@Vann Really appreciate your feedback.

We're currently buying all the hardware, we found a H81 Pro BTC 2.0 for about $160 (the price of 6PCIe motherboard has skyrocketed recently, even the second hand ones sell for a minimum of $130) and we were wondering if there is any point NOT going for the cheaper CPU ? I mean does it makes a difference to go for a $80 Pentium instead of the cheap $40 one ?

Same question regarding the RAM, any point getting more than 4GB ? (For reference we're gonna use a ASRock H81 PRO BTC 2.0 mobo)

Also, do you guys have any recommendations in terms of PSU ? We're going for a 6*GPU rig (rx 570), is there any go to PSU for this kind of rig (in terms of price/performance) ?

Finally, is there any rx 570 which stands out ? The cheapest ones we can get are the Asus Expedition 4GB one and the MSI Armor 4GB.

Care to elaborate on that part ?

hasn't AMD been the best brand overall for mining over the past years, and not just for ETH (I'm thinking aboute BTC of course, Litecoin, BOINC etc... ) ?

Is there a minimum amount of RAM you need to use on this Mobo or could you run it with just one 4GB stick ?

Hi guys,

instead of creating a new topic I thought I could just use this one.

At the moment, this motherboard ASUS Prime H270-Plus (https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/PRIME-H270-PLUS/specifications/). At around $100, it's one of the cheapest and one of the few 6xPCIE card available at the moment.

I couldn't find much information regarding this card, is anyone actually mining on it with 6 GPUs ? Did you have any difficulty to set it up ?

Any info regarding this card would be much appreciated ! Thanks !

Local shop who still has a couple of them left.

That's really the only version available. Not worth it for this price ($235) ?

Regarding the RX570s, what is the max price you're willing to pay before the card becomes too expensive ? I have an option to buy some 570s Asus Expedition (it's one of the cheapest versions) for about $235 per card. Is it worth it or is it too much for a basic 570 ?

Got it, I've read more and more stuff about old hardware and Zcash and it seems like it's the way to go.

In terms of ROI, is a 7970@$110 mining ZEC more interesting than a RX570@$240 mining ETH (just asking out of curiosity, we've already ordered some 570) ?

Thanks mate, short but precise answers, exactly what I'm looking for.

It's a 7970 indeed, my bad !

In terms of GPU, which way would you go and why (between the GPU I mentionned aboveHD 7970@$110 each and RX 560 4GB@$130) ? I guess the RX 570 is a no brainer but there's only a limited amount available at a decent price.

Hi there !

A couple of friends and I finally decided to jump in the ETH wagon. We know we're a little bit late to the party, but this is what we have been telling ourselves since the beginning of the year so well... at some point you have to act !

So here we are, trying to figure out how to start all this. After spending quite some time on the internet, we're starting to have an idea about where to start but we still have about one billion questions, so I hope you guys will be able to answer few of them !

1. Living in Europe (on both sides of the Channel, the UK and France), we're facing a shortage of RX 470/480/570/580 just like anyone else. Here are what we found (I'll convert the prices in USD so that everyone can have a rough idea of how much it costs).

-  HD 7970 3GB for approximately $110 each (reference card)
-  RX 570 4GB for $240 each (MSI ARMOR OC)
-  RX 560 4GB for $130 (even the 4GB ones are hard to find nowadays)

Now there is one important parameter to take into account : we do not have to pay for our electricity bil, which instantly makes the HD 7970 a relevant card.

What we struggled to find for these cards is their ACTUAL hashrate. We know it can change a lot, depending on the type of memory you end up with. However we really struggled to find some relevant Hashrate information for the HD 7870. All we could find are old message board posts from 2015/2016 which say that the HD 7970 hashrate is anywhere between 15 and 24... Any information on that would be much appreciated!

Regarding the RX 560. While initially it was deemed as not worthy, with the 570/580 shortage it seems like more and more people are buying them. if I'm not mistaken you can get a hashrate of about 14.5mh/s (see here https://youtu.be/GZsAQziUgdA?t=258 it's in russian but the only thing that matters is the number on the screen !). What's your take on those cards ?

We believe (but we could be wrong !), give the current price, the best option would be to get as many RX 570s as we can for $240 and then... well then we don't know. We don't have enough information on the HD 7870 so we tend to believe that the RX 560 is not a "bad buy", considering we roughly get half the hashrate of a RX 570 for about half the price !

According to you guys, what would be the best buy (bear in mind once again, we do not pay for the electricity cost).

2. Considering we're mainly looking to mine ETH (maybe Zcash later on), what would be the best OS between Windows 7, Windows 10 and Ubuntu/Linux and why ?

3. How do you chose your pool ? I know you have to check out the pay out system, but other than that, how do you check what is the most efficient pool for you (i.e. the one where you get the highest hashrate)? Is there any other way than simply testing them yourself, one by one ?

4. We may start our first rig with different graphic cards plugged onto the same motherboard (old and new hardware mixed, like hd 7870, rx 480, rx 570 etc...). Is it going to be an issue or as long as each card has its own driver, it doesn't make any difference ?

5. That's an important one. Why do you need to change the BIOS of each card ? By changing the BIOS I mean why would you change the frequencies in the BIOS instead of using MSI afterburner or any other OC software ? What's the difference ?

I guess that's it for now, we sincerely appreciate your help ! Thanks !

edit : 7970 (not 7870!)