Gaming Discuss to your nerdy heart's content

Post how much you spent on your video card to play Candy Crush

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old 01-24-2018, 01:53 PM
  #521  
Elite Member
iTrader: (2)
 
triple88a's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 10,454
Total Cats: 1,799
Default

coinbase will send a tax form, no?
triple88a is offline  
Old 01-24-2018, 02:01 PM
  #522  
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
 
Joe Perez's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,024
Total Cats: 6,591
Default

Originally Posted by triple88a
So wait, does polarity between the 2 hot pins matter or is it just the ground pin thats the only important one?
Adding to what whitrzac said...

Here in the US, 240v is actually the standard, except that we use center-tapped pole transformers to make it seem like 120v, where the center tap of the transformer is neutral, which is also grounded. Technically, it's a split-phase system.

Here's a diagram:



For a 120v outlet, you connect between neutral and either V1 or V2. So polarity matters, since one pin is at 0v (neutral) and the other is at 120v. For each 120v circuit, you're only seeing half of the transformer's secondary winding, and the job of the electrician who installs the distribution panel is to make sure that the 120v loads are more-or-less balanced across the two halves.

For a 240v outlet, one pin is V1 and the other is V2, and you don't have a neutral connection. So you could make an argument that polarity matters if you care about phasing, but for >99% of applications, it doesn't matter. What's important is that both pins are "hot" as compared to ground.




Originally Posted by triple88a
What surge protector are you using? Amazon is being unhelpful since i'm in the US.
Serious answer: surge protectors are mostly BS when it comes to domestic computer applications. A lightning strike delivers so much more energy than an MOV is capable of shunting that there's virtually zero chance of a $10 power strip saving your computer from a pole hit, which is fortunately a rare event.
Joe Perez is offline  
Old 01-24-2018, 02:06 PM
  #523  
Elite Member
 
z31maniac's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: OKC, OK
Posts: 3,693
Total Cats: 222
Default

Originally Posted by Joe Perez
Serious answer: surge protectors are mostly BS when it comes to domestic computer applications. A lightning strike delivers so much more energy than an MOV is capable of shunting that there's virtually zero chance of a $10 power strip saving your computer from a pole hit, which is fortunately a rare event.
Are there any good options? Thoughts on the "whole house" surge protectors that install underneath the meter on the outside?
z31maniac is offline  
Old 01-24-2018, 02:45 PM
  #524  
Junior Member
iTrader: (1)
 
whitrzac's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 254
Total Cats: 5
Default

Originally Posted by z31maniac
Are there any good options? Thoughts on the "whole house" surge protectors that install underneath the meter on the outside?
A good renters insurance policy and lots of pictures/recipts.

I've seen sparks come out of $200 APC battery backups while killing everything plugged into it.
whitrzac is offline  
Old 01-24-2018, 02:50 PM
  #525  
Junior Member
iTrader: (1)
 
whitrzac's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 254
Total Cats: 5
Default

Originally Posted by triple88a
coinbase will send a tax form, no?
Possibly, IIRC the IRS got access to ~20k accounts, but the bank will for sure...
whitrzac is offline  
Old 01-24-2018, 02:54 PM
  #526  
Elite Member
iTrader: (2)
 
triple88a's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 10,454
Total Cats: 1,799
Default

My plan was to take a 120 volt power strip, ensure the insides are all separated and swap the end that goes into the 240 wall socket. 6-15 power cables are freaking pricy, thats why i was hoping I can stay with the standard 5-15 power cable plugs.
triple88a is offline  
Old 01-24-2018, 02:55 PM
  #527  
Junior Member
iTrader: (1)
 
whitrzac's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 254
Total Cats: 5
Default

Originally Posted by triple88a
My plan was to take a 120 volt power strip, ensure the insides are all separated and swap the end that goes into the 240 wall socket. 6-15 power cables are freaking pricy, thats why i was hoping I can stay with the standard 5-15 power cable plugs.
Thats what I do.


Protip: paint it orange, red, or some other menacing color....
whitrzac is offline  
Old 01-24-2018, 03:19 PM
  #528  
Elite Member
iTrader: (2)
 
triple88a's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 10,454
Total Cats: 1,799
Default

Whats the pinout on the power supply side? center plug remains ground right?

triple88a is offline  
Old 01-24-2018, 03:44 PM
  #529  
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
 
Joe Perez's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,024
Total Cats: 6,591
Default

Originally Posted by z31maniac
Are there any good options? Thoughts on the "whole house" surge protectors that install underneath the meter on the outside?
We sometimes use those out at remote transmitter sites, but the ones we buy cost a lot more than your mining rig and still blow up when the pole takes a direct hit.

Honestly, there's not much you can actually do about lightning, short of running a galvanically isolated, full-conversion UPS on the whole building. That's what I have here at WGN. For reference, the UPS is on the 3rd floor, and the battery is on the 1st floor, mostly because the weight of the battery exceeds the structural capacity of the upper floors of the building.



Originally Posted by triple88a
My plan was to take a 120 volt power strip, ensure the insides are all separated and swap the end that goes into the 240 wall socket. 6-15 power cables are freaking pricy, thats why i was hoping I can stay with the standard 5-15 power cable plugs.
This is an almost indescribably bad idea. Someone will eventually plug a 120v-only device into that strip, and then you will be sad.

If you're really dedicated to this idea, just buy a 6-15 plug at Home Depot and splice it onto an existing C13 cable. Use it to power the PC, and drive everything else off of 120v.

Seriously, these plugs are less than $10.

