Bitcoin Forum

Hi,

I am considering building a dedicated mining rig and would like to know if a more powerful CPU has any effect on the hash rate performance vs. a less powerful one, ie. quad core vs dual core.  If CPU selection has little effect then I can save some cash by purchasing a base CPU.
I will be installing an hd6990.
Thanks

Assuming you'll be GPU mining (which is really the only worthwhile thing to do), your CPU selection doesn't matter at all.  Some lowly Sempron would be more than enough, if all you're using the machine for is mining.

Though whether it's actually a good idea or not to buy an entirely new system just for mining may be up for debate :)

Thank you for the quick response.  I am currently running a miner on my current Windows box which is running an Assus HD6950.  It is producing 375M/hs.  I have some disposable cash and since I have noticed a decrease in application performance since mining with it, I thought it would be better to  have a dedicated rig aside from the one i use every day.

I have a very cheap board that cost me €48 including CPU (via c7): asrock pv530, I think... no problems, saves lots of power ;)

With a good mining software you will barely notice any cpu load. I'm hashing with two 5830 cards @ 530MH/s on my Athlon X2 2.8GHz, and the mining software (hashkill) takes about 1-2% cpu-load, so the cpu can run at the lowest possible clock setting.