2GHs 10 GPU 4U GPU System
Stay tuned, posting article soon..
10 GPUs in 4U with 8X PCIe 3.0 for all using a Sapphire INCA EP-10 System..
The big news…. NVidia CMP 170HX running at 200Mhs
Blog
What have we been up too?
It’s been a number of months since systems were available publicly, we initially pulled availability when the GPU market starting blowing up, and as a growing business we were just establishing stronger relationships with vendors.. We never stopped, we just pivoted to servicing larger customers where we had an easier time managing the unpredictable deliveries. The supply chain has matured and we are bringing in AMD and Nvidia GPUs almost weekly, direct from manufacturers to avoid some of the challenges with reseller supply and changing pricing, we have our own PSUs built as well and have refined a number of the system components to provide better overall value…
At the moment a few hundred systems per month are being delivered, with performance for ETH between 230-410Mhs (all 8 GPU units) depending on the model… There are a number of low volume high performance units we will be putting on the site shortly as we clear out some residual stock from the past couple of months, and we are continuing to supply customers with 20+ units in a single order, for reference the average order size has been roughly 100 units in the past 6 months.
Stay tuned for more, we are looking to get the site back up with regular updates and information….
GPU Mining is back in style in a big way…
As many have seen, the market has exploded as of late… With massive shifts in the cost worldwide for goods, some manufacturers even going so far as to auction off GPUs to distributors, in an effort to maximize profit, it is making things challenging for many… While we are in a position to still acquire cards, and are on a daily basis, the cost to build has increased significantly…
All systems ordered are being delivered still so no customer needs to worry, however we are temporarily marked out of stock until we can adjust to the new pricing, anyone we have been discussing orders with will still get what they asked for, even those not placed yet, however new orders not previously discussed with anyone at Bitworks will need to hold until sales open back up in the coming days….
FUEL Miner Performance and Power Usage
Wanted to take the opportunity to comment on something that comes up from time to time, and that is the quoted specifications, and performance of the systems, with hundreds of units sold and many repeat customers I am proud of the quality delivered, however it does not come without a significant amount of development and testing… Hundreds of hours of development and testing continue with the product as we are always trying to improve performance and efficiency, as well as other improvements to help various customers better support their environments…
Due to variations in ASIC quality, demanding specifications of memory types, some cards do perform faster than others, and while you will read various things online about 570/580 performance, the specifications quoted reflect the minimum guaranteed performance of the systems, some ship able to run 5% faster, but as I cannot guarantee that ahead of time the specifications quoted take a conservative approach…
Some details on where we are today….
- Depending on the cards in a specific unit the power usage at 230Mh/s Ethereum will be either 1080W or 1120W at 230V, when enabling dual mining this will increase to 1200W or 1140W, I know it does not make sense it’s not linear, however GPU memory does have an impact on the performance characteristics and the power is adjusted to keep things stable, many users have come to expect our miners to run for weeks or months without being touched.
- We always try and deliver units with Samsung based memory, as those units will run 240-245Mh/s, however with the 570 cards AMD is currently providing AIBs (XFX, Sapphire, PowerColor, etc.) Hynix and Micron (Elpida) memory, but they are not providing Samsung, that stopped when 470 production stopped for some reason… We are currently contemplating having production runs of Samsung based GPUs done for us since we have the option too, however the memory must be independently sourced and not bundled by AMD as it usually is…
- To improve acoustics we implemented thermally controlled fans in all units, providing for a much quieter unit, and not pushing the CFM the unit would previously draw, even when not needed… As of this week’s batch they are a standard item on units, and will continue that way moving forward. The fans will spin up as needed, however in most environments they will stay fairly quiet, making running units in the office, or at home much easier…
We have been asked many times about the 16 GPU unit, while it is working on the bench, we are not finding the savings we were looking for in cost, however it does double the density so for applications where density is important, we will continue to finalize and make the solution available… The focus t this point is the thermal design allowing it to handle various environments without any problems…
Stay tuned for more, and as always do not hesitate to ask any questions…
Bitcoin Processing Volume Raised
Our apologies to customers over the past week that had BTC payments declined, we were hitting our Bitpay daily processing limit far too often. Documentation was submitted to get the limit raised, and we are currently able to process $100K in BTC transactions per day. Some large orders are still above that limit, if so please reach out to sales@bitworkswoo3.mystagingwebsite.com and the order can be manually processed. Thanks to all for the continued business.
Transition to Kaby Lake and Z270 CPU and Motherboard
As some of you may know the Z97 boards are being retired across the market, we picked up almost 200 in our last buy but they went quick. Have been testing a new setup with the Z270 and have it running well, still 8 GPUs as before, the transition is underway with units being produced from April 12 on using the new motherboard. No real user facing changes, systems still perform as they have been….
Payment Options, Discounts, and What’s Coming
I wanted to touch on a couple of topics I received emails and private messages asking about, and take a moment to mention some new efforts in the pipeline…
First, a number of payment gateways are allowed, I added various discounts to them to essentially return the relative fees I pay back to the buyer.
- Bitcoin – 4% Discount – BitPay does charge 1% for processing, I use BitPay because it provides an easy was to convert back to USD, which is needed to keep things moving…
- Bank Wire / Check – 2% Discount – Most large orders are paid via wire, details provided to buyers as needed…
- Paypal – No discount provided, but accepted for Credit Cards, etc.
What’s Next?
There are a couple of projects in the pipeline currently, will have dedicated postings for them in the coming days/weeks but for now a couple of mentions…
- 16 GPU System – Wrapping up a design, 16 GPUs running validated with new custom breakout boards designed by an excellent partner, working to increase rack density of off the shelf GPUs even more…
- Radeon 570/580 System – Engineering samples inbound for testing purposes, excited to see what can be pulled out of these cards given the additional control AMD allowing with respect to power.
Online presence finally live
It’s about time, we have a site up supporting sales, live chat, and product updates as they come… Bitworks has been delivering miners for quite some time now, primary sales channels to date have been direct via contacts made on bitcointalk and ebay, and have been quite busy delivering systems to large and small customers alike but far too many customers have asked for more access to our offerings…
Our current flagship product, the 8 GPU FUEL miner is still in production, and orders have been strong, small and large buyers are welcome, including various revenue sharing and partnership opportunities at scale, providing one of the best ROIs on the market including excellent hardware resale.
Additional 470 and 480 GPUs are inbound at this time, and builds are progressing!
Some exciting news in the coming weeks as well, early release engineering samples for the Radeon RX 570 and 580 are inbound and will be tested in the coming days, hopeful we will receive authorization to disclose benchmarks.