Using retired servers for mining cryptocurrency
Since I have access to retired servers from work I'm always looking for ways to reuse servers for mining DogeCoin.
In my last post you will see pictures of my mining rig built from a retired Rackable Systems server with Intel server board. The only problem with that server was that the PSU was too weak to be usable.
This week I tried out a monster of a server, the Dell 2900.
This server came with (10) 146gb 15k SAS drives, 32gb of memory and dual quad core Xeon CPUs. The feature that grabbed my attention the most was the dual 930 watt power supplies. I pulled all but two hard drives and looked at the backplane power cable. Given the right tools I think I could have converted that into some PCI-E power cables, but I decided I better hook up the kill-a-watt and test this first.
The Dell Poweredge 2900 tower server consumes 310 watts at idle. (380 with all 10 drives)
That kills any savings from re-using the hardware. The server has too many fans and CPUs to power.
The server did have 4 PCI-E slots, but they are all x8 and may all need powered risers since they are not made for video.
I think the best retired servers for mining will be tower servers that have cabled hard drives and ATX power supplies. I looked at an old Dell Poweredge 1800 tower I had sitting around and this server sports a 650 watt power supply and (2) PCI-E slots. Not bad if you can get it cheap. You will need the molex to PCI-E power adapters since it doesn't have any PCI-E power connectors on the PSU.
In my last post you will see pictures of my mining rig built from a retired Rackable Systems server with Intel server board. The only problem with that server was that the PSU was too weak to be usable.
This week I tried out a monster of a server, the Dell 2900.
This server came with (10) 146gb 15k SAS drives, 32gb of memory and dual quad core Xeon CPUs. The feature that grabbed my attention the most was the dual 930 watt power supplies. I pulled all but two hard drives and looked at the backplane power cable. Given the right tools I think I could have converted that into some PCI-E power cables, but I decided I better hook up the kill-a-watt and test this first.
The Dell Poweredge 2900 tower server consumes 310 watts at idle. (380 with all 10 drives)
That kills any savings from re-using the hardware. The server has too many fans and CPUs to power.
The server did have 4 PCI-E slots, but they are all x8 and may all need powered risers since they are not made for video.
I think the best retired servers for mining will be tower servers that have cabled hard drives and ATX power supplies. I looked at an old Dell Poweredge 1800 tower I had sitting around and this server sports a 650 watt power supply and (2) PCI-E slots. Not bad if you can get it cheap. You will need the molex to PCI-E power adapters since it doesn't have any PCI-E power connectors on the PSU.
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