Bitcoin Forum

Looking to start mining LTC, anyone got referrals?

The one you already have - it's not worth buying new gear.  The difficulty will only go up from here and it's already just barely profitable.  Money better spent buying LTC while they're under $1

I know, it's awful making $40 a day right now on 6 mh/s.

OP: 7950s.

What if i had say 1500$ to invest into it though? Like would multiple rigs be worth it?

No, get a 3x pcie x16 mobo, 3 7950s, a cheap cpu, a gold 850w power supply, 8 gb of ram, and a cheap hdd and you're good to go

This was my first rig, it paid for itself in about 4 months.

This disastrously horrible advice has been given for years now.  If you look back through the forum, people have been saying this since atleast 2011. 

Listen to Taco.   

So you mine 80 coins a day?

this is not best hashes per money, but absolutely perfect for first time rig builder, do that. and remember "cheap" mean the cheapest you can find. I would only get more power for PSU, but i know thats not a popular view to have a 30% power reserve, but thats my way.

just for fun[not for beginers], the best hashes for buck:

many pcie-1x mobo + 1-2 16x , way chaper than 3* 16x
3-5 * pcie-1x -16x risers
5-6  *  6950 / 6970
no-case  for superb cooling


tacos way is much better for beginers beacause of availability and ease of build.

It is worthwhile to mine LTC as the value has risen in the recent past. You won't get rich overnight but it is profitable. Difficulty has risen as well so do your homework on the amount of coins you may receive.
Have fun!

Xorxor - tell me more about this build. I'm curious. Do you have a picture of what this build would look like? I've built crapload of PCs, but never built one complete without a case... just interested in how it would look completed. Also what is the hash output you are getting on this for LTC?

Here you go, this should help a bit.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=29729.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=29729.0)
http://www.stomped.me/pics/100_0253.JPG

No need, this rig only pulls 525w from the wall.  This is my major gripe against 69xx cards, my 4x 6950 rig pulls 850w and 1.6 MH/s while my 3x 7950 rig pulls 1.6 MH/s and 525w.

ugh.. I wish i had known about this guide back last fall when i got started.. oh wellz :)

here you have a simpliest easiest no case  + riser solution. [not mine]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7216.msg1629906#msg1629906

but search that topic, you can find incredible ideas and beautifuly ugly gigantic rigs.

when on risers ond not in case, you get easy 15*C lower temps. that gives you a 480kh per unmoded 6950 and that is number you cant beat in scrypt mining per-buck performance.

Xorxor, Taco & Bitobsessed -

Thank you very much, that's exactly what I was looking for.

Taco - so the best "hash for the cash" with scrypt are the 7950's? I'm going to price these out with the specs you gave, that's great thank you. And did you solo mining to make back your investment on this rig? Or pool mine? My current frankenstein non-power efficient rigs are only putting out about 700 Mh/s for scrypt. I'd like to find the right rig to invest in, and then make back my investment through LTC.

Looking forward to your response (really like learning from you guys).

Taco - Here is what I currently have

The Basics: 8GB, AMD FX-6100, SSD
MoBo: MSI AM3+ board w/ 2x PCI-E 16x and 2x PCI-E 1x -- http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=743639&sku=M452-6225
GPU's: 2x 5850's, hashing about 530 KH/s combined on scrypt (not OC'ed, going to push this up later today, try to achieve 600 Kh/s)
PSU: OC GameXStream 700w - http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16817341002

According to what I'm reading from you guys, I would need the following upgrades to bump up to 1.5 MH/s on Scrypt:
- I doubt my 700w PSU will handle 4 GPUs... so I'll need to upgrade to a PSU that can handle 4x GPU's (any suggestions?)
- Purchase 2x 7950's (currently cheapest on NewEgg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006)
- Purchase 2x PCI-e 1x > 16x Riser Cables w/ Molex -- http://cablesaurus.com/PCIe-x1--%3E-x16-Adapter-Extender-Cable-w-Molex-Connector

Just checking against what you guys think before I proceed with acquiring anything additional....

I would probably go with a single rail PSU, don't skimp here. Ideally you would want the max load of your box around 80% or less of rated power. Think ahead for additional or better GPUs. Weak PSU will cause many headaches.

If you don't want your current PSU to go to waste, you can buy another good quality low watt PSU (550-700w are roughly 1/4 of the price of 1200w PSU) and short the green and a black wire between both PSUs atx connectors. (Obviously this would only really work with a ceaseless solution and a bit more ghetto). But it does save you almost 200$ and avoids a PSU being useless.

Everything else looks good. Perhaps maybe grab an additional riser for flexibity with cooling.

Excellent thank you all -- a few more questions, and I'll go buy my equipment... I'm going to run 2x 5850s and 2x 7950s on the same mobo (linked in previous posts), it has 2x PCI x16, and 2x PCI x1 - I'm going to purchase the risers from Cablesaurus, and I assume I need the "powered" risers for each. TWO x1 > x16 powered (http://cablesaurus.com/PCIe-x1--%3E-x16-Adapter-Extender-Cable-w-Molex-Connector) and TWO x16 > x16 powered (http://cablesaurus.com/PCIe-x16-Extender-Cable-w-Molex-Connector) risers. I'm going to build that nice 3/4" aluminum frame that you linked before, so I need it all on risers.

Here is the PSU I would like to purchase: Rosewill Xtreme Series RX850-S-B 850W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS Certified (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182072)

That's the "idea" - and here are my questions about it, that I'm not 100% sure on.

(1) With regards to powered risers, I'm assuming I need to plug in a 4-pin molex to each powered riser for each card? That's 4 additional 4-pin molex's I need to consider.
(2) Can I make it work with two of the cards on the mobo, and two of the cards on risers? This would help molex availability from the PSU for sure, and save on cost of buying more risers.
(3) If I do have to purchase all four risers, can the PSU I have listed above handle these four cards WITH the powered molexes in consideration?

Thanks for the help guys... hope to hear back soon, I want to pull the trigger and purchase these for LTC mining sooner rather than later due to the difficulty jumping up faster now.

Thanks for the info in this thread, guys. I'm considering renting a few servers with 4 GPUs to mine litecoin.

Hi, Where can i rent servers?

Not a bad idea if the price is right

Rather than start another thread for my mining question,  I figured I'd just tag along with this one...

Building my first litecoin mining rig. I have two like-new 7970's lined up to buy for $700. Is that a good deal? Or, would I be better off going with another model?

7950's are a good price for the hashing power they put out - and actually put out better hashing power (just slightly) than the 7970s, and are cheaper to boot. I believe,  the 7950s run at a lower voltage as well (less power, good hashing). Check the LTC Mining Comparison thread (https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki/Mining-hardware-comparison) for average hashing power... you'll need to look up voltage and output on your own though to crossreference.

Some of the other experienced LTC'ers can probably pitch in as well.

EDIT: You can get 7970's up a bit higher than 7950's, but I don't believe it's worth the increase in $$.