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Hey,

So I've tried to push some of these before, but ended up not doing it. I have 4 x 5970 that all exhibit the same crippled symptoms; one of the cores can't be used, it locks at 99% usage if you use it and eventually the whole card stops responding.

They all work (and are working) if you limit yourself to the other core. I can get ~360MH/s out of each with 820Mhz (using 300Mhz ram clock). I'm no longer sure what brand these are as I've mixed and matched the fans, with AC coolers and watercooling in the midst. They are all reference design, some will be Saphire, some ATI and some Asus. The BIOS has been tweaked in all of them to allow using lower ram clocks, down to 300Mhz, but that's it, stock voltages and other values for everything else.

I can only mine with these during the night time, as my household power usage during the day prevents me from sucking all that power without tripping the breaker, thus I'm starting to "clean up the house". These are the first I will try to sell, but I'll also have some WC material to follow.

No photos yet, but you know what a 5970 looks like, right? :)

NO GUARANTEE!!! The fact one core gave up means the other may give up too, obviously. I can assure you the other works, and has worked consistently for months after the first one gave up (if only at night time as described), so if you get a card from me and it simply does not work, I'll take it back and refund. But if it works and then quits, you are on your own, I will not take any refunds after a couple of days from you receiving the card.

Also, don't even consider using this on windows unless you can make sure the bad core isn't touched at all. These cards don't give out any image (probably because the bad core is the one responsible for the DVI output) so they are worthless outside mining.

Finally, these will be shipped from Europe, and they are heavy. Expect $45 shipping in Europe and $65 to the US, though I might be able to cut that down a little if I shop around. Of course, combining shipments is possible and less expensive than individual ones, but ask for quote first.

Any takers?

Hmm well are you.willing to do about 60 per card I have 4 5970 that have no video and I only paved 90 per card

I'm willing to sell for what they are deemed to be worth by the community. I didn't put up any price on purpose, though I will give this away to a family member, as a full working mining machine, if the price offered is just not worth my trouble of packaging and sending. Come to think of it, that's one amazing xmas gift :)

Anyway, make me a full offer, how many cards, full price in btc or us$ you are willing to pay for them shipped and also tell me where I'll be shipping to, and I will most certainly consider it.

well to be far i dont know what the rest of the rig is but id offer like 300 for all 4 of the 5970 since you already stated that they are one core bad cards  making them more or less a 5830 and the zip code you would be mailing to is 08088 plz get back to me with more details on the rest of the rig so i can make a more accurate offer

Ok, I'm not familiar with the unit of measurement of value you state... is that us$, btc, something else?


They are as good as a 5870, but with lower clock ranges and much better cooling. So better than a 5850, not more or less a 5830.


And the country? I'm biased to believe you are American, given you decided to assume I know where you are.


There is no 'rest of the rig'. If you read my posts carefully you'll see only the cards are offered, the full rig would be something I'd cook up if I was to decide giving away the cards to relatives.

yes my applogys i live in the usa and yes my offer was  is us dollars. and also sorry but many place i have read that a 5970 is basically two 5830 so that is why i said that once again im sorry for assuming things was kinda in a hurry doing things and i made myself look like an ass hmm Orwell lol

No problem, it is just important we keep things as clear as possible, for everyones benefit.

So $300 for all 4, shipped... I'll pay around $140 for shipping these, which leaves me with $160 for the pack, or $40 a piece. I'll have to do some calculations to see if it is worth the trouble or not, but for now... any higher bidders? Maybe someone in Europe so the shipping doesn't take such a high cut?

250 euros shipped. I'm from europe.

EDIT: wait, there's no way i can't get the good core to mine in windows? If that's the case i'll retract my offer, sorry.

My experience is with XP and about an year ago. I tried mining on Windows and what is appeared to me is that the two cores were usable individually, but windows kept the cores linked internally, thus there was always some processing going on in either core, which is something you most certainly don't want with these cards.

So, yeah, I wouldn't buy these if you are stuck with windows, but it might work, I don't know.

id be willing to pay 350 to help you out with the shipping if that migh make things any better

Just how exactly did you manage to (half) kill 4 5970s?

That is one great question. They didn't all die simultaneously, mind you, but I've been mining for over a year now and I have had my share of overheating cards, so I'm guessing that's the thing.

Nowadays I do either WC or open frame with pci-e extenders, but there was a time when I ran 2 or 3 5970 on a smallish case with improper air flow, meaning they would run at 80~90ºC for weeks in a row. So I'm guessing that did it, but they didn't just fail, the cores would start locking randomly (always the same core) and I would eventually take out the card, take the cooler off, apply better thermal paste and replace pads as needed, it would run both cores for a while again and then the failing core would start failing again until eventually the failing core would die and neve operate again.

