My second ZEC + XMR+ ETH thread builds info links thoughts and photos.

[philipma1957]

Guys,

How strong can I downvolt Sapphire Nitro RX 480?

I use power limit option only  like - 21  it seems more stable for me.

Is that a -21 or just a 21

How much hash did you lose if it's -21?

I get 25mh   every rx 480 has a sweet spot  leave all settings alone except power  then try -10 to   -30  

most sweet spots  seem to be in the -18 to -24 area  varies card to card

what is easy is only one number or adjustment.

for me with 23 cards in 9 pc's .

 I try the easiest settings  on wattman.

I also set fans and temps  which are in the same area or setting as the power setting.

  I do temps at 68 for high and 65 for low.  I set fan speed at 1000 to 4000 (depends on the card)   basically all my cards run under 70 c all the time.  Even the ones in the cases.


Frankly  wattman leaves a lotto be desired but

 msi afterburner
sapphire triixx
asus tweak

don't work with the rx 470's and rx 480's

I also do not try to max any card via over clock  or dual mine.  mostly because my garage is 90f to 95f  already .
If you notice the photos  al my gear is low to the ground other then 1 four card rig.  it helps keep the gear cooler.
my hottest rig is the four card rig on the bench table

[BTCBusinessConsult]

Have you not considered the 29 MHs low power ROMs that are available?

Less W used = less heat generated.

Might be worth considering

[GabryRox]

SLI bridges are a different interface, apart from the PCIe connections.  They're connected out the top of the cards.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sli+bridge&biw=1680&bih=920&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiy0N2W4pLPAhUDJB4KHah2AYUQ_AUI4QEoAQ

Thanks LoneRangir... I've seen those bridges when I was researching was SLI was a few days ago. But, what got me worried about this MoBo was the following verbiage in the Tom's review:

"You’ve probably noticed that the X99 Extreme4 has four PCIe x16 slots, but that one of these wasn’t mentioned in the introduction. That’s because the second PCIe x16 slot wired as a two-lane PCIe 2.0 link to the motherboard’s PCH. An included three-way SLI bridge bypasses it entirely to connect the first, third, and fourth x16-length slots, since those are the X99 Extreme4’s only SLI-compliant interfaces."

To me (granted, not even close to educated on this stuff), that last sentence makes it sound like the SLI bridge is something like hard-wired or built into the board itself.  BUT... now that I look at the pics on the newegg page, it does have a picture of an SLI bridge as a separate piece that is included in the box with the MoBo, so I guess it is safe to assume that all 5 PCIe slots are capable of running GPU's independently.  I guess the point of that paragraph is that only slots 1, 3, & 4 are SLI-compliant and slot 2 & 5 are not, but the wording was confusing to me.

[philipma1957]

Have you not considered the 29 MHs low power ROMs that are available?

Less W used = less heat generated.

Might be worth considering

No one has shown me that the watts per mh are less.

Everyone I see scales equally at about 6 watts an mh.

I can not see anyone that beats my 590-610 watts at th k-watt meter four cards 100 mh

I would need to see a kwatt meter doing under 690 watts and the mh at 116

Until I see the 29mh do less then the 25 mh they are not so good since I resell the gear.

The 29mh use more power then the 25mh which means death to the cards a little faster.

If I saw a 25 mm custom rom that beats my power for four cards say 560 watts vs 590 same mh I would also try it.

So far I ,stay see 6 watts per mh as the bottom low.  At the kwatt meter at the gpu-z I have seen 70-75 watts.

[LoneRangir]

SLI bridges are a different interface, apart from the PCIe connections.  They're connected out the top of the cards.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sli+bridge&biw=1680&bih=920&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiy0N2W4pLPAhUDJB4KHah2AYUQ_AUI4QEoAQ

Thanks LoneRangir... I've seen those bridges when I was researching was SLI was a few days ago. But, what got me worried about this MoBo was the following verbiage in the Tom's review:

"You’ve probably noticed that the X99 Extreme4 has four PCIe x16 slots, but that one of these wasn’t mentioned in the introduction. That’s because the second PCIe x16 slot wired as a two-lane PCIe 2.0 link to the motherboard’s PCH. An included three-way SLI bridge bypasses it entirely to connect the first, third, and fourth x16-length slots, since those are the X99 Extreme4’s only SLI-compliant interfaces."

