Mining Gear.

[lolmiepp]

Hey guys,

I am planning on buying some mining equipment.
Here in the netherlands i have 2 graphic card options:
The MSI R5850 Twin Frozr II, for €148.90
And the XFX Radeon HD 5870 for€162.35

I want to buy 2 or 3 of them.

I don't know which one to choose, because i know the 5850 is slower, but that one has got a good enchanted cooler.
I finds that important, since i've heard many people here complaining about high temperatures on the cards,
and i don't want to be forced to lower the clock speeds to have a normal temperature.
And maybe the 5850 could be overclocked so it will generate about as much while producing less noise......

I just don't know. 

What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance

[1715230555]

1715230555

[MiningBuddy]

5850, you should be able to get near on 400mhs with that cooler and a decent overclock.

[anodyne]

I'd be a bit careful with the non-reference coolers. Many of them work very well in single card configurations, but not so well in multi-gpu setups since the card below will block airflow to top-mounted fans. They also blow more heat into the case, which can cause additional cooling problems.

[lolmiepp]

thanks for the replies.

i think the 5850 is a better deal, when it was only about 1 card.
But as you say, it may get a little too hot in the case with 3 of them.
Does anyone here have some experience with multiple non-reference coolers for mining?


another question: i want to still be able to play games on the cards, so i'll want to put them in crossfire.
Is crossfire a good combination with mining?

[bcpokey]

Crossfire can cause some problems with mining, but it's usually not detrimental. It has the upside of not forcing you to create dummy plugs for slave cards though which is a plus.

Non-reference cooler performance varies as much as the coolers themselves. I have a dual fan cooler that essentially blocks the next slot down (the cards are literally touching), but it still cools well if I jam a card in with it (I'm a little worried about physical damage but c'est la vie). I have another non-reference cooler that has no clearance issues but if the fan is not given enough space / fresh air it literally chokes. Jumps to 100% fan speed >90C temps and starts to thermally throttle. I have a lot of reference coolers that aren't spectacular either, basically multi-card setups are a huge hassle.

I'd go with a 5870 personally, cooling does not ensure overclocking, there are very few (I don't know of any) 5850s that can hit 400MHash/sec. Most 5870s can hit at least 420Mhash/sec without volt mod on reference cooling. It's hard for me to think in GBP though, so YMMV in terms of returns.

[OggerMC]

I have this 5850 Twin Frozr.

Right now my limit is 396 Mhash/s.
Running at 1010 mhz core clock @ 1.3 Volt @ 89°C Max, (i dont use it 24/7)
Im thinking of buying a second one of these, but the prices went up too much.
around 2 months ago when i bought mine it was around 140€, now its atleast 170€.

[lolmiepp]

Thank you guys, i went for a more expensive HD 5870, which runs 24/7 now at 430 mhash/s
the temps are 70-83:)

only the middle card is not doing very well.
it get's 85 degrees with only 230mhash/s.
it's not the airflow (Antec twelve hundred with 2 extra fans)
so i'm thinking i'll change the thermal paste soon, i've got some artic cooling laying around