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

[philipma1957]

Hey philipma1957, figured I'd move our conversation over to your thread since it's more appropriate... So what hashrate are you getting with claymore on those 4G MSI's?   And did you find a better price than jet.com for those cards?  I'm getting ready to give a shot at building a 7 card rig, so if I could use the 4G, then I think it would end up costing me almost the same as the 6x 8G config. 

Low 20's.

21.4 to 22.2

Jet is best price. But I get taxed as they are NJ based.

Sometimes I can do,better on eBay but it is a complex purchase.

I buy eBay gift cards with a 5 to 10 percent discount then wait for eBay to offer an ebucks discount of 8 to 10 percent.

Then certain eBay companies sell new cards with no,taxes. So if all three things align it beats the jet price.

I got some Msi card for 177 which is good.

[1715042117]

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[1715042117]

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[GabryRox]

Well, I go the last of my components from NewEgg today, so now just hoping my W7 arrives tomorrow so I can set up my first rig this weekend.  Really curious to see what that i7-6800k is going to do, but overall, just chomping at the bit to finally start mining at some real speeds with the 3 MSI RX 470's!

So, I have (mostly) built my current personal PC myself, so I am fairly confident that I can assemble all of the hardware by leveraging the MoBo and YouTube demos if i get stuck. What I am a bit more foggy on though is the BIOS & OS setup, mainly the order, so wanted to pose a few quick questions here for some feedback:

After installing all hardware onto the MoBo, including connecting to PSU...

1- power on machine
2- since I am hooking up a brand new SSD, there will be nothing on it, so assuming the BIOS screen will come up first
3- at this point, do I see if the BIOS needs updated first before doing anything else?
4- or, should I clear/reset the CMOS censor before updating BIOS? Or, does this even really need to be done at all?
5- would the next step be to install Windows?

Finally, I am assuming that I plug in ALL 3 GPUs at initial setup BEFORE turning on the machine for the first time. If that is not correct, please let me know.

Also, are there any quirks to look out for specifically for a multi-GPU set-up?  Obviously i know not to enable cross-fire or SLI bridging, but are there any other unique things to be aware of during set up?

FYI: I am using this X99 MoBo:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157543&cm_re=ASRock_x99-_-13-157-543-_-Product

Turn on the computer with only one GPU (my recommendation, just in case one gpu doesn't load properly with drivers). You will have to restart afterwards anyways when you install the AMD drivers, so at that point you can connect the other GPUs.

What OS are you using? If you have a cd that will need to be loaded, if not a usb with an OS system or SSD that is flashed with one.

You have no need to go into the bios on initial startup or ever unless you're trying to tweak something some pcie or something.

Thanks Rocky, I appreciate the info! I will be using Windows 7 Pro x64 and loading from a CD/DVD via a SATA optical drive.

So, I will just plug 1 GPU into PCIe x16 slot #1 before the the initial boot, then move right to installing Windows and don't mess with anything in bios.  Once installed, I assume Windows will auto-detect the MSI GPU and either auto-download the drivers from AMD or I will have to download manually and install them. But, either way, after that is done, shut down, unplug, install the other 2 GPUs, turn on the PC again, making sure all 3 GPUs are now recognized?

Thanks again, I am trying to prep as much as possible before actually building this thing

[MarkAz]

Low 20's.

21.4 to 22.2

Jet is best price. But I get taxed as they are NJ based.

Sometimes I can do,better on eBay but it is a complex purchase.

I buy eBay gift cards with a 5 to 10 percent discount then wait for eBay to offer an ebucks discount of 8 to 10 percent.

Then certain eBay companies sell new cards with no,taxes. So if all three things align it beats the jet price.

I got some Msi card for 177 which is good.

So basically only about 2MH less - even at the price point Jet has, it's better ROI, so when I build my 7 card machine in a few weeks I'll use those.  Right now I'm just waiting on Sidehack to get the next run of those molex boards done, as I'm doing all my builds using those now, and I think he's about 3 weeks out.

[LoneRangir]

Can you link to the cabling thread? The cabling sounds interesting.


Nevermind. Here it is:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1581985.0

[GabryRox]

So, something else I just thought about regarding my build with this Mobo & MSI 470's:

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

This Mobo has no onboard video, so was planning to plug in the cheap VGA connector monitor I have into the first MSI 470's HDMI port via this connector/converter:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016HL4CAY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The thing I am grappling with goes back to the installing of AMD drivers for this GPU, since obviously, Windows 7 will not have them included when I install it fresh on the new SSD.

