NUC Small Form Factor Chia Plotting Build

Rev 1.1 (updated for Chia version 1.0.4 with reduced temp space!!)

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Ask @storage_jm on keybase for any questions regarding this build

This plotting build is a small form factor Intel NUC, that has a 6 core 10th gen Intel i7, a 2TB NVMe, and a SATA boot drive in one easy-to-build small desktop. NUC contains a small 4in x 4in motherboard. This is a perfect build for a novice and requires NO previous PC building experience, and the entire build can be completed in under 15 minutes. The total price is $850 and can plot around 1.8TB a day.

Here is the updated test from 1.0.4, after plotting 73 consecutive plots the system is averaging 1.61TiB or 1.77TB per day!

grep -i "total time" /home/jm/chialogs/*.log |awk '{sum=sum+$4} {avg=sum/NR} {tday=86400/avg*6*101.366/1024} END {printf "%d K32 plots, avg %0.1f seconds, %0.2f TiB/day \n", NR, avg, tday}'

73 K32 plots, avg 31804.9 seconds, 1.61 TiB/day or 1.77TB per day

Sorry for the crappy audio in the beginning and the 5 min editing job. Skip ahead if you are just looking for the install. My wife said to me when she saw this, “What is this, Ryan’s world? why are you filming your unboxing?”

Budget for NUC build

CPU Selection

This build circles around the critical component the i7-10710U, integrated 6 core CPU that boosts up to 4.7GHz. This is a great mobile and low power CPU, especially for the price. It is also very power efficient.

DRAM

Since this build revolves around doing 5-6 k=32 in parallel, 32GB of DDR4 is the target in 2x16GB DIMMs. My advice is to find the cheapest DRAM you can possibly find. There is likely some benefit to faster DDR4 speeds, around 3200 to 3600MHz, but it hasn’t been widely demonstrated in the reference plotting hardware as of today. Make sure you order SO-DIMM, this is the small laptop style memory required for the NUC.

Power Supply Unit (PSU)

Built into the NUC!

I measured the power with my Samsung smart things monitor, and the NUC consumed an average of 54.6W of power over 2 days of plotting. This is a very power efficient plotting computer.

Motherboard

Built into the NUC!

SSD for temporary storage

This build will be targeting 5-6 plots in parallel, and requires ~332GiB per process for a total temporary space requirement of 1660GiB or 1.78TB.

1. 1x 1920GB SATA
   1. Preference of Intel S4510, S4610, or Samsung or Micron datacenter – target sub $200 on eBay used
2. 1x 2TB NVMe M.2 80mm
   1. This is the most common M.2 form factor for SSDs. Unfortunately, the NUC does not support 110mm M.2 so data center class NVMe cannot be used
   2. Find an M.2 on the endurance spreadsheet with high TBW. Consumer NVMe models vary greatly in sustained performance, I suggest doing some research on sustained IO performance in review sites like Toms Hardware, Anandtech, and StorageReview
   3. Inland Premium (beware, NOT the Inland platinum), Seagate Firecuda 520. Corsair MP600 USA version (heatsink too big though, if you want to mod). Any M.2 80mm with low profile heat sink with good sustained write performance and 3600TBW endurance is the target for this build, as it will be running all day every day.

Thermals for temp drives. NVMe SSDs get hot with sustained write workloads. Monitor temps through smartmontools (sudo smartctl -a /dev/nvme0n1) or NVMe-CLI (sudo nvme smart-log /dev/nvme0n1). If your NVMe drive is getting above 70C and triggering the NVMe SMART critical temp warning, crank the fan speed up to max in the BIOS.

Destination drive

This case requires both drives, one for boot and one for temp storage. You “could” boot off a USB stick and use a 2.5in SSD or HDD for -d, but I would recommend just putting the destination drives on a network target. Synology is a great NAS for beginners. USB attach destination drive is also totally fine, just make sure it does not go to sleep so disable all power settings.

BIOS update

Visit the NUC website on Intel.com here and click on “Drivers and Software” and “Download BIOS”. This step is optional but generally good practice to always update the BIOS on new hardware. In this case, I am not installing Windows so the easiest way to update the BIOS is to download the .CAP file. Copy the file to a small USB key that is formatted to FAT32. When you boot the NUC, hit F7 to enter the BIOS update screen, and select the .CAP file. This process takes around 5 minutes, so sit back and grab some coffee.

Time to plot!

There is almost no need for any major tuning, the out of the box performance should be around 2TB per day, depending on the temporary storage that was chosen.

