Rig for Litecoin/Altcoin mining recommendations

[olliejjc16]

Hi, I'm aiming to purchase a scrypt miner but not sure where to start. I don't have much of a budget around 300-400 euro could possibly push it a bit higher. I'll be running it in my room so heat and noise could be an issue as well as electricity usage so the most efficiency in these areas would be needed. Also would like one where I could upgrade it with more cards in the future. Thanks for the help!

[Hellionator]

It's been a few months since I've looked into new setups however the basic concept is to spend as little as possible on ram/hd/cpu and purchase a motherboard with 3 or 4 pci-e slots.  Generally you can run 2 graphics cards on a motherboard, if you want to run more than 2 you'll need to purchase pci-e riser cables and build a custom case.

For graphics cards you'll want AMD R9 280x or AMD R9 290x cards.  Older AMD 7950 and 7970 cards work as well but they draw more power and are noisier. You can find the full chart of graphics cards here: https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison

Good luck!

[olliejjc16]

Ok was looking at those cards so they're a bit out of my price range, plus cards cost an extortionate amount to buy in Ireland

[akaCash]

I'm estimating as I don't know the current exchange rates, but if you have a current PC already you could just upgrade it. Asus makes a mother board, its the M5A97 R2.0 that can hold 2 cards with no problem for about $100 USD. You can outfit it with Radeon R9 270x's for about $199 each. Upgrade your power supply, and make sure you're keeping it cool enough and you'd have a nice little starter rig right there. Using the average rates that you see in the Litecoin Mining Chat posted above you could expect to get about 800-900 Kh/s.

[olliejjc16]

Just have laptops unfortunately so I have to buy the stuff from scratch, I think I'm going to follow this guide http://www.coinminingrigs.com/ but just get one r9 270 graphics card starting off and adding to it, one thing though I cant find the power adapter he mentions being sold by amazon because I want to order it by amazon prime, is there any other power source i could use?

[olliejjc16]

Actually adding up the price of all that stuff I can really afford it even with just one graphics card anything i can cut out from that list or get later, or if someone has an idea for an alternative rig i could buy parts i'd really appreciate it!

[olliejjc16]

bump

[olliejjc16]

anyone?

[lunas]

Well your budget is so small list some of the assets you already have

Your going to need a good card so your stuck getting a r9 270x or 7850 as cheap as you can. I'm also thinking an amd apu board and a single or dual card setup might be good look at a fm2+ mobo and the a10-6800 the apu CPU side would do about 30-40kh/s the GPU in it should do close to 100 then a 270x for 450kh/s so that should do about 600kh/s and use about 240 ish watts less under volted underclocked GPU could get under 200watts you could also get away with a 450-500 watt power supply I still would say corsair is a good brand for that.

I'll put up a full build with prices later.

[xephyr]

Hi, I'm aiming to purchase a scrypt miner but not sure where to start. I don't have much of a budget around 300-400 euro could possibly push it a bit higher. I'll be running it in my room so heat and noise could be an issue as well as electricity usage so the most efficiency in these areas would be needed. Also would like one where I could upgrade it with more cards in the future. Thanks for the help!

Rather than build a GPU mining rig you could wait a few months until Fibonacci ships and buy a single 960 kH/sec Recursion ASIC miner for 400 euro if paid in litecoin. Then power and noise would not be an issue. See litecoin scrypt ASIC miners for details and updates.

[kalus]

at that price range, you'll be looking for a computer and a single card.

i'd be looking for a used pentium core duo (pga775), or an I-3 (lga1155), with 4gb ram and one pci-e slot.   i'm recommending used because the local uni throws them in the tip.  free money!  but whatever you can find with a pci-e slot.  doesn't have to be fancy or that powerful. 

at minimum 350w power supply (400+ better, but it's a single card), and then splurge on whatever you can find is the best price on a video card.

video card prices are as nonsensical as the crypto market, so be careful you don't spend too much.

don't need a case, and i would run this system only for mining rather than trying to get it stable for other things.  your goal should be to make it stable enough to run unattended for weeks.  then you can happily forget about it while it is slowly, very slowly, making money. 

[olliejjc16]

Hi guys thanks for all the recommendations really appreciate it! After reading up about the scrypt asic miners I'm starting to think it might be better to wait and apply to get those since electricity is such a big issue for me at the moment as well as noise. However I would be interested in reading some suggested builds as I would like to get started in mining as quickly as possible, will probably have enough in a few months to buy an asic miner to run alongside my gpu miner anyways.

[Rh3nium]

I am also looking into a scrypt mining rig and I've been doing the math also around the power-unit and energy costs.

At first I thought I'd buy (3x) a 280x, since they are a bit cheaper and have decent hashing and not-too-high-power consumption. But to be on safe side, you would need at least a 1200W PSU. If you use other cards that are more power-hungry, that might not be enough in a tripple-GPU setup.

So I am considering the more expensive (older) 7950's, for which I can get away with a 750 or maybe 850W psu.
In the end, the price is the same BUT: there is a 30% higher power consumption for the 280Xs. At 3 times of them over one year that is a alot of money.

Mind you, this is a rough calculation, but still.

Not that I am counting on getting my money back really, it's just for fun, but if one can save a bit for the same performance....

As probably pointed out, the example build-rig is probably one of the cheapest you will find. Of course cheaper with only one GPU and you won't have to worry about an expensive power-unit. But still, a 20-30 dollar (euro) more expensive older 7950 if you can find one will save you a bit in the end via electricity.


Here is an example for a single GPU and a tripple GPU:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2013/12/09/litecoin-101-how-to-build-your-own-mining-rigs/2/

This is a few months older and can be "converted" to a single or dual GPU rig, I guess (then you can get a cheaper motherboard)
http://www.cryptobadger.com/build-your-own-litecoin-mining-rig/

[xephyr]

Fibonacci increased the hash rate of the $400 Recursion USB miner to 8650 kH/sec at 10 watts. Now matching the $0.04 per kH/sec hashing power of the $9995 KnCMiner 250 mH/sec Titan. Waldohoover has been selling shares in hosted Titans like hotcakes, already sold out 4 Titans and working on the fifth, see the CoiningSolutions.com KnC Titan Group Buy. For 1.2 bitcoin you can own 1/20 of a hosted Titan or 12.5 mH/sec. Who will deliver first, Fibonacci or KnCMiner? No one knows but you could buy one Recursion and one share in the Titan group buy for less than $1000 and hedge your bets. 21.1 mH/sec scrypt hashing power for less than $1000 definitely qualifies as a great buy.