There's at least one of the cards where the failing core is still operational, in the sense you can mine off it for a while before it locks. I have also completely killed some 5970s along the way, and I have one such paperweight if anyone is after the cooler or believes they can fix it. The card does POST and gets detected by the X driver, but one call to aticonfig --odgc takes a minute or so to respond, after which the driver locks.

This is a perfect example of what happens when you run your cards too hot for too long and with the fans up too high

I suspect we will start seeing many more threads like this in the months to come, Ive been mining almost as long as he has, the only card out of my 17 that I have crippled is a reference 6870 that does not like to mine clocked over 950mhz but other than that I have had good luck

I have never run my fans over 75% and now I have most of them around 50%


Question, does the card still work for gaming? You would probably have better luck selling it as a gaming card, coincidentally gaming takes much less resources than mining does

Indeed that's true and I have since learned my lesson, proof being I have a handful of 5970s and 5870s that work flawlessly and have done so for almost a year now. But these have been mining on the good core without issues.

They will not work for gaming because the primary core is the damaged one. Most will not even give any image, and while one of them (at least) does give image, using any 3D will immediately lock or reboot.

damn man, thats a tough lesson to learn

Have you tried reflowing or reballling them to see if it fixes anything?

I mean its a long shot but its worth a try

I'll do
400 for everything even you paper weight and also the stock fans effect if you hqve them still

Well, I did learn it and I've been told no lesson is too expensive, provided you learn it ;)


None of the two verbs presented make sense to me... sorry. Reflowing make me think about wave flow soldering, which is NOT something I'll try, and reballing makes me think of basketball which, hmmm, there's an idea! :)

reflowing is baking them in an oven. It helps if there are hair fractures in the solder or underfil.  But thats usually only the case on certain nVidia cards and a result of thermal cycling, not something Id expect from an ATI card that has been mining.
My guess is that you burnt out VRMs

(poor/lazy mans reflow)

preheat your over to 385

remove anything plastic from the card

bake it in the oven for 8 mins

wait for it to cool and see if it works!

(you would be surprised)

reballing would mean to take it apart, take the chips out, clean them and resolder them back in by hand



and p4 man is probably right but at this point it really can't hurt to try and it is the small chance that it works it would be well worth it

I'm (obviously) no electronics engineer, but from the way the cards behaved, especially when I could still use them with 2D but not 3D I would say the VRMs are almost certainly to blame. Of course, I don't really have a good way of asserting that.

Is that something I can fix "at home"? I have access to top of the line soldering stations, all the test equipment I can handle, and all the other gizmos at a friend's factory, but I don't want to waste their time unless there's a chance it can actually work, and I surely can't use any of it without proper guidance.

hehehe

Well if your worried about wasting your time this is definitely not the project for you, I would say that there is a 2% chance it can be repaired


but you never know until you try :)

You could take it apart and check for visual damage. If a VRM has blown, I suspect youd see that. Whether that is reparable or not, I would imagine there is a fair chance the PCB is damaged too but not sure. I also suspect you'll have a hard time finding replacement components, but it doesnt hurt looking.

There is no obvious damage to the cards, that much I know. I assume that, unless there's a very obvious component to replace I'll be better off just selling the cards to someone that will make good use of the working core, but since you guys obviously know better if there is something else I should look for, some component I can pop off and test somehow, I'd be happy to try.

Ok, I'm really sorry but I'll have to change my offer. I have:

- 2x 5970 with a single core working (each pumping ~370MHs @ 820/300, fan 80% keeps temps at ~55ºC)
- 1x 5970 dead. It passes POST and is detected by the driver, but then the driver crashes at the first --odgc. I have it as just the board, the cooler is now detached (I wanted to do another visual inspection). Can be shipped fairly cheap like this, as most of the weight comes from the cooler, but I can also send the cooler (though detached, not wasting any more thermal paste on this one). As an added note, I used the screws from this one on another board, as I seem to have lost my big'ol bag'o'screws. I will find it, but I may not have time to search for it for some time.

The other 2x 5970 that were supposed to be cripple have found a new breath of life. I opened them to re-apply thermal paste in preparation for the buyer and when I tested them they were working again. I thought it would be a passing thing but they both endured a good 10 hours mining @ 820 without any incidents. They might still be crippled, I'm certainly not confident on their health, but they are working well atm. If anyone wants to make an offer on these I'll consider it, but 5970s are the most power efficient GPUs I have tested, so these are the ones I want to keep.

