Right, after doing some more research, it seems that GPU mining is rather pointless, given that ASICs completely blow GPUs out of the water. I originally thought ASICs were only just more power efficient, helping people cover their electricity costs a little better.

I think after spending some cash on a good gaming rig, I'll use the remainder to grab some ASICs instead.

Assuming Bitcoin is still the go-to cryptocurrency, it's time for me to browse some threads!

Okay, makes perfect sense. Personal use stuff, separate. Computing applications, separate. Could then do W10 for personal and Linux for computing. Since AMD and Nvidia also have their own specialties, would it be possible to run a rig that has both brands of cards? I know that for obvious reasons, SLI and crossfire don't mix, but neither have any use in these fields anyway. How about simply running as standalone cards? Should theoretically work, no? Just need drivers for both brands. That would then allow me to dedicate AMD cards to mining, and Nvidia cards to Folding. Or would I need to dedicate one system to AMD, one to Nvidia, and one for personal?

Right, I'll keep that in mind. So that then brings me back to the mainstream vs server PSUs. Since a server PSU was suggested, I have to ask where one would find such high wattage units for such low prices. $150 for a 1200w server PSU at platinum efficiency seems too good to be true. Newegg definitely doesn't sell server PSUs at such good prices.


Huh...I thought Nvidia was currently leading in the FLOPS per watt field. The R9 390s certainly weren't power efficient.


Any 1151 boards? Had originally planned for a Skylake. Since I plan to run DC projects as well, some GPU applications require a combination of CPU and GPU to run.


I had planned on water cooling, and my building has a powerful HVAC system that can keep temperatures at 14 degrees. That said, I suppose stability might be the limiting factor for me, so I should probably take that into consideration.

EDIT: Also, no thoughts on that PCI-e splitter I linked in the first post? If that AsRock could expand GPU capacity from 6 to 9 or 12, it would make management easier by only requiring one dedicated system (forget my personal use, I'm more convinced now that it should be separate). Plus, without the need for additional mobos, CPUs, drives and RAM, it should come out to about the same price as the purchase cost of the splitter.

What about dedicated 12v power supplies? Not necessarily designed for computers, but any supply that can just output nothing but 12v. Since PCI-e power cables are just a bunch of 12v and ground cables, it should theoretically work, right? Then just have a standard ATX supply for the mobo, drives, etc.

If not, do you suggest any particular sites to purchase those sorts of server supplies from? Newegg doesn't show efficiency in its power search for server supplies.


I was referring to the USB cable. Power transmission should be fine over long distances, as long as the cables aren't overly thin and cause voltage drop.


My intention was to try to run each PSU at roughly half load for maximum efficiency, hence why it might seem a little excessive. I'm also looking at the upcoming Pascal cards. I don't mind snatching up 8 to 10 1080s. Though one issue I have is that these are gaming cards. Aren't there cards more optimised for pure processing? Workstation cards, right? Though those are more expensive than they're worth, right?


Do they have enough PCI-e slots?

Also, if possible, I'd prefer this to be all in one, used both for computing, as well as personal use. Should be possible, right?

Righty, I've been looking into dropping $10k on a custom project, and I wanted some advice. Now I'm going to come clean and say that the original purpose of this system is for GPU distributed computing applications, but I may dabble in mining as well at some point, since I have free electricity. Since I assume mining and DC are more or less identical when it comes to the execution of hardware setups, you guys would be the top experts on these matters.

First off, my limitations are regarding how much power my home's circuits can take, so despite free electricity, I still require high efficiency. It would be the difference between, say, 10 GPUs, or 11. Now, after browsing a few random threads here, I see that there are plenty of components that won't be found in a mainstream hardware store, such as the flexible risers using USB 3.0 cables, so I assume I'll come across hardware I may not have seen before.

At present, I'm looking at using two gaming motherboards with 6 PCI-e slots each (a combined total from x1 and x16 slots). Is there a better way? Can I use a single board to handle every GPU in some way, essentially having more GPUs than there are PCI-e slots? I've heard of PCI-e backplanes, but to my understanding, they require special host boards, and the costs involved with that would basically leave me with no cash to actually put a single GPU in. I've seen this crop up in discussions before. Does anyone have experience with them, and if they actually work for purposes such as this? Last I heard, they were around the $200 mark, so I figured one board with two of these would be cheaper than two boards, and the required CPUs and RAM. Plus, it would be more power efficient.

Now speaking of power, at this moment, the plan I have is to grab four of those 1600 watt titanium efficiency PSUs from EVGA. They are a little over $400 each, but are the most efficient mainstream PSUs to date. Keyword here is 'mainstream'. If there's specialised hardware lurking on this side of the hardware world that can output similar amounts of efficient power, and do it for the same or lower price, please do point me in the right direction.

Also, since I mentioned the risers earlier, I do have a question regarding their usage. What's the maximum length of the cable used? As I mentioned, this is a very custom project, and the entire system will be wall-mounted, so some of the GPUs may be located a little further from the mobo than they normally are in GPU farms. What are the performance limitations here, and are there any additional precautions that have to be taken?