So, my question is this:  How will i be able to see anything on my monitor upon initial boot up, if it is plugged into a GPU that will not have its drivers installed yet?  I'm hoping that there is some limited functionality that at least allows text to be visible on the monitor before the drivers are installed, but if not, I can't think of a way to get around this.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[ps_jb]

So, something else I just thought about regarding my build with this Mobo & MSI 470's:

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

This Mobo has no onboard video, so was planning to plug in the cheap VGA connector monitor I have into the first MSI 470's HDMI port via this connector/converter:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016HL4CAY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The thing I am grappling with goes back to the installing of AMD drivers for this GPU, since obviously, Windows 7 will not have them included when I install it fresh on the new SSD.

So, my question is this:  How will i be able to see anything on my monitor upon initial boot up, if it is plugged into a GPU that will not have its drivers installed yet?  I'm hoping that there is some limited functionality that at least allows text to be visible on the monitor before the drivers are installed, but if not, I can't think of a way to get around this.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Windows will install general VGA drivers for your GPU. You will see all text etc

[citronick]

The Biostar mobo arrived today and will play with it this weekend.

I plan to use 2 x 290 and 2 x 290x (all reference versions), thats the only GPUs I have "lying" around.

Any suggestions on which GPUs goes to which PCI slots?

I know the 290x runs hot and I think its better not to put the 290x after another.

Plan to use as follows:

PCI0 - 290x
PCI1 - 290
PCI2 -290
PCI3 - 290x

[QuintLeo]

The Biostar mobo arrived today and will play with it this weekend.

I plan to use 2 x 290 and 2 x 290x (all reference versions), thats the only GPUs I have "lying" around.

Any suggestions on which GPUs goes to which PCI slots?

I know the 290x runs hot and I think its better not to put the 290x after another.

Plan to use as follows:

PCI0 - 290x
PCI1 - 290
PCI2 -290
PCI3 - 290x

 290s don't exactly run cool either, but I think you've got the "best bet" layout for reducing overheat isues you CAN do with those 4 cards.

 Have you flashed them with "TheStilt" BOIS yet?

[citronick]

The Biostar mobo arrived today and will play with it this weekend.

I plan to use 2 x 290 and 2 x 290x (all reference versions), thats the only GPUs I have "lying" around.

Any suggestions on which GPUs goes to which PCI slots?

I know the 290x runs hot and I think its better not to put the 290x after another.

Plan to use as follows:

PCI0 - 290x
PCI1 - 290
PCI2 -290
PCI3 - 290x

 290s don't exactly run cool either, but I think you've got the "best bet" layout for reducing overheat isues you CAN do with those 4 cards.

 Have you flashed them with "TheStilt" BOIS yet?

Thanks QuintLeo for feedback.

I so want to flash these 290s with Stilt but my last search for them landed me to a library of archives .... I don't even know which one to use .... anyone has a copy of the Stilt BIOS?

[QuintLeo]

There are a series of them.
One series for the 290 one for the 290x.
Irritating part is the numbers are interleaved for the 2 series.

Each V number within each series is in order on "setpoint for core voltage", but I forget which end is the higher setpoint offhand.


Try the litecoin forums, they had the "reference" post TheStilt wrote about which bios is which, and I recommend downloading all of them (they're small) then try each one out in decreasing voltage order 'till you get to one that isn't stable.


 They don't do much if anything about reducing power consumption (the faster memory timings appear to drive that up as much as the dropping the other parts drives it down) but the cards run a LOT cooler and you can overclock them without massive overheating issues.

[GabryRox]

Windows will install general VGA drivers for your GPU. You will see all text etc
[/quote]

Thanks, that alleviates my worries

I hit a stall in my build. 1st, my W7 didn't show up yet, but worse, I realized last night that I didn't have the the 3.5" to 2.5" brackets I need to mount my SSD under my Alpha-DB6 test bench. Unfortunately, no local PC shops are open until tomorrow so I can't really proceed with even the Mobo installation due to the way the 3.5" drive brackets mount underneath where the Mobo will be.

