Wow! I'm impressed with the large savings you are making by tweaking your BIOS. switching off firewire for 5W, man! When I switched off firewire the only detectable difference was that the firewire port wasn't lit up, the power drain didn't change at all for me. In this case I stand corrected and do absolutely set about tweaking your BIOS as much as you can. But even so, the efficiency of the PSU could save/cost you 50W so is worth considering at least. I'm afraid I can't advise on PSUs. I only have one miner and I bought my PSU with noise as the primary consideration. For me the PSU is critical in building a mining rig (along with the cards and motherboard). The chip, drives, RAM, OS, et cetera are good to get right but of secondary importance. I personally never skimp on the power supply but for maximum profit you may want to go with something cheapish which can manage 86%+ at your mining load. A typical positive attribute and one many people pay a lot for is for the PSU to be at least x% efficient at any load - give that you really don't need this shop around and look at the efficiency vs. load graphs for cheap PSUs. As for voltages on the cards it really depends what you want out of your system. - To maximise MH/J you will probably want to drop the voltage quite a bit (0.1V or more) and a little more still if you have many cards in one rig.
- To maximise profit then you may want to overvolt your cards by a small amount (0.05V is my guess) but this is assuming you have cooling sorted.
- To maximise MH/s then I find 1.25V is best (higher voltages hurt my stability due to the increased heat).
Of course, there are many factors: The cost of power; The market value of bitcoins; Your cooling; Your noise tolerance; How good at overclocking your particular cards are; even the OS! I would get a PSU which is efficient at the power you expect to draw and for +/- 30%, use a power meter to measure power consumption at the wall, find your maximum stable clocks for a range of different card voltages and note power consumption/temperature/noise each time, and the calculate what works best for you. If MH/J is important to you then let us know how efficient you manage to make your rig. Mine is at 2.41 Mh/J. My PSU is 89% efficient at my load, I'm running off of a HDD, and I'm running two Sapphire HD5850 Xtreme cards. Actually most of my tweaks are done within windows,only the disabling of unneeded chipsets can be done at BIOS level such as the disabling firewire and other things. As I have an Asus mobo,I can use a utility called EPU-6 which lets you tweak CPU clocks (as RAM clocks auto change with CPU clocks),changing fan speeds (full blast to silent mode),under volting and underclocking teh chipset itself,manage HDD times before shutting off,overclocking is enabled at turbo so you can overclock and underclock quite well with this utility. It's best to enable 'green ethernet' with your device manager in windows (that saved me quite a bit) as it only switches on when network activity is there,it can also vary the power used based on network activity,think of it as the speedstep for the NICs.Power varies based on network activity and how long your cable is.Normally a NIC is running at full power regardless of what its doing so you're wasting power when it's doing nothing. Is Silverstone a reputable PSU make like enermax? As I have to make sure that the PSU I buy doesn't fry my system like the 1 on my first comp did in early 2007 (That comp lived from 2004 til early 2007) Thanx tho guys for the tips so far. |
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my current elec costs are £0.23 per Kwh rising to £0.25 per Kwh from aug this year.I'm based in UK so will need UK sites and pricing.
Which is the best manufacturer for PSUs (is it still Enermax?) that can also be highly efficient?
I think of upgrading my PSu for 2 reasons:
1.To support future builds with more GPUs
2.To boost my effiency with current and future builds
Which can support tri-cross fire,as my mobo only has 3x PCI-E x16 (V2) slots?
I know that the most efficient and high power PSUS are not the cheapest but I see this as a thing that needs to last several computer builds in the future as well.(My current PSU has lasted for 2.5 builds.It's only 2.5 because my current build has had a GPU upgrade quite recently and not a full system overhaul as that would cost me too much)
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Thanx for that teukon.
The rest of my system parts are in power savings mode except the GPU.
My system runs with the following settings:
Core i7 920 underclocked to 1.35GHz
RAM is underclocked (as this is automatic when the CPU is underclocked) (Saved me 30W combined with RAM and CPU underclocking/undervolting)
Only 2 HDDs run at the moment (3rd HDD was unplugged saving me 8W)
Green ethernet is enabled (this saves energy when using the ethernet port.Saved me about 10watts as cable is 20M long)
Firewire is already disabled (Saved me 5-10Watts)
Mobo chipset is undervolted and heavily underclocked,voltage drop is deep (As EPU-6 S/w auto does this for me without destabilising my system,soft mode in this doesn't make much of a difference.deep means max power savings on chipset) Intel X58 is my chipset
USB is active as my KB+Mouse need to run
SATA is active as my HDDs need to run
Once SSD is added,the IDE boot drive (yes I know it's super old,but that was only for testing purposes for when I first installed win 7 x64 2 yrs ago when I moved away from XP x64 for good.) will be gotten rid of meaning I can finally disable IDE/e-SATA chipset on my mobo as well).
