Windows will install general VGA drivers for your GPU. You will see all text etc
[/quote]

Thanks, that alleviates my worries

I hit a stall in my build. 1st, my W7 didn't show up yet, but worse, I realized last night that I didn't have the the 3.5" to 2.5" brackets I need to mount my SSD under my Alpha-DB6 test bench. Unfortunately, no local PC shops are open until tomorrow so I can't really proceed with even the Mobo installation due to the way the 3.5" drive brackets mount underneath where the Mobo will be.

Given the extra time to think, I realized that I never even thought about a CPU heatsink. My Mobo does have 2 heatsinks on it (one next to the CPU) but wondering if I still should pick up a fan-type heatsink to mount over the CPU.  I do NOT plan to overclock this i7-6800k, but will be likely running it full time mining XMR.

Any opinions as to whether the open-air build and 2 on-Mobo heatsinks will be sufficient if I'm not over-clocking it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157543&cm_re=ASRock_x99-_-13-157-543-_-Product

So, something else I just thought about regarding my build with this Mobo & MSI 470's:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157543&cm_re=ASRock_x99-_-13-157-543-_-Product

This Mobo has no onboard video, so was planning to plug in the cheap VGA connector monitor I have into the first MSI 470's HDMI port via this connector/converter:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016HL4CAY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The thing I am grappling with goes back to the installing of AMD drivers for this GPU, since obviously, Windows 7 will not have them included when I install it fresh on the new SSD.

So, my question is this:  How will i be able to see anything on my monitor upon initial boot up, if it is plugged into a GPU that will not have its drivers installed yet?  I'm hoping that there is some limited functionality that at least allows text to be visible on the monitor before the drivers are installed, but if not, I can't think of a way to get around this.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks Rocky, I appreciate the info! I will be using Windows 7 Pro x64 and loading from a CD/DVD via a SATA optical drive.

So, I will just plug 1 GPU into PCIe x16 slot #1 before the the initial boot, then move right to installing Windows and don't mess with anything in bios.  Once installed, I assume Windows will auto-detect the MSI GPU and either auto-download the drivers from AMD or I will have to download manually and install them. But, either way, after that is done, shut down, unplug, install the other 2 GPUs, turn on the PC again, making sure all 3 GPUs are now recognized?

Thanks again, I am trying to prep as much as possible before actually building this thing

Well, I go the last of my components from NewEgg today, so now just hoping my W7 arrives tomorrow so I can set up my first rig this weekend.  Really curious to see what that i7-6800k is going to do, but overall, just chomping at the bit to finally start mining at some real speeds with the 3 MSI RX 470's!

So, I have (mostly) built my current personal PC myself, so I am fairly confident that I can assemble all of the hardware by leveraging the MoBo and YouTube demos if i get stuck. What I am a bit more foggy on though is the BIOS & OS setup, mainly the order, so wanted to pose a few quick questions here for some feedback:

After installing all hardware onto the MoBo, including connecting to PSU...

1- power on machine
2- since I am hooking up a brand new SSD, there will be nothing on it, so assuming the BIOS screen will come up first
3- at this point, do I see if the BIOS needs updated first before doing anything else?
4- or, should I clear/reset the CMOS censor before updating BIOS? Or, does this even really need to be done at all?
5- would the next step be to install Windows?

Finally, I am assuming that I plug in ALL 3 GPUs at initial setup BEFORE turning on the machine for the first time. If that is not correct, please let me know.

Also, are there any quirks to look out for specifically for a multi-GPU set-up?  Obviously i know not to enable cross-fire or SLI bridging, but are there any other unique things to be aware of during set up?

FYI: I am using this X99 MoBo:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157543&cm_re=ASRock_x99-_-13-157-543-_-Product

My current personal PC:

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K @ 3.4Ghz
Threads: 4
Hashrate: 140 H/s
Miner: MinerGate
OS: Win 7 Pro 64-bit


Building the following mining rig soon and will post results here when it's up and running:

CPU: Intel Core i7 6800K @ 3.6Ghz
Threads: 6
Hashrate: TBD
Miner: TBD
OS: Win 7 Pro 64-bit
GPU: 3x MSI Radeon RX470 4GB
Hashrate:  TBD

Exactly... if I would have had to pay the full $400 for my 6800k, there's no way I would have used it to build my first mining rig. VERY long road to ROI that cost, even if it does end up pulling the 500-600 M/h that I am hoping for.

