Bitcoin Forum

Okay, so I've done quite a bit of research and finally ordered my rig parts. I've built plenty of computers before, but haven't ever messed with trying to cram 6 GPUs on to a single board. I have 5 16x risers and 1 1x->16x riser on the way for each board (I'm building two identical rigs). I have everything to build the systems arriving on Thursday for assembly on Saturday/Sunday. I will be buying a steel rack from either Wal-mart or Sam's on Saturday to put the first two rigs on.

Here's my parts list:

2 - Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5 Motherboards
2 - AMD Sempron 145 CPUs
2 - LEPA G1600W PSUs
12 - POWERCOLOR AX7950 GPUs
4 - 8GB Mushkin DDR3 RAM
2 - 250GB Seagate HDDs
1 - 30g tube of Artic Cooling MX-2 (got a lot to have extra for additional rigs down the road).

I don't have any spare Windows XP CD keys/install discs anymore, so I guess I'm going with Linux. I've had some limited exposure to Linux before, but not much.

My question is, what flavor a Linux would be best to install on these hard drives to make setting up the mining programs the easiest? Also, which mining program (Reaper, CGMiner, etc) would be best for these cards? I'm going to be attempting to tweak the settings on these cards if they are unlocked (hoping they are). If they are unlocked, the person who helps me get the maximum -STABLE- kH/s out of the card will get a 25LTC bounty paid to whatever tip jar you tell me to send it to. It shouldn't take 12 GPUs too long to produce 25LTC. (:

Also, for that Gigabyte UD-5 motherboard, does anything special need to be done (shorting pins, etc) to get all 6 cards working on the board properly?

Any help will be much appreciated. I have lots of links to various guides and settings tweaks already, but am always looking for a little extra edge/tips and tricks if they are to be had. Again, I won't be ready to build until Saturday morning, but after that.

Please note. From info/reviews i've heard, Powercooler cards are not good for mining. I wish i could elaborate more though.

But from what I've seen/researched, powercooler = not friendly to miners.

I've heard that the ones I got (AX7950) were. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Just an update...

I have ~$10k about to be on loan from a family member for two years to do what I want with. They know I intend to build 4 more miners with it. I will probably keep building clones of the setup I quoted, but does anyone have an unlocked 7950 GPU that has been tried and true to them under the constant load of mining? If these Powercolor AX7950 GPUs end up not standing up to the test, I'm going to need something to replace them with and buy in the future.

Also, what exactly is best to stand these GPUs up on (on their side of course) when putting them on a steel rack like I've seen so many others do. I figure I could put about 2 miners per shelf and have 4 shelves, so that'd be alright. I saw someone who used what looked like cooling racks for a serving dish and that's what I'm presently planning on buying at the store this weekend. Do you guys usually screw the mobos into the wood shelving or just let them sit?

havent done litecoin mining but I do have a powercolor 7950 that I have been using to mine bitcoin for the last month. So far it has been rock solid. The only problem I have with it is the reference cooler. The single 92mm fan is just not enough. Also the way the heatsink is set up dosent have direct contact with the memory chips. All in all not a great thermal solution. That being said I use cgminer and get 620 mh/s. I just bought a 2nd sapphire 7950 that performs just as well and has a better 2 fan/hs combo and was 30 bucks cheaper. 2 at 620 mh/s is better than 1.   8)    12 would be awesome. Be prepared for the heat.

Care to share you settings for that Powercolor 7950? (: I'm going to need them! Hahaha. What'd you do to overcome the reference cooler problem? Can I just put a desk fan blowing across them like I intended to and that will resolve the problem or must I modify them in some way to not overheat them?

Also, the Sapphire 7950 you speak of, it wouldn't happen this one would it?: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006

If so, is it unlocked? I'd gladly buy these next time. I just heard that reference cooler GPUs were your most likely candidates to be unlocked. Those Sapphires look so NICE!

Thanks man,
-Moose

P.S. I noticed the Gigabyte UD5 mobo has no onboard video. So I will have to use one of the GPUs to install everything and get it working. How exactly do I get that GPU to mine if I'm using it for the display? Or can I turn the miner on for it and then disconnect the display and let it run as such? I plan on just grabbing a keyboard, mouse, and cheap monitor to use to set up all these various builds.

My card will run 1225mhz at 1.300v but the sweet spot for me is 1175mhz gpu core @ 1.250v  1000mhz memory  -I 9  fans@75% powertune +10%

I did remove the heatsink fan combo from the powercolor unit and redid the TIM using Noctua N-1. I also removed the plastic "shroud" and just left the aluminum hs/fan exposed. I saw about a 5c drop in temp doing this.

The sapphire I just got appears to be unlocked as far as I can tell..havent needed to set voltage above 1.250v for my 1175mhz oc so...all is well with it and that outstanding price.

I was using a regualr desk fan with one card and it was ok..room was starting to heat up tho with the door closed. I now have the unit next to the window ac unit with both card running full bore. Ready for summer.  8)

Check some of the threads here for milkcrate setups. Been thinking about moving to something like that. For multi rig set ups like your planning I would go that way for sure.

And yea..I am a Egghead. Got both of em thru there. Hard to beat the prices and ffs..they deliver to your door.


