Bitcoin Forum

Hey all, been reading these forums for a few days, and looking to build my first rig. The computer I have now has an abysmal gpu that doesn't support opencl so if I understand correctly I have no choice but to upgrade or deal with the 1500k/hash I'm getting on my cpu lol.

So reading through some threads I'm thinking of starting with a 2x 5830 setup just to get my feet wet. If one could lay out a good case/cpu/mobo/psu with price being somewhat of a factor I'd appreciate it immensely. Also what kind of m/hash can I expect with this setup and how does that translate to btc per month at current difficulty? Much appreciated, sry for the noob question but I haven't built a comp in years and am completely behind on current hardware. If this rig could also be scaled to handle two extra cards at some point in the future without jacking up cost too much that would also be a good thing to know.

Hey,

I am currently running 2x Sapphire 5830's.
Picked them up at NewEgg for 102$

I have mine overclocked a bit, running at 1000Core and 300Mem. I am averaging 311Mhash/s. Thats pushing it a little bit on Stock voltages, but I haven't had an issue with the system becoming unstable or hardlocks.

Running @ 975/300 would using Phoenix miner, would get you right about on that 300mhash/s mark. Which if you ask me, is bad ass for a 100 Dollar card.

i run mine 996/900 and get 300 on phoenix, mine hate having their mem lowered for some reason, so i just run like i posted. very good cards for the money imo

my friend is running the XFX 5830 from tigerdirect and it is running quite cool.  I just ordered one to put in my rig since 5850's are no longer cost effective.

thanks everyone, what kind of bitcoins are you pulling in each month with these setups? Also how important is cpu power for mining, or not at all? What I'm asking is should I dump as much money as possible into video cards and disregard ram/cpu, or is there a certain point where that's gonna hold me back?

CPUs are not cost effective at all, stick with GPUs.

I'm aware, just saying can I have the shittiest cpu out there and still do fine as long as I have the gpu power? Or is there a point when my other system specs are gonna hold me back? I'm on a tight budget at the moment lol, and I'd rather spend the cash on gpu's than ram/cpu etc. if those aren't really necessary for mining

Here is some of the hardware I'm using. Please don't buy it out:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157176
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152036
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134489
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103903
2 case fans ontop of 2 5830s and a $17 80GB HD

The only problem I had setting it up was that, without the ATI drivers installed, I couldn't see a cursor. If you can't install the ATI drivers without a cursor then you fail the first test :p GL

You have the right idea. I saw another thread where it said to use a cheap ass AMD proc that was worth like 40 bucks and 2 Gb of RAM for Windows and 1GB for Linux. GPUs is what matter! As long as the OS is running alright you should be fine IMHO.

thanks a bunch everyone, people were a bit less helpful on the other forum I asked this lol


one more question, what is the benefit of running linux for mining, higher hash speed? And how easy is ubuntu for a lifetime windows noob, I've always wanted to try it but never really had a need, if it's worth it I'll learn

some people get higher hash rates, other's get almost exactly the same.

I wouldnt bother.

It took me 3-4 hours to get my first ubuntu miner setup. I had a lot of problems because I wasn't reading other's advice carefully. Now that I'm using Ubuntu I haven't been able to figure out how to overclock my GPUs as other Windows users have reported. Because of this I'm stuck at 262Mhash/second while my Windows friends are reporting around 300 with their 5830s.

The benefits to Ubuntu for me are: 1) it's free and 2) I am experienced using ssh/command line and plan to setup multiple machines without monitors - I don't think this is an option with windows (?)

I like the idea of not having to pay for windows, it's not exactly cheap :P

I'll have to look into it and see if it's something I can figure out lol, if I decide to build more in the future not having to use monitors is a definite plus

I have a windows 7 license for sale for 4BTC.  bought on student discount.

interesting, if I had some bitcoins I'd take that lol

I'll let you know if I buy some or if I get a miner up and running


So to those using this 2x 5830 setup, how many bitcoins does that translate to in a day/month? I can't seem to find any figures on how many m/hash is required to get a bitcoin a day

Deepbit calculator says that you have to run about 500 Mhash/s to earn 1 BTC /day.... but! in less than 100 blocks difficulty will increase :)

yeah I've heard difficulty will go up soon, but will that correlate with a rise in the value of btc?

using estimated diff, it only goes up to 554mh to earn one coin, so not to much of a decrease in coinage a day

Watching this thread.

I hope that's true.  it's a confidence blow to have your rig drop below 1 coin/day :(

I guess I have another 10 days before that.

mmm... diff will increase at 30% approximately.... 500mh+30%=650mh... not 554. Or i calculate something wrong?)

I'm liking the look of this build ^ but I'm thinking I may want to scale up to 4 cards at some point in the future, I'll worry about a power source at that point but what would be a good mobo for this?

bump anyone have any input on this?