To me (granted, not even close to educated on this stuff), that last sentence makes it sound like the SLI bridge is something like hard-wired or built into the board itself.  BUT... now that I look at the pics on the newegg page, it does have a picture of an SLI bridge as a separate piece that is included in the box with the MoBo, so I guess it is safe to assume that all 5 PCIe slots are capable of running GPU's independently.  I guess the point of that paragraph is that only slots 1, 3, & 4 are SLI-compliant and slot 2 & 5 are not, but the wording was confusing to me.

I think you're on the right track.  Since you're not going to actually run the cards in SLI mode, you should be good to go.

[philipma1957]

finally figure out what the issue was with the third four card board from biostar  very simple issue the cpu was bad not the mobo. For some reason the cpu only allows 2 pcie lanes on any mobo.

This makes the second intel cpu to be bad in my life.  one was a i7-6700k  the other (this one in the biostar ) was an intel i5 6400t.

I know this is a side bar but if intel has more issues with the newest 14-16mn chips  just think about the issues the asic 14-16nm chips will and are having.

I now am running 3 cards on the biostar  3x 470's.  still a bit flakey with the fourth card  it wants to do   25+25+25+5 mh.

But I now have two 4 card rigs  and a 3 card rig.  From the biostar boards.  I will see what more I can do with them.

[LoneRangir]

Is it possible to mix risers and use the 4 slots on that board? I am guessing that the card blocks the riser?

[Yassarsian]

Have you not considered the 29 MHs low power ROMs that are available?

Less W used = less heat generated.

Might be worth considering

No one has shown me that the watts per mh are less.

Everyone I see scales equally at about 6 watts an mh.

I can not see anyone that beats my 590-610 watts at th k-watt meter four cards 100 mh

I would need to see a kwatt meter doing under 690 watts and the mh at 116

Until I see the 29mh do less then the 25 mh they are not so good since I resell the gear.

The 29mh use more power then the 25mh which means death to the cards a little faster.

If I saw a 25 mm custom rom that beats my power for four cards say 560 watts vs 590 same mh I would also try it.

So far I ,stay see 6 watts per mh as the bottom low.  At the kwatt meter at the gpu-z I have seen 70-75 watts.

I have 6X390 using 1040W from the wall with platinum PSU. It hash about 165 MH/s. So that is 6.3W/MHz. I think your 480 should do much better.

[philipma1957]

Have you not considered the 29 MHs low power ROMs that are available?

Less W used = less heat generated.

Might be worth considering

No one has shown me that the watts per mh are less.

Everyone I see scales equally at about 6 watts an mh.

I can not see anyone that beats my 590-610 watts at th k-watt meter four cards 100 mh

I would need to see a kwatt meter doing under 690 watts and the mh at 116

Until I see the 29mh do less then the 25 mh they are not so good since I resell the gear.

The 29mh use more power then the 25mh which means death to the cards a little faster.

If I saw a 25 mm custom rom that beats my power for four cards say 560 watts vs 590 same mh I would also try it.

So far I ,stay see 6 watts per mh as the bottom low.  At the kwatt meter at the gpu-z I have seen 70-75 watts.

I have 6X390 using 1040W from the wall with platinum PSU. It hash about 165 MH/s. So that is 6.3W/MHz. I think your 480 should do much better.

I have yet to see a k-watt reading that show rx 480 cards doing much under 6 watts an mh 590 for 100mh is the best I do at the kwatt meter.  that is 5.9 watts per mh. on a plat psu .

if you can do 1040watts for 165 mh  which is 6.3 w/mhz that is one of the best numbers around.  did you alter the bios?

to anyone with links that beat 5.9watts per mh at the k-watt meter please post link with a photo.

