Ultimate miner?

[ggdh]

I was wondering what would be the best setup in terms of daily output/initial investment/power draw? I have to wait to pay back my investments first and then start thinking about next machine. What already crossed my mind was:

Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7 (150€)
Semptron II 140 (35€)
1 or 2GB of any RAM (~20€)
6x 5830 or whatever available (6x115€)
Another PSU ~700W (~70€)
DYI rack for nothing

I would be looking on 1.5GHash/s machine. You can do better with nicer GPUs, but I find it very improbable spending 600€+ on single 6990...

[OldChap]

Not sure how it is with these but the asus X58 board with 5/7 slots needed a special bios to run them all with videocards as I recall.... and I wonder how many cores it would take to run 6 too

as for which cards .... it seems to be a case of what you can get hold of at anywhere near a decent price

Sounds like a plan though...if you can find these answers

[ggdh]

I think that there is very little demand for CPU power. Number of cores/threads should not be an issue. If you look at youtube videos you may notice that majority of kickass systems run with stock CPU coolers = no load on CPU.

[[XC] gomeler]

For Americans shopping at Newegg the MSI 890FX-GD70 is a great deal with 6 PCIe slots.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...I%20890FX-GD70

Then use PCIe 1x extenders and hang your GPUs from a raised rail. Each HD 5830 should be able to do 300MH/s once separated apart so you're looking at 1800MH/s from each 6-GPU machine. Pretty dang nice for the price of an HD 6990 + MB/CPU/PSU/RAM.

I think that there is very little demand for CPU power. Number of cores/threads should not be an issue. If you look at youtube videos you may notice that majority of kickass systems run with stock CPU coolers = no load on CPU.

Yup. I use a Sempron in one of my rigs with no problems.

[artemm]

There's a ton of demand for CPU power... by wcg.

[shoota]

the problem is going to be getting airflow to six double slot gpus. unless you watercool them i just don't see it happening.

[[XC] gomeler]

the problem is going to be getting airflow to six double slot gpus. unless you watercool them i just don't see it happening.

Reread my post.

[Jen]

For Americans shopping at Newegg the MSI 890FX-GD70 is a great deal with 6 PCIe slots.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...I%20890FX-GD70

Then use PCIe 1x extenders and hang your GPUs from a raised rail. Each HD 5830 should be able to do 300MH/s once separated apart so you're looking at 1800MH/s from each 6-GPU machine. Pretty dang nice for the price of an HD 6990 + MB/CPU/PSU/RAM.



Yup. I use a Sempron in one of my rigs with no problems.

where can you purchase the extenders from ?

with 6 gpus how big of a powersupply would that take

[INFRNL]

probably a 1200w or more.....maybe a good kilawatt

[[XC] gomeler]

PCIe cables -> http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_from=R4...All-Categories

Or -> http://cablesaurus.com/

I'd go with a pair of 750w-850w PSUs for a 6 card rig. I'd say maybe a pair of TX750s? -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-021-_-Product

That'll prevent any accidental overloading.

For the PCIe extenders you need to bridge a set of pins with a segment of wire. Google will know as I can't remember the pins at the moment.

[Jen]

PCIe cables -> http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_from=R4...All-Categories

Or -> http://cablesaurus.com/

I'd go with a pair of 750w-850w PSUs for a 6 card rig. I'd say maybe a pair of TX750s? -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-021-_-Product

That'll prevent any accidental overloading.

For the PCIe extenders you need to bridge a set of pins with a segment of wire. Google will know as I can't remember the pins at the moment.

thank you both

didnt know of the 750 watt was thinking a 1200 watt might be able to go with 6 x 5830 cards but that may be pushing the wattage to far with that idea



Jen

[Blauhung]

yeah, when you are looking at that much power, you normally can do better getting some gold certified PSU's in the 7-800 range rather then trying to get one in the 1200+ range. After that you can just jumper green to black on the 24pin mobo cable and the PSU will supply load to all its rails.

[Zloyd]

Sweet, I have still not jumped on the boat but I maybe closing in on my first ATI card or cards. Initially I was going to go with 6990 as an investment with resale in mind but the red mist cooled off and I stopped looking at it as nice hardware :P Have a HX850 but what you say about AX1200 is absolutely true. Here I think I can get 2x TX850/750 for that much (definetly the better option with the number of cards we are talking about). I would look at 12v amp ratings with the ratings specified by the manufacturer ..... I would ideally like to keep a good number of amps spare to prevent psu burnout.

[ggdh]

I say that any decent mid-range 7-800W PSU sill handle half of the load and will have enough amps on 12V rail. Number of 6-pcie connectors may be an issue, but with 5830 you can safely use 6pin<-molex adapter for one card.

[ggdh]

Then use PCIe 1x extenders and hang your GPUs from a raised rail.

I found that after buying 5 x16 extenders from Hong Kong


What about these?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PCIe-Express-x...item2311aeaf13

No need for a new motherboard as I have 3 pcie x1 empty...

[Olly_K]

so you can use the pci-e x1 slots and get full bandwidth for mining ?

[Bobsama]

BRB; I'll do a quick test by forcing my HD5850 to run with only x1 bandwidth.

[ggdh]

so you can use the pci-e x1 slots and get full bandwidth for mining ?

You don't need x16 bandwidth for mining. Do a test: cover 3/4 of GPU's PCI-E connector with masking tape and put it in x16 slot on MB. It will work. Many F@H people run x16 cards in x1 slot by opening one end of the slot with a dremel / hot knife

I made a mistake and ordered 5 x16 extenders. I will trim them down to x1 size

[Olly_K]

yep, thanks, I've been reading the bitcoin forum for most of the day

[ggdh]

Just to confirm: trimming down x16 extender to fit x1 slot WORKS. Now I have 5870, 5870 lightning and 5830 mining in one rig (about 1075Mh/s @ 610W from the wall without downclocking anything and with fans at 100%). Will add another 5830 via x16@x1 on Monday. Will post pics as well.

[Olly_K]

if it's a dedicated miner, underclock the memory as low as it will go. Should save some heat

[ggdh]

Yeah, I know, just didn't have time to play with it.