Case fans are on slow (as they have good airflow without noise and high power use.saved me 15w from full speed to slow)
Since there isn't much more I can do with my mobo power savings,A more efficient PSU is worth considering.
The only card I have is my GPU.is it possible to undervolt a GPU and still get more performance than you would at stock?and how much energy can you get by undervolting a GPU while getting pretty good performance?
If you know of any PSus that are particulary efficient at the load of my machine (just teh GPU makes it jump from 105Ws idle to 310W,without anything else being active),please link to them,thank you :-)
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Efficient PSus are really nice, but I question the economic validity of your possible upgrade. PSUs in the 90% efficiency range are not cheap and it seems to me that the payback would take a very long time. If you just want to be green, that's another matter.
SSDs are truly the best advance in computer hardware performance in the last 5 years IMHO. They all are very low power compared to spinning disks and if it were me, I'd be looking for a second generation used SSD like a OCZ Vertex/Agility or even an Intel to keep the cost down.
I think that just focusing on the PSU is stupid unless the whole system is changed to be more energy efficient. SSDs are what I planned to use anyway as my boot drive.I did see that Intel and Plextor (yes they make SSDs,but they're based on intel designs from what I can see anyway) have the fewest problems in terms of reliability if I buy now,If I hold off by even 2 weeks,I can get an SLC based SSD instead of the common MLC type (due to limited lifetime especially when used,so not worth the trouble for me.I don't wish to play russian roulette with my valuable data just because I decided to get an SSD instead of a Velociraptor.) My 750GB Storage HDD will be replaced with a 'green' 2TB HDD (as I really need the space at the same time as shaving a few watts off,plus keeping the heat/noise down) My PC lets me switch off all case fans at will for silent mode (with max power savings of course).I save 25Watts when in silent as the fans aren't spinning,plus 20 Watts more by switching my drives (SSD boot+2TB green hdd as all older drives will be off and removed) Anyways,thanks for hte suggestion mikeo,however if you upgrade a PSU you should buy one with extra watts and much higher efficiency as buying an average PSU with low efficiency is a waste of time and money. |
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you're going to be cutting it close. if the cards weren't overclocked i'd say yes but with overclocking like that you're best off looking into getting at 900w+ PSU
That's my recommendation to the poster :-) because GPUs,especially when overclocked are power hungry hogs (well mine certainly is esp with unlocked shaders and heavy OC) |
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Does this happen to anyone with v4.0.2?  It's really ridiculous, I've tried reinstalling but it didn't fix it. Funny thing is it worked a few days ago but one day I noticed it stopped auto-applying my volts at startup and noticed that I can no longer drag the voltage slider. Help? If you can fix this problem on v4.0.2 I will send you some coins. Try going into settings and checking that the auto apply clock settings are checked as sometimes bugs in apps can undo this.sometimes it can turn out that the fix is so easy that we overlook it by mistake (well I do it,we all do it as some point) and then we find that things just work again. I hope this helps :-) P.S. If my answer helps,please send the bounty this way thank you |
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Yes you can get Molex to PCI-E converter plugs.You can usually find these in the package of your GPUs.If not,you can buy them for little money from practically any computer shop (online or retail)
As it looks like you heavily OC your cards,I'd recommend an upgrade of PSU to be on the safe side.
Most cards can use at least 200W,A Radeon HD6990 can use as much as 450Ws (when the switch is in Overclocked position on hte board itself),normally its about 300W I think.Radeon Hd6990 is basically 2 GPUs on 1 board,so getting 2 radeon HD6990s ould give you 4 GPUS.
Since you plan to add another GPU,I'd strongly recommend upgrading your PSU to a higher wattage.Anywhere in the (at least ) 850W range wouldn't hurt.I'd say in your case,you'd benefit from a 1000W PSU,that way you can have 4 cards with heavy OC (except for the Radeon Hd 6990 cards,as they suck down power like no tomorrow and need an even beefier PSU to run them)
I hope my advice helps you
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has anyone tried to shave off some mining hardware costs and bought flash drives for the OS instead of using regular mechanical hard drives? i know this is possible and it's more ideal for linux. i'm going to need at least a 16gb flash drive for win7 right? is it possible to have all mining settings set up using a 1gb flash drive on linux? i know nothing about linux, but if this is possible, i'm wiling to learn it if the OS can fit in this small footprint. any comments on this would be great, thanks!
