Alright, the more reading I do the more confused I get.

I've got around 2k that I'm willing to invest into building a new computer/mining rig.

I've got a dual core 3Ghz 2GB RAM 4850 doing 75 Mhash/s (No idea what MOBO) and as my main computer. and another MBP 320M doing like 6 MHash/s as my mobile computer.

I don't know how many GPU can a motherboard/OS support and stuff like that so I really need help... I'm not sure if I should build with plans for future expansion. I might have another deal for 2x4850 for really cheap but these only does another 150 Mhash/s. I don't want to overcommit myself to mining yet and the idea pop since initially I've had plans for a new desktop.

I've got a deal for 2x5970 @ $808
I don't know and can't find any site where I can learn or play around with to see what works and what doesn't.

Apparently a lot of people goes to newegg, I don't know how to navigate that site but since every cheap rig uses Sempron 140 I'll assume it's best. I also don't know if I can find these parts around here or if they ship to my country yet. Will read on that later.

GPU: 2x 5970 ($808)
MOBO: Still having problems
CPU: Sempron 140 ($39)
PSU: At least 850 W (Recommended) Should need more factoring OC
RAM: 1 GB Lying Around ($0)
HDD: None/USB ($0)
CASE: None/Cheapassjunk (~$20)
OS: Linux Ubuntu ($0)

Optional GPU: HD5850 @ $160 ea.

$867 + MOBO + PSU + ($160x#) for ~1.3 Ghash/s + (#x300Mhash/s)

I've got around $1133 left, is it better to get better (& costlier) MOBO+PSU and get a few 5850 or get minimum required for 2x5790 and save the $ for building another rig? (Considering having more GPU on one machine is going to have major heat issues)

Plz give me a hand on this. Thanks a lot.

P.S Yea, I saw the mining_rig wiki just yesterday but it's been updated. Those are quite costly aren't they?

EDITED: 2 New post while writing this. Thanks for the replies grndzero & jspielberg

I've not thought of future expansion and was only thinking of getting my first rig up and running before anything else. This is mainly due to my availability of capital for investment toward bitcoin right now.

I already have a deal for 2x5970 which averages 650 Mhash/s ea. according to hardware comparison chart, this puts me nicely into 1.3 Ghash/s and the build considerations starts from there.

SO I'm pretty sure I could only manage this much (2x5970, 1 rig) right now, but thanks to your reminder and the treads. I realized that I might need to consider better MOBO+PSU for expanding more GPU in the soon future.

However, before that I need to ask, isn't 2x5970=4GPU and I'm not sure but does MOBO usually support more than that? And PSU that can support future expansion? Can I find a value-for-money configuration for such a consideration to exist. If not, shouldn't I just go for the cheapest config I can get starting from a 2x5970 point?

If such case, now it's looking like

1. GPU - 2x5970 ($810)
2. Power Supply - Seasonic X-850 ?? 80+ Gold PSU ?? (Not sure what's 80+Gold but should be around 850 Watts OC?)
3. Mobo -  Dual PCIe2.x16x AM-Compatible MOBO
4. Processor - Cheap Sempron (Not sure which)
5. RAM - 1 GB
6. Casing - As cheap as possible, open aired or might not even get one.

Still need to find out
7. OS - I read there are readily scripted ubuntu/linux distro for mining. Please point me to the right thread plz
8. HDD - I also read that I may be able to just run (7.) off a USB stick/ext. HDD (Which I own) Plz clarify and point me to the right thread

But if it's possible to get more GPU on 1 machine after 2x5970 I'd appreciate it if you point me to the right thread so I may look at the possibility of future expansion.

Thanks, I guess I've been reading the right stuff. I don't know what is an AM3 compatible board. But I think you've at least taken a read at my long-winded post which I'm grateful for. So I'm really confused about the whole motherboard thing as I'm reading on DIY computers right now.

The Athlon or Phenom I assume are processors that I may upgrade to later on, I'm worried about the bottlenecking issue that I'm reading on 2x5970. But I think this is a problem for later, I need to complete this mining build first so I can get mining.

Care to shed some light on 'bare minimum' (for mining) and around how much they'd cost? Better yet, link me the URL. I'm situated in South-east Asia and I'm not sure about the whole DIY scene.

Right... So, I have no idea what you've just mentioned. I'm sorry.

Hi I'm totally new, and have started mining yesterday on slush's pool (Not even sure about other pool's existence lolx)

I basically followed those newbie guides and started mining before I started understanding what's going on. But regarding this, I've read somewhere that basically you need to wait for the unconfirmed rewards to 'clear' certain amount of 'blocks' or time? before they start turning into Confirmed rewards.

So the unconfirmed rewards from each round takes a certain amount of time before it will be confirmed. Then once the confirmed rewards accumulate to your set amount it'll then send to you wallet.

Something to this line. I'm not sure why they do this, it's probably got to do with some security of some sort. Maybe theres some way people could exploit if not done this way. I'm not sure.

Anyway, this is coming from a total newbie so I wouldn't listen to me haha.