If I do end up keeping the 5970s, I might have 3x 5870 working perfectly (*) for sale instead... I need to juggle the power requirements as explained before, so the less efficient must go.

(*) - 1xSaphire, 1xATI, 1xXFX - the ATI has a wonky fan, it makes an awful sound at low RPM and seems to stop and start regularly, but when at 80% is works great, which is where I keep it anyway. I have one potentially dead XFX that could donate the cooler after I do a good check on it.

PS: Of course there's a chance that either or both of the recovered 5970s go south again, in which case I'll just go back to the original offer. Since I will not be shipping anything before Monday anyway, I thought I'd just come forward with this new information and I'll update the thread as needed if things change.

does this mean i need to make a new offer? since ur only ofeering 3 instead of the 5

You don't have to, but I would surely appreciate it :)

But the original sell offer for the 4 (plus the dead one) is no longer in effect, so I guess the short answer is; yes.

Probably tomorrow I'll make my mind regarding the 5870's, just in case you are interested on these as well.

well ill do like 225 for the 3 5970 but i would like the coolers sent as well and i think i would do all the cards if you decide to sell the 5870 for 475 or my orginal offer for the 5 5970 for 400

5970s: I'll pay ~$105 for shipping, which leaves $120. That's $60 per card and you get the dead one as bonus. Just stating this here in case someone else wants to make an offer and wants to know the item price minus shipping.

for all cards: so I'd be paying an extra $50 for the 5870s to be shipped along with the 5970s, which means that 475 - 225 - 50 = 200, or $67 per card. That is not all that interesting to me, to be honest. For reference, I take 1300MHs+ from these cards.

ill pay the extra 50 for shipping are you sure its that much for shipping my address is citcy and zip are southampton nj 08088 if that gives you a better refernec to go buy

Well, I'm pretty sure I can get a much better deal on the 5870s.

As for the shipping, remember this is being sent from Europe, not the US. I might be able to get a cheaper price, as the ones I'm quoting are from the local mail agency, but for these weights it gets really expensive to send to another continent. That's one of the reasons I was trying to push this to someone in Europe, as with the same price I can get a fairly larger profit, with less going onto shipping.

Nelisky, where in europe are you from? I might be interested in a 5870.

well that is why i was giving  you better shipping info so you might be able to see if you could get the shipping down i mean if worse comes to worse ill split the shipping with you but i would like to see if there are any other pice besides just the one
plz get back to me soon im willing to make a little better offer but id like to see a little better shipping price

Besides just the one what?

I would also like to see a better price, and I have a few alternatives for shipping to Europe. But US bound it seems that I can't really find anything cheaper for the weight. Also, it really doesn't matter where in the US I'm shipping to, it's always the same for me.

If you can find a better deal, maybe you can request a collection at my house from some delivery company? I know that is possible for companies with accounts with DHL and UPS, but I 'm not all too sure that's possible for private individuals.

I meant the o e shipping price I guess I'd be will g to do 525 where In Europe you live so I can try and get prices also the weight plz

Location sent as PM. Weight, each card is just over 1.2Kg, plus around 600g of original box (which I can do without when shipping multiple cards, pack them light, but the risk of damage in transit will be higher). Expect 1.8~1.9Kg per shipped card.

The 5870s are around 300g lighter. 1Kg ~ 2.205 pounds

so thats about 15 pounds right?

i cant find any shippers out of where you live it keep only let me send packages and it for around what you quted so i guess thats the best there is would it be cheaper if you sent smaller packages??

well its a few hours till monday plz keep me in the loop on whats going on

I didn't say I'd ship first thing on Monday, I said I wouldn't do it over the weekend for sure.

I will not sell you the 5870s for the price you offered, so lets take that out of the equation. Your current offer is $225 for the 2x5970s plus the dead one, shipped, correct?

BA that's if you takeout the others ill do 625 for everything that's a out all I can do

That is still very low for the 5870s. Are you still interested in getting the 3x5970s for $225? I can't quite understand your answer above.

Yes I am still interested in the 5970 and sorry for the misunderstanding I'm typing on my phone and it doesn't always like to type what I type what would you be looking for for the 5870 BC I can get a few for like 125 to 150 here which is what I was offering you I belive

Well, around here I don't really see used 5870s going for under €150, roughly $200. I'll be obviously willing to let them go for a bit less than that, but your offer, using the same calculations I did in a previous post, rendered me around $118 per card, or less than €87.

All: I'm about to put the hammer down on the 5970s, anyone else wants to bid on them?

No one else.