I have the A10-5800k apu with a biostar a85w motherboard. It lets me net another 150mh/s thru the onboard gpu.  ;)

Pretty sure once you have everything up and running you can disconnect things. Maybe a KVM switch or something?

Never heard of Noctua-1 before. Can I just use the Arctic Cooling MX-2 instead?

Also, I've seen the milk crate setups and think they're neat, but I'm not exactly sure how I'd get my hands on some milk crates. :p

Should be fine with MX-2. I think it has to be non-conductive is all. That N-1 is the shit tho..get some if you can. Notable difference.

Try looking for a local dairy. :)

I can tell you what not to do.

Don't use cgminer w/ Ubuntu 12.04.

In short, AMD Catalyst 13.1 is what is easy to get on, although the developer doesn't suggest using newer versions. From what I gather, 12.8 seems to be one of the best (possibly 12.10). Both of these versions won't install on anything higer than XOrg 6.9 (if I remember correctly) and it's no easy task to downgrade X.

Right now I'm trying out Xubuntu 12.04 and hopefully it won't have the video driver problems that Ubuntu 12.04 has, if not I'll have to go to natty narwhal (Ubuntu 11.04) so I can run the old drivers. See below for a list of the most helpful guides I've found.

cgminer w/ Xubuntu 12.04 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gw7YPYgMgNNU42skibULbJJUx_suP_CpjSEdSi8_z9U/preview?sle=true
cgminer w/ Ubuntu 12.04 http://rdmsnippets.com/2013/03/20/bitcoin-mining-with-ubuntu-12-04-tls-and-cgminer/ (Great guide! doesn't work on my 4 card rig unfortunatly, maybe)
BFGminer w/ Ubuntu 12.04 https://deekayen.net/xubuntu-precise-bitcoin-mining (not terribly helpful, but good for testing)

Thanks! Keep it coming guys! (:

Crap...somehow I underestimated how many amps these rigs would be producing. It seems that my 1600W PSU would draw about 13.3A. The breaker I planned on running two rigs on is only a 20A breaker. I'm gonna stop at Home Depot and get a Kill-A-Watt reader to see exactly what this thing draws to hopefully squeeze two rigs on to it. Now I might have to put my other 4 rigs on hold until I find a solution for the power needs per rig. :-/

Am I doing the math right to calculate amps??? I know the rig won't use the full 1600W, but I just wanted to know the -max- such a setup could use per rig.

-Moose

Yeah, they'll be every bit of 14.5 amps at full bore. If you get a brown out, it'll trip a 15A breaker.

Divide Watts by volts to get amps. If your voltage drops to 90, your draw will jump to 17+A. I suggest putting a UPS in if you have less than stellar power.

If you want to check your draw, I suggest you get something like this. You'll thank me later. http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-clamp-on-multimeter-95652.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_22081.jpg

Don't forget to pick up a few extra breakers while you're there.

The place I live is brand new (opened in Oct 2012) with great wiring. Just not a lot of amps to draw on. I can get 2 rigs, maybe 3 in this apartment maximum. I guess I'm going to look for a place to rent out that has more 240V connections that I can get 40A breakers on. Then each rig should only pull 6.5A and I can could get about 6 rigs per 40A 240V breaker. (:

If its a brand new place, you don't reckon they used 10 gauge wire on those 20amp ckts?  If so, you can probably just swap out the 20amp breaker for a 30amp breaker.. just make double damn sure you have 10 gauge wires vs 12 or 14.. 

I think this is just a sub-breaker box. I wouldn't know how to kill the power coming it to it to make the swap. I have a coworker that was an electrician for years. I may have him come look at it.

I just called a couple of places (one is a 45 second walk from my apartment) that would rent me an office for $900/mo. One has utilities included, but I made sure to mention how much electricity I'd use. He'd be willing to drop off the average tenant usage from the rent and just let me pay the electric bill. It would be a pretty sweet deal for 6 miners to start and an even better deal when I get all 20 miners in there. Going after this next week (I have training and will be out of town) to check them both out. One of the buildings for sure has some 240V lines in them with big nasty breakers so I could put a -LOT- more rigs in there. We'll see who ends up winning.

I've put a list together of supplies I need to go and buy this evening. Then I think I'm going to work on assembling the rack or whatever I decide to buy and start taking off the plastic covers from the GPUs and redoing the thermal paste on the heat-sinks.

Got one system put together barebones with 1 card just to get Ubuntu installed and have it setup before dumping 5 more cards on to it.

I'm running into a problem with my GA-990FXA-UD5 motherboard. I know the Sempron 145 CPUs are supposed to have a locked second core which is easily enabled by swapping out a setting in the BIOS to check for hidden locked cores on the chips. I enabled the setting and rebooted and after that the system just goes through endless reboots after always trying to get back into the BIOS settings on its own. It takes clearing the CMOS to get it to stop doing it.

I don't necessarily -NEED- the second core, but I would like to unlock it and have the system work if at all possible. I'm using the latest version of the BIOS already. Any tips or other settings I need to change? The manual doesn't show needing to do anything else. If I can't figure it out tomorrow, then I'm just going to leave it as is. I just like the idea of a free 2nd core. (:

-Moose

Why would you want a second core? It's only using extra power and doesn't add anything to mining.
I always underclock, undervolt and disable cores (if possible) on all rigs I have.