Hi everyone,

This thread started out with me trying to ask for help building my own mining rig, since mining is a highly specialized deal. I was not able to find off-the-shelf PC that is cost-efficient (I did find some) and neither did the wiki page help much.

Reasons I felt being some of them weren't within my budget or that in the age of GPU-Mining, CPU/RAM Power and other apparels are of less importance, the cost of these could go into more GPU power or simply lessen the burden of the investment by having a lower return of investment.

I also found a few other similar threads that eventually help me decide on what I'll be building in a few days from now. Many thanks to grndzero and many others who have been nothing but a great help to such a DIY-PC newbie like me to actually putting together one by myself.

I've found myself thinking of building more rigs with a focus of balancing cost-effective with future upgrade option and thus will continue to keep this tread alive with my findings and possibly discussions with many experts from this forum. I also intend to consolidate the different guides/treads/builds that are around into this one tread so that it'll be a lot easier for everyone who'd need this info.

Hopefully this tread will be of help to new people like myself in this massively confusing and technical world and also serve as an updated guide between the same fast-paced PC world and Bitcoin Mining world.

This is not yet complete but I intend for it to. Let me know what you think about it and give me suggestions and feedbacks. I gotta go get some sleep now and do some other stuff.

1. Before you start
You have to ask youself where is your balance for this machine, is this a
 - Dedicated Mining Rig
 - Mining/Gaming Rig
 - Entry/Trial Mining Rig
Head over to here and see some of the rigs that people are showing off and discussing to have a better idea of what I meant by balance.

2. Budget
After you've decided, you'll want to have a rough gauge of the amount of budget you'd want to throw into building this rig. The general guide is that don't spend over $1 per Mhash/s for your rig or it might not even be profitable enough to cover it's own cost in future [subjective] ($0.75/(Mhash/s) for best but hard to achieve)

3. Picking out the stuff
After budgeting you can have a general idea of how much Mhash/s will you be generating from this rig, with that we can start off with the Graphics Card (GPU) which is the core of generating Bitcoins, there isn't really much to say here as the Hardware Comparison Chart shows all the hashing rates for most of the modern cards.

The rest of the components are discussed but subject to availability in your local store, I agree to the general consensus of not accepting backorders as the difficulty adjustments recently are going all over the place and it is becoming very difficult to grasp the situation and make any predictions. The calculations that you've made would be best carried out as soon as possible.

  - 3.1 Graphics Card
    - Hardware Comparison Chart
    - 5830 @ 320 Mhash/s
    - 5850 @ 340 Mhash/s
    - Best GPU for price
  - 3.2 Motherboard
  - 3.3 Processor
  - 3.4 PSU
    - Best PSU to buy?
  - 3.5 Other Stuff
    - RAM
    - HDD
    - OS
      - Windows
      - Mac
      - Linux
         - LinuxCoin
         - Ubuntu 11.04 Natty 64bit Headless Bitcoin mining with ATI 11.5 binary driver
         - Ubuntu Natty Narwhal 11.04 Mining Guide / HOWTO
    - MISC

4. Build Treads
building a mining rig with $1800
Building a 4x GPU setup. Need some advice
What I Learned from Building 3x5850 Rigs; May 2011
Building first time under $1000 rig
Best bang for the buck? Whole rig
Best Coin/Buck rig V2
4x Radeon HD 6990
Problem running 4x 5830, please help!

5. References & Others
Windows Sidebar Gadget Supports (Deepbit/Slush/Eligius/BTCMine/BTCGuild)
FOR SALE: PCIe 1x & 16x Extender Cables, Mining Chassis & GPU Dummy Plugs
PCI-e 1x Extender not work in 16x connector
Auto Run Miners, Run Miners in Background/as Service?
run your miners invisibly with different arg when pc idle and pc used (Download)
run your miners invisibly only when pc idle (Download here)
How To Open 6 Terminals, Set GPU Clocks, And Start POCLBM On Ubuntu Startup???
Whitepixel breaks 28.6 billion password/sec
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5850 Xtreme 1 GB Review

P.S If you found my post helpful, feel free to send me a tip | 13kHaYGkF9W5xNjF2Ck5hTgVR9MNjr8c3U |

P.P.S I realized I've quickly transited from a rig-building consolidation to looking more like a simple newbies guide so I've started this tread instead so I may continue updating here with my rig-building stuff.

EDIT: I've been pretty busy learning more stuff and updating the Beginner's Thread and have been lacking in this thread. However, I've added many links here regarding builds as I try to optimize my build and future builds.

Original Post
Hi everyone,

I'm in this weird position and need some help.

Where I stand,
1. I'm in need of a new desktop (mine's 'bout 9 years old), albeit not desperately
2. I intend to build a least 1 mining rig
3. I don't have that much cash to burn
4. Worried about Bitcoin's collapse (thus breaking even)

So I this is what I think, I get a basic comp jam some GPU hashing power in there and get it mining (2.). If (4.) were to ever happen I'll rip  the GPU out and build my 'new' desktop (1.), while the basic comp will be fitted with some basic GPU and be given away to my relative. In my mind this essentially utilize whatever 'cash' I have to play around with (3.)

