For the past couple months I've been sourcing and evaluating a variety of motherboards, GPU's, PSU's, cat6 cables, network switches & modems. This has been a very enlightening experience, through it I have learnt many things about the world we live in and where it's going. From quantum computers to intensely complex algorithms it's all really quite amazing.
Insulted Sea Cans, known as refers by some, provide exceptional environments for air conditioning efficiency.
(Simplicity in nature, I have a simple vision for this product.)
Motherboards
The H110 Pro BTC+ is a very large board with 13 PCI-E Slots, that can host 13 GPU's via PCI-E extenders.
This is the most intuitive and in-depth part of my research and I'm far from completed. Power efficiency of a motherboard is a very hard thing to predict when you're comparing motherboards that have 6-13 16 pin slots that will be hosting for 6 to 13 GPU's.
Graphics Processing Units
(ATI's new VEGA chipset.)
The hardest part in constructing these farms is sourcing the most power efficient GPU, and this can be quite hard to do with the current availability of AMD (ATI) cards. Nvidia is the leading competitor in this feild and I will admit I am bias against the Nvidia for their poor ethics in business, but that's another story for another day. The latest card I have been analyzing is the AMD VEGA Frontier Edition, of which I own personally.
It is visually stunning as well as powerful. Rumors have been saying there is a heavier power draw over comparable Nvidia cards, but I will be running all of my own bench marks in the next 24 hours.
Heat Pumps
Ductless split systems will be optimal for this specific project. Carrier is the brand I researched.
Heat pumps are the most space efficient type of air conditioning. The research I have done, has lead me to estimate that about 18,000 BTU cooling efficiency will be required to effectively cool the interior of the Sea Can to an ambient temperature of 20 degrees Celsius. All mining operations will immediately need to cease and wait on standby if the air conditioning isn't responding, damage to the GPU's can be done over 95 Celcius. Even at the 20 degree ambient temperature, the surface of the GPU will still be over 70 degrees.
Power Supply
4 2750W POE+ power supply units per motherboard would be required to run 13 high end VEGA cards on a H110 Pro BTC+ motherboard.
Inquiring about large orders of bulk server supplies is about the easiest way to begin this step. There's likely a high availability of refurbished power supplies and this is a great opportunity to reduce the budget. The power supplies will have a rating on them, gold + is acceptable.
CAT6 Ethernet Cable
The easiest thing to source of all the parts, make sure you get varying lengths and color to incorporate all the different crevices that you want to line this ethernet cable down to make it organized.
Picking a Wallet
I recommend just compiling your own zcashd repository and running your own Linux command line node, as it is the only official release. Coinomi is always my go to for temporary coin storage.
Picking an Exchange Rate
You are the creator of this currency, and you who holds it decides what it is worth.
Poloniex has become the center of debate for a large portion of investors who suspect inside currency manipulation is taking place with the sites developers. This could become a reoccurring problem if the community doesn't put pressure on the developers of Poloniex to be proactive about node maintenance.
I personally like to establish larger sales for one time investors who want Zcash sent to them anonymously as a form of privacy eccentric monetary value. This helps me secure larger profits, and more stable resources for my network. However an online exchange will likely be the best solution for most who are aware of how to marginally trade their earnings.
Tune in later today for my video review of AMD's Frontier Edition of their new VEGA Card.
Special thanks to a few fellow Steemers who helped me during this research in one way or another.
