BTW - $800 is a RIPOFF for a single-card R9 390 based rig.

2 years back or so, I paid right about that same price to Newegg for a rig that had 3x R9 280x, Titanium 1500 watt power supply, AM3 MB+RAM+small HD, and a humongo case that by itself was about $160 new.
 Just the GPUs and the PS were worth what I paid for it at the time, the rest was "bonus".

 It WAS a closeout deal, on a "pre-configured Windows 8-based Scrypt miner" that I never figured out 8 enough to FIND if the bloody "pre-installed software" was even there - after a few hours of frustration at the UNUSABLE INTERFACE 8 inflicts on people, I blew it off and took right at an hour to do a from-scratch XUbuntu + Genoil + needed supporting software installation, got everything configured, and was mining with it.

 Even after the massive frustration factor, I still think the system was worth it - and though one of the R9 280x cards died after about a year and a half, the REST of the parts are all still in use in SOMETHING around here mining away.

 At the power level you are looking at, you could probably get away with using one of those splitters safely.

 Using SATA to power a riser AT ALL is dangerous - the PCI-E spec calls for up to 75 watts draw at 12VDC from the PCI-E bus (and some cards are KNOWN to exceed that spec on spikes by 5-10 watts), while the SATA power connector ITSELF is only rated for 54 watts of 12VDC draw.

 MOLEX connectors are rated for 156 watts - which is quite safe for powering a riser.

 At 126 watts per card, I'd be hesitant to run even 6 cards from that EVGA P2 1000 - 6 cards at the 110 or less power level should be fine, but it depends in part on how much power the rest of your system draws. If the total power draw is under 800 watts should be fine (that will read more like 860 at the wall due to PS inefficiency).

 I might be mistaken on the FTW since I don't actually have one - I am DEFINITE they have 2 power connectors, but thought it was an 8 + 6 not a dual 8.

At CURRENT pricing, any NVidia card except PERHAPS the 1060 should not be used in ETH mining (where the memory is critical).

GTX 1070 ti will do 500 sols at quite a bit LESS POWER USED than any 1070 - and a lot of 1070 models won't hit 500 sols AT ALL, while it's fairly low output for a 1070 ti.
Heck, a lot of 1070s struggle to get to the 460-470 sol range at FULL TDP (150+ watts depending on the model) while a 1070 ti will pull that in it's MOST EFFICIENT settting range (around 106 watts).

A 1070 at that same 106 watt power setting (which is also very close to where the 1070 tends to be the most efficient) pulls 400-410 sols, based on several models I've been working with the last month or so.

For reference, a 1080 ti at the same "60% of the FE reference TDP" setting (which works out to 150 watts for those cards) pulls 620 sols, and almost matches the efficiency of the 1070 ti and slightly BEATS the efficiency of the 1070.
That's also close to the best efficiency point on the 4 different 1080 ti models I've worked with to date (Gigabyte 3-fan Windforce, EVGA SC, ASUS blower, Gigabyte Aorus not-extreme).


1070 can be good cards - but they're NOT the "end all beat all" best card some folks make it them to be, now that they're NOT priced the same as the AMD RX "gouge pricing" got up to.

For the BARE CARD, the 1070 can beat the 1080 ti on a hash/$ basis - but not by all that much - and when you compare TOTAL SYSTEM pricing, it evens out quite closely and the specific MODEL of each card makes more difference than the 1070 vs 1080 ti debate.

My AM3/AM3+ "go to" board for a long time was the ASRock 970 Extreme4 - which is similar to that Gigabyte board - but those are almost impossible to find and massively GOUGE priced when you can find them any more.

 For an AMD rig, a FM2 motherboard can also work well in some cases - but not if you want to use the "blockchain" drivers that don't support the iGPU on any AMD A-series, and THOSE motherboards are also getting into short supply.

Water cooled are a special case - yes, there are few where the CARD is single slot - but when you add in the space eaten by the RADIATOR, you don't gain any space overall.

He was using some of the "Katana" model 1070 cards for a short while - I don't remember if those are branded Galax or KFA but it's the same company behind both brands - and the cooling on them was very poor.

 Note that the Tesla is SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED for use in server cases - it has BOTH ENDS OPEN FOR FLOW-THROUGH AIR unlike comsumer-type GPUs (or it uses a "mezzanine" design in some specific servers that doesn't interface via PCI-E in it's TOP model).

 There are other workstation/server specific GPUs with that design - quite a few of the AMD Firepro line, and some older Nvidia cards as well.
 They are "passive cooled" relying on the CASE to provide lots of airflow through the GPU area.
 They also have LOWER CLOCKS due to heat dissipation limits where there is a "consumer-grade" version AND a workstation-version - like the AMD WX series (which are RX series GPUs but in a single-wide workstation card format).

I've never seen an EVGA 1070 ti that has 2 *6* pin connectors - the SC has a single 8-pin, the FTW has an 8 + 6.

 Yes, you DO need to power both on EVGA cards that have both, or the card BIOS will complain about it and not let you use the card at all.

 VoskCoin was using the SC model in his 6 card rig, and settings set for high efficiency (106 watts or so per card).

Zotac 1070 ti runs cool enough, if you set it for efficient mining - margin if you push it though, and I don't believe they have Ball Bearing fans = short fan lifetime.

