Hi. Did you find a suitable answer to your question? I'm also planning to purchase the same model GPUs, and am interested in the answer. Thanks.

Been watching Breaking Bad?

I've been searching around the internet about how activity count is calculated in SMF after I noticed that my activity count wasn't increasing. I finally found this post after accidentally selecting the wrong sub-forum. 

*banging head at my own stupidity*

Were you able to find a solution to your problem?

I'm also planning to buy the same cards, and am interested in the answer, in case I face the same issue.

Thanks for the clarification, ssateneth. I guess I'll have to call ASRock support or something to find out about the pci-e slots on it.

Hey. I'm planning on getting this board for my first mining rig, and was wondering if you could tell me how many cards you're using on the board?

I'm planning to make a rig with 7 cards, and the ASRock Z87 Killer (Fatal1ty) does have the slots, but I can't find any information regarding whether or not it supports having all slots active.

Thanks!

@ssateneth

Hey. I recently purchased a few units of these risers from you. I have a question regarding them. Due to the unavailability of the motherboards commonly used in rigs, I've been thinking about going with the ASRock Z87 Killer (Fatal1ty) motherboard.

On another thread, this post ( https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=36061.msg4264789#msg4264789 ) claims that the motherboard needs shorting of some pins to recognize all GPUs connected to it.

The MoBo has 7 PCI-E slots, and I'd like to use all of them.

In your original product description, you mentioned that these risers have some built-in enhanced video card detection feature.

I was wondering if this negates the need to short any MoBo pins, or will I need to do that anyways?

---

This question is for everyone. The motherboard manual does not mention anything about connecting more than 3 GPUs or any PCI-E devices, so I have no information about whether or not its possible to use 7 cards on this MoBo. Do you know of any to ensure that this MoBo will work, without actually purchasing it? I tried searching the forum, but there are only 2 threads which mention this board, and they don't have the information I'm looking for. 

Excellent. That's all I wanted to know. I've never been a fan of being spoon fed information, so your answer is perfect. Thanks!

Hey everyone.

I'm currently building my fist mining rig, with 2 R9 280x cards. I wanted to know if its possible to have both cards mining separate coins? For example, I have one card mining at a auto-switching pool, while the other card is mining some new coin solo.

Also, if I were to add 2 more cards to this, then have 3 cards at the pool, while one card mines a coin solo.

Is this possible?

Most shops these days have a computer which has some accounting / inventory management software running on it. It can be easily modified to show the correct BTC or LTC value at that instance.

Firstly, you should not be investing money into virtual-currency trading, which you cannot afford to lose. I'm not saying that you did; just putting it out there.

Your charts do not say anything about when you made the investment, at which price you bought it, whether you sold it or are still holding it, etc.

Also, was all your investment concentrated in DOGE? If so, why? You could have easily split that money across BTC, LTC, DOGE, etc. Something to keep in mind for future trades.

Another thing you should consider for future is dollar-cost-averaging ( http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dollarcostaveraging.asp )

Even the value of standard currency fluctuates throughout the day, to a certain extent. I think we need to remember that virtual currency is at a very primitive stage. As its use becomes more widespread, and as more and more governments begin to accept its presence, the value of bitcoins will also stabilize.

As far as re-evaluating the product prices is concerned, businesses can easily set a price point for the day, rather than evaluating it every hour. They might end up over-charging or under-charging at different points of the day, but at the end of the day, it will all average out. As far as the customer is concerned, it really is up to them whether they choose to pay by bitcoins or by standard currency.

Now, we are also talking about bitcoins in its current scenario, where its value only exists in the form of certain number of dollars or something. Businesses would need to reevaluate bitcoin value periodically because at the end of the day they have to convert it to dollars, to pay their suppliers and others. Imagine if their suppliers started accepting bitcoins. In such a case, there would be no need to monitor virtual currency values against standard currency, since they no longer have need to convert it to any other form.

As the use of virtual currency becomes more widespread, the need to convert them to standard currency will reduce, and stability in bitcoin prices will increase.

