Whatever is cheaper. Again, CPU makes zero difference to GPU mining.
CPU is still good to mine those CPU and not so GPU efficient coins like primecoin.... Eh, cheap CPUs like that won't really get anywhere anymore. Mining with the CPU will just drag the GPUs down IMO. |
|
|
|
i stumbled onto two other things that I was unaware before... slightly off topic, but maybe someone can give a quick answer
* Dummy plugs for GPUs if no display is installed: still needed, or solved with newer AMD Catalyst drivers? (Win/Linux)
(if required, what is there proper name to look in electronics shop)
No longer an issue, no dummy plugs required
* RAM requirement for Litecoin: Does scrypt mining require a certain amount of RAM? (or was that due to bugs in the miner software?) how much?
* if RAM is required, does Speed/CL-timings make a difference?
CGminer uses about 100MB of RAM. I have 6card rigs with 4GB of RAM and they work just fine.
(PS: Sempron 145 with possible/probable option to unlock 2nd core sounds good; any reasons not to go with ASROCK 970 extreme 4?)
Nothing wrong with that board if the PCI-e slots suit your needs.
|
|
|
|
|
Whatever is cheaper. Again, CPU makes zero difference to GPU mining.
|
|
|
|
|
Yep, if buying new 280X is the way to go until we get results from 290/290X.
|
|
|
|
thanks for the info and recommendations.
no riser, because i want it in a proper case. I won't discuss it, since it is not an option for me... (i see the problems and pros and cons, but it is not open to me)
Hardware prices in europe are way higher, often € = $, so I don't want to buy too many different boards/CPUs to experiment, but land a good choice right away.
which MB/CPUs allow undervolting?
Last CPU that I undervoltet was a Pentium M (Banias)... lol... since then, most CPUs I have seen are voltage locked, or Boards don't allow for it.
Energyconsumption of Board and CPU is important, since in 1-2 card setups it is a factor. Also board quality (components) make some part of the energysupply to the cards.
I don't want the board to burn in 2 months.
unfortunatly the info, whether a GPU is voltaged locked or not is very distributed, also most retailers don't offer conlcusive information that allows to pick the right cards.
last year I was looking at AMD Sempron 145, but I think an Intel C2D is a better choice. Any recommendation for a Board (allowing 3 GPUs)?
(thanks for the recommendations of the updated IB/Haswell Boards)
Sempron is cheaper and more efficient...get a 970 chipset am3+ gigabyte board and r9 280x sapphire toxic cards. Those are unlocked if used with sapphire trixx (comes with the cd). You can upgrade to an fx8320 if you wish later on and get a nice gaming rig too. Platinum seasonic or XFX psu is a good idea. Get Dual X over Toxic. Cheaper and easier to hit better hash rates with, unless you flash the Toxic to Dual-X BIOS. XFX is manufactured by Seasonic, so no issues if you go with them. Coolermaster "V" series is also Seasonic. I have 2 V1000s, great units based on Seasonic's KM3 platform. I don't think the premium for Platinum over Gold is worth it, though. Especially since you're on 240v. Anybody manage to get Toxic and Vapor flashed and compare it to Dual X? Which one is better? Dual X is an easy 740KH/s @ 1040/1500 |
|
|
|
thanks for the info and recommendations.
no riser, because i want it in a proper case. I won't discuss it, since it is not an option for me... (i see the problems and pros and cons, but it is not open to me)
Hardware prices in europe are way higher, often € = $, so I don't want to buy too many different boards/CPUs to experiment, but land a good choice right away.
which MB/CPUs allow undervolting?
Last CPU that I undervoltet was a Pentium M (Banias)... lol... since then, most CPUs I have seen are voltage locked, or Boards don't allow for it.
Energyconsumption of Board and CPU is important, since in 1-2 card setups it is a factor. Also board quality (components) make some part of the energysupply to the cards.
I don't want the board to burn in 2 months.
unfortunatly the info, whether a GPU is voltaged locked or not is very distributed, also most retailers don't offer conlcusive information that allows to pick the right cards.
last year I was looking at AMD Sempron 145, but I think an Intel C2D is a better choice. Any recommendation for a Board (allowing 3 GPUs)?