I do not say it can be done I just have not seen one  say 4 rx 480s at 100 mh and 550 watts at the wall

or 6 rx 480s at 150 mh and 825 watts at the wall.

[xleejohnx]

Have you not considered the 29 MHs low power ROMs that are available?

Less W used = less heat generated.

Might be worth considering

No one has shown me that the watts per mh are less.

Everyone I see scales equally at about 6 watts an mh.

I can not see anyone that beats my 590-610 watts at th k-watt meter four cards 100 mh

I would need to see a kwatt meter doing under 690 watts and the mh at 116

Until I see the 29mh do less then the 25 mh they are not so good since I resell the gear.

The 29mh use more power then the 25mh which means death to the cards a little faster.

If I saw a 25 mm custom rom that beats my power for four cards say 560 watts vs 590 same mh I would also try it.

So far I ,stay see 6 watts per mh as the bottom low.  At the kwatt meter at the gpu-z I have seen 70-75 watts.

I have 6X390 using 1040W from the wall with platinum PSU. It hash about 165 MH/s. So that is 6.3W/MHz. I think your 480 should do much better.

I have yet to see a k-watt reading that show rx 480 cards doing much under 6 watts an mh 590 for 100mh is the best I do at the kwatt meter.  that is 5.9 watts per mh. on a plat psu .

if you can do 1040watts for 165 mh  which is 6.3 w/mhz that is one of the best numbers around.  did you alter the bios?

to anyone with links that beat 5.9watts per mh at the k-watt meter please post link with a photo.

I do not say it can be done I just have not seen one  say 4 rx 480s at 100 mh and 550 watts at the wall

or 6 rx 480s at 150 mh and 825 watts at the wall.

are those total system pulls or just the cards minus the system power draw?

[philipma1957]

Have you not considered the 29 MHs low power ROMs that are available?

Less W used = less heat generated.

Might be worth considering

No one has shown me that the watts per mh are less.

Everyone I see scales equally at about 6 watts an mh.

I can not see anyone that beats my 590-610 watts at th k-watt meter four cards 100 mh

I would need to see a kwatt meter doing under 690 watts and the mh at 116

Until I see the 29mh do less then the 25 mh they are not so good since I resell the gear.

The 29mh use more power then the 25mh which means death to the cards a little faster.

If I saw a 25 mm custom rom that beats my power for four cards say 560 watts vs 590 same mh I would also try it.

So far I ,stay see 6 watts per mh as the bottom low.  At the kwatt meter at the gpu-z I have seen 70-75 watts.

I have 6X390 using 1040W from the wall with platinum PSU. It hash about 165 MH/s. So that is 6.3W/MHz. I think your 480 should do much better.

I have yet to see a k-watt reading that show rx 480 cards doing much under 6 watts an mh 590 for 100mh is the best I do at the kwatt meter.  that is 5.9 watts per mh. on a plat psu .

if you can do 1040watts for 165 mh  which is 6.3 w/mhz that is one of the best numbers around.  did you alter the bios?

to anyone with links that beat 5.9watts per mh at the k-watt meter please post link with a photo.

I do not say it can be done I just have not seen one  say 4 rx 480s at 100 mh and 550 watts at the wall

or 6 rx 480s at 150 mh and 825 watts at the wall.

are those total system pulls or just the cards minus the system power draw?

My best system tweaked gets 590-610 watts at the k-watt meter . This is everything .

[TheYankeesWin!]

Hey Phil now that you replaced the cpu and found you did not short the biostar z170 mobo did you figure out how to get it to do the fourth card?

[philipma1957]

Yes I did.  I spent all day switching cards around and I managed to get four rx 470s to run on that board.

see below and note the empty rig.

I now have 8 rigs doing 23 boards. 