Let me know if this makes sense to you and share some perspective

However, right now I'm presented with the problem of acquiring the mining rig, I've usually just bought desktops off the shelf and is not technically inclined to build my own desktop (which I know is cheaper [3.]). Seems like mining is highly specialized and there isn't much choice of readily available systems out there

I've read that GPU is the main focus on OpenCL mining and the subsidiary problems would be supplying it with power, cooling and the motherboard. What is less of a concern are the processor, RAM, OS and HDD.

So I came across a 2x5970 (Used) for $810 (good deal?) and would probably go for it. But I don't have any idea what other components to purchase for. Can you guys please help me make the most of my money, I'm not sure of how to complete the rig other than the GPU (From the comparison chart).

1. GPU - 2x5970 ($810)
2. Power Supply - Seasonic X-850 ?? 80+ Gold PSU ??
3. Mobo - 2xPCIe16x ?2.0/2.1/3??? This I totally have no idea
4. Processor - Sempron 140 ??
5. RAM - 1 GB ?? DDR2 or DDR3 ??
6. OS - I read there are readily scripted ubuntu/linux distro for mining. Please point me to the right thread plz
7. HDD - I also read that I may be able to just run (6.) off a USB stick/ext. HDD (Which I own) Plz clarify and point me to the right thread
8. Casing - I don't wish to go for good cooling casing, I might just leave the case open with my huge-ass fan on it

The stuff I have up here are from reading the forum. Please advice on the build and really, where can I get the stuff. Thanks in advance

What is bottlenecking? I hasn't planned the rest of the components yet. Please do give me suggestions I'm just asking about my overall decision to go that way

UPDATE:

Thanks for clearing the air [Tycho] I'll definitely give deepbit a try

I've found on the search a auto start bat and a start task while idle C executable. So I guess I'll have to flip out the good 'o command batch programming book and start customizing to my needs. This is hardly the place to ask about programming.

Hi, I'm totally new to Bitcoins and since my desktop is >6 yrs now I've been planning on getting a new rig now.


I think I agree with this, since I'm just getting into SC2. I'll be going for a gaming rig although still keeping in mind about mining.

So after plenty of reading other stuff with all the talk of BTC's collapse in mind I plan to get 2*5970 aftermarket since I have quite a tight budget. What do you guys think about my decision?

I don't think the price is tied to the difficulty. hmm I may be wrong though I'm totally new. Anyway I wanna ask what are my options to sell/ BTCs ?

Yea, it'll be best if it could just be hidden. I promised I'd find a way to make it invisible so he wouldn't feel annoyed by it -.- I figured some kind of a script should exist or wouldn't be too hard for something like that.

I need the miner to fire up with the computer and hidden so he isn't bother by it and it isn't bothered by my friend either hahaha.

wow, you run a pool cool. Imma checking it out now. About the hardware upgrade a little hard up on cash right now. But well, my friend's comp just sits there all day anyway so yea. Perfect candidate.

Hi [Tycho] thanks for the prompt reply.

So with that overview out of the way. I'm using GUIMiner and I think it'll be annoying for my friend to have this GUI on all the time. Are there other miners out there that can run as a service or in the background that I can setup so that it starts mining when the computer is fired up.

Do I have to write a script or something? Is something like this complicated?

Also, are the different miner programs different? Is GUIMiner good?

I have a 4850 (700 Mhz) doing 70+ Mhash/s which is decent via the comparison chart, however I'm only generating very little amount of BTC so I'm currently also looking at different pools and how they charge and stuff.

Although I've been reading a lot on the forum and making tonnes of searches, I still don't know most of the benchmarks and norms. I really appreciate the help.

I have the client at home, and the wallet is on my computer (? right ?) so I just have to set up the miner on my friend's desktop and have the pool account send the BTC to my wallet. Is this right?

Does his desktop need a wallet? does this set up make sense? I'm very new sorry, don't really know what an exchanger is and probably don't have one yet. I'm still trying to find out how to use/convert BTC right now.

Hey guys, my friend with 5970 has agreed to let me use his computer for mining since he isn't interested in the whole scene, what I'll like to know is how best to install a miner such that it doesn't require anything on his part and it'll mine as usual.

I've started like hours ago and I'm just wondering, if I'm doing pool mining doesn't that mean that my miner computers doesn't require the client? (Or does it?)

To my understanding, if the computer requires it's GPU (for games and what not), the miner would not stand in the way nor affect the performance too much (Either for CPU or GPU), please correct me if I'm wrong.

I want to try and reduce as much interference and minimally invasive to my friend as possible, so I'm thinking the installation should be minimal, just include a simple script that starts with the computer and runs the miner in the background/service. I'm also not that technically inclined so I might need help with this 'simple' script (I'm assuming), and what are the files/installations needed.

Tried searching the forum however kept getting irrelevant info, sorry if this has been done. Please point me to the right tread if this has been answered.

P.S I'd also like my MBP to have something like that, but I'm not sure how to get my MBP as a miner. I've got GUIMiner on my desktop though.

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