My AMD X6 1055T 2.8GHz is running at 0.9 Vcore and 5x multiplier (1000MHz) for less power consumption.

I thought it might need the help with 6 GPUs running on one board. I did disable the onboard audio already though. If I get the system running and see it not using much CPU, I may just do as you suggested. (:

Those cores are locked because (afaik, this is how it was explained to me) those cores are either bad, or it was cheaper to just lock one core and rebadge it to a lower version, so its like a lottery core.

For thermal paste I would recommend Prolimatech PK-3, long lasting, great thermal conductivity, not electrically conductive, and I have been using PK-1 for years now (PK-3 is the latest product, PK-2 is an adhesive version).  I'd also suggest using it or whatever you decide on for the GPUs as well. 
PK-3 Review: http://pro-clockers.com/thermalcompound/2393-prolimatech-pk-2-and-pk-3-thermal-paste.html?start=3

+1 for Sapphire! :D

@zif33rs: Thanks for posting the result of the A10-5800k, I was considering this for a rig and that extra 150 sold me on it.

Yea..all and all very happy with the 5800k..its perfect for htc set ups.  At 1175mhz on that core as well..average hash is 132mh/s. Have been able to hit 5ghz overclocking. Runs at 4.7mhz at 1.4625v. Prime95 stable.



Not sure how true this is..and im sure many will jump in here with opinions but FWIW...I noticed a SLIGHT increase in the work done per minute when I have my cpu overclocked from 3.8ghz to 4.7ghz. My average per minute share goes from 18.7 to 19.5ish.  YMMV.
 

Moose...post some pics dude..cant wait to see. it.  Working on a deal for 3 6870's right now....another 900mh/s added to the farm I hope.  :)  *crosses fingers*

I'm surprised you had issues with Ubuntu 12.04. I am running 12.04.2 LTS and am not having any issues (cgminer, Cat 13.1, 7950's). Where did you get hung up?

Ubuntu is giving me tons of problems. Mostly because I just don't know Linux. I have almost all the dependencies installed, but can't figure out where to get the json-dev (not exact name) dependency to install to. I figured out how to pull it off of GitHub, but don't know which directory to be in to do it. Linux is definitely not for the faint of heart I'm seeing. Not exactly sure why programs have to be all spread and and needing compiled and shit. It's fucking ridiculous.

Have a hacked Win7 64bit OS torrenting right now that I'm about to attempt to swap over to as I'm running on empty trying to figure out how to get cgminer or bfgminer running.... Mostly it's just because I don't know the commands and how to compile all this shit and get the last two dependencies I need downloaded because they don't show in the Ubuntu Software search :-/

-Moose

OK, if it helps here is what I do for Ubuntu. First I install ubuntu server 12.04.2 LTS 64-bit. The only thing you actually need to enable on the install is ssh server (when it asks what services you want). The box will DHCP and get an IP as part of the install process.

Right after the install you no longer need a local monitor or keyboard, you can login via ssh.

SSH to the ubuntu box with ssh program of your choice (putty is a good free windows client).

Personally I now set the root password as I dislike sudo.

sudo bash
(type password for the account you created at login)
passwd root
(type new root password)

Then log back in as your user, then type "su" and enter the root password you just set.

Then add the following as root:

apt-get install screen
apt-get install emacs
apt-get install rcs
apt-get install bzip2
apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev
apt-get install libncurses5-dev
apt-get install pkg-config
apt-get install libtool
apt-get install xserver-xorg-core
apt-get install xinit
apt-get install make

Install Catalyst Drivers (I use 13.1 currently).
Reboot
Install AMD APP (I use 2.8 currently).
Reboot

aticonfig --list-adapters
(this should show a list of your install gnu cards)

aticonfig --adapter=all -f --initial

Download cgminer source. Uncompress and untar.

Download AMD ADL SDK, install *.h files into ADL_SDK dir in cgminer directory structure.

cd back into cgminer main directory

./configure

Ensure GPU support and ADL are detected.

make

Then start x (on another console or remote type "startx" as root).

./cgminer -n

You should see both of your cards.

Now run cgminer with appropriate config file and you are mining, ie:

./cgminer --config /path/to/your/file.conf

That's it! I do this all via remote scripts but it works fine typing the commands by hand as well.

No pics just yet. Rig is built with 1 GPU on it and I spent all day attempting to get bfgminer to work on that son of a bitch. Even worked with laSeek for hours through PM and finally threw in the towel. It was get ~620kH/s but only when trying to solve for SHA on a scrypt coin. When I loaded it as scrypt, the bastard was only getting 30kH/s.

So screw Linux, I'm loading Win7 now and getting TacoTime's GUIMiner port and going to see if that runs any better. I have no doubts it will. Once I get 1 card working fine, I'm putting the other 5 on the one rig and then I'll start with rig #2. It's been an annoying ass day...

You can skip the Windows 7 key during install. Then it will run for 30 days before it starts to nag. Nag is just that. Annoying popups that don't effect mining functionality. Will work fine even non-activated.