One last detail, dmcursor; are you willing to take the dead 5970 with the cooler detached, no screws and no front plate? I have the screws somewhere but I seem to have misplaced them, along with the ones from a bunch of other cards I took apart for watercooling. I'm sure I can find them but I don't really have the time to search right now. The front plate I have bent to allow using it on the the last slot of a case, when watercooling, and while you can try to bend it back (I have also done a few cuts to allow for easier bending) I'm not really about to try that.
I can obviously send the bent front plate if you want it.

yes i am totally willing to take it detached just as long as i get the cooler lol and id also like the front plate as well if you dont mind

The 2x crippled 5970s plus the dead one are sold to dmcurser for $225. We'll keep posting here as things progress, as dmcurser requested.

davout has agreed to serve as escrow for this deal. Once I have everything packed up I'll ask him to post a payment address here so dmcursor can send the coins. The 24h weighted average according to bitcoincharts is $3.18/BTC, so 70.75 BTC is the current price.

well as of current time est it is 5:43am i will be home around 4pm est and will pay promptly maybe even sooner depending on if i have time at work.

I will not be home for 5~6 hours still, and I want to have it all packed up and ready to go before you pay. There's always the possibility I can't ship today, though I'll do my very best, but I don't want you to pay until I'm positive I'll head out to the post office immediately after.

ok sounds vary far

I have asked davout to post a payment address here. When he does send I expect dmcursor to send the coins there after which I'll proceed to sending the package.

To make everything perfectly clear:
- davout will escrow the deal, I pay davout
- I'm shipping 2x 5970 that only mine with one core, one dead 5970 (board only), one original 5970 cooler (no screws) and one twisted faceplate.
- dmcursor is paying me $225 for the package, shipping included.
- current 24hr weighted average according to bitcoincharts is $3.18/BTC, meaning dmcursor will send BTC 70.75 to davout

Are we going.g to. Do weight average at time of sending or no

You mean at the time of payment? We can, sure, so as long as you know it can go both ways :)

Anyway, I'm about to run out of time to send today, so if I'm to do it you'll have to send the coins to me directly. You can do that to 1DysvPKw61XbRRRFqQNCbCEHXSstVFRHwa or we can wait for davout to appear, which he will eventually (but then I'll have to ship tomorrow, in fact I'm not sure I can still ship today, but I can try).

Current avg is 3.19, so $225 is 70.53 btc.

Payment of 70.55 sent as of 113 pm est just mail out as soon as you can

Too late to send today, and I wasn't seeing anything on my wallet. I looked up block explorer and there it was, along with a bunch of transactions that looked foreign to me...

So I SCREWED UP and gave you one of my sending addresses! Stupid me, now I need to find out who or what that address belongs to, maybe I can still salvage this!

Anyway, my loss, I'll honor the deal and send the cards, but I can only do so tomorrow since the post office closes at 6pm (GMT).

oh how stupid of me, that was really a horrible mistake...

If I'm not mistaken it was one of the address you sent from then you will still receive but if its on from someone e else then they got it maybe it was one of your trade hill or my gox. Deposits?

I found the owner of the address and have emailed the person... I'm very sure he'll return the coins as soon as he verifies things. *cleans forehead*

Great news I would of felt bad if you didn't get the btc

Yes, well, it's my fault, you did your part so regardless of the outcome you get the cards shipped tomorrow. That's for me to learn to either sleep more or slow down.

did you recover the funds? or at least get in contact with the right person?

I did recover the funds, am holding them currently, so that part is done. I will only be able to visit the post office in the afternoon but I will ship it today and provide a tracking number.

ty ty sounds wounderful.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Not sure if I'm still needed here.
If an escrow party is needed funds can be sent here : 1GR8kvnAz3sz5F1sDXACPMAL2xn57nj8YU
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Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (Darwin)

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dmcursor, would you rather I send the funds to davout for safekeeping? I would like to stress (for everyone) that (ab)using trusted forum members is very inexpensive and can save a lot of confusion and grief when the buyer doesn't fully trust the seller. Of course this is not foolproof, but certainly adds to the whole security.

So my offer still holds; I will send the funds to davout and will pay his fee if that makes you more comfortable.

davout: which key did you use to sign that message? Your support@bitcoin-central.net doesn't match if I'm doing things correctly here.

Im fine with whatever you choose.

I have send the package a little over an hour ago and have provided dmcursor with a tracking code. Hint: avoid going to the post office close to xmas ;)

Yes I ha e received tracking number did they by chance e say when it will be delivered

Nope, they have no way of knowing, they said. The service expected time is "up to 7 work days" like I told you, but that is all I have.

OK its no problem. Just figured it might not hurt to ask