I have an empty rig this faces me with an interesting chance to shrink some of my rigs.

I could buy a fourth biostar mobo and sell some small 2 card mobo setup to mine.

[xleejohnx]

Yes I did.  I spent all day switching cards around and I managed to get four rx 470s to run on that board.

see below and note the empty rig.

I now have 8 rigs doing 23 boards. 

I have an empty rig this faces me with an interesting chance to shrink some of my rigs.

I could buy a fourth biostar mobo and sell some small 2 card mobo setup to mine.

what kind of power draw do you have with the 470s?

im doing 107 mhs at 490watts at the wall thats 5 470s

[GabryRox]

Thanks to Phil and everyone that provided expert advice in this thread, I have finally got all of the components ordered for my first GPU mining rig!  I already have 2 MSI RX 470's from Amazon, and have a 3rd one coming with the rest of the gear I just ordered from NewEgg yesterday.  Luckily, my colleague did come through with that free i7-6800K, so I ended up ordering this ASRock X99 MoBo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157543&cm_re=ASRock_x99-_-13-157-543-_-Product

Very curious to see what kind of hash-rate that CPU will provide on XMR. I think the minimum will be about 400 but really hoping it's more in the range of ~600 or so... but time will tell.

I ended up getting the 1kw version of the Rosewill Quark series Plat PSU. I might have been able to get by with the 850W version, but for only an extra $10, it seemed like a no-brainer since now I will be able to expand from 3 GPU's to this Mobo's max of 5 without any power whatsoever.

I also ended up going with this open ATX bench. I think I saw something similar in one of Phil's pics but someone else I believe also recommended this, so thanks!  I actually think this will be easier than trying to cram everything into an expensive ATX case and definitely easier to access for adding additional cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353001

Can I assume that just pointing and oscillating or box type fan at this will work sufficiently for cooling?

Finally, I obviously now need to start thinking about which OS i want to use for this rig. Originally, I was just going to use Windows 10, since I have only used Windows and 10 seems to be the most stable version.  However, after doing some research, it seems that Linux Ubuntu is by far the preferred OS for mining. Is that what Phil and most of the people on this thread are on?  If so, do you have a recommendation as far as version goes?  Looks like it's either 14.04.5 or 16.04.1, as 15 appears to be EOL'd.  I did notice on MinerGate's site that at least its miner is supposedly 60% more productive with any Ubuntu version 15 or later (vs it's v14 software).

Usually, I would just opt for the most recent version, but any advice would be appreciated. Any concerns at all with v16.04.1? Thanks again to everyone!

[LoneRangir]

I think quite a few in this thread use Windows. Ever since the new crimson software no longer requires a signed driver, I'm sticking with Windows. I have a Linux install on a partition just in case I need to ever switch. It's just easier to set everything up on Windows.

If you go Linux, I think there is more support out there for 16.xx

[philipma1957]

Thanks to Phil and everyone that provided expert advice in this thread, I have finally got all of the components ordered for my first GPU mining rig!  I already have 2 MSI RX 470's from Amazon, and have a 3rd one coming with the rest of the gear I just ordered from NewEgg yesterday.  Luckily, my colleague did come through with that free i7-6800K, so I ended up ordering this ASRock X99 MoBo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157543&cm_re=ASRock_x99-_-13-157-543-_-Product

Very curious to see what kind of hash-rate that CPU will provide on XMR. I think the minimum will be about 400 but really hoping it's more in the range of ~600 or so... but time will tell.

I ended up getting the 1kw version of the Rosewill Quark series Plat PSU. I might have been able to get by with the 850W version, but for only an extra $10, it seemed like a no-brainer since now I will be able to expand from 3 GPU's to this Mobo's max of 5 without any power whatsoever.

I also ended up going with this open ATX bench. I think I saw something similar in one of Phil's pics but someone else I believe also recommended this, so thanks!  I actually think this will be easier than trying to cram everything into an expensive ATX case and definitely easier to access for adding additional cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353001

Can I assume that just pointing and oscillating or box type fan at this will work sufficiently for cooling?