Best of luck to you. You are definitely taking some risk, especially if you are going to start renting office space. You will have Internet expense, greater risk of theft, etc. Have you though about how you are going to keep the miners going in the office if they lock up, power goes out, etc while you are at home? Just stuff to think about.

Please make sure you consider cooling of the room(s) you plan on having epic rigs in. you will be producing a LOT of heat, and espescially with summer coming up you will need to factor in how much AC capability is around or if you happen to be in a very cool environment, if you have the ability to have some very powerful window fans to keep the place ventilated.

Swapped over to Windows and after a few installs and upgrades I had 1 GPU miner at 542kH/s with TacoTime's GUIMiner port (using cgminer and not reaper)!!!

Currently I have the GPU settings at 1175/1000 +10 power and an intensity of 20 (based on TacoTime's high usage defaults). I found the sweet spot for me on bfgminer under Linux was I=13, but I can't seem to figure out how to calculate the Thread Concurrency rate to adjust it down for a lower intensity and try different settings. I've seen this thing do 620kH/s under Linux/bfgminer, so I just need to figure out now how to tweak the intensity some and see what it produces.

Also, is there a tool I can download to monitor temps? I can't see the temps with MSI's AfterBurner it looks like, so I'd like to at least make sure this thing is staying at a decent temp. With it running at 100% earlier and an additional fan pointed at it, I was getting low 70C temps. So far I see a tip going towards TacoTime and laSeek both separate from this bounty. Help me get up to 610+kH/s using GUIMiner (don't care if I have to switch to reaper over cgminer) and I'll tip you the 25LTC bounty once it's hashed.

Tomorrow will be all about disassembling GPUs, reapplying better thermal paste, and then installing them (w/ no shroud) into this first rig. If there's time left, I'll build rig #2. About to go on some Rope Access training for some upcoming offshore work, so I won't get to play with my toys for a whole week. I want at least 1 rig generating LTC while I'm gone. (:

-Moose

If I unlock the 4th core on my cpu it will bluescreen shortly after booting. Most of the time they are disabled because they didn't pass testing at standard clock speeds.

A friend of mine suggests against the Motherboard cited in original post. Apparently the slots are too close together to fix x3 dual slot cards. Something to keep in mind when shopping around, Could fit 2x dual slot and then a single slot...

I have riser cables so I can fit 6 GPUs on this board. I don't have them attached to the board directly.

IMO, you should be getting those GPU's online instead of worrying about better thermal paste, etc. BTW, make sure you have something like Teamviewer or Logmein installed on each mining rig. You will be able to login remotely to restart the miners, etc. Of course if the power blinks 5 minutes after you walk out the door for a week you are kind of screwed. Logmein does have the ability to start up PC's that are powered off. I assume it has something to do with the wake-up packet. It's worked maybe 50% for me although I have not really investigated how to make it work reliably. Probably something that you should get working.

It does no good to get the GPUs online before getting better thermal paste on as they'll run cooler and it'll prolong the life of the card. Thanks for the tip on the remote login. I definitely planned on getting something but wasn't sure which one it'd be yet.

I forgot to change the power settings in Windows last night before going to be and the computer went to sleep after a half hour. It's back up and running now. I can't seem to get GUIMiner (running cgminer) to get above 542kH/s. I tried getting bfgminer to work, but it won't let me drop the memclock below 1250 (I want it to be 1000) unless the GPU engine is at 1000 as well. I'm trying to have engine 1175 mem 1000. I may attempt running cgminer directly and seeing if it will let me tweak the settings.

When I was running Ubuntu, bfgminer let me set the engine to 1175 and the mem to 1000 and I was getting 620kH/s. Not sure why it won't when I'm on Windows. Any suggestions? I might try taking the line out from the startup command for trying to preset the engine and memclock.

-Moose

For scrypt mining (LTC, etc) you don't drop the memory. If anything you increase the memory and drop the GPU core. Depending on your card you want a specific core to memory ratio. For my 7970's that is 945 core, 1575 mem. Once I did that my KH went from the low 500's to ~650kh.

BTW, aftermarket thermal paste does very little in the grand scheme of things. Cards will last forever with the stock paste. It anything it is the fans that will go out while mining. If it is a choice between applying thermal paste to rig #1 or getting rig #2 up and running before you leave for a week, getting rig #2 running is by far the best option.

Hey moose...from what Ive read mining with scrypt is just the opposite of sha256.  bitcoin = massive gpu core clocks litecoin = massive gpu memory clocks. my 7950s will run for sure at 1500mhz and I hear up to 1900mhz  I think the 1700ish range should be pretty easy to reach.

Rig #1 is online with 5 cards running on GUIMiner for LTC. Can't get card #6 online because the LEPA 1600W PSU I bought doesn't have enough power cables for it. Going to order a molex->PCI-e cable to get that one working. All cards are running 500kH/s+ each with just using GUIMiner's "high usage" settings for the 7950.

Question, can I create 1 miner and have it set to 5 GPU threads and it will utilize all 5 GPUs on that 1 miner thread? I currently have 5 different miner tabs inside GUIMiner with each GPU selected individually. Next week I'll stop using GUIMiner and actually go into cgminer and play around so hopefully I can change the engine/memclock settings and get each GPU pushing over 600kH/s.