Given the extra time to think, I realized that I never even thought about a CPU heatsink. My Mobo does have 2 heatsinks on it (one next to the CPU) but wondering if I still should pick up a fan-type heatsink to mount over the CPU.  I do NOT plan to overclock this i7-6800k, but will be likely running it full time mining XMR.

Any opinions as to whether the open-air build and 2 on-Mobo heatsinks will be sufficient if I'm not over-clocking it?

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

[philipma1957]

Windows will install general VGA drivers for your GPU. You will see all text etc

Thanks, that alleviates my worries

I hit a stall in my build. 1st, my W7 didn't show up yet, but worse, I realized last night that I didn't have the the 3.5" to 2.5" brackets I need to mount my SSD under my Alpha-DB6 test bench. Unfortunately, no local PC shops are open until tomorrow so I can't really proceed with even the Mobo installation due to the way the 3.5" drive brackets mount underneath where the Mobo will be.

Given the extra time to think, I realized that I never even thought about a CPU heatsink. My Mobo does have 2 heatsinks on it (one next to the CPU) but wondering if I still should pick up a fan-type heatsink to mount over the CPU.  I do NOT plan to overclock this i7-6800k, but will be likely running it full time mining XMR.

Any opinions as to whether the open-air build and 2 on-Mobo heatsinks will be sufficient if I'm not over-clocking it?

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

[/quote]

you must have a heatsink mounted on the i6800k  .  I will find one for you:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186093&cm_re=heatsink-_-35-186-093-_-Product

cheap should  be fine

[QuintLeo]

*NO* CPU used in a PC (possible exception for laptops) has been able to run without a Heatsink without overheating since some of the very early low-end AMD and Intel 80486-class units.

 The reason that Intel ended up releasing the original Pentium in 60Mhz and 66Mhz instead of 60 and 75 is that even WITH the best heatsink/fan tech of the time they couldn't keep that generation of Pentium from overheating at 75 Mhz (that was the LAST CPU generation that ran on 5 volts, the next gen of Pentiums went to running the core of the CPU at 3.3 volts).


 Don't even THINK about trying to run any current CPU without a heatsink (no fan can work if the heatsink used is specifically designed for passive cooling and the case it's in provides enough airflow, but that's generally limited to low-power and server-type setups).

[citronick]

Windows will install general VGA drivers for your GPU. You will see all text etc

Thanks, that alleviates my worries

I hit a stall in my build. 1st, my W7 didn't show up yet, but worse, I realized last night that I didn't have the the 3.5" to 2.5" brackets I need to mount my SSD under my Alpha-DB6 test bench. Unfortunately, no local PC shops are open until tomorrow so I can't really proceed with even the Mobo installation due to the way the 3.5" drive brackets mount underneath where the Mobo will be.

Given the extra time to think, I realized that I never even thought about a CPU heatsink. My Mobo does have 2 heatsinks on it (one next to the CPU) but wondering if I still should pick up a fan-type heatsink to mount over the CPU.  I do NOT plan to overclock this i7-6800k, but will be likely running it full time mining XMR.

Any opinions as to whether the open-air build and 2 on-Mobo heatsinks will be sufficient if I'm not over-clocking it?

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

you must have a heatsink mounted on the i6800k  .  I will find one for you:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186093&cm_re=heatsink-_-35-186-093-_-Product

cheap should  be fine
[/quote]

philip - your 24x7 XMR rig is only CPU based (i7-6800k?)

Any GPUs to be attached to this XMR rig?

Reason I asked is that if several CPU only mobo can be clustered to mine decent amount of XMR per day.

Claymore has CPU and GPU versions of his XMR miner.

Also, Claymore will release an XMR miner that can dual mine with non-memory intensive algos, just like what he did with his orginal ETH dual miner. He posted that he will release it soon.

[philipma1957]

Windows will install general VGA drivers for your GPU. You will see all text etc

Thanks, that alleviates my worries

I hit a stall in my build. 1st, my W7 didn't show up yet, but worse, I realized last night that I didn't have the the 3.5" to 2.5" brackets I need to mount my SSD under my Alpha-DB6 test bench. Unfortunately, no local PC shops are open until tomorrow so I can't really proceed with even the Mobo installation due to the way the 3.5" drive brackets mount underneath where the Mobo will be.

Given the extra time to think, I realized that I never even thought about a CPU heatsink. My Mobo does have 2 heatsinks on it (one next to the CPU) but wondering if I still should pick up a fan-type heatsink to mount over the CPU.  I do NOT plan to overclock this i7-6800k, but will be likely running it full time mining XMR.