Example: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Legrand-...CCV4/100206376

Wiring instructions in next paragraph




Originally Posted by triple88a
Whats the pinout on the power supply side? center plug remains ground right?
The pinout is that ground is ground (green or yellow / green wire), and the other two pins are both hot (usually brown & blue or white & black wires).
Joe Perez is offline  
Old 01-24-2018, 04:10 PM
  #530  
Junior Member
iTrader: (1)
 
whitrzac's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 254
Total Cats: 5
Default

Originally Posted by Joe Perez
This is an almost indescribably bad idea. Someone will eventually plug a 120v-only device into that strip, and then you will be sad.
.
Which is why I sugested painting it bright orange.

The location I have my rigs is for mining equipment only and only a friend and I have access.

Another friend uses one of these
Amazon Amazon
whitrzac is offline  
Old 01-25-2018, 03:25 PM
  #531  
y8s
2 Props,3 Dildos,& 1 Cat
iTrader: (8)
 
y8s's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Fake Virginia
Posts: 19,338
Total Cats: 573
Default

Originally Posted by z31maniac
Yeah, now that I'm about to get some bonus money I've been looking back into building a sim rig.......................yeah no. I'm not paying $1400 for a 1080Ti that was $750 2 months ago. Hopefully Stripe (is it Stripe that just stopped accepting Bitcoins?) will help get these values back down.

So we can watch experiments like yours cost you 2x the electricity vs the value of a Coin.
So set up notifications for when they come in stock. NVIDIA's website had the Founders cards below the cost of most stores... today. You just have to be fast.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce...e-gtx-1080-ti/

Today power cost is $3 a day vs. mined value of $30 a day.

I should note that I'm mining using only 100% renewable electricity.
y8s is offline  
Old 01-25-2018, 03:32 PM
  #532  
Moderator
iTrader: (1)
 
Girz0r's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 3,033
Total Cats: 324
Default

Quick glance at pcpartpicker on 1080Ti cards... Holy crap have prices inflated
Girz0r is offline  
Old 01-25-2018, 03:37 PM
  #533  
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
 
Joe Perez's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,024
Total Cats: 6,591
Default

Originally Posted by whitrzac
Which is why I sugested painting it bright orange.
Have you ever done something stupid, and then thought "I shouldn't have done that. I knew better than to do that. Why did I do that?"

I have.

Basic rule of engineering: don't design a system so that you can accidentally plug Thing A into Thing B, if doing so will result in fire and destruction. Because someone will eventually do it.

Failure to heed this rule is what started the event which resulted in the core meltdown at Three Mile Island. When they built the plant, they used the same fittings for instrument air and utility water in the turbine hall, and an overly tired maintenance engineer accidentally connected a hose between the two systems. This flooded the instrument air line with water, which disabled all of the feedwater valves in the secondary loop. And this caused a lot of bad things to happen very quickly.
Joe Perez is offline  
Old 01-25-2018, 03:44 PM
  #534  
Elite Member
iTrader: (5)
 
Erat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Detroit (the part with no rules or laws)
Posts: 5,677
Total Cats: 800
Default

Originally Posted by Girz0r
Quick glance at pcpartpicker on 1080Ti cards... Holy crap have prices inflated
I guess microcenter is selling them at regular price if you bundle other PC parts.
But most people aren't building a full system and just upgrade a card.
Erat is offline  
Old 01-25-2018, 05:12 PM
  #535  
Elite Member
iTrader: (2)
 
fooger03's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Columbus, OH
Posts: 4,140
Total Cats: 229
Default

So glad I picked up my 1070 like a month before bitcoin started exploding.

I think it was $319.
fooger03 is offline  
Old 01-26-2018, 09:29 AM
  #536  
Elite Member
 
z31maniac's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: OKC, OK
Posts: 3,693
Total Cats: 222
Default

Originally Posted by y8s
So set up notifications for when they come in stock. NVIDIA's website had the Founders cards below the cost of most stores... today. You just have to be fast.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce...e-gtx-1080-ti/

Today power cost is $3 a day vs. mined value of $30 a day.

I should note that I'm mining using only 100% renewable electricity.
Thanks for the tip, I did go ahead and sign up.

I guess I'll go ahead and just start collection the other stuff first (wheel, seat, monitors, etc) and then wait to build the computer last.
z31maniac is offline  
Old 01-29-2018, 04:01 PM
  #537  
Senior Member
 
2slow's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: San Diego
Posts: 557
Total Cats: 54
Default

Same here, got 1070 for gaming a little while back and now that they are going for $600-800. Wondering if I should sell it.

This card and my speakers (Klipsch Reference 7 front and center) could pay for Xida Race setup....If only I drove a Miata as much as I sit in front of computer (all day long) or use my speakers (every other day).
2slow is offline  
Old 01-30-2018, 07:31 AM
  #538  
Junior Member
iTrader: (1)
 
whitrzac's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 254
Total Cats: 5
Default

Never sell good speakers, unless it's to buy better speakers....

A good set of speakers will last 30+ years.
whitrzac is offline  
Old 01-31-2018, 09:45 AM
  #539  
y8s
2 Props,3 Dildos,& 1 Cat
iTrader: (8)
 
y8s's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Fake Virginia
Posts: 19,338
Total Cats: 573
Default

Put your card on ebay. Then buy a cheaper one when they come up. I see various 1070s come up for sale about two or three times a day for under $500. Ti's less often for under $650.

I've got a 560Ti if anyone wants it. Can't mine.

You just have to be hair trigger when you get the notification or you'll miss it.
y8s is offline  
Old 04-06-2018, 01:46 PM
  #540  
Elite Member
 
z31maniac's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: OKC, OK
Posts: 3,693
Total Cats: 222
Default

It seems as though GPUs are slowly starting to come back down.
z31maniac is offline  


Quick Reply: Post how much you spent on your video card to play Candy Crush



All times are GMT -4. The time now is 09:25 PM.