Also, I think I need something bigger than the 7" Honeywell fan I bought to put on each rig. It's doing well for now, but I don't think it's quite big enough for the milk crate miner to span all 6 cards.

-Moose

What's an acceptable level of stales when running LP instead of stratum? I'm on give-me-ltc and getting around 5% for my first rig. I haven't optimized anything yet and I think they're still having trouble with their stratum server so that's why I'm not on it yet. Just want to know so when I come back next week I can tweak everything and make sure to get it down to an acceptable level.

-Moose

I have anywhere from 3% to 10% depending on the pool.

Moose, if you're still considering using linux, I have some instructions that might help you. I just set up a mining rig last week with 3x 7950s. I'm getting about 620 kH/sec on each card with modest overclocks (no overvolting). I documented my entire installation process and sent these instructions to two friends with zero linux experience, and they were able to get up and running on their own boxes in a matter of hours.

IMO, linux gives you a few advantages: you don't need a HDD (a $5 USB stick works just fine), better remote administration capabilities, better stability (subjective perhaps, but cgminer has been running for just over 1 week now with zero issues for me on linux, and my single stock-clocked 7950 sitting in a windows desktop crashes cgminer about once a day).

Anyway, here are the instructions I sent my friends. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions!


1) Configure BIOS settings:

   - disable everything we're not using (audio, serial port, firewire, etc)
   - change power options to automatically start system whenever power is restored (in case power goes out while you're away, also makes it easier to power on with no switch...)
   - make sure that USB flash stick is first in boot order


2) Install Xubuntu desktop x64 from temporarily-connected CD drive (or another USB stick) to your USB stick

   - get the installation image here:  http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu-iso/CDs-Xubuntu/12.10/release/xubuntu-12.10-desktop-amd64.iso
   - use 8GB+ USB stick, partition 5500mb for root (/), 315mb for swap, and the remaining amount for home (/home)
   - make sure to check auto-login box during install
   - boot into desktop when done

   
3) Install AMD Catalyst drivers:

   (open terminal)

   sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates fglrx-amdcccle-updates fglrx-updates-dev
   sudo aticonfig --lsa
   sudo aticonfig --adapter=all --initial
   sudo reboot
   
   (after reboot, check that everything works:)
   
   sudo aticonfig --adapter=all --odgt

   (you should see all of your cards with hardware monitoring enabled)

   *Important: you will likely need to have something plugged into each video card to prevent the OS from idling it. The easiest way to do this is to make a dummy plug for each card. Instructions:
   http://www.overclock.net/t/384733/the-30-second-dummy-plug

   If you add/remove video cards later, re-run this:   sudo aticonfig --adapter=all --initial


4) Install SSH, curl, & update all packages

   sudo apt-get install openssh-server byobu
   
   (the rest can be done via SSH if you wish - make sure to forward port 22 on your firewall to the box if you want to connect from outside your network)
   (As for an SSH client, I recommend Putty - you can copy each of the remaining commands and then right-click them into your putty window instead of typing them manually)
      
   sudo apt-get install curl
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get upgrade


5) Install CGMiner:

   wget http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/cgminer-2.11.4-x86_64-built.tar.bz2
   tar jxvf cgminer-2.11.4-x86_64-built.tar.bz2

   (optional - delete the archive)
      rm *.bz2

   (optional - check if cgminer detects all GPUs properly:)
      cd cgminer-2.11.4-x86_64-built
      export DISPLAY=:0
      export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1
      ./cgminer -n


6) Create cgminer startup script:

   nano mine_litecoins.sh

   (enter the following into the editor:)
   
      #!/bin/sh   
      export DISPLAY=:0
      export GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT=100
      export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1
      cd /home/[your xubuntu username]/cgminer-2.11.4-x86_64-built
      ./cgminer --scrypt -I 19 -g 1 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 21712 --auto-fan -o stratum+tcp://notroll.in:3333 -u [your notroll.in workername] -p 12345 --failover-only -o stratum+tcp://coinotron.com:3334 -u [your coinotron workername] -p 12345

   (save the file & quit nano)

   chmod +x mine_litecoins.sh
   
   
7) Create auto-start scripts

  nano miner_launcher.sh

   (enter the following into the editor:)
   
   #!/bin/bash
   DEFAULT_DELAY=0
   if [ "x$1" = "x" -o "x$1" = "xnone" ]; then
      DELAY=$DEFAULT_DELAY
   else
      DELAY=$1
   fi
   sleep $DELAY
   su [your xubuntu username] -c "screen -dmS cgm /home/[your xubuntu username]/mine_litecoins.sh"  

   (save the file & quit nano)

   chmod +x miner_launcher.sh
   
   
   Add this line to /etc/rc.local :
   
   /home/[your xubuntu username]/miner_launcher.sh 30 &
   
   (will need to run nano as sudo, put the line above "exit 0")


8. Create an alias to easily check on cgminer:

  sudo nano .bashrc

scroll to the end of the file and add these lines above the line that reads "# enable programmable completion ..."

  alias monitor_cgminer='screen -x cgm'

(note that you'll need to restart your SSH connection for this to take effect)


9) Management/info:

- The miner will autostart after 30 seconds after linux is booted every time the box is powered on.
- If you want to monitor output, SSH into the box and type "monitor_cgminer" at any time to jump to cgminer's screen output. When you're done, hit ctrl-A, ctrl-D to leave the screen session (and leave cgminer running on the box).
- use ./miner_launcher.sh to manually start the miner (if you kill it, or quit out of it, etc)
   
- Info on cgminer's various settings is here (scroll down):  https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer

rbbrdckybk,

If I have a few days off after training this week (before going offshore), I may give it another try. I had my #3 card go down in Windows and I'm not able to diagnose right now. Runs for a couple of mins and then the driver errors on it and GUIMiner says it crashes. Then the card only runs at 16kH/s until the program is restarted. It was fine yesterday for 18 hours until a power outage today. My lady got the other cards running and just has #3 stopped. Once I can check it out Saturday, I'll try and figure out what's up.

Either way, thanks for the tips. If I don't try it for rig #2, I definitely will by rig #6. Linux was interesting, but I need these things returning cash and Windows is quicker. GUIMiner isn't ideal, but I plan on attempting cgminer CLI or bfgminer in Windows again first. My lady needs to be able to take care of the rigs when I'm offshore, so Windows is ideal as she does ok in it but would take some teaching for Linux.

If there's a northbridge (depending on CPU, some PCI-E controllers are built into the CPU) voltage, give that a bump of 50mv, and/or if there's adjustable PCI-E voltages, give those a small bump as well and see if that 3rd card doesn't become more stable.

I have the Gigabyte UD-5 motherboard and the Powercolor AX7950s. If my 3G wasn't so slow I'd try to pull the specs on the motherboard now to see if it had a northbridge. Oh well. Added to the to do list. (:

Does the AMD Vision Center provide accurate temps? Yesterday it said my cards were 90C. The shrouds are off, better thermal paste was applied (MX-2 and -properly-, made an X on the cleaned chip), and have 2 7" fans running on high pointed at just the one miner. Bfgminer in Linux was reporting mid-70s, and I can't see there being a 20C difference now that I'm on cgminer in Windows. Any ideas?

Taking a trip into town since training ended early today to give it another look and switch the miners over to the stratum give-me-LTC address now that auth issues have been resolved. Very worried about these 90C readings. Plenty of airflow and apartment is kept at 73F.

Have you tried p2pool?

What are your fans running at, percentage wise?

My stock fans (Sapphire 4Ls) were default set at a maximum of 50%, which caused all kinds of problems. I downloaded SpeedFan, and tweaked the fans to run at 80% fixed. Card temps now range from 63-73C as of this second (and will drop considerably once I get my risers in).

FWIW, I have 2 rigs built (3x7950 and adding 2 more per rig once my PCIE risers get in). If you need any help, I can offer a bit of suggestions. Right now running 3,300 KH/s and will be looking at ~5,400 KH/s once the additional cards arrive. I use Windows 7 with headless rigs using TeamViewer 8.

Also, how are you handling thermal properties of so many rigs? I didn't see where you mentioned it, but you better prepare for a LOT of heat getting to your rigs.

Too much thermal paste can cause overheating, an X to me sounds like a bit too much.  I generally do for AMD cards less than half a BB (or ~1/3 of a pea) size dot in the center.  Even if the amount was correct in your application, it couldn't hurt to re-do it and see if anything improves. :)

I can't imagine running AMD GPU's at stock voltage.  My 5830's are running ~1 V (from 1.2 V) and are at least 8 C cooler with no noticeable drop in hashing.  Lower temp cards will last longer, require less power to run, allow you to fit more in one space, and be easier to cool.

Don't listen to the people telling you to overclock them as much as possible.  You are going to eat up your profits in energy bills and burned out GPU fans.

Autotune is on for the fans. Yeah I guess it could be too much. I'll reapply a smaller amount on one card and see if temps drop. If so, I will do all the rest

CoinSpeculator, the Powercolor AX7950s I bought seem to be voltage locked. I can change the engine and memory clocks just fine, but Catalyst and Afterburner both won't let me unlock voltages. I assume there's no way to unlock it either? I wish I could find a way to undervolt and see what hashes I can get so I can get this 6th card on the board without overloading the PSU.

I believe powertune will let you change the voltage (I'm assuming, haven't used a newer card yet) down or up by a percentage.  Should be in the Catalyst Control Center.

Okay, I'll add it to the list for when I get home! (:

Change the settings in the CFG file to the following:

UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it

UnofficialOverclockingMode = 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6WOEIc5SM8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6WOEIc5SM8)


 8)

It's a Powercolor (not MSI) card. Will this still work?

Not all cards are voltage unlocked, so you could try those MSI Afterburner settings but if the voltage slider doesn't become enabled then the card is voltage locked.

Ryu, would you happen to know of any 7950s that -are- voltage unlocked? I'm most likely buying the Sapphire 7950s from Newegg next (the $289.99 ones) as I've heard they're really nice. Not sure if they're voltage unlocked, but if Powertune ends up letting me drop the power usage on it to get a 6th card on, then I'll be getting those for sure! (:

-Moose

Alright, now I'm starting to get a little pissed off at Windows...