As soon as I get my rig up and running, I will report back here as to what HR that CPU is getting.

That 510 H/s is more in line with what I had roughly calculated based on a few various benchmarks, but I am very curious... did you find that number on a site somewhere?  I am thinking my 6800k might be in the same ballpark... 1 generation newer, faster MHz, but of course, 2 less cores so we will see.

xxcsu, that hash rate seems low for that CPU.  I have seen several benchmarks where 2nd and 3rd gen regular or K series are hashing 330-440 M/h on Monero.  I originally thought that since the benchmark source was dated (no newer CPUs or GPUs) that some kind of recent event may have resulted in reduced H/s on Monero, but when I plot my 2600K CPU against what is on this chart, it is actually pretty close to the range at about 125-150 H/s.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MI-ic0Os25hgGUImW54sUIjZY_pUNQNa_W8Se5pRGBs/edit#gid=0

I'm curious if you have tried experimenting with things such as the # or cores option in MinerGate.  At least on my system, when I run it at what shows as 8 cores, I only get about 110-120 but if I reduce it to 4, I am in the 140-150 range, so a decent % better. I noticed your photo looks like you have all 16 (called cores but actually threads I believe) mining. So wondering if you have tried going with 8 to see if you get a similar bump.

I am about to build a system with an i7-6800k and expecting/hoping to get at least 500 H/s on XMR, but if my results are closer to what you are getting with a similar CPU, I might be in for a disappointment.  Luckily, I got it for free so if it's really only going to hash about 300, I will probably re-purpose it to build my next personal PC and opt for a much cheaper CPU for mining.

I really like that Mobo a lot Phil.  In fact, that was on my short list had I ended up with an 1151 socket CPU for my initial build. But, I thought that when I asked it about around a week ago, the feedback was that Z170 MoBo's would not support any more than 5 CPUs, which kind of knocked it down on my list since I want to try for 5.  Will be very interesting to see if you can get 5 GPU's running on this thing. If you do, I will likely pick one up for my 2nd build and dedicate it solely to ETH mining. I'm leaning towards exclusive XMR mining on my first rig with the i7-6800K as I have read posts from you and others indicating it's not the best idea to dual mine on the same rig. Looking forward to see what you can do with that ASRock Z170 Extreme3!

I'm still new to all of this but my research indicates that in most cases, at current exchange rates, Monero will be more profitable to mine.  This is true, albeit by a relatively narrow margin, even NOT counting the CPU factor, but if you have a relatively decent CPU, it swings even more to XMR.

Not sure about the GPU you mention as I have heard the AMD GPUs are usually better for most types of mining, but for instance... an RX 470 should provide ~750 H/s on XMR and ~25 MH/s on ETH.  If you plug those numbers into profit calculators at current rates with equal wattage and equal electricity costs, XMR comes out about 15-20% more profitable. Granted, this gap has increased quite a bit over the last few days since XMR is on a higher rise rate than ETH has been, but even before this, Monero was a bit more profitable. I believe that this mainly has to do with the fact that the difficulty for XMR is still way lower than that of ETH. So, yes, ETH is currently worth about 20% more than XMR in unit value, but due to lower difficulty, you will mine enough extra XMR in the same time (as if you would have mined ETC) to actually make about 20% more profit.

Now, that other big thing to consider in this particular comparison is CPU hashing power for XMR. I considered this heavily in my pending build and actually opted for a higher end CPU Intel i7-6800K(granted, i got it free which made a big difference but still).  This is because even my very old 2600K can pull 120-140 H/s on XMR (and effectively nothing on ETH). I've seen benchmarks indicating that 3xxxK and 4xxxK CPUs can get 300-400 H/s on XMR, so I am hoping my 6800K can do a bit better than that... maybe in the 500-600 range, which is almost the equivalent of another good GPU. I have heard that even the very cheap g4400 CPUs should be able to get around 120 M/h, which granted, isn't a ton, but it's 15-25% more hash rate (depending on your GPU) for XMR than you would get for ETH. Granted, all of this is theory until I get my rig up and running, but I believe the logic is sound.

