) draws about 900 W measured by kill-o-watt.

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I don't know where you got your chart but it is wrong. 12ga wire is good for 20A. 14ga wire is good for 15A. 10ga wire is good for 30A. Read the chart and notice the double asterisk ** and look for the ** box at the bottom of the page. Copper wire. Derate for aluminum.

National Electrical Code
Allowable Ampacities of Insulated Conductors Rated 0-2000 Volts

And this is the type of cable usually used in American home construction. Normally just called Romex.
Romex® Brand SIMpull®
Indoor Wire Copper NM-B Cable

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

I don't know where you got your chart but it is wrong.

https://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

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I knew that I'd read somewhere a while ago that technically 14 AWG can do 20 amps, but that might be in free air installations with properly rated wire, and very short distances. I know I'd never try it, it's just foolish to do, and obviously isn't up to code (try explaining that one to your insurance company if there's an electrical fire, good luck on collecting anything from them to rebuild). The cost differential between running 14 or 12awg vs. 10 (in the scheme of things) is so insignificant, I don't understand why it's even a consideration. Especially if you're running it all the way across the house, who wants to deal with voltage drop? Also, I use only 90* rated wire, not 75*, again the cost differential is minor.

Some things in life, it just doesn't pay to cheap out on, and in my opinion, house wiring and vehicle tires are a couple that your life depends on, so why do it half a$$ed? Especially since electrical is something you are (hopefully) only going to be doing once. Oh, one other thing I do, and I know, it probably is kind of anal, is that I use hospital grade or at least industrial grade outlets only. The plug clamping force on them is amazingly better than your spec home crap outlets that you find in most houses. More expensive, yes, but worth it if you ask me, especially if you keep your eyes open for deals on them that happen from time to time.

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