• Complete NUC build – this took me a total of 5 minutes (most of time finding the screw driver for the stupid M.2 screw)
• Find a USB stick that we will use for the OS install
• Install Ubuntu Server – no need for a monitor with this besides initial install. Ubuntu desktop is tempting…but you need to install a lot more packages and there are many more chances for bugs. Take the training wheels off and try cli only!
  • After getting the iso file for Ubuntu Server – If you’re on a mac use Balena Etcher, if you’re on Windows use Rufus. If you’re on Linux then you don’t need this advice (but here it is anyways)
• ssh into from your laptop (open terminal on mac, or powershell in Windows)

ssh user@hostname (or ip address)

• Make sure your HDD appears and format destination drive (only if you are doing the USB boot and local destination drive)

sudo fdisk -l
sudo mkfs.ext4 -m 0 -T largefile4 -L <drivename> /dev/sda

This is the optimal setting for destination drive to maximize storage capacity efficiency with a very short format time

sudo mkdir /mnt/hdd
sudo mount /dev/sda /mnt/hdd

• format temp drive

sudo mkfs.xfs /dev/nvme0n1
sudo mkdir /mnt/ssd
sudo mount -t xfs -o discard /dev/nvme0n1 /mnt/ssd

• Install Chia

mkdir ~/chialogs

• edit permissions (I know, I know, this isn’t best security practice but this should be on your home network NOT in a remote location. Different security is required if this is the case)

sudo chmod 777 /mnt/hdd
sudo chmod 777 /mnt/ssd
chmod 777 ~/chialogs
sudo nano chia6.sh

1. Paste the follow in, with edits to your user name, and temp and destination directory names. Save by hitting Ctrl + O and exit with Ctrl + X

#!/bin/bash
screen -d -m -S chia1 bash -c 'cd /home/user/chia-blockchain && . ./activate && sleep 0h && chia plots create -k 32 -b 4000 -r 4 -u 128 -n 16 -t /mnt/ssd/temp1 -2 /mnt/ssd -d /mnt/hdd |tee /home/user/chialogs/chia1_1_.log'
screen -d -m -S chia2 bash -c 'cd /home/user/chia-blockchain && . ./activate && sleep 1h && chia plots create -k 32 -b 4000 -r 4 -u 128 -n 16 -t /mnt/ssd/temp2 -2 /mnt/ssd -d /mnt/hdd |tee /home/user/chialogs/chia2_1_.log'
screen -d -m -S chia3 bash -c 'cd /home/user/chia-blockchain && . ./activate && sleep 2h && chia plots create -k 32 -b 4000 -r 4 -u 128 -n 16 -t /mnt/ssd/temp3 -2 /mnt/ssd -d /mnt/hdd |tee /home/user/chialogs/chia3_1_.log'
screen -d -m -S chia4 bash -c 'cd /home/user/chia-blockchain && . ./activate && sleep 3h && chia plots create -k 32 -b 4000 -r 4 -u 128 -n 16 -t /mnt/ssd/temp4 -2 /mnt/ssd -d /mnt/hdd |tee /home/user/chialogs/chia4_1_.log'
screen -d -m -S chia5 bash -c 'cd /home/user/chia-blockchain && . ./activate && sleep 4h && chia plots create -k 32 -b 4000 -r 4 -u 128 -n 16 -t /mnt/ssd/temp5 -2 /mnt/ssd -d /mnt/hdd |tee /home/user/chialogs/chia5_1_.log'
screen -d -m -S chia6 bash -c 'cd /home/user/chia-blockchain && . ./activate && sleep 6h && chia plots create -k 32 -b 4000 -r 4 -u 128 -n 16 -t /mnt/ssd/temp6 -2 /mnt/ssd -d /mnt/hdd |tee /home/user/chialogs/chia6_1_.log'

Set n value to total number of k=32 plots per your capacity drive on the optimal size spreadsheet here divided by 5. You can also use the tool from user @kiwihaitch called https://plot-plan.chia.foxypool.io/ that finds the optimal configuration for maximum capacity utilization. This build revolves around 5-6 k=32, which is fine for the overwhelming majority of users. If you want to get over 99% capacity utilization on the destination drives, you need to use a mix of some k=33 and k=34 (completely optional!!)

Run script! sh chia6.sh

After running make sure there are no permissions errors and that the script started correctly by monitoring the processes through htop or something similar. Everything runs in screens in the background, so you are perfectly fine to shut down the ssh from your laptop and let this thing run as long as it takes the fill up the destination drive

Monitoring tools to use

sudo apt install nvme-cli dstat sysstat glances smartmontools lm-sensors

if you’re on Ubuntu server you should already have htop, xfs, and mdadm. If you are on Ubuntu desktop you will need these too.

sudo apt install htop xfsprogs mdadm

dstat, iostat, glances – use this to make sure drives are doing io. You can monitor things like IOPS, bandwidth, and iowait to ensure everything is running optimally

$ dstat
You did not select any stats, using -cdngy by default.
--total-cpu-usage-- -dsk/total- -net/total- ---paging-- ---system--
usr sys idl wai stl| read  writ| recv  send|  in   out | int   csw
46   3  45   6   0| 456M  493M|   0     0 | 774k  873k|  14k   22k
61   4  27   8   0| 879M  135M| 382B  904B| 112k  424k|  19k   11k
66   2  30   2   0| 214M  382M| 186B  366B|  24k  340k|  10k 3228
65   3  29   4   0| 483M  220M| 126B  366B|   0   804k|  13k 6226
57   5  31   7   0| 735M  534M| 234B  358B|  48k  524k|  20k   13k
52   4  40   5   0| 608M  314M|  66B  366B|  44k   80k|  15k 7278
41   3  49   6   0| 720M  106M| 420B  408B| 104k 1068k|  15k 7554
44   2  49   5   0| 564M  123M| 126B  408B| 720k   44k|  12k 6401

htop – use to monitor cpu and memory utilization

nvme or smartctl – use to monitor temps of SSDs (temperature and Warning Temperature Time) and endurance (percentage used)