I have recently used MinerGate on 2 newer laptops (both less than a year old). One is an Ultrabook and the other is a standard laptop with bigger 15" screen, but both get at best, 30-40 H/s mining Monero (XMR), which as I understand it, it really the only CPU-minable coin at this point.  So, I would imagine that unless you have a high-end gaming laptop, you will also likely see around 30-40 H/s on XMR. Fair warning, it's probably not even worth it because at that rate, it will probably take about 6 months or more to mine a single unit of XMR.  I ran this for about 2 weeks on each system but recently decided to stop mining on both because I have heard several places it can possibly do damage. Even if there is only 5% chance or less of causing damage, it's not worth it since you will be lucky to earn equivalent of $1-2 in a entire month. I decided to build a GPU rig for mining instead, but I plan on using the CPU on that rig to mine XMR. Laptops just don't seem to be worth the effort, but I do like the minergate software... very easy to use and a great way to learn about mining!

Thanks Lone & Phil... I would actually prefer to use Windows 7 over any other OS since I have been running W7 Pro 64-bit on my main PC for 4+ years and it's been my favorite OS to date.  I guess a few things I read were more about Windows 10 not being so great for mining, so I am highly inclined to go the W7 route since I really have no desire to learn a new OS on top of all of this.

As far as obtaining a relatively cheap license... looks like there are several well-reviewed sellers on ebay selling W7 Pro 64-bit OEM version for around $40 like the ones below.  Any concerns with these or do you have a better source?  

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Microsoft-Windows-7-Pro-64-32-Bit-Full-Version-Upgrade-SP1-NEW/162170326544?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3Df2fbda5819bf4100881aca4f232ee2c3%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D121971805513

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121971805513?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Thanks to Phil and everyone that provided expert advice in this thread, I have finally got all of the components ordered for my first GPU mining rig!  I already have 2 MSI RX 470's from Amazon, and have a 3rd one coming with the rest of the gear I just ordered from NewEgg yesterday.  Luckily, my colleague did come through with that free i7-6800K, so I ended up ordering this ASRock X99 MoBo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157543&cm_re=ASRock_x99-_-13-157-543-_-Product

Very curious to see what kind of hash-rate that CPU will provide on XMR. I think the minimum will be about 400 but really hoping it's more in the range of ~600 or so... but time will tell.

I ended up getting the 1kw version of the Rosewill Quark series Plat PSU. I might have been able to get by with the 850W version, but for only an extra $10, it seemed like a no-brainer since now I will be able to expand from 3 GPU's to this Mobo's max of 5 without any power whatsoever.

I also ended up going with this open ATX bench. I think I saw something similar in one of Phil's pics but someone else I believe also recommended this, so thanks!  I actually think this will be easier than trying to cram everything into an expensive ATX case and definitely easier to access for adding additional cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353001

Can I assume that just pointing and oscillating or box type fan at this will work sufficiently for cooling?

Finally, I obviously now need to start thinking about which OS i want to use for this rig. Originally, I was just going to use Windows 10, since I have only used Windows and 10 seems to be the most stable version.  However, after doing some research, it seems that Linux Ubuntu is by far the preferred OS for mining. Is that what Phil and most of the people on this thread are on?  If so, do you have a recommendation as far as version goes?  Looks like it's either 14.04.5 or 16.04.1, as 15 appears to be EOL'd.  I did notice on MinerGate's site that at least its miner is supposedly 60% more productive with any Ubuntu version 15 or later (vs it's v14 software).

Usually, I would just opt for the most recent version, but any advice would be appreciated. Any concerns at all with v16.04.1? Thanks again to everyone!

