Getting a Platinum PSU for cheap (only to power your GPUs)

[TennesseeTony]

This requires a bit of effort and shopping sense.

First, you need a regular PSU (good, but lower powered ATX/EPS power supply, Bronze or above for efficiency), which will power your system (CPU/RAM/Drives/maybe one or two GPUs), then get one of these, and one of these to power the rest of the GPUs. Beware the ones that don't power on/off automatically (the automatic ones sense power via fan/molex/sata/6-pin power input) (non automatic, you have to manually flip a switch shortly after power on/off).

I'm using one (pair of devices) to power 3 of 4 R9-280X's for Milkyway at the moment, with no problems other than the timing of the manual power up (I didn't get the automatic one). Also they make the PSU's in 460w 600w and 750 watt versions, that work with the breakout boards. If the power input has a BLUE outlet, it's not Platinum, but even better, it's Titanium certified! Very efficient!

 

[TennesseeTony]

My apologies....the links may be to my purchases, and the prices have gone WAY up. I got my PSU's for about $35. Plus $20-some for the breakout board(s).

But you can search for HP 1200w PSU and surely a deal will show up eventually.

Edit: Looks like the 1200w units are overpriced, but the 750w units are only $20.

 

[IEC]

Yeah these used to be cheaper. Crypto craze has driven prices way up once people realized this was a cost effective way of power delivery.

 

[ao_ika_red]

Mind to explain why is it so cheap? My bronze 430w psu costs twice as much but has capacity much less than that. Is it anything to do with it's basically just glorified 230vac to 12vdc inverter?

 

[TennesseeTony]

Oh they are not cheap if you have to buy a new one, but basically these are now obsolete business equipment, and there are tens of thousands of them for sale, used.

 

[ao_ika_red]

Oh they are not cheap if you have to buy a new one, but basically these are now obsolete business equipment, and there are tens of thousands of them for sale, used.

Ah, that's why. I once offered an OEM PSU like that on a facebook group. He claimed it as new, but the paying system looked so shady and then decided to ignore it.

 

[Markfw]

OK, where are the plugs to power things ????? The 750 watt is just a box, and the 1200 is now $100

 

[TennesseeTony]

 

[Markfw]

Ahhhh, thats the other link, the "breakout boards" is how you get the cables.

 

[TennesseeTony]

Oh crap, look at the twist in that 4th card. Uhm, ok, it's just because it is using two pcie riser boards, to give the card behind it some air, but....I'm glad this particular setup is just a temporary one, my 1030 watt back-up 'heater', running MW if the other systems can't keep the house warm.

EDIT: LOL! That cooking foil wrapped Cat5 cable is the oldest one I own, 20 years old perhaps. I remember thinking that I should 'shield' it, for some reason!

 

[ao_ika_red]

Wait a minute, do you put them on chairs?

 

[IEC]

MrTeal in the FS/FT section has several platinum server PSUs and some PDUs available at a fair price.

They look pretty well used though, so that's why they're cheap.

 

[TennesseeTony]

Wait a minute, do you put them on chairs?

Lol, uhm....yes. This one at least, as it was supposed to be a momentary placement, for testing, while I made room for it somewhere else, but....I never got around to making that room.

 

[ao_ika_red]

As long as it works I guess... If I were you, I'll put every caution sign I could find around it to prevent family / friend / pet / universe entity trip their foot "accidentally".

 

[StefanR5R]

Any life forms, high or low, surely know instinctively to stay clear of this contraption.

 

[Pokey]

Lol, uhm....yes. This one at least, as it was supposed to be a momentary placement, for testing, while I made room for it somewhere else, but....I never got around to making that room.

LOL................sounds like something I would do.............. Love it.

 

[TennesseeTony]

I do not want to worry anyone, so here is a revised picture of my 'no longer sitting on chairs' system.

Also revised, is my KVM system. See that box bertween the monitor and the power switch thingy under it? Oh, yeah, 16 port DVI KVM switch!

In other news the temperature the next few days will be quite warm, so I'll have to suspend some folding while the sun is up. SOME, not all.

 

[Markfw]

Tony, can you give us a blow-by-blow of all the systems in this picture ? and where each system is located in the picture ?

 

[TennesseeTony]

The skeleton system on the desk is quad R9-280X, was running Milkyway until the temps in the house got unbearable. Slow/Low power Xeon 8 thread Haswell CPU.

One the left, at the top, is a dual Xeon dual 1080, running Folding and WCG, 56 threads. (number 9, I think it is labeled)

The two stacks of Dell's are all dual processor Xeons, 2nd gen, ancient machines that I should have sold off nearly two years ago. I'm just updating them again, in prep for selling. (24 threads each)

The little cube in the middle is a HP micro-server, about as powerful as an Intel Atom dual core. Also just getting updated, no use for this one.

 

[ao_ika_red]

What a relief. That reduced my anxiety, a lot... Oh, can we have separate "DC Rig Gallery"? That will be a feast for my eyes.

 

[Markfw]

What a relief. That reduced my anxiety, a lot... Oh, can we have separate "DC Rig Gallery"? That will be a feast for my eyes.

Mine are not very pretty, but if someone started a thread, I could try to post pics of crappy looking but pretty potent systems.

 

[Markfw]

The skeleton system on the desk is quad R9-280X, was running Milkyway until the temps in the house got unbearable. Slow/Low power Xeon 8 thread Haswell CPU.

One the left, at the top, is a dual Xeon dual 1080, running Folding and WCG, 56 threads. (number 9, I think it is labeled)

The two stacks of Dell's are all dual processor Xeons, 2nd gen, ancient machines that I should have sold off nearly two years ago. I'm just updating them again, in prep for selling. (24 threads each)

The little cube in the middle is a HP micro-server, about as powerful as an Intel Atom dual core. Also just getting updated, no use for this one.

Where are the 28 thread 2683's ?

 

[TennesseeTony]

Living room corner. That location is not as......uh, presentable... to the public. I'm a slob.

 

[Assimilator1]

Lol, nice farm though

 

[ericlp]

Back in the day when I had a lot of room and was somewhat of a geek, crunching for seti, loaded up the network drivers, compact version of linux and seti all fit on a floppy! LOL! connected to a server rack in another bedroom (too bad I didn't have pictures of that)... Fun stuff back in the day, these were all AMD systems 1800's OverClocked to 2100 I think... Hmmm, somewhere around 2003 I think. Went down to fry's and picked up the chip and board deals for 99 bucks, got some cheap ram and PSU's and Floppy's! JOY!