It really is no different from businesses indulging in international currency. If a store accepts dollars, euros, rupees, and other currencies, they too have to re-evaluate their prices periodically in accordance with international forex rates. This is done because they ultimately bank in one currency, and have to convert all funds to that currency. If they didn't need to do that; if their suppliers started accepting orders in various currencies, then they could fix their prices for those currencies, and not need to consult forex rates.

If every business in the world started accepting bitcoins, then the dependency on standard currency would decrease, and it would become a true worldwide currency. I believe that this is bound to happen eventually.

I believe this is how standard currency was too, in its initial stages.

Its funny how when an economist is asked why the value of bitcoins is disputed, they just seem to point to other economists for answers. :-P

In any case, anything only has value as long as people want it. For example, gold has value because people covet it, and its supply is limited. Same is the case with every other "precious" metal out there.

If one fine day, the people of the world decide that they don't want or like gold, then the value of gold will drop drastically. When, eventually, the world supply of gold runs out, the value of gold will rise as people want more of it, and the only source is institutions which have hoarded it.

On similar lines, bitcoins have value because its advantages over traditional money make people want it. Since we know that the supply is limited to 21M, its value will rise as more and more people want it and as long as demand is more than supply.

As more and more real-world businesses start getting involved with bitcoins and other virtual currency, more and more people will get interested in it. As that happens, its value will continue to rise.

PS: I'm not an economist. They are brilliant people who understand the world of money in a way that I cannot even comprehend at this time. What I've stated in this post is just my understanding of how things are.

Sent PM for 6 risers. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks!

I don't think I'll be comfortable in entrusting $4000 worth of hardware to a paperclip. :-P

I just heard back from the Add2Psu company. They ship worldwide. So availability is not a problem.

Thanks for the update.

I was planning to order Add2PSU from their website. I'll need to check if they have issues shipping internationally.

I was planning to power the system and 3 GPU with one 860W PSU. The other 3 cards, and their powered risers will be connected to the other 860W PSU.

Do you think this configuration will be fine?

I'm planning to use Linux on the system, since its meant to be a headless mining rig. So MSI Afterburner won't work.

I'd love to get the PSU that you recommended (LEPA G1600), however, its not available in my country. But since you said that a 1600W PSU will be enough, would you recommend going with 2x 860W Platinum PSUs? And would you recommend Seasonic or Corsair?

I looked into the motherboard you recommended (MSI Z77A-GD65). It looks good. The specs do say that its compatible with Celeron processsors. Since I don't plan to do any CPU mining, I don't mind going for a cheap processor. Will the board be compatible with one of the older celeron processors? (Intel G2010)

Thanks!


Thanks for your reply. I'm just planning to put a table fan for the cooling. Its going to be an open rig, and I don't think any CPU fan can ever match the power of a table fan. :-P

Hi. Is this product still available? (in the same condition - opened but unused)

Hey everyone.

I need everyone's opinion/advice for selecting the hardware for my first rig. To describe what I'm looking for, I'm going to ask some questions, and state some facts about equipment availability and prices.

Please go through the information, and let me know your thoughts. I know it may be a long post, so I really appreciate your responses.

Here is some basic pricing in my country. These values are in my country's currency (INR) as opposed to dollars, since equipment here is generally more expensive than in the US. I've added dollar values of the final rigs, for the readers' convenience.

PSU

Brand/Model	Rating	Price
Antec HCP 1300 platinum	1300W	INR 22,500
Seasonic X 1250 80+ Gold	1250W	INR 18,500
Seasonic SS 1000XP Platinum	1000W	INR 17,950
Seasonic X 1050 Gold	1050W	INR 14,950
Seasonic 860 XP2 Platinum	860W	INR 15,499
Corsair AX 1200	1200W	INR 21,500
Corsair HX 1050 80+ Gold	1050W	INR 16,250
Corsair AX 860 Platinum	860W	INR 15,000
Corsair HX 850	850W	INR 12,626
Corsair HX 750 80+ Gold	750W	INR 10,650

GPU

Brand/Model	Price (INR)
MSI R9 280X	INR 26,500
Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Dual-X OC	INR 25,000
Sapphire Toxic R9 280X	INR 29,000