Hello, I have been here a few weeks trying to learn about mining (mainly interested in XMR & ETH) and am about to build a rig with 3 (to start) RX 470's.  Until now, I have been using MinerGate to get familiar with mining process. Although I really appreciate its user-friendliness being a complete noob to this, I cannot get it to recognize/mine with the GPU in my current personal PC. Granted, it's an old Nvidia GeForce GTX 550-Ti and maybe it's simply not capable of mining anything, who knows. But, MinerGate support was not helpful at all. After 3-4 emails with their tech support, they finally told me that it would take a long time to try to figure out what the problem is and recommend that I use an alternate GPU miner, of which they link several (including Claymore's) directly on their website.

So, I downloaded and attempted to launch Claymore CrypyoNote GPU Miner v9.5.  I was able to edit the BAT file i downloaded from MinerGate to add my email address and save succesfully, but when I try to launch the EXE, (via Open command, double-click or Run as Admin), I get a brief DOS box? to pop-up but then it closes before I can even read what it says and nothing else happens.

Now, after this, I read through the readme and realize that this version only supports AMD GPUs, which will theoretically be fine for me new build, but obviously will not work for my current old Nvidia GPU.

So... can anyone recommend a good, easy to use XMR GPU miner currently available for old Nvidia cards?  I am not at all familiar with command lines, compilers, etc, so hopefully there is something out there with not too steep of learning curve. I am currently on Windows 7 64-bit and my new system will either be W10 or Linux (but with AMD 470s).

Thanks!  

Thanks LoneRangir... I've seen those bridges when I was researching was SLI was a few days ago. But, what got me worried about this MoBo was the following verbiage in the Tom's review:

"You’ve probably noticed that the X99 Extreme4 has four PCIe x16 slots, but that one of these wasn’t mentioned in the introduction. That’s because the second PCIe x16 slot wired as a two-lane PCIe 2.0 link to the motherboard’s PCH. An included three-way SLI bridge bypasses it entirely to connect the first, third, and fourth x16-length slots, since those are the X99 Extreme4’s only SLI-compliant interfaces."

To me (granted, not even close to educated on this stuff), that last sentence makes it sound like the SLI bridge is something like hard-wired or built into the board itself.  BUT... now that I look at the pics on the newegg page, it does have a picture of an SLI bridge as a separate piece that is included in the box with the MoBo, so I guess it is safe to assume that all 5 PCIe slots are capable of running GPU's independently.  I guess the point of that paragraph is that only slots 1, 3, & 4 are SLI-compliant and slot 2 & 5 are not, but the wording was confusing to me.

Hey Phil... yeah I realized the 2011 boards are much more expensive in general, but was able to find this ASRock X99 Extreme4 for $170 after rebate.  More than I wanted to spend on a MoBo but if I get the 6800x for free, it's doable. The thing i like about this board is that is has 4 x16 slots (like the previous 1151 board you suggested), meaning I would only have to use risers if I eventually went to 5 GPUs in this rig.  Any thoughts on this board?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157543&cm_re=ASRock_x99-_-13-157-543-_-Product

Thanks! Exactly what I was hoping to hear

Thanks Phil... you are of course correct on that 6800k requiring a 2011-v3 MoBo... something that I was not realizing until i looked it up after you mentioned it. It seems only 6700 and under are LGA-1151 and the 4 6800-6950 CPUs are ineede the 2011-v3.  So, I have quickly found out that these MoBos are much more expensive, but I have found 1 that looks to be good for $170 after rebate. So, if I get the CPU for free, $170 total for CPU & MoBo would be about the same as if I bought a G4400 & $110 1151 MoBo outright, but of course, a lot higher end on the former setup (although granted, might not make much impact on mining).

ASRock X99 Extreme4 LGA 2011-v3 Intel:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157543

Has anyone used this board?  One of the nice things about it is that is has 4 PCIe x16 slots and only 1 PCIe 1x... so only eventual need for 1 riser possible... not 3 as with their 2/3 boards.

