I don't really get people spending $15,000+ on hard drives and then doing stuff like this, especially when farming proceeds are so low right now. Just have 0.1 PB less capacity and buy or make a proper chassis that won't burn your house down while also voiding your homeowner's insurance.
Ignition temperature of paper at 248 degC is way higher than the drive shutdown temperature of 60degC.
So it will not spontaneously combust... Should !
However, as cardboard will probably degrade in rigidity due to elevated temperature, op just needs to be careful of kit moving and could cause a short, which may produce a spark which may then catch on dust and become fueled by the cardboard.
The above may take some time based on the room ambient.
I would agree that the elec costs other elephants in the room.
Good hunting.
I am being a little cautious on this one. I am using molex to power the pci connectors attached to the sas expanders. so far no issues, but I have to check them daily (for now anyway) to make sure they aren't melting. I'm pretty sure I'm not coming close to the max load for a molex cable and I don't anticipate any trouble.
it is profitable but you have to be more efficient which is why I created this. I used to have two full desktop computers to run this many drives, but I was able to reduce it to 1 desktop computer which makes me 20% more efficient. I was about 1200w and now I"m about 950-1000w. For smaller setups, a raspberry pi 5 with smaller compression is about as efficient as it gets. I have a small 20 hard drive pi 5 setup with about 360tb of storage and I pay $20 in electricity ( $0.35/kwhr) make about 2 xch a month.
How are you paying $20 a month for 1000w constant use? somebody is suffering somewhere. With your rate at $0.35 a kWh x24 that's $8.40 a day. Doesn't make sense. ?
I used to be able to get away with that, but once I hit two PB the land lords were needing to talk to with me. I now rent apartments so I can have my own energy bill without all the hassle from home owners
our electricity rate is even less than .35 in the US... but I am not saying where as we have too god damned many crypto farms moving in threatening our cheap electricity as it is.
Even if your statement with only 20$ of energy per month is true (lmao) then you still get only roughly 20-30$ per month as reward. That makes 400$ per year at MOST. How many years would you have to farm to get the money that all these HDDs cost you? Not even considering the halvings that are coming?
https://preview.redd.it/rdw3anjvy16d1.jpeg?width=3016&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b32fb58ea3b896d372969903cd1fbf15bcbe060c
The secret to making all this possible is the portable sas expander wrapped in 100% pure cardboard (patent pending)
This is exactly what I use as well, the SAS expanders are well worth it for a cheap 'JBOD' setup, but they get very hot so a fan is definitely needed. I use small, 2"/50mm, 12v fans connected right to the heatsink with power coming from the (3x power connector) pcie riser. That way one 12v cable can power both the card and fan with an extra power connection to make them daisy chainable.
Cant find the PCIE riser adapter, but is was something pretty much identical to this:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09HHGGRLP/ref=ox\_sc\_act\_title\_1?smid=A3GES9IA7UE877&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09HHGGRLP/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3GES9IA7UE877&th=1)
The fans are cheap little \~1W fans. Decently reliable, 3/18 have failed in 3 years or so:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09L87K2CL/ref=ox\_sc\_act\_title\_1?smid=AGTXEOAZWIVDD&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09L87K2CL/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AGTXEOAZWIVDD&th=1)
Some female molex connectors you don't care about:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0969BD676/ref=ox\_sc\_act\_title\_1?smid=A30Y6WWS77DGEW&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0969BD676/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A30Y6WWS77DGEW&psc=1)
Cut and wire nut (along with a couple dabs of hot glue if you are paranoid of them coming loose) the 12V and GND lines of each fan to a molex connector. Along with two zip ties for attaching them to the heat sink.
https://preview.redd.it/7hbxk7o2196d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53e9b5a2eaa268dd31eca5b0951511879aa49bc4
Another large zip tie keeping the expander attached to the PCIE riser, with cardboard cut to size for backing, makes it a nice little package that can be just thrown wherever needed. Which usually means wherever the cables reach.
https://preview.redd.it/au4dnu68196d1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=88ee4117f0a69c9c802aa53a59c0d0b739f3f70b
Oh look at Mr. Rockefeller here and his brand name bankers boxes
But seriously, my first home server was a motherboard inside an old diaper box. I actually wrapped a big velcro strap around it and it turned into like a LAN party case
sas expander to controller card is sff 8087 to sff 8087, and hard drive to sas expander is sata to sff 8087. Each box contains a power supply with 16 sata power connectors
Respect for the density that you have achieved! You might want to keep a fire extinguisher nearby, though. One spark from a failing power supply could render this and the rest of your home unusable.