Finally, I obviously now need to start thinking about which OS i want to use for this rig. Originally, I was just going to use Windows 10, since I have only used Windows and 10 seems to be the most stable version.  However, after doing some research, it seems that Linux Ubuntu is by far the preferred OS for mining. Is that what Phil and most of the people on this thread are on?  If so, do you have a recommendation as far as version goes?  Looks like it's either 14.04.5 or 16.04.1, as 15 appears to be EOL'd.  I did notice on MinerGate's site that at least its miner is supposedly 60% more productive with any Ubuntu version 15 or later (vs it's v14 software).

Usually, I would just opt for the most recent version, but any advice would be appreciated. Any concerns at all with v16.04.1? Thanks again to everyone!

All rigs are windows 7.  

I just don't have the time to play linux ubuntu.  I have a pc with linux that I ran compac usb sticks on  seems like a good os just have not spent the time to learn it.

  I was a mac/apple guy for a long time.
 I was  into tearing down the mac mini and making them a lot better then the stock ones.
I don't like windows 10
I don't like windows 8
I do like windows 7  and so far  the eth coins builds have been very solid with windows 7 pro.

I have that benchtop case it is pretty good.

You actually don't need a box fan  if you look at my setups I don't use a box fan  my cards are all under 70c   in a 90f-95f  garage.

but I don't smoke my cards.

I don't run the 29 or the 31 mh roms'  I don't  run dual mining just eth.

Thus the cards run a little cooler  and all parts on the cards tend to last longer.

@ xleejohnx I will slap a kwatt meter on the 4 card rx 470 tonight

[ps_jb]

Guys,

If somebody have RX 380 XFX Reference card. Could you please save BIOS with GPU-Z and upload somewhere?

I need it to re-flash my card to original one

Thank you!

[GabryRox]

Thanks Lone & Phil... I would actually prefer to use Windows 7 over any other OS since I have been running W7 Pro 64-bit on my main PC for 4+ years and it's been my favorite OS to date.  I guess a few things I read were more about Windows 10 not being so great for mining, so I am highly inclined to go the W7 route since I really have no desire to learn a new OS on top of all of this.

As far as obtaining a relatively cheap license... looks like there are several well-reviewed sellers on ebay selling W7 Pro 64-bit OEM version for around $40 like the ones below.  Any concerns with these or do you have a better source?  

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Microsoft-Windows-7-Pro-64-32-Bit-Full-Version-Upgrade-SP1-NEW/162170326544?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3Df2fbda5819bf4100881aca4f232ee2c3%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D121971805513

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121971805513?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[philipma1957]

Thanks Lone & Phil... I would actually prefer to use Windows 7 over any other OS since I have been running W7 Pro 64-bit on my main PC for 4+ years and it's been my favorite OS to date.  I guess a few things I read were more about Windows 10 not being so great for mining, so I am highly inclined to go the W7 route since I really have no desire to learn a new OS on top of all of this.

As far as obtaining a relatively cheap license... looks like there are several well-reviewed sellers on ebay selling W7 Pro 64-bit OEM version for around $40 like the ones below.  Any concerns with these or do you have a better source?  

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Microsoft-Windows-7-Pro-64-32-Bit-Full-Version-Upgrade-SP1-NEW/162170326544?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3Df2fbda5819bf4100881aca4f232ee2c3%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D121971805513

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121971805513?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

make sure you get a 64 bit.  the top seller seems fine.

I have a sata style dvd rom to load the os as a usb style dvd rom won't load windows 7 on every new chipset

this type should work

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-Black-SATA-DVD-ROM-Drive-Model-DVD-E818AAT-DVD-E818AAT-BLK-B-GE-/291286892397?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/LG-Internal-SATA-24x-DVD-CD-R-RW-DL-Disc-Burner-Re-Writer-Drive-OEM-Bulk-/161982443055?