$ sudo nvme smart-log  /dev/nvme0n1
Smart Log for NVME device:nvme0n1 namespace-id:ffffffff
critical_warning                    : 0
temperature                         : 62 C
available_spare                     : 100%
available_spare_threshold           : 5%
percentage_used                     : 0%
data_units_read                     : 28,561,818
data_units_written                  : 30,698,144
host_read_commands                  : 74,551,774
host_write_commands                 : 24,076,840
controller_busy_time                : 472
power_cycles                        : 6
power_on_hours                      : 27
unsafe_shutdowns                    : 4
media_errors                        : 0
num_err_log_entries                 : 4
Warning Temperature Time            : 0
Critical Composite Temperature Time : 0
Thermal Management T1 Trans Count   : 0
Thermal Management T2 Trans Count   : 0
Thermal Management T1 Total Time    : 0
Thermal Management T2 Total Time    : 0

Checking CPU temperature

$ sensors
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0:  +85.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0:        +84.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:        +83.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 2:        +75.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 3:        +72.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 4:        +82.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 5:        +85.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

And CPU frequency

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep MHz
cpu MHz		: 3993.359
cpu MHz		: 3966.237
cpu MHz		: 3907.672
cpu MHz		: 3948.530
cpu MHz		: 3901.620
cpu MHz		: 3991.337
cpu MHz		: 3988.415
cpu MHz		: 3996.797
cpu MHz		: 3977.432
cpu MHz		: 3951.101
cpu MHz		: 3996.898
cpu MHz		: 3972.351

Alternatively you can use sudo apt install cpufrequtils 

This has some more functionality but is completely optional…the built in tools work just fine cpufreq-info -f

You can also use CPU freq utils to change the clock speed. There are some good guides in this NUC review, but the simple command to ensure all clocks are running as fast as possible during turbo is

for Y in {0..11}; do cpufreq-set -c $Y -d 4.7GHz; done

Checking output TiB / TB per day

@ericaltendorf on Keybase has made plotman, a tool for automating plotting. This can also be used in this build to automate the process (TBD add config.yaml instructions in here)

There is a useful tool called analyze, which parses the folder of logfiles for total plot times.

$ python3 plotman.py analyze ~/chialogs/chia*
+-----+--------------+--------------+---------------+-------------+--------------+
| Key |   phase 1    |   phase 2    |    phase 3    |   phase 4   |  total time  |
+=====+==============+==============+===============+=============+==============+
| x   | μ=10.8K σ=2K | μ=6.9K σ=469 | μ=12.7K σ=308 | μ=1.4K σ=80 | μ=31.7K σ=2K |
+-----+--------------+--------------+---------------+-------------+--------------+

This is my average after a day of plotting on a new build with the exact script posted above. At ~8.5 hrs per K=32 plot while running 5 in parallel, this machine is currently outputting 1.35TiB/day or 1.48TB per day. Adding a 6th plot on the boot drive could likely increase this to ~1.8TB per day…will follow up with additional tweaking!

Follow up, April 17, 2021 – indeed, adding the 6th plot nicely speeds things up! welcome improvements from the Chia team in 1.0.4/1.0.5

grep -i "total time" /home/jm/chialogs/*.log |awk '{sum=sum+$4} {avg=sum/NR} {tday=86400/avg*6*101.366/1024} END {printf "%d K32 plots, avg %0.1f seconds, %0.2f TiB/day \n", NR, avg, tday}'
73 K32 plots, avg 31804.9 seconds, 1.61 TiB/day 

You can also check the output manually from the logs we are collecting

$ cat ~/chialogs/chia* | grep "Total time"
Total time = 27309.978 seconds. CPU (110.610%) Wed Mar 10 23:31:07 2021
Total time = 32200.796 seconds. CPU (112.350%) Thu Mar 11 08:45:57 2021
Total time = 29839.122 seconds. CPU (110.030%) Thu Mar 11 01:13:17 2021
Total time = 32510.230 seconds. CPU (113.870%) Thu Mar 11 10:33:09 2021
Total time = 31800.602 seconds. CPU (110.830%) Thu Mar 11 02:45:58 2021
Total time = 33025.269 seconds. CPU (113.730%) Thu Mar 11 12:14:17 2021
Total time = 32825.408 seconds. CPU (110.250%) Thu Mar 11 04:03:03 2021
Total time = 32883.979 seconds. CPU (113.570%) Thu Mar 11 13:28:46 2021
Total time = 32652.323 seconds. CPU (110.500%) Thu Mar 11 05:00:10 2021
Total time = 32005.791 seconds. CPU (114.020%) Thu Mar 11 14:11:11 2021