Bitcoin Forum

After browsing through all the threads for several days looking for the best 6 GPU mining rig (http://www.coinminingrigs.com/how-to-build-a-6-gpu-mining-rig/) to feature as a build guide on the website, I settled on thecryptokeeper's rig as shown here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7216.2260

6 GPU Build Guide | CoinMiningRigs.com
http://www.coinminingrigs.com/how-to-build-a-6-gpu-mining-rig/

I'm looking for constructive feedback, so feel free to comment here or on the site! Full disclosure, I haven't built this rig yet, but plan to soon as I think it represents the best $ to hash rate value in current GPU based mining. A rig like this at current difficulty / exchange rate will net around $500+ USD / month. Not a bad ROI for a less than $3k investment. And unlike FPGA's, as has often been said, the hardware will be useful for many other applications should GPU mining become unprofitable. Feel free to check out the software guide and resources page on the site as well. It is all a 'work in progress', but I hope it is useful to folks and with your feedback becomes a reliable resource for information on mining hardware.

Thanks for looking and commenting!  Cheers!

- Josh

Miningdude, thanks for the credit!

One of my hurdles was getting the sixth GPU to kick in. I came across ssateneth's post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=193695.msg2054705#msg2054705) and followed his instructions.

The MSI Z77-GD65 motherboard is excellent. No need to short any PINs. And to enable the last PCIe slot, I had to use an Ivy Bridge processor.

If I'm going to build it again, I would make the case wider to put a bigger gap between the cards and maybe use 1x to 1x risers to make the GPUs extend further.

Speaking about a bigger gap, I've since dropped down to five cards and spread them apart more and turned down the thread concurrency to 21712. They're much cooler.

https://i.imgur.com/Ld3C8nKl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/riQrjKrl.png

I've bought all the hardware to do one of these using Linux - going to see if I can get that working well.  All the hardware is going to be the same.  I'll be sure to post here when I build it - should be around a week.

and why not go for 7 GPUs???

I'm just going to use self-tapping metal screws I found at the home improvement store.  I need some longer ones to get through the mobo spacers - probably 2 inchers.  Shorter ones can be used for the rest of the assembly.

How did your build go? I just finished my rig a few weeks ago. One running Win7 and the other Linux. Its located in a subterranean limestone basement that stays mid 50's(F) through the summer. The only big headache was using three Powercolor 7970's. They wont hash over 500 and flashing the bios has been unsuccessful.

http://s24.postimg.org/em92sjsad/2013_06_24_14_10_09.jpg

Is this build setup still viable? Could I perhaps use better gpus to get a faster hash rate?

Only for scrypt mining.

It's useless to use these kinds of set-ups for anything except Scrypt-coin mining (ie. Litecoin, fastcoin, worldcoin, etc.) because for SHA-256 mining (bitcoin, trc, zet, etc.) ASICs have been developed which make gpu's kind of useless. This is due to the fact that a gpu uses a lot more power than an ASIC. Gpu's can generate as much or more power than some asics, but they use a LOT more power and thus, even if you have to buy 2 asics, asics are a better solution for mining SHA-256 currencies. That being said, asics are typically cheaper as well if you get them from the right place. For example block erupters (336 MH/s that plug into your usb drive are VERY cheap). I've actually thrown together 12 block erupters, 2 USB fans & 2 power strips for mining which should output 4032 MH/s (4.032 GH/s) for a little over $300. This should only take a week to arrive which makes it much better than a BFL Jalapeno because the Jalapeno (although it produces 5 GH/s for $274) takes MONTHS to arrive and some people have been waiting since last year.

So, to pull out the important details from that winded reply, gpu's are really only prefered for Scrypt mining. If you're going to be mining SHA-256 currencies, ASICs are your best bet.

the best MSI Z77-GD65 or ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3 ???

maybe there are better

like what