(thanks for the recommendations of the updated IB/Haswell Boards)
Sempron is cheaper and more efficient...get a 970 chipset am3+ gigabyte board and r9 280x sapphire toxic cards. Those are unlocked if used with sapphire trixx (comes with the cd). You can upgrade to an fx8320 if you wish later on and get a nice gaming rig too. Platinum seasonic or XFX psu is a good idea. Get Dual X over Toxic. Cheaper and easier to hit better hash rates with, unless you flash the Toxic to Dual-X BIOS. XFX is manufactured by Seasonic, so no issues if you go with them. Coolermaster "V" series is also Seasonic. I have 2 V1000s, great units based on Seasonic's KM3 platform. I don't think the premium for Platinum over Gold is worth it, though. Especially since you're on 240v. |
|
|
|
thanks for the info and recommendations.
no riser, because i want it in a proper case. I won't discuss it, since it is not an option for me... (i see the problems and pros and cons, but it is not open to me)
Hardware prices in europe are way higher, often € = $, so I don't want to buy too many different boards/CPUs to experiment, but land a good choice right away.
which MB/CPUs allow undervolting?
Last CPU that I undervoltet was a Pentium M (Banias)... lol... since then, most CPUs I have seen are voltage locked, or Boards don't allow for it.
Energyconsumption of Board and CPU is important, since in 1-2 card setups it is a factor. Also board quality (components) make some part of the energysupply to the cards.
I don't want the board to burn in 2 months.
unfortunatly the info, whether a GPU is voltaged locked or not is very distributed, also most retailers don't offer conlcusive information that allows to pick the right cards.
last year I was looking at AMD Sempron 145, but I think an Intel C2D is a better choice. Any recommendation for a Board (allowing 3 GPUs)?
(thanks for the recommendations of the updated IB/Haswell Boards)
Just about every motherboard will allow voltage control, and CPUs don't have a choice in the matter. They get what the motherboard tells it it's getting. 95% of the following boards and generations will allow voltage control and multiplier adjustment: S775 (Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Pentium Single and Dual): Chipsets: P35,P45,X38,X48 S1366 (i3, i5, i7, etc) Chipsets: P58, X58 S1156: Don't know enough about this socket S1155: (Celeron, Pentium, i3, i5, i7 Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge) Chipsets: P67, Z68, Z77, Z87 S1150: (Celeron, Pentium, i3, i5, i7 Haswell) Chipset: Z87 S2011: i7 only, all boards allow control Buy a MSI Military Class motherboard. They are top notch (better than Asus) and their service is amazing should you ever need it (Asus support is absolute dog shit) For unlocked 7970s, the info is out there but needs to be gathered. From my first hand experience, I can tell you that any reference card (blower style) is fully unlocked. Sapphire Dual X cards are also fully unlocked. Powercolor are GPU unlocked but memory locked. Everything MSI is unlocked. Everything Asus (Save Top & Matrix) is locked. All new Gigabytes are locked, older revisions are unlocked. The only cards I've had die are Asus cards. Avoid Asus for everything, they aren't what they used to be. What's hilarious is they make monster cards like DCII series, market them to overclockers, but they lock the voltages on them. Have I mentioned that you should avoid Asus? |
|
|
|
i am in europe, so 240 is the way ;-)
i am interested in efficent boards/cpus, any recommendations?
which (cheap) board/cpu will work to start with a 3 card setup (no pcie-risers!)