You will need at least a 16GB UFD.My tests on a VM with a 2oGB HDD show that there's 9GB free space when installing from fresh so that's about 11GB used (or was that 12GB free and 7GB used) To be on the safe side I'd recommend at least a 16GB UFD,32GB UFD are cheap enough to get now (average ones in the Uk are like under £30 now) booting from a UFD won't be as fast as an SSD (as those are ridiculously expensive,esp an SLC based one,I don't consider an MLC an option as they are too unreliable and have poor service life for my needs due to limited writes,Thankfully my budget can allow for a 64GB SLC type SSD but no more) I'd also love to try this out myself by running Win 7 from a UFD or High speed SD card. As for Linux,you can use this to fit it on to your UFD (USB Flash drive):http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download (read the create a USB drive section for walkthrough) Download this tool:http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/Universal-USB-Installer/Universal-USB-Installer.exe I hope this helps. It's best that you have at least a 2GB UFD at the very least (as most distros use nearly 2GB when fully installed onto the USB sticks anyway with little room for user data or mining apps.Do yourself a favour and get yourself a bigger UFD) |
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Hi guys,
I was looking at power supplies as I may need something more efficient as the electric bills have gone up considerably.
Every since I got my Radeon HD 6950,overclocked it (895MHZ core clock and 949 MHZ mem clock) and unlocked its shaders as well,I notice that the power draw from the wall rises to over 310W for no clear reason even though it used to use under 300 Watts from the wall.
My PSU is:
An Enermax liberty 620W
I got this in summer 2007
The efficiency is only 80% though
If I was to upgrade to a more efficient power supply (like 90% or more) how much would my power use drop?
Is this even a worthwhile upgrade?
I only have 2 HDDs (Boot volume will be replaced by SSD but most SSDs I saw from the reviews have reliability problems)
Can someone who can recommend me an SSD thats:
1.Uses little energy
2.High performing
3.Has no history of failing
4.No more than 120GB in capacity due to budget (however the bugdet does allow for an SLC based drive in certain circumstances)
Thank you
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What's the overhead compared to windows?
In order to get the best from your hardware,overheads from the OS need to be kept to a minimum.
I ask this because I get 400MHash/s from HD 6950 (shader unlocked,core clock OC'd to 895MHz stable and mem clock 949MHZ as going any higher on core clock and lower on mem clock destabilises my system.
Can I OC my card to those setting in your OS?because thats what t takes to raech 40MHash/s on my card.
If this OS is lighter than win 7,then my performance will be boosted even more
What about power saving options for when I need to check my email briefly before resuming mining?
thank you
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Lofty goals...
All you need to mine is guiminer if you're mining with a pool. Or you can set up your own rpc server at home, and as long as you open the proper ports, it can be opened up to allow for external connections. And you can just download and unzip guiminer to your flash drive, it doesn't have to be a portable version.
The likelyhood of you generating a block, even with 10 computers at your disposal, is extremely slim. So good luck with that, and especially with determining the differences between the setups based on how often you generate a block.
How do I setup my own rpc server for mining? So that I can earn 50btc faster by using several computers at my disposal? I need this to have a method of setup thats not too complicated. |
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How much are namecoins worth in cash?
Like how many NMC to GBP?
and NMC to US$?
Where can I exchange them for cash?
or bitcoins?
Are these nmc more profitable than BTC?or are they about the same?
BTC keeps dropping in value now,does this mean they are worthless?
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I think I really don't get how staying on 1 pool that has a large share can cause problems.
I'll ask that someone who's more knowledgeable than me tell me the problems in an easy to understand way.I've read th ecomments here but some it seems to be hearsay (I'm not sure if it's true or just an unfounded fear that some ppl have).
My questions are:
1.How does mining on 1 pool that has 50% or more share cause problems for hte BTC currency if any?
2.If the service provided by the pool with the majority hares is very good,why should people switch to pools that have a smaller share possibly due to a possible lower standard of service for its members?
3.I don't know the share for my pool bitcoins.lc.If that's too large and it's causing problems then I won't mind moving pools.
4.If I join a pool with very few members,will I get a bigger slice of the pie with my current hash power of 400MHash/s or do I always get the amount based on my hashpower,size of pool,size of payout minus fees?
because I typically get about 0.25BTC in 14-17 hrs on bitcoins.lc so If I joined a smaller pool will I get more for the same hashpower because of the far fewer members?
Thank you.
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Speaking of mining,I do wonder how many people are now stopping mining (as it's unprofitable for the ones with weak GPUs) and how quickly can difficulty go down as well as up?
This isn't my intention to complain or whine,but I simply wish to understand more about what's making it more difficult for me to get as much money as before aside from the currency losing value for a bit.
I wish the value of BTC rises again soon so I can finally cashout my mined BTC without making a loss.What is the current value of BTC?
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I need someone who has the expertise to help develop these for me:
1.A portable version of hte official Bitcoin client (For PC and Mac if possible) Already developed by Aresdos.Kudos to you.
