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Looking to get a rig. Thinking 3 or 4 1080 Ti cards to start for now...unless AMD is better for ETH? Either way, let me know. I have a question about the CPU and motherboard. For the CPU, should I be looking at just Celeron or i3 maybe? I don't know to much about motherboards, but came across this one  ASRock H110 Pro BTC+. Overkill or should I go with something else? Thanks.

I think the amd cards can duel mine, but are harder to optimize them compared to the nvidia cards. Just my thoughts.

Lay it on me. I don't want to just get "what everyone else has" just to start mining. I want to do right.

The 1080ti is usually not the best choice if you wish to mine Ethereum. However, you could mine an equihash coin (such as Zcash) and exchange it for ETH. If you can get your hands on a Vega 56 or 64 at a reasonable price, those do well mining cryptonight coins (such as Electroneum and Monero).
If you are set on mining ETH, the RX 580/570/480/470 cards are typical choices. The GTX 1080ti will outperform them, but the performance difference on ETH is hardly worth the additional costs.


Pentium processors are preferred for dedicated mining rigs. Celerons *usually* do fine, but some mining software may require more CPU use than others. An i3 will do fine, but isn't worth paying much extra for, unless you have a plan to use it outside of GPU mining alone.


For a 4-card rig, the H110 Pro BTC+ will work, but is probably overkill. The main reason to consider it would be to prepare for future expansion, or if non-mining ATX motherboards with 4+ PCIe slots (there are plenty) are no cheaper.

ASRock H110 pro BTC+ is the current best mining motherboard for rig density IMO. Very easy to get going out of the box. Since the slots are so close, you do need to cover the back of the riser x1 connectors with electrical tape to prevent them shorting out on the USB connector of the one next to it. Sapphire Nitro+ RX 580's are the best cards in cost/hash for Ethash and are excellent dual mining cards that run cool. 30+ MH/s ETH + 850+ MH/s DCR @ 130-140 W dual mining after a simple Polaris Bios Editor 'one click timing patch' Bios mod.

I've got 4 rigs running on the ASRock H110 Pro platform. It's a solid board but agree electric tape between the PCI risers is necessary.

All 4 of my rigs run 8 GPU's. 3 rigs are running the 8x 1060 3GB cards which produces 18-24 a day on Nicehash and the 1 is running 8 x 1080 Cards and that's anywhere from 32-48 a day.

Best ROI would be the 8 x 1060 3GB cards in my opinion plus the power consumption / heat is much lower. You should be able to build one of these under $3600 bucks...

If you intend for ETH specifically some other cards are much better on price per hashing on ETH then 1080.   But it depends on what you intend to mine as 1080's do mine certain coins very well.   

ASRock H110 Pro BTC+ are great besides the electrical tape fix since slots are so close.   That being said they have went up in value to 2x retail or more in some cases to get one.  But I do really like this board personally and worked great for me.

The H110 pro boards can still be found reasonably priced on Aliexpress they just take a week to 10 days to arrive and don't ship with a battery....

The 1060 is not as profitable as the RX 580 for Ethash. Even if you find one with Samsung memory, it's $2 per day on ETH or maybe $2.15 if you dual mine. The RX 580 is $3 per day dual mining. I also never use NiceHah to mine. I mine and hold and wait until it's the best time to sell, that way I get to keep the appreciation, so the $3 per day is really $6+ per day by the time I sell.

http://whattomine.com/coins/151-eth-ethash?utf8=%E2%9C%93&hr=24&p=80&fee=3&cost=0.1&hcost=0.0&commit=Calculate

http://whattomine.com/merged_coins/1-eth-dcr?utf8=%E2%9C%93&hr_eth=30&fee_eth=3&hr_dcr=850&fee_dcr=3&p=140&cost=0.1&commit=Calculate

You'll make way more throwing it on the coin than mining.

If you want to mine, throw 80-90% on a coin, mine with the other 10-20% in hardware.

Unless you just want a hobby. Then throw all 5k on a rig.

I don't need to spend the whole thing.

There's so much information on mining that I don't know what to do with it all. So for the GPU, the consensus is AMD?

I stick with Nvidia cards and Nicehash as it is the easiest way to mine and make money. Many hate it and yes they were hacked but I personally love their Nvidia software it really is the easiest thing ever to setup and run.

I suggest to invest in Nvidia 1080ti for energy efficiency and density.

Or if you want to spend less get the Nvidia 1070ti for best performances in few algos.

These Gpus perform better than AMD in mostly algos but for example if you want mining cryptonight algo get AMD Vega 64 it performs double than 1080ti.

If you want to know what to mine and make the most money go Here (https://whattomine.com/)

or

It you just want to be paid straight bitcoin go to nicehash and download their miner, enter a btc addy and start earning btc daily/weekly/monthly

Sorry, are you saying the 1070 TI is better for algos?

I would go with the 1070ti unless you only want to mine ETH or Cryptonight.  If you want to mine Equihash, Lyra, or others then go with the 1070ti, efficient and powerful.

But it would be good for ETH if I primarily did that?

The very long answer... shortened!
Very well done. Stick to these info.

Yes the model 1070ti is better for mostly algos with optimized miner.

AMD is better for ethash or cryptonight algos.

It's between the 1070 ti and AMD 580 Saphires. Also, with the cold temps here in NJ 18 degrees currently, I am setting this up in my non heated garage (stays cool in the summer too). I'm not going to have any issues with the cold, right? I'm assuming it's better anyway?

I suggest additional ventilation and not too much cold 18 C are fine. It can be less i think not much like 4 C, but if it's a garage the local temps will become hotter after starting the rigs.

Good point. I will need to ventilate it better in the summer.

Also for the 580 cards, is this the right one? https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-11265-01-20G-Radeon-backplate-Graphics/dp/B071QX74F9

18 f is not going to be good for the motherboard and other parts of that computer. while it would do well for the gpus absolutely, i'd be careful with those temps constantly on a motherboard, hd, and other parts that don't get completely warmed up.

yeah, this isn't normal temps here. Thursday and Friday will be a high of only 10 degrees. I do not have the setup yet anyway.

Just ordered my equipment, minus one GPU. Someone bought one before I completed check out, so I will need to source one more. What's good pool to start with? Nicehash? Minergate?

Nicehash is what I use personally its ultra simple to setup and run.  WinMiner is my second easy setup and run choice and Minergate would be my absolute last choice.

Stupid question. Do you need to buy a CPU heat sink or does it come with one. I know, stupid question.

Box or Retail CPU's come with heatsinks. If you buy a "tray" or "OEM" cpu its hit or miss.

Gotta be careful with that... Pentium/Celeron/i3, yes.  Intel stopped shipping heatsink/fan combos with the i5/i7 boxed CPUs because they realized everyone threw 'em out anyways and bought an after-market cooler.

Check the specifications of what you're ordering carefully - if you buy from NewEgg (for example) it'll state whether its CPU-only or includes a cooler in the box

I've never seen a Box CPU not come with a heatsink / fan combo..

Yeah, I just checked and it does.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117561&cm_re=intel_core_i5-6600k_skylake_3.5_ghz-_-19-117-561-_-Product

ooohhh, wait... its the "K" series unlocked CPUs that don't come with heatsinks...


nevermind!!!

Guess I stand corrected. This is the first I have seen without a heatsink /cooler combo.

what about ASUS B250 Mining Expert ? I cant get H110 PRO in my country.. too expensive from overseas.

I think it is a great choice because you have a mobo optimized for mining and also you can add many gpus.