However, I noticed both on this board description and the technical specs of the Intel 6800x-6950x CPUs that the 28-PICe-lane 6800x will only support 2-way SLI... only the 40-lane 6850 (and up) would support 3-way SLI.  This worries me a bit since I want 4-5 GPU's in this rig, BUT... does SLI have anything to do with mining at all?  My understanding is that SLI is a way of effectively linking all of the GPU's so that they work together... hoping this is not required for mining but any clarifications on this aspect would be appreciated.

Thanks Phil for the build suggestions... especially that PSU, which is the same wattage (850) and same price as the EVGA Gold I was looking at, so more effecient at the same price is always a good thing. I may even consider moving up to the 1000W as it is only $10 more.

Still not 100% decided on the CPU, mainly because I might be able to get a hold of a i7 6700k or 6800k from a colleague for free... but, either way I can at least move forward with my Mobo purchase as both of those and the G4400 you recommend are LGA-1151.

I was temped by the Mobo you listed but hesitated because I still am considering trying to at least have the capability of going to 5 GPU's in this rig. And, when I went back and checked today, it's up to $165, so currently out of the running.

I did find this though and was wondering if anyone has used it successfully, especially for 5-card builds:
ASRock H170 Pro4:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157639

It is listed in several places as being able to support 5 GPU's, of course 3 would have to be with risers but at least I could do my initial 2-GPU build with both right on the board and not have to mess with risers for a bit anyway.

The downside is that of course, it is out of stock at NewEgg ($90). Amazon has it but it's $20 more. Still, it people have used this with success, I will probably just pay the extra $20 so I can get up and running.

On the topic of risers... assuming the USB3.0 powered variety are the way to go, could anyone recommend some good ones and also advise as to their power draw?

Thanks again!

Hello everyone... read the last 7-8 pages of this read today as I am looking to get a primarily XMR rig up and running... hopefully within the next week or so.  There is some really good info in this thread that has already helped educate me about mining nuances, so I appreciate all that people have shared!

I have been trying to find CPU hash rates for XMR, but til now, have not found much more than a quite old spreadsheet on googledocs. I was able to crosscheck my current PC's old 2600k on this sheet and am getting around 115 M/s with it which is close to what is shown on this sheet. But, since this does not have any recent CPU's, I wanted to reach out and see what people's experience has been.

About my build:
- ASRock Mobo that supports 5-6 GPUs (leaning towards LGA-1151 socket but may consider 1150)
- 2 MSI RX470 GPU's (to start, then add more later if profits are in line with expectations)
- CPU: was grappling between the i7-6800k and i7-5820k but now leaning more towards the 6800, mainly because it's a slightly newer CPU with slightly better overall performance. I get can both for around $200 with the 6800 only about $20 more than that 5820.  However, it then became apparent that a lot of people were building rigs with a very cheap g4400 or g4500 CPU, so I am now trying to figure out the ROI on each.

That's where I need some assistance... either in confirming my theory below, or with people's own experience with any of these (or similar) CPUs.

I believe it was GingerAle who posted a few pages back about the G4400 getting 60 H/s.  That CPU has 2 threads, so assuming it will provide 120 H/s. This is of course quite low (my current 2600 gets that already) but I do realize it has a low TDP of 54W. Still, that equates to only about a rate of 2.22 Hashes/Watt, which again, is not great for XMR.

So, I am now trying to calculate the same rates for the i7-6800.  This has 12 threads, so my main question is, can I expect about the same 60 H/s per thread on this CPU (meaning it could get 720 H/s for XMR)?  It does has 15MB of Cache, so shouldn't be any limitation there... if the 2MB per thread requirement I read is indeed valid.  Is there something else that could limit this?  Or, is it actually likely to get more than 60 per thread since it is a slightly faster and higher end CPU?

If indeed it can get in the 720 range, that would make my decision easy, because that would equate to 5.14 Hashes/Watt (even with its 140 TDP), which is about 2.5x of the g4400. Yes, the 6800 would cost me $130 more, but my break even on that expense would only be about 3-4 months at current rates, so worth it I believe.

Any data or experiences with i7-6800k or similar would be greatly appreciated!