2.A portable GUI miner app (as this uses the official bitcoin client for solo mining due to the router rules at home and in my workplace) (for PC and mac if possible).This is already resolved.
...
1.The person or people who developed the apps in question for me will get paid 5BTC (20BTC if successful) of the BTC mined as a result of this experiment (if successful).Don't give me ur BTC address until the experiment is finished please.
Will this help..? I made this a month ago: http://www.fileswap.com/dl/0JsDaGd/BitcoinPortable_v1.2.zip.htmlAlso, here's the forum topic with a lil info on it.. http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=18870(Maybe I'll get my first bitcoins finally ^^) And the GuiMiner should be an easy copy/paste to work, even on usb... Good luck and keep me updated, wanna hear if it all works out for ya! =) Earlier tests show that your portable Bitcoin client works much faster then the official client,and appears to be reliable.I'll need to mine a few more bitcoins so that I can give some to you as promised.PM me your BTC address so that I can pay you as soon as I've mined enough from the experiment.(Only mined 1.4 BTC so far due to circumstances and lack of access to work computers) UPDATE:The payment will change from the original system planned.Since you successfully developed a portable version of the official client that is problem free,I'll pay you 1BTC in the next 2 weeks (as I still have to mine more atm),then after that,you'll recieve extra payment.The 1BTC is just for starters of course.If the App stays problem free after a month of testing (or 2) a bonus payment will be made as well. |
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Probably not safe.
I ran a virus/malware scan and its all clear for me.Hope this helps.If in doubt,either don't run it or run in a virtual machine or sandbox app. |
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Update:
Since my request was first put up on here,Several things have changed.
1.My GPU was able to be upgraded since 2 weeks ago to a Radeon Hd 6950 which has since been shader unlocked and OC'd to 895MHZ core clock and 949MHZ mem clock.I use these settings due to stability.
2.After learning that GUIMiner can simply be extracted to a USB drive and can just be run from there,I guess that someones already done my work for me so thank you. Can GUIMiner be run without admin rights on the computers in question?
3.Due to changes in Mining difficulty,it has been decided that I'll shut down all mining operations on my MBP (as the most I get now is 0.004 which is pointless for a long time now) and focus all efforts on my main PC (which is mining with an upgraded GPU). I know that sometimes mining with multiple computers can sound good but if you use less capable systems alongside your more powerful rigs,you may as well mine with the 1 powerful rig and shutdown all the others.That way I can actually lower my energy costs while increasing mining output at the same time.
4.The experiment will still go ahead as most machines at work tend to have GPUs that are better than those in my MBP but due to access issues,I can only use a limited no of machines now.
5.I plan on marking this thread as resolved and later on close this thread if need be.
Thank you for the replies tho guys :-)
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I'm mining BTC on bitcoins.lc with my PC and Mac GPUs.I get 400M/Hashs (sometimes) doing this.My MacBook Pros CPU is mining namecoins with your pool.Why do I do this? I seek to gain maximum returns on multiple currencies being mined at the same time to prevent missed oppourtunity problems as I'm not yet ready to move into full time NMC mining due to my current setup and limited access to systems outside where I live as the workplace is too far away to use their computers.
My radeon HD 6950 get me 384MHash/s at these settings:
Clock 890MHZ
mem clock 948 MHZ
Volts is 1.1V currently
To get stable clocks at more than 900MHZ+,how much do u need to increase the voltage by to be safe without damaging the card or crashing my system?Thanks.
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I want to mine NMC asap as it appears to be quite profitable for me.I need someone who can tell me the nmc pool to join and how to setup in GUIMiner without requiring me to buy a domain name first.
I need to know.
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Up to 360 MHash/s @ 940 core  140 Mhz OC was way more than expected. It seems to still have more room to go... I was doing some tests on how far my GPU can go without upping the mV (voltage) This is what I managed without crashing: 918MHz Core clock (can't go to 919 or above as this crashed my card and froze my system) 947Mhz mem clock I was getting approx 390MHash/s on my card It's a Sapphire Radeon HD6950 with unlocked shaders(as mine is reference.was on sale as it appear that old stocks were goten rid of now so the new cards wont be unlockable now.) On a power consumption front the card uses approx approx 200 Watts when pushed in this way. Does the performance of my card seem good for the MHash/s I'm getting. Currently I'm use safe OC settings of: 913MHZ 947 MHZ mem clock I'm getting 395MHash/s with those safe settings.Pros of this are cooler card and improved lifetime for fans and card as well.Power use is high tho This shows I think that issue of diminishing returns where going faster and faster won't necessarily boost performance as substantially after a certain point. I used Sapphire trixx utility as afterburner failed to work for me at all. Volts is still at 1.1v due to fear of great damage and excessive power use. |
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