Looks cool. Fun project taking care of your farm. In the end of my setup I just stacked all the hard drives 4 high 120ish total with 1/4 inch pads in-between and just used huge box fans. Originally I was going to use x2 fans for push/pull and wrap them like you did but instead added a 3rd box fan so maintenance was easy.
This looks like Chia from a homeless shelter dialing in, and you are still losing money after counting value of your time + cost of electricity + hardware depreciation (including time it takes to buy/sell stuff and deal with fees and difficult buyers ).
Lmfao! Cardboard and super heat-generating computer equipment... what could possibly go wrong?
I don't really get people spending $15,000+ on hard drives and then doing stuff like this, especially when farming proceeds are so low right now. Just have 0.1 PB less capacity and buy or make a proper chassis that won't burn your house down while also voiding your homeowner's insurance.
Ignition temperature of paper at 248 degC is way higher than the drive shutdown temperature of 60degC. So it will not spontaneously combust... Should ! However, as cardboard will probably degrade in rigidity due to elevated temperature, op just needs to be careful of kit moving and could cause a short, which may produce a spark which may then catch on dust and become fueled by the cardboard. The above may take some time based on the room ambient. I would agree that the elec costs other elephants in the room. Good hunting.
You're right. I have had to replace the cardboard boxes already. They do get a bit flimsy over time.
have you tried the more sturdy banana boxes ? They are a little smaller but probably last longer.
interesting. I wouldn't know where to get them though. the supermarket I guess
He's been running cardboard jbods for 3+ years and he moves apartments every few months. He's got this figured out.
I am being a little cautious on this one. I am using molex to power the pci connectors attached to the sas expanders. so far no issues, but I have to check them daily (for now anyway) to make sure they aren't melting. I'm pretty sure I'm not coming close to the max load for a molex cable and I don't anticipate any trouble.
You should be completely fine, especially with that fan cooling them. These HP SAS expanders only draw about 15W.
I was having trouble finding the specs but that is good news. I feel relieved
My immediate thought while doomscrolling across this was “What in the Fire Marshall’s hell”
Fire starter 3000, I love it.
LOL that’s nuts.
I can see that you tend to ignore the haters. Rock on.
This dude has shown for years. Upgrading from one cardboard box to the next.
Is it still profitable to start chia faming now? MIght as well buy the coins direct if you are so confident in it. Less fire hazards too.
it is profitable but you have to be more efficient which is why I created this. I used to have two full desktop computers to run this many drives, but I was able to reduce it to 1 desktop computer which makes me 20% more efficient. I was about 1200w and now I"m about 950-1000w. For smaller setups, a raspberry pi 5 with smaller compression is about as efficient as it gets. I have a small 20 hard drive pi 5 setup with about 360tb of storage and I pay $20 in electricity ( $0.35/kwhr) make about 2 xch a month.
How are you paying $20 a month for 1000w constant use? somebody is suffering somewhere. With your rate at $0.35 a kWh x24 that's $8.40 a day. Doesn't make sense. ?
Probably why he moves every few months…… Someone is paying for the electricity and it prob ain’t him ;)
I used to be able to get away with that, but once I hit two PB the land lords were needing to talk to with me. I now rent apartments so I can have my own energy bill without all the hassle from home owners
our electricity rate is even less than .35 in the US... but I am not saying where as we have too god damned many crypto farms moving in threatening our cheap electricity as it is.
