Hello, Hardware Heads!
I've encountered an unusual issue with a new build I'm working on, with the Shuttle SZ87R6.
I'm using this rig to mine Litecoins with a Sapphire R9 280x graphics card. At the same time, I'm mining Quark coins using spare CPU resources. So this is basically like an endless torture test, with my GPU utilization continually near 100%, and my CPU (i7-4770) utilization hovering around 87%.
I'm using a UPS with a diagnostic readout to monitor the power draw. When working the "torture test" as described above, the rig pulls about 390 watts. The power supply on the SZ87R6 is rated at 500 watts. Under these conditions, everything seems to be running fine, and I've left it working for many hours at a time without issue.
Here's where it gets a little more interesting:
The program that mines Litecoin (using the GPU) does require some CPU resource. If CPU resource is unavailable, the hash rate (and thus power draw) will drop precipitously. In order to keep some CPU resource free, I've set my Quark mining program to use 7 of 8 available processor threads, and this works fine.
However, if I set my Quark miner to use all 8 threads, my Litecoin miner hash rate will drop as described above, and I'll notice my power draw begin to fluctuate wildly, presumably as the Litecoin miner struggles for CPU resource and ramps the GPU up and down. When this happens, I'll see the power draw fluctuate rapidly and unpredictably in the range of 250-350 watts. As this is happening, I'll hear a distinct clicking sound coming from the PSU. The clicking sound is pretty soft, but I checked with the manufacturer, and was told to RMA, since the PSU shouldn't really make sounds like that at all.
Before I go through that trouble, I thought I'd run it by the community here.
Thanks for any help!
I've encountered an unusual issue with a new build I'm working on, with the Shuttle SZ87R6.
I'm using this rig to mine Litecoins with a Sapphire R9 280x graphics card. At the same time, I'm mining Quark coins using spare CPU resources. So this is basically like an endless torture test, with my GPU utilization continually near 100%, and my CPU (i7-4770) utilization hovering around 87%.
I'm using a UPS with a diagnostic readout to monitor the power draw. When working the "torture test" as described above, the rig pulls about 390 watts. The power supply on the SZ87R6 is rated at 500 watts. Under these conditions, everything seems to be running fine, and I've left it working for many hours at a time without issue.
Here's where it gets a little more interesting:
The program that mines Litecoin (using the GPU) does require some CPU resource. If CPU resource is unavailable, the hash rate (and thus power draw) will drop precipitously. In order to keep some CPU resource free, I've set my Quark mining program to use 7 of 8 available processor threads, and this works fine.
However, if I set my Quark miner to use all 8 threads, my Litecoin miner hash rate will drop as described above, and I'll notice my power draw begin to fluctuate wildly, presumably as the Litecoin miner struggles for CPU resource and ramps the GPU up and down. When this happens, I'll see the power draw fluctuate rapidly and unpredictably in the range of 250-350 watts. As this is happening, I'll hear a distinct clicking sound coming from the PSU. The clicking sound is pretty soft, but I checked with the manufacturer, and was told to RMA, since the PSU shouldn't really make sounds like that at all.
Before I go through that trouble, I thought I'd run it by the community here.
Thanks for any help!
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