I want to use it as a setup to tweak and get more experience with the components
Is the sole purpose of this rig GPU mining? Or do you want to do other things with it? If only GPU mining, CPU and motherboard have no importance at all. I have a preference for Intel CPUs and motherboards as they tend to use a couple watts less than their AMD counterparts, but either brand will give you the same result. AMD is a little cheaper, and the watt difference will likely never make up the difference in price. I still chose Intel, though. Why are you so against using risers? It's absolutely the best way to mine. Using risers would allow you to use a cheaper motherboard, and would greatly lower each GPU's temperature. This results in less power being used (hotter a GPU is the more watts it consumes), less fan wear and less noise from each GPU, and likely a prolonged service life for each GPU as all components (GPU, RAM, VRMs) will run much cooler. Like I said earlier, this is my ideal setup: Seasonic 1250w (Bullet-proof Seasonic quality and can handle 5 properly tuned 7970s) 5x 7970 / R9 280X Intel socket 775 motherboard with 2 PCI-e 16x slots and 3 PCI-e 1x slots (One card in second 16x slot, 4 cards with risers) Any 45nm Intel C2D underclocked and undervolted as low as the motherboard will allow, and one core disabled if MB allows (65nm may also be used, but consumes more watts) 4GB DDR2 I regularly see base systems as described above (MB, CPU, RAM) going for $60~$80 on my local classifieds here in Montreal. You won't do better than that in terms of cost. If you really don't want to use risers (Again, why???) then your best bet will be a used quad SLI X58 motherboard (There may only be tri-SLI X58 boards), a used or new P67,Z67,Z77,Z87 which has a PLX chip on board to add more PCI-e lanes and allow 4 16x slots. If Z77 or above, only use Ivy Bridge or Haswell CPUs else not all PCI-e slots will be enabled. Get a cheap Celeron or Pentium CPU, no need for an i3, i5, or i7. Another easy but expensive route for quad SLI motherboards will be X79 based systems, but there are no cheap CPUs for those. Your best bet will be a used i7 3820 for $200~$250. Basically, you should use risers if you're goin to expand past 1 or 2 GPUs. This will get you going if you want to buy new with possibilty for 3 GPUs without risers: Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130645 Ivy Bridge http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130727 Haswell CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116889 Ivy Bridge http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116950 Haswell |
|
|
|
|
Oh, and if you're going for power efficiency you'll obviously want a gold rated power supply. Seasonic is the way to go. If you're like me and you want to squeeze every little bit out of your setup, you will want to run your rig on 240v, not 120v. That alone will add about 3% efficiency to the PSU, especially under heavy mining loads. It's also less stressful on the power supply and should extend it's service life.
|
|
|
|
|
No. The change is not persistent, and there is no way to control voltage in Linux AFAIK.
|
|
|
|
got any real (running longer than 10min) kHash and Watt readings?
6X 7970. 5 reference cards all running 1040/1800 with voltage between 1000mv to 1050mv, averaging 200w to 220w each. 6th card is an Asus 7970DCII which is voltage locked, so I run maxed out 24/7 stable at 800KH/s. That card consumes 300w unfortunately. Wish it's voltage was unlocked.  6X 7970. All Sapphire 7970 Dual-X and all running 1040/1500 with voltages ranging from 1025mv to 1100mv. Averaging 210-240w per card.  6x 7950. All Gigabyte Windforce cards. All but one run at 1140/1250, with the other one dying at anything over 950/1250. Voltages are locked at 1250mv, but lowered with a modded BIOS to 1.09v. Cards consume 300w each.  People who say 7950s are the way to go don't know what they're talking about. |
|
|
|
It's not going to draw 1000 watts at the wall unless you load it up with 3 singles. It's wall power draw depends totally on what is hooked up to it.
Exactly  Also,that PSU is not going give a decent efficiency until its drawing about 80% of max,which would be 800 watts.Until then the efficiency is going be poor  Would you be so kind as to elaborate further? I am assuming you are referring to overall cost of operation? He's talking about PSU AC to DC conversion efficiency. Most power supplies are most efficient at 50% power load. (not 80%)  |
|
|
|
|
The program you need to mine is "CGminer". Download that and read the readme.
|
|
|
|
|
The king of efficiency right now is a 7970/R9-280X which is voltage unlocked. Not sure why Ivan is suggesting that you buy an expensive X79 setup, ignore that. My preferred setup is an old Core2Duo with a 5 PCI-e slot LGA775 P45 chipset motherboard. Pair that with a Seasonic XPower 1250w and you're golden to run a 5x7970 rig. If you want a 6 or 7 card setup, I recommend an MSI Z77A-GD65 plus the cheapest Ivy Bridge CPU you can find.
I'm waiting on 290/290x to continue growing my farm personally.
Edit: Sorry, should've read your post properly before commenting. If risers are out of the question (they shouldn't be, you're going to have lots of fun trying to cool 4 GPUs in a case) then you'll be raising your costs by a few hundred dollars. Look for any quad crossfire/sli board and have at it.
|
|
|
|
Thank you for the prompt update. |
|
|
|
|
I have 50 that I'm selling
|
|
|
|
|
Get an Ivy Bridge based Celeron, a lot of boards won't enable all PCI-e slots with a Sandy Bridge CPU on a z77 chipset.
|
|
|
|
I noticed they are only getting 1000 on a 7990, I've been able to get 1500 kh/s on scrypt. if they are getting 620 on a 280x, I think i can get 800 kh/s, but I won't find out till friday when my 280x gets here. 800 is possible with a great card (have done it with 7970s) but the power consumption doesn't make sense compared to running an easy 740KH/s. |
|
|
|
|
Depends what kind of CPUs they are. Some might be worth solo mining, others not.
|
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
