If you're on Linux with cgminer, for Litecoin, you need to run (or add to your script):

export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1
export GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT=100

This works around some various bugs/creativities in the AMD drivers that trip up cgminer.

Neither of them is supported under the current runtime environments.

The 8000 series cards were the first nVidia cards to support CUDA, and the 4000 series AMD cards were the first to support OpenCL (and they're very bad at it).

Neither of those cards can be programmed with the current environment, which means to do any sort of work on them, you'd have to muck around with the pre-CUDA/OpenCL compute languages, and even then I'm not sure those cards have any programmable hardware on them - they're old enough that they're likely fixed function.

But, hey, go ahead & prove us wrong.

If you're willing to install Linux on it (Ubuntu 12.04 LTS), I'd be happy to remote in & help with setup.  Contact me via PM if you're interested.  As noted, I've done this a good bit before, though only on Linux.

Why are you using Windows?

I know for a fact Linux supports up to 8 7970s on a system, as I've done this before.  The new drivers (at least 12.8, and I believe the current versions) support this easily.

Beyond 8 GPUs is a problem as ADL relies on X11, which won't handle this, but you shouldn't have any trouble with 5 7970s on Linux.  I'd suggest Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit and 13.1 - it should work fine.

I'd be happy to help with the setup if you run into issues.  I just don't know my way around Windows, and I'm honestly not surprised that ATI drivers and Windows don't get along with a lot of GPUs.  Everyone I know uses Linux for these things.

Have you followed the https://www.modminerquad.com/index.php?title=Setup_Instructions Linux Setup Instructions?

If so, can you explain how far you got and what was happening?

I'm interested in obtaining high end ATI GPUs for PayPal.

I'm interested in 6970s, 6950s, 5970s, 6990s, etc.

They are going to be used for other compute and not bitcoin, so I don't care too much for power efficiency.  They will all be in rackmount cases, so I am not interested in lots of GPUs hanging out on expansion slots on an oven rack.

I am also interested in 890FXA-GD70 based mainboard/CPU/RAM combos.

I drive a hard bargain, but will pay USD.

Time to liquidate!

GPUs, CPUs, and other devices are designed to run hot.  nVidia chips throttle themselves at around 107C, and I think ATI is similar.

Extreme heat isn't great for GPUs, but keep them under 90-95C and they should last a good long while.  If anything, it's better to keep them at a constant temperature than constantly going up & down.

The design life is long enough that even if you do shorten it's life, you'll replace it long before it dies.

That's true for temperature and cost reasons.

There are benefits to having everything tucked in a case.  Significant others, for instance, typically complain much less about it.

;-)

Just don't bother...

Unless you live with them.  Then good luck.

Throw a CPU core at Folding@Home or something & just imply the rest of the hardware is doing the same.

It's hard enough explaining bitcoins to high level geeks who understand all the concepts.

Well, my first thought is that 80C isn't bad at all... I usually get cranky if my GPUs are regularly breaking 100C.  They're designed to run that hot...

If you want to look at a pre-done 4 GPU build (which won't break 2GH/s on stock clocks), I have a quad nVidia build for other purposes detailed here:

http://blog.cryptohaze.com/2011/06/quad-gpu-builds-with-case.html

I have the board/case/PSU/etc listed.  I got all of this plus a 6870 for right around $1000 shipped.

You're not going to be great on cooling, but the Antec 900 pulls plenty of air through the side window once you remove the plexiglass & as long as my garage isn't too hot, I don't have trouble keeping them cool.

If you're looking for the most cost efficient way of doing this, I'm probably not of much use.   But you said budget wasn't a concern.

What are you trying to protect from what?

Sandboxie, as I understand it, protects the rest of your system from rogue applications.  This could be a backdoor in a legit program, or a compromised program (as in a web browser after a malicious site), etc.  Those rogue applications won't be able to access your wallet.

However, unless you're planning to run *every application on your system* in sandboxie, I'm not sure what gains you'd have.

It doesn't appear that you can use it to protect a program from other programs - so something running in sandboxie may not be able to touch other system resources, but other system resources could likely still touch it.

I'm a bit confused - if you've got a use case in mind, go ahead & explain it & I can take a look...

In other news, the vast majority of the drug purchases in the United States are made with the US Dollar!  BAN IT!

I'm guessing the vast majority of drug purchases in Sweeden are made in krona!

Clearly, these currencies are dangerous, are used to purchase illegal materials, and should be banned.

(same logic applies - just because something can be used for illegal means doesn't mean that the something should be illegal)

This would be my recommendation.  I have one loaded with 4 nVidia cards (different project) and it works perfectly.

http://blog.cryptohaze.com/2011/06/quad-gpu-builds-with-case.html is my build - I wanted a case, since I like moving things around.  The Antec 900v3 (and apparently v2) have 8 expansion slots in the back to support 4 dual-height GPUs.

You can certainly screw around with extenders, expanders, etc, but personally, I don't think it's worth it.  Then again, I did build this for other projects, so cost was less of an issue (I didn't build it to do bitcoin mining - clearly).