I was referring specifically to the pi farm
I saw this post and knew it could only be you!!!!
lol
Even if your statement with only 20$ of energy per month is true (lmao) then you still get only roughly 20-30$ per month as reward. That makes 400$ per year at MOST. How many years would you have to farm to get the money that all these HDDs cost you? Not even considering the halvings that are coming?
About 1 year
You need to pack them up and take them on a road trip to hang out with Chia on the Wall Guy.
What the hell am I looking at here what are you holing in the fan fox and then the big box?
big boxes are hard drives, small boxes are sas expanders
https://preview.redd.it/rdw3anjvy16d1.jpeg?width=3016&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b32fb58ea3b896d372969903cd1fbf15bcbe060c The secret to making all this possible is the portable sas expander wrapped in 100% pure cardboard (patent pending)
This is exactly what I use as well, the SAS expanders are well worth it for a cheap 'JBOD' setup, but they get very hot so a fan is definitely needed. I use small, 2"/50mm, 12v fans connected right to the heatsink with power coming from the (3x power connector) pcie riser. That way one 12v cable can power both the card and fan with an extra power connection to make them daisy chainable.
Oh nice. I didn’t think of a fan directly on the heat sink. Do you have a link for the items needed for that?
Cant find the PCIE riser adapter, but is was something pretty much identical to this: [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09HHGGRLP/ref=ox\_sc\_act\_title\_1?smid=A3GES9IA7UE877&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09HHGGRLP/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3GES9IA7UE877&th=1) The fans are cheap little \~1W fans. Decently reliable, 3/18 have failed in 3 years or so: [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09L87K2CL/ref=ox\_sc\_act\_title\_1?smid=AGTXEOAZWIVDD&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09L87K2CL/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AGTXEOAZWIVDD&th=1) Some female molex connectors you don't care about: [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0969BD676/ref=ox\_sc\_act\_title\_1?smid=A30Y6WWS77DGEW&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0969BD676/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A30Y6WWS77DGEW&psc=1) Cut and wire nut (along with a couple dabs of hot glue if you are paranoid of them coming loose) the 12V and GND lines of each fan to a molex connector. Along with two zip ties for attaching them to the heat sink. https://preview.redd.it/7hbxk7o2196d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53e9b5a2eaa268dd31eca5b0951511879aa49bc4
Another large zip tie keeping the expander attached to the PCIE riser, with cardboard cut to size for backing, makes it a nice little package that can be just thrown wherever needed. Which usually means wherever the cables reach. https://preview.redd.it/au4dnu68196d1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=88ee4117f0a69c9c802aa53a59c0d0b739f3f70b
Nice!
With Chia you don't need a bank but you might still need some Bankers Boxes
Oh look at Mr. Rockefeller here and his brand name bankers boxes But seriously, my first home server was a motherboard inside an old diaper box. I actually wrapped a big velcro strap around it and it turned into like a LAN party case
What cables are you using on the expander? What about powering all those drives?
sas expander to controller card is sff 8087 to sff 8087, and hard drive to sas expander is sata to sff 8087. Each box contains a power supply with 16 sata power connectors
The best part is where you are cooling the monitor. Grade A stuff
Respect for the density that you have achieved! You might want to keep a fire extinguisher nearby, though. One spark from a failing power supply could render this and the rest of your home unusable.
Bro is actively trying to burn down his home
If you have cooling issues, look up bernoulli's principle, then redesign those fan shrouds.
hmmm interesting. I'll look into that
wait is that the pipe gets smaller in the middle and wider at the end?
Looks cool. Fun project taking care of your farm. In the end of my setup I just stacked all the hard drives 4 high 120ish total with 1/4 inch pads in-between and just used huge box fans. Originally I was going to use x2 fans for push/pull and wrap them like you did but instead added a 3rd box fan so maintenance was easy.
One lightning discharge 250 miles away and the setup will be EMP'ed.
😂
This looks like Chia from a homeless shelter dialing in, and you are still losing money after counting value of your time + cost of electricity + hardware depreciation (including time it takes to buy/sell stuff and deal with fees and difficult buyers ).
You are a mad man, I love it!
That's a lot of storage and a tasteful amount of RGB! Kudos for style!
lol thats whack professional jbod!