Now, the reason behind these detailed tables is for the readers to notice that the high rated PSUs will cost me almost as much as the GPUs. We'll keep this observation in mind while we build the rig.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the computer (MoBo + Processor [AMD Sempron 145] + RAM [4GB 1600 MHz Corsair/GSkill] + Pendrive [for storage] + other misc items) will cost me roughly INR 30,000
I'll add a Sine wave inverter to this for protection against power surrges or power loss. This will cost me an additional INR 10,000
So total cost of 1 Rig (without PSU and GPU) = INR 40,000 (Which is quite significant)

Now, regarding the build itself:

• I'm planning to work with R9 280x cards. I'll start off with 2 cards, and eventually build it up to 6 cards in the rig. Regarding this, I have a few questions:
  
  • Someone suggested that I split this between 2 rigs, so as to not keep all my eggs in one basket. I definitely understand the wisdom in this; however, knowing the fact that a computer alone will cost me as much as roughly 1.5 GPUs or 2 PSUs, would you suggest that I go for two rigs or one?
  • How much power will I need to run 6 cards eventually? The highest available PSU in the market is 1200W. I don't think this will be enough. So eventually, I'm going to have to add a secondary PSU anyways. Keeping this in mind, what should be the rating of my PSUs? 2x 860W or 2x 1000W or 2x 1200W ? Note that I will try to under-volt the cards, but I don't want to rely on this.
  • Is Corsair better or Seasonic better for PSUs ?
  • Does the Platinum/Gold make that much of a difference? I'm less concerned about the power draw off the wall, and more concerned about the safety of my hardware.
  
  
• I was planning to use ASRock 970 Extreme 4 as the MoBo, but I read on a thread that it only supports up to 5 GPUs. Which MoBo can I use for 6 cards if I decide to go for the one rig option?
  
  • Related to this question, the ASRock 970 Extreme 4 is an older board, if I'm not mistaken, and its availability is dicey. Which MoBo is everyone using these days for their rigs?

--

If I decide to go with multiple rigs option, then I'll try to fit 4 GPUs in one rig. With 280x cards, I think I need more than 1200W on each rig, in this case too.

So we have several options available:

2 rigs with 4 cards and 2 cards (Eventually, I can add 2 more cards to the 2 card rig, when I decide to expand more)

Rig 1: Computer cost (40,000) + 2x 860W PSU (Seasonic:: INR 15,500) + GPU cost (4 x 26,500). Total= INR 180,000 ($2920)
Rig 2: Computer cost (40,000) + 2x 860W PSU (Seasonic:: INR 15,500) + GPU cost (2 x 26,500). Total= INR 127,000 ($2060)

Important note: Since I can't run 4 cards in 1200W, and I'm going to have to go with a dual PSU setup for every rig. For a 4 card set up, I think 2x 860W should suffice. Please correct me if I'm mistaken.

Total for 2 rigs = $4980 (approx.)


2 rigs with 3 cards each

Per rig Cost: Computer cost (40,000) + 1200W PSU (Seasonic/Corsair/Antec :: 18,500 / 21,500 / 22,500) + GPU cost (3 x 26,500). Total= INR 138,000 to INR 142,000 ($2240 to $2300)

So, for 2 rigs, total = $4500 to $4600 (approximately)

Important note: I'm not particularly fond of this setup since I only have 3 cards per rig. If I go up to 8 cards, I'll have to start another rig. Which will cost me more. Another option is to use the previous set up, which has the option to add 2 more cards without any increase in cost for computer components.


1 rig with 6 cards.

Rig 1: Computer cost (40,000) + GPU cost (6 x 26,500). Total= INR 199,000 ($3220)

The PSU cost needs to be added.

2x 860W    : INR 34,000 ($550 :: including one add2psu component)
2x 1000W  : INR 33,000 to INR 39,000 ($535 to $630)
2x 1200W  : INR 40,000 to INR 46,000 ($650 to $750)

Total cost of rig: $3770 (with 2x 860W) to $3970 (with 2x 1200W)

As you can see, this setup saves me $1000 easily.

---

So, what are your thoughts / comments / advice? Also, please don't forget to answer the questions mentioned above.

Thanks a lot for going through this painfully long post!

Happy New Year!