your thoughts on this mining/gaming rig - but mostly for mining to start

[fcmatt]

I was due for a PC upgrade at home and I always wanted to try to mine. My current PC must be 5+
years old now. When I learned about bitcoin and desired to try it out CPU mining was on its way out.
So there was really no way to get involved with mining except to play around with the software and
read. Due to working at an ISP i can get free electricity while I am mining. I am allowed to have a personal
box on the network.

So I decided to buy a new setup. I wanted to keep costs somewhat sane at first to mine and then once
I decided I was all done with mining switch things out to make it a gaming rig down the road. So some parts
are a higher quality/performance compared to others.

The parts I choose were:

MSI 890FXA-GD70 motherboard - $195
(seems nice. plenty of slots)

Rosewill BRONZE Series RBR1000-M 1000W Continuous@40°C, 80Plus Bronze Certified power supply - $130
(I have always had good luck with Rosewill power supplies at home and work.)

2 x MSI R6950-2PM2D2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB - $280 each
(I wanted reference models and I am pretty darn sure these are. Plus the extra ram will help down the road
with gaming I imagine.)

2 x Kingston 1GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 - $13 each
(just cheapo ram to get me going. I did not want to spend much on this right now. It will move to a different
machine down the road when done with mining.)

AMD Sempron 140 Sargas 2.7GHz Socket AM3 45W - $38
(ditto with the processor. Just enough to get me going plus it appears it has another core which can be unlocked.)

Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV125-S2/30GB 2.5" 30GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - $76
(I always wanted to try a SSD and it had a 25 dollar rebate. I did not really have to buy this.)

There is also 75 dollars in rebates I have to mail out to get back.

Total is $1025 - $75 = $950 without shipping/handling.

I am quite used to running linux/freebsd at work so I am not worried about those OS but I
also have a windows 7 64 bit professional license I can use. It is meant for this box and gaming. I have
a feeling tweaking is easier due to the tools in windows.

I estimate I will get 800M/hash per second with this setup once I tweak things. It also has the ability to
add another card right away and if I wanted I could add two more cards with another PSU/extenders
thrown in. So the price per M/hash will look better if I keep adding onto it I suppose.

Sure, I did find options to get more bang for my buck right now with other ATI cards but I really did not
want my gaming rig to have 5xxx series cards over the next however many years. I could have also shaved
off a few bucks here and there buying lesser parts or brands I am not used to.

I do not think I will solo mine with this setup. I guess I am chicken ;-) I have not decided on which pool yet.

If I have forgotten anything I will post additional information but this seems the way to go for a gamer/miner
type of setup.

Any thoughts or criticisms are welcome. It was maddening trying to figure out all the options using my spread sheet. Thanks for reading.

[tunatime]

you dont need a new box if yours has pcie slots in it just get a gpu and slap it in


ok as for the other stuff

1 mb you don't need a 200 mb to run just 2 cards you can find a $100 mb whit 2 slots or more  like a 880g for $70

2 that psu is ok not the best but not the worst

3 good choice i run 3 of them unlocked

4 ram is fine for mining wont be worth a dam for gaming

5 ok for mining junk for any thing more

6 waste of money it a slow ssd wont help whit any thing that much and its to litel gb to be of that much ues

if it was me i would lose the ssd and get a cheep hdd and spend that 75 on ram or a beter cpu but that's only if you want to game on it. if not il still lose teh ssd and call it

[fcmatt]

>> you dont need a new box if yours has pcie slots in it just get a gpu and slap it in

My old box is what it is. I really do not want to mess with it as I use it every day
and it is connected to my TV. Plus the wife uses it as much as I do when we get home.
Nvidia GPU btw which got 28M/H. It is still stable and I might as well leave it that way
until I retire it.


>> ok as for the other stuff

>> 1 mb you don't need a 200 mb to run just 2 cards you can find a $100 mb whit 2 slots or more  like a 880g for $70

I always tend to invest a bit of money into my motherboards. I buy a good one and use it for many
years. Eventually this motherboard will be the core for my gaming platform. I needed something new.
Sure there are cheaper options but based on my research I will be happy with it.

Plus if I decide to get into mining more based on the first results I see.. i can pimp out this MB with
5 cards. Putting that many cards on to one MB lowers overall costs.

>> 2 that psu is ok not the best but not the worst

I agree with you.

>> 3 good choice i run 3 of them unlocked

Good for gaming, not the best bang for the buck for mining, but perform well for that duty also.

>> 4 ram is fine for mining wont be worth a dam for gaming

The ram is so cheap it is ridiculous. I did not feel like researching what was the best option for
a gaming machine at this time. I will give it away to a friend down the road or bring it to work.

>> 5 ok for mining junk for any thing more

I agree. Just enough to get going. Unlock the other core for fun. I will buy a better processor down
the road when prices have dropped or a big sale. Uses less power though which is a plus.

>> 6 waste of money it a slow ssd wont help whit any thing that much and its to litel gb to be of that much ues

I think it would make a nice boot drive and then later on slap in a 1TB black caviar as a data drive for
example. I never owned an SSD before and I wanted to try it out. I agree it was wasteful except for
being fun to mess with on my part.

>> if it was me i would lose the ssd and get a cheep hdd and spend that 75 on ram or a beter cpu but that's only if you want to game on it. if not il still lose teh ssd and call it

The SSD is just a toy I want to play with. If it works so be it. If not I will use an old HD laying around.
As for the ram and CPU i really want for a gaming box.. an extra 75 dollars will not get what I really want
anyway.

I am sure there are ways to save a few dollars but if you want the box to be a "good" gaming rig down the
road better to spend more money on a few components then try to get just OK stuff for everything.

Thank you for replying.

[kirby9058]

I turned my mid-range gaming rig into a mining rig. I find it to be a better use of money, because if mining ever stops being profitable, you can continue to play awesome games and/or sell your hardware for profit. I think it's the best way to go if you don't want to invest a ton of time/money into mining. It's kinda risky to do so, in my opinion.