Bitcoin Forum

950 watt power supply
MSI motherboard
4 ati 5830
1gb ram
wifi adaptor
left over hard drive I can use if I do windows

I'm considering using linuxcoin and 4 dummy plugs...would this machine run windows 7?
I'd prefer windows because its easier to overclock the video cards...

unless linux can overclock them? I have no experience with linux but I'm pretty good with computers otherwise...

Linux, then you don't need the dummyplugs. And yes you can OC with linux.

Unless you have the dummyplugs then go for windows, it's easier to OC.

Hello,

I am running nearly the same setup as you ( I got 2 power supplys instead of one )

Both, linux and windows is possible.

I prefer Windows x64 for the same reason as you mentioned.
Dummy plugs also work for me.

Regards

can you overclock video cards in linuxcoin?
if i dont need dummy plugs then what do I do? just plug a monitor into 1 card and start mining then unplug the monitor?

I would go Windows if you have the license..
A) you have paid for it..
B) its very easy (and just as fast, maybe faster because of the OC tools out there)
C) dummy plugs are not a limiting concern because they are ridiculously easy to make -> http://www.overclock.net/folding-home-guides-tutorials/384733-30-second-dummy-plug.html
    fyi: I like to wrap my dummy plugs in electrial tape once I have finished the 1 minute construction process.

Also the new GUIMiner with Phoenix and phatk support is awesome!

I have 3 rigs all setup the same... I get them running with a monitor hooked up (and 1 dummy plug in each of the rest of my videocards), then I go download tightVNC http://www.tightvnc.com/.... Once I know tightVNC is installed and I can connect to the machine, I shut it down. move it to its new "home" in my house, give it a network connection, power, and a dummy plug for that last card and turn it on.. Then I walk back to my laptop, login over tightVNC and kick off my miners (and usually Afterburner because I like to keep track of my temps and tune voltage & clock speed).

* You may have to go into to your screen properties and actually activate the other monitors to get all of your GPUs to activate

Don't use Remote Desktop.. MS is smart enought to know that a remote desktop connection isn't actually using the screen so the GPUs are disabled/blocked from your session. Thats why I use tightVNC.


~Hands
(here is the ubiquitous "donate" wallet ID 13d46unynPiuspsND1fC3kuPeb8szgWv4T)

+1. And don't forget BitMiner ;)

Thanks Hands...will tightvnc work over wifi? I'm at work and the site is blocked...

someoneweird: do you mean guiminer?

It should. It's only local.

And no, check my sig ;) V4's being released in a few minutes.

Is Linux a more stable mining environment then in Windows? After a few hours my 2 5830s start getting errors inside of Phoenix miner or the VPU recovery window comes up and I have to restart or I'll get a BSOD. I am running Windows XP SP3 32bit with latest display drivers and ask 2.4.

Ahh tightvnc good idea.  I bought a KVM.

No. But most people find it easier.

And XP is probably your problem.

Can you expand on why XP is my problem?

Great post, I was wondering about needing a case-and if temps would be higher or lower without one. 

I also tried running Microsoft's remote connect and it didn't work.  Thank you for showing us all an alternative!  Great set up. : )

I would say its because XP is 10 years old and no longer supported by MS.. The Drivers that come out now are highly optimized for the Vista/Win7 Kernal & API.  You have to look back at why Vista "sucked" it was because MS decided it would half support XP drivers in Vista, so all the hardware manufactures decided they didn't need to write Vista drivers.. Bad drivers = instability.. When Win7 came out MS tighten the thumb screws on the hardware vendors and low and behold we have a more stable OS (actually even Vista with modern drivers is pretty damn stable).. So while they may roll back and work they aren't tuned for XP.

Also Win7 is know to have a lower memory footprint then Vista and in some lowend hardware senarios actually run faster than XP (ok so nothing we are doing is low-end but its something worth keeping in the back of your mind :-). )

I run 3 machines with 3 cards in each machine (some 6870's some 6950s and some 6970s) and the only issues I have are around heat, and those were taken care of by setting my fans to 100% and spending some quality time figuring out optimal fan placement and blow direction. Now my hottest cards (by the way that would be the card closest to the CPU surprisingly not the middle card or the card nearest the bottom) don't get above 90c (I perfer to keep them under 85c.. which is my goal for this weekend.

~Hands
(here is the ubiquitous "donate" wallet ID 13d46unynPiuspsND1fC3kuPeb8szgWv4T)

There's a bit more to it then that, Windows vista / 7 (they really are the same, just 7 is the vista core fixed.. think Win2k and xp... same core just modified) completely revamped how video cards and their memory were mapped within the system and accessed. So it creates  much more robust environment for multi GPU setups, winxp had to actually work the memory of those vid cards into its limit for ystem memory, etc. So consider a 32bit os based on an xp core, and you can see where 3 or 4 video cards would push its ability to properly manage all the memory / etc right out the door. Add to that base unsuitability for what your trying to make it do with the bad driver mojo that the previous poster mentioned, and then on top of that look at an application layer like OpenCL that wasn't even around when XP was in its prime... and you can see the multi-tiered threats to stability you are imposing on yourself. Even if you have an old copy of vista laying around, when patched up to current it'll run that hardware config better then XP. Vista/7 also handles multicored processors much better as well. If you can find it a 64bit version of vista / 7 would be better... you lose a lot of the limits imposed by the 32 bit os that way.. especially if you're talking 1gb 5830s x 4... thats 4gb of memory the OS is working with, plus system, plus swap...