I had 5 cards running nicely (albeit a little warm). Took out 1 card to change TIM and put it back in. A totally different card start randomly failing after that in GUIMiner (cgminer was crashing on it). It did this before I last fixed it, but to fix it, I had to upgrade to 13.1 drivers and then downgrade back to 12.8 (which I haven't tried yet but may). Went to add the 6th card as a -5% powertune reduced my energy consumption some (and coincidentally made one of the five cards run BETTER, but the other 4 stayed the same). The 6th card (which went in the PCI-e 1x slot) started conflicting and showing it had an error along with that OTHER card.

Maybe I should try upgrading all drivers to 13.1 and then revert them all back to 12.8 to see if it fixes the conflicts? Any other ideas before I go and do this???

-Moose

Upgraded the drivers and then came back down to 12.8. Nothing worked. Still have 2 cards conflicting and disabled out of 6 and one of the three "working" cards keeps crashing cgminer. I have tried bumping up the northbridge by .05V and it didn't make anything more stable. I reverted it back to auto setting because it made things worse.

Not exactly sure why I'm getting conflicts on the cards. I'm about to just wipe the whole system tomorrow and do a fresh install of Windows and install all drivers before Windows gets any kind of internet connection. It worked like that the first time I built it. If that doesn't work, it's back to the Linux suggestion I guess on the previous page.

This is getting -really- annoying.

The Sapphire 4Ls are voltage unlocked. I can confirm this - I have 10 of them. They take undervolting very well. But be warned: They come from the factory at 1.25v which is insane. They pull 210-240 watts when running... I dropped them down to 0.962 which has taken each card down to a far more manageable 180-190 watts.

Have 4 powered risers on order for rig #1 and 2 to try and get around the problem on Win7 not detecting the 5th card without error.

New problem though...

Built rig 2 and put 5 cards in it and installed Windows 8 64bit Pro. Windows recognizes all cards without error (which is why I gave it a try because I heard that it took 5 cards no problem). Here's the problem though, cgminer 2.11.3 crashes instantly, making GUIMiner unusable. I can't seem to get BFGminer working either. It loads at least, but no matter what settings I change, it doesn't hash anything from the pool (yes, I set --scrypt).

Is anyone running any mining software on Windows 8 64bit? If so, what miner are you using and what's your startup parameters? I don't care what card you use as I'll modify mine to make it for a 7950. I have to leave for another week of training, but might come home mid-week after class to work on the rig for a few hours if I can get the bastard mining! (:

Thanks in advance,

-Moose

yo moose...im using win8 64  cgminer 2.11.4  amd 13.2 and what ever the current SDK is..think 2.8 or 2.9  and this  for start up...even tho cgminer is so awesome it pretty much picks best settings..need only adjust gpu and mem speeds to your tastes.

 cgminer --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://coinotron.com:3334 -u USERNAME -p PASSWORD --thread-concurrency 8192,8192,8192,8192 -I 13,13,13,13 -g 2 -w 256

Thanks zif33rs! I'll try it when I return home later this week. Where is a zip file containing 2.11.4? I can only seem to find the github files and don't know how to even begin to compile it myself. You can use such a low thread-concurrency and get 500+kH/s?????

I currently have 12.8 drivers but will upgrade if they prove problematic.

I haven't forgotten about the bounty by the way guys! I may end up splitting it up between some people. Just need to get some coinage generating. These two rigs will make it in about a day and a half once running right! (:

-Moose

yea...surprisingly..that setting seems to be the best. I have tried 21712 and a few others...machine just seems to run "smoother" at this setting.  http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer (http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer)


I even went so far as to delete EVERYTHING From cgminer.conf and then run the cmd prompt with just --scrypt command....after you enter your server, worker and and password you can tweek all the settings and then save config. restart and then set gpu core and mem speeds...then set gpu to auto. I do this because cgminer will downclock your gpu's once they reach or exceed the target temp.

config should look something like this bro.

Oh ok that's the problem. That site was down when I tried it yesterday. I'm not setting target temps just yet as I still gotta get them under control. I got them lower on rig #1 to around 80C. Not sure what #2 will be yet. I left stock thermal paste on them to see what they bring.

Phew. So close to the finish line I can feel it. Thanks for the help guys!

Upgraded to cgminer 2.11.4 on the Windows 8 rig. cgminer still crashes instantly. Going to upgrade 12.8 drivers to 13.2 now (even though 13.3 is latest, since zif33rs seems to have it working on 13.2, I'm going to go along with that). So looks like Win8, 12.8 drivers, and cgminer do not get along. Let's hope that 13.2 drivers get along on my system. If not, then I'll probably have to downgrade to Win7...

I would downgrade to win7 anyways. 12.8 legacy and 13.3 beta have worked flawlessly for me on all systems.

Rig #2 is operational with 5 cards on Win8 using 13.2 beta drivers. Getting a little over 500kH/s with the cards using the settings that zif33rs suggested. I'm guessing it's a power issue now with the riser cables to get the extra kH/s out of the cards. I have 4 powered riser cables on the way (should be here tomorrow or Tuesday). 4 cards were pushing much higher hashes and they dropped when a 5th card came on, hence why I expect the motherboard is being drawn too heavily on. I expect that hashes to jump to possibly 600kH/s+ once some powered risers get added.

