More Q's I'll post here

Q: All I need to do is just install windows and go from there?
A: Yes, you'll need a temp dvd drive or just install from a USB stick.  I just did this the other day, install windows, the driver + sdk, afterburner, and GUIminer-scrypt and go from there.  You may need to cut holes to put USB devices in, just use a cheap soldering iron.

Q: Would those components be the same if I were going to be running 10 units or would you personally use different equipment to maximize hash power.
What cards would make the units as productive as possible that are still available in large quantities?
A: Personally I would make them all like this.  You can fit a maximum of 7 cards in the rig, but I don't like doing that because that many cards makes a ton of heat right next to the board and will only save you about 70w (most modern mobos and cheap cpus only use ~70w).  Additionally, you need powered extenders for >3 cards and they are also a pain in the ass (molex cables everywhere, bad airflow).  The motherboards you buy have very high resale value so you can always just dump them in a year.

As far as scaling up, you can put two PSUs in a single crate and then put two rigs on either side.  You can then stack the units by cutting out the bottom on some more crates, putting these empty crates on top (the GPUs are above the top of the crate for me so you need to cut out the bottoms), then on top of these crates just install another 3x crates with 2x mobos and 2x PSUs.  
Like this:
### <-- etc
### <-- empty
### <-- 2x mobo, 6x cards, 2x psus
### <-- empty
### <-- 2x mobo, 6x cards, 2x psus
Because of the empty space, there's lots of air circulation and you can easily install 120mm or 200mm fans if you want to to help keep things cool.

Sapphire cards are available in very large quantities at the moment if you can't get MSI or don't want to spend more.

It really doesn't matter.  With this build the PSU is in another crate and you can tie up loose cables with cables ties.

You'll probably need at least one powered extenders.  I hate using them because it tends to make a clusterfuck with all the molex cable, but you're welcome to.

Bumping this...  end of March and we've hit $1.



A historic moment *tear*

people keep asking me what to build, so I made a thread here

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=163306.0

everyone please stop sending pms

People keep asking me about what to do for their first rig etc. so I'm going to outline it quickly here and make it easy for everyone.

I recommended non-powered (regular) x16 --> x16 extenders and three cards per board.  I've run rigs like this for months on end with no problems (no motherboards frying etc)

Stuff needed: (intel build)
3x pcie x16 motherboard eg http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157295
celeron cpu eg http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116409
8 gb ddr3 ram (2x 4gb) eg http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104262
1 sata hdd eg http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136591
3x non powered x16 extenders from ebay eg http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-PCI-E-Express-x16-Extender-Flexible-Ribbon-Cable-/281070938954?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4171222b4a
1x wifi adapter (any, usually usb) if needed
gold or platinum 850w psu eg http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011
3x 7950s (MSI and Sapphire are some of the few non-volt locked ones right now) http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127667

Build is the same for amd, just use a board with 3x pcie x16 slots and a cheap cpu

Then, buy this from home depot:
2x plastic crates
small wood or metal screws that are pointed, about 1.5-2.0 cm long and are small enough to go in the GPU plate holes
2 ft ruler shaped flat piece of steel (they sell this in 4 ft I think, you need to cut them in half with a hack saw)
vinyl stick on cushions http://www.homedepot.ca/product/1-2-clear-vinyl-pads-surface-gard/948073
--> $10 for a case

Put the vinyl cushions on the bottom of one of the crates.  Put the motherboard on top of the cushions.
Put the PSU in the other crate.  Add RAM/CPU.  Hook up the PSU to everything.
Insert the extenders and plug in the hard drive.
Put the cards on, screwing them into the inner lip of the plastic crate and bracing them with the flat piece of metal you bought as a cross member towards the end of the card.
Plug the card into the extender and connect remaining power bits.
Turn rig on by shorting the power pins on the motherboard with a screwdriver, then set the motherboard to turn on as soon as power is given to it ("Wake on power" option in BIOS).
Install Windows (use a USB drive or connect a SATA DVD Drive temporarily), mine (I use guiminer-scrypt).

This is what it looks like:


Rig power consumption at 1.8 MH/s is ~750 watts in summer or ~650 watts in winter.

> 1. greedi vs everyone
we've never seen problems like this for bitcoin, eg luke jr vs. everyone?
> 2. BIP #0050
addressed already by coblee
> 3. transaction -rescan issue
problem with bitcoin client, will be fixed by 0.8.1 update, not really an issue as I have 500+ tx recorded, and they've all gone through fine for me

if you want to talk to the developers, come to #litecoin-dev, they're there 24/7

You know what Sunny King also doesn't do?  Shit all over other cryptocurrencies despite desiring the success of his own.

That thermal design is laughable and has 120w+ in fans alone.  I'm really wondering who thought it was a great idea to just stack a bunch of their Singles on top of each other and then put a wall of fans on either side.  From that picture the airflow looks abysmal.

Meanwhile avalon dissipates ~500w with 20w of 120mm fans.

Miners can reject any tx they want to.

--> Miners will just reject every tx beneath a certain fee threshold, forcing you to pay for faster confirmations.

Already there are blocks with 25+ BTC in fees though, if traffic is large enough it's not a big deal.

Buy litecoins, they'll be the real winner when ASICs ship.

 

Proprietary design, they're not talking about it a lot.  You can try them at #litecoin-dev on freenode if you like.

Problem?  The rig seems happy enough.  It was just a dab to get it to stick to the staple.

I have not a clue.

The only thing left I have to recommend is maybe reinstalling windows.

I can confirm this bug on Windows with cgminer 2.11.3.  I have no idea why this happens.  Was hashing at 433 KH/s last night and woke up to 399 KH/s.  Pool showed the hash rate was going down too.  Guess I'll have to switch back to reaper.

...it's the Avalon ASIC.  They made their own processor.  TSMC was the foundry that produced the wafers based on their design.

Okay, shorted successfully using 4 mini staples soldered to two cut molex cable wires and successfully activated 2x PCIe 1x slots with risers on an eVGA 680i motherboard.  Yay!  If you have mini staples they're perfect for this, although once you stick the card in it bends the normal wire and messes up the slot permanently for use without the short.  Not really a big deal though.

7950s are recommended over 7970s because they are easier to configure -- it can be a royal pain in the ass to get some 7950s over 500 KH/s.

Save yourself some time and buy this board instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514

down

edit: ok back

150-180$ shipped