I digress.... Linux if you don't need it for a windows box, or have a recent copy of the OS you trust.  else 7 or vista.

Fair enough. I can see issues with having 2.5GB of system ram and then 2GB of ram on two 5830s and how XP would handle that. I'm going to do an install of Ubuntu 64bit tonight on a new hard drive and throw that into my system. Are there any problems with using Ubuntu 11.04 64bit or should I use the last version of Ubuntu?

Mining on the last version of Ubuntu seems to be a bit more stable.

linux and use hashkill for mining http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=6819.0

OK, so it seems that I need a dummy plug to be able to mine with my 2 6990s with Windows 7.

I have a monitor plugged in to one of the cards and that one is hashing away. The miner cannot detect / hash with the second one.

So here is my question. What happens if whilst the machine is mining I unplug the monitor from this one card and then plug it into the other one and then start those (or will my first one stop hashing the minute I unplug it)?

Second question: Eventually, there will be no monitors attached to the rig, I'll use logmein or vnc to get into it remotely. Does that mean I'll be needing 2 dummy plugs for both the cards?

Thanks for your help, folks!!

I'm not sure what would happen if you tried to unplug and plug in while the machine was hashing.. But I can answer your other question, yes you will need 1 dummy plug per card once you switch to headless with Windows.

~Hands
(here is the ubiquitous "donate" wallet ID 13d46unynPiuspsND1fC3kuPeb8szgWv4T)

@Hands, thanks.

Now, do you know or does anyone else know of instructions to put together a dummy plug for a DVI connector because that's all 6990s have? Or do we use a DVI to VGA converter and 'dummy' the VGA end of the converter?

Thanks!

Yes.

[CARD] [DVI->VGA] [DUMMY]

Check the instructions I posted earlier, they are for using a DVI -> VGA dummy plug, basicly you need 68ohm resisters and you place the in 3 sets of pins on the the VGA side of the DVI -> VGA adapter.. Just find a that link from my earlier post its all there for ya mate :-)

~Hands
(here is the ubiquitous "donate" wallet ID 13d46unynPiuspsND1fC3kuPeb8szgWv4T)

Just so everyone knows.

When I unplug from 1 card into another, the first 1 keeps hashing and whilst the second does start up and get noisy upon running the miner, it doesn't hash.

So both need to be plugged in, I guess, simultaneously.

I'm not fan of Microsoft company, however here I have to say that using Windows would bring optimal results. Simply because video cards manufacturer's target (99% of the market) is Windows, so Windows drivers are the best fine-tuned drivers. Linux drivers exist just because the company wants to have a good perception and earn bigger market share.

But if you don't have a legal Windows license, then the only choice is either to buy one or use Linux, pirating is always bad.

Piracy is always good. Well, it actually doesn't matter, piracy is a fact and you can't stop it.

Windows would be nothing without pirates, btw.

It's the opposite. Piracy creates jobs.

Oh yeah, that's why all the piracy rampant countries are software power houses? Face it, piracy destroyed the software industry in these countries, their talented programmers are now nothing but out-sourced coding monkeys for the powerful software companies in countries who has strict enforcement copyright laws.

yeah, yeah, old good bs/lie/blasphermy, spreaded by BSA/RIAA/MS and other  CoS-controlled/established/created branches/corporations/trusts World-Wide.
in fact, hoever, piracy spike is ... in US. hardly anyone right there, ready and able, consider thats IT industry there is "destroyed".
so actually, US attempts to ruin other countries developmen/economics hardly related with their independence/interests manifestation, let alone different appeoach to whole problem.

Face it, you've swallowed propaganda.

+1

I personally use Windows 7 x64; however, this is because I got a license (legally, through MSDNAA) at no cost, and because I don't have a dedicated mining rig (the machine I'm on now is used for everything). If I had a dedicated mining rig, I would probably be using one of the more popular Linux distributions, unless I could get another Windows license at no cost.

whenever you have a project that cannot be accomplished in an easy/safe/cheap manner with windoze, think LINUX. there is a learning curve, OK, but long term benefits far outweight short-term trouble  :)

Linux.
Because it is more secure. And security matters a lot when dealing with bitcoins. Better start learning linux now then wait until some your windows machine is compromised and bitcoins are stolen.

Sure, but what may be the security concerns if you're mining in a pool?

If you're going to build multiple rigs the license fees for Windows will start to add up, might as well get used to Linux.

Perhaps for others, yes. Windows licenses are not an issue for me, I have several.

And in terms of results, my hashrate average hashrate on windows is higher (by almost 30 Mash/s) than what I had on Ubuntu without overclocking in either case. That's not what most other people have seen, but that has been the case here.

Linux vs. Windows is as old as ... [choose you favorite Old Testament paragraph here]
Windows is insecure, slower and expensive. Linux is (more) secure, faster (mining included) and FREE.

If you want to reboot your mining rigs every other x hours, get lower hasing rates and your passwords/wallet stolen... go windows!

LOL, that's a biased statement, clearly. I don't feel the need to make an argument for either. You should use whatever works for you - it's that simple.

LOL, what a wonderful bias  ;D

Thanks! This post answered a couple questions I had.

Not required for initial mining. With rearming you have 120 days of legal use or for that matter download a Live VM from Microsoft for "testing" to get 30-60 days.

If you have to ask then I'd say Windows.

windows

Vam, +1  ;D

Linux, no doubt...

So many people are gonna learn Linux that otherwise would have not, I think it's Bonus !!! :)

Not a Miner... But a Linux Mint User !

Ubuntu!