Is there a limit to how many powered risers I should put on a board?

-Moose

Alright Moose!!   Good to hear man. I think that you have 5 cards running under windows is a feat in and of itself. I had heard 4 was the max for windows builds. Now that you have them up and running try tweaking those settings I gave out. Higher intensitys...ramp em up once you find stable. Also your memory speeds probably need to be adjusted. Crank em up. adjust one card at a time till stable...move to next. 2500kh/s is not bad tho.  8)

Put on as many as the OS will accept IMO.

Nice powersupply calc from newegg. Does not go up to 5 cards tho.

http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html?cm_sp=SubCat48_DesktopGraphics_left-_-PowerSupplyFinder022610-_-http%3a%2f%2fpromotions.newegg.com%2fproductfinders%2fpowersupply.jpg (http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html?cm_sp=SubCat48_DesktopGraphics_left-_-PowerSupplyFinder022610-_-http%3a%2f%2fpromotions.newegg.com%2fproductfinders%2fpowersupply.jpg)

grats
zif

Bought powered risers off of cablesaurus' eBay page early last week. Still waiting for them to arrive. He claimed they shipped on the 19th but tracking shows he didn't really bring them to the post office until the 22nd. Being set back a few days. Upgraded the Win8 miner to cgminer 3.0 and am getting around 525kH/s out of it. Hoping that powered risers come soon to see if hash rate can be boosted. Honestly, I think I'd like to get extra kH/s out of it and then back off the powertune to keep it hashing where it's at. These cards seem to stay around 86-90C all the time. They've got a big fan running on high blowing air through them and the apartment is kept at 74F, not sure why they're getting so damn hot all the time. All the GPUs in rig #2 have stock thermal paste and aren't getting any better temps than the ones I changed paste on in rig #1...

I had the same issue with cablesaurus.  I paid for expedited shipping and it still took him 3-4 days to get them shipped. $200 for 10 powered risers was insane with the shipping times.  I've gone ahead now and ordered 300 from china through my brother(lives in china and speaks mandarin) for the future so I might be able to sell some for much cheaper than cablesaurus. :(

If they help my kH/s on my rigs enough, I might be interested. You should list them on eBay when they arrive and provide the link. If you want to just sell them on the forum, I'd buy a much lower quantity. I have 6 rigs I'm trying to build total right now. The other 4 won't be until after my vacation I'm going on in two weeks.

-Moose

Same thing here... I think he makes them on an as-needed basis.

However, I can say that every cable I have ordered from him has worked flawlessly.  
I used one other vendor who provided two faulty cables... (but replaced them quickly).

Bounty will be divided up and paid out sometime on Wednesday. I need to decide how much to pay to which people. Not everyone who responded will get a donation. Thanks everyone for your help! (:

-Moose

You may want to try removing one GPU from your rig, just to see what your hashrate looks like with 4 cards. I suspect that you'll see the same hashrate with 4 GPUs that you're currently seeing with 5. Windows does some funny things when you go beyond 4 GPUs, and having the 5th card in your rig might not be helping at all.

I run a few rigs with 3x 7950, and I get hashrates of just over 1900 kH/sec total. If I added a 4th GPU, I'd expect to see the same hashrate that you're currently seeing with 5.

I'm not sure how you're going with this as the thread is a bit hard to follow. I have a Powercolor 7950, the most I can get out of it is 630 kh/s using the following settings:


Deviation from some of those settings by even a little bit causes the hashrate to drop a lot. I hope this is of some use.

I managed to get 638kH/s roughly out of it running Windows 8 with 5 cards with something like 950 engine, 1490 mem clock, and +10 power tune. Can't used powered risers with these settings though as it makes it draw too much power and trip the powerstrip. It ran stable as hell though on my non-powered risers. It just pumps too much heat for my little apartment's A/C to deal with. When I get a place to put all my rigs in May, I'm going to attempt exhausting to the atmosphere to use less A/C and run with the optimal settings.

I can't remember if thread concurrency was 8192 with I:13 or 21712 with I:20. I was using cgminer 3.0 for sure though.

Here's who is getting parts of the bounty:

zif33rs: 10 LTC - Sent Already, Tx Hash: 8207582fc1c67f8248068b1ba245c98ca530b96890ec0638412812ae4ef78d3b
LivesUnderTheBridge: 5 LTC - Sent Already, Tx Hash: 2cdc7aa5cd0c4f8e0f2a00775d9b3e45b9a9ee5cc87c839f22fabb67f8bf588e
Ryu.Hayabusa: 5 LTC - Sent Already, Tx Hash: 1ab49349ce29e289ba7ee6e27e7bd6c96ced0a82e8a34f9d77b300aa535b628a
laSeek (he helped me through BTC-e PMs): 5 LTC - b0184e01e2e8b37566e89c13d34ad3f2befa153410c7bc0440e635ed30c7ddc0

Thanks for the help everyone! Enjoy your part of the bounty and please don't be angry if you did not get any bounty payout. I paid out as I felt was fair.

Thanks!
-Moose

Dude...10 ltc received  8)


Thanks very much Moose. Glad I could help.

zif

That's where the 5 came from, thank you!  ;D