 That Asus blower card DOES have a ball-bearing fan, but the cooling would be a lot better if they got rid of that bloody DVI connector that blocks almost half of the airflow space.

 Probably won't happen, due to driver limits, unless AMD updates their "blockchain" driver to support more than 8 cards under Win 10 - or IF they ever get around to releasing a WORKING driver for Vega under LINUX.

 Also, Vega is a lot better off on Monero than on ETH - it's BEAT badly on a hash/$ basis by the RX 470/480/570/580 cards at recent pricing, even if you CAN find a Vega somewhere at something close to MSRP.

 28+ Mhash for UNDER $250 (and sometimes getting down close to $200) > 45 Mhash for $450 at MSRP and WAY MORE at current pricing when you can find a Vega at all.

There are quite a few, but most are in short supply or completely out of stock as AM3 or even AM3+ platform is old and outdated now.

 Try looking for AM3/AM3+ "combo" motherboards instead of "pure" AM3 ones - but even THERE options are getting very slim as most of the folks that used to make those motherboards no longer do so.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813145022 will get you to 5 slots and is low-cost in-stock right now - I've got one of those running a mix of 1070ti 1070 and 1080 cards in a 5-card riser rig right now.

R9 290 (and 290x) generally changes the memory timings above 1250 Mhz, so you might want to NOT bump above that - unless you can get to 1400+ Mhz reliably.

15.12 are the best drivers for those cards, and I fully agree on the "don't set AB overclock on startup" when you are trying to figure out what WORKS.

It is generally NOT possible to power a GPU and it's riser from the same cable, as the cable length between connectors on a dual-connector cable aren't long enough.

 An RX 580 doesn't soak enough power to have an issue with overloading a single cable powering BOTH PCI-E power connectors on the card - we're not talking Vega or GTX 1080 ti power draw levels here, and dual power connectors on an RX 580 is a STUPID waste of a design anyway for that reason.

Stak-CPU seems to be the current "best" CPU miner for Monero.
I can't recommend any pools, as all of the ones OTHER THAN NICEHASH have crazy-high payout thresholds when mining to an exchange wallet, and Suprnova I've had too many issues with about VERY poor performance on any algo I've tried on them.

Bitmain sold a LOT more D3 units than Innosilicon has sold of A5 - and has DELIVERED a lot more with more on the way.

 DO put the blame where it belongs.

 There are also the other folks like Pinidea and Baikal involved.

 Bitmain has NEVER limited sales on it's miners, other than "limit of how many we CAN make that people will BUY".
 EVER.
 The only reason they're not selling more S9 units is they can't get as many chips to MAKE them as they want to.

 BTW - Scrypt is a ton more profitable TODAY than it was a year ago.

 My Brand power meter has been working for .... hmmm, at least 15 and pushing close to 20 years now.
 Might not look as pretty as those cheap Kill-A-Watts but it's like the EverReady Bunny......

 16.9 and 16.10 series drivers work well on both RX 4xx and R9 2xx series cards under Windows.
It's the RX 5xx series cards and Vega where you start getting into "garbage support for older cards" issues on Windows.

 On the LINUX side, you have to go AMDGPU-PRO for anything RX series, and those drivers are just a pain in general and most of them do NOT work well with the older R9 series cards.



 R9 290 cards aren't hard to get the power down on - update them with a undervolt BIOS from TheStilt and DON'T overclock them.

 EINAC? Or at least somewhat comtemperary with it if not.

You COULD count both CureCoin and FoldingCoin in that, kinda.

 But you're not going to avoid the "people with big multi-GPU rigs" issue no matter what you do.

The first question is *WHY* are you wasting a GTX 970 mining Scrypt, when Scrypt has been ASIC dominated for mining for years?

 You will NOT make any money at it, even with FREE electric the income isn't going to be enough to matter.

Cooling on the Zotac Mini 1070 ti is ok, but not great - the 1080 ti version is going to be VERY VERY iffy on cooling.
It's also a question on if Zotac uses ball bearing fans (they don't say they DO, so probably they DON'T) = early fan death for anything else in a mining environment.

i5 for the CPU is overkill, but you did state "gaming rig" as a backup plan so it makes some sense in context.
Set it up to do Monero mining or some such will help some on the cost difference.

IMO go with at least a Gold rated power supply - and IMO one of the EVGA G2 or Seasonic X-series over anything Corsair (some Corsair models are good, many are JUNK, and I've given up trying to keep track of which are which).

 If you're looking at 6 1080ti cards, you need AT LEAST a pair of 850 watt PS unless you are going to run them a much lower than stock TDP *AND* can set the power limit RELIABLY.
 Otherwise, use at least 1000 on 3 cards + rest of system and at least an 850 on the other 3 cards - and at full TDP for 1080 ti cards more like a 1100+ and a 950+ to handle the power peaks mining generates reliably.
 Dual 750s should be OK for a 6 x 1070 ti build as long as you're not pushing the TDP above stock, though an 850 + 750 would be better if you ARE going to run the cards at full TDP.

There are quite a few GTX 1070 ti models that only need a single 8 pin connector - perhaps return to exchange your current cards for a different model?