Any opinions as to whether the open-air build and 2 on-Mobo heatsinks will be sufficient if I'm not over-clocking it?

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

you must have a heatsink mounted on the i6800k  .  I will find one for you:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186093&cm_re=heatsink-_-35-186-093-_-Product

cheap should  be fine

philip - your 24x7 XMR rig is only CPU based (i7-6800k?)

Any GPUs to be attached to this XMR rig?

Reason I asked is that if several CPU only mobo can be clustered to mine decent amount of XMR per day.

Claymore has CPU and GPU versions of his XMR miner.

Also, Claymore will release an XMR miner that can dual mine with non-memory intensive algos, just like what he did with his orginal ETH dual miner. He posted that he will release it soon.




not my rig and it is to have gpu's.

the poster  got a free i7 6800k  so he grabbed a decent mobo and is building a rig using gpu's

I know most of us are not used to seeing a rig with an i7 6800k , but it was free  so why not?  Also His board will allow for 4 or five cards without risers and have good resale value.

[/quote]

[citronick]

K series should be very good in any CPU-based algos...

... however 1 decent GPU is equivalent to tens of CPUs

[GabryRox]

K series should be very good in any CPU-based algos...

... however 1 decent GPU is equivalent to tens of CPUs

Thanks for the info on heatsinks. I probably thought that in the back of my head but when I see most people listing their components for a bare-bones build, heatsink is rarely mentioned, so I think that's why I questioned it... along with the fact that I have never used a Mobo with built in heatsinks before but... I will either order that one Phil recommended or pick it (or rough equivalent) up at a local PC shop today.

Regarding citronick's statement above... I don't believe this is accurate. All indications are that an RX 470 GPU can get around 750 H/s on XMR, correct?  My current very old 2600k CPU is gettng 150 H/s on XMR, so the GPU:CPU ratio is only 5:1, not 10+:1.  While the school is still out on what hashrate that 6800k is going to pull, it almost assuredly will not be any worse than 300 H/s, which is a 2.5:1 ratio.  My original expectation was that it might get in the 500-600 range (very close to 1:1), but that is seeming more unlikely given a benchmark with a 5960x. Still, with a fixed cost of ~$400-$500 for setting up a rig before GPU's, it was worthwhile for me to pursue any road to extra XMR hashrate, given the 8600k was free.  But, even a cheap g4400 can pull ~120 H/s on XMR and while certainly that 6:1 ratio vs GPU won't get you rich, it's a bit of an incremental bonus since you already have the fixed cost of building the rig. Granted, this will only work with XMR currently but since that is mainly what I will be mining with this rig, it makes sense to factor in the CPU's capabilities... at least to me

[citronick]

K series should be very good in any CPU-based algos...

... however 1 decent GPU is equivalent to tens of CPUs

Thanks for the info on heatsinks. I probably thought that in the back of my head but when I see most people listing their components for a bare-bones build, heatsink is rarely mentioned, so I think that's why I questioned it... along with the fact that I have never used a Mobo with built in heatsinks before but... I will either order that one Phil recommended or pick it (or rough equivalent) up at a local PC shop today.

Regarding citronick's statement above... I don't believe this is accurate. All indications are that an RX 470 GPU can get around 750 H/s on XMR, correct?  My current very old 2600k CPU is gettng 150 H/s on XMR, so the GPU:CPU ratio is only 5:1, not 10+:1.  While the school is still out on what hashrate that 6800k is going to pull, it almost assuredly will not be any worse than 300 H/s, which is a 2.5:1 ratio.  My original expectation was that it might get in the 500-600 range (very close to 1:1), but that is seeming more unlikely given a benchmark with a 5960x. Still, with a fixed cost of ~$400-$500 for setting up a rig before GPU's, it was worthwhile for me to pursue any road to extra XMR hashrate, given the 8600k was free.  But, even a cheap g4400 can pull ~120 H/s on XMR and while certainly that 6:1 ratio vs GPU won't get you rich, it's a bit of an incremental bonus since you already have the fixed cost of building the rig. Granted, this will only work with XMR currently but since that is mainly what I will be mining with this rig, it makes sense to factor in the CPU's capabilities... at least to me

that makes sense gabs - good rationale.

all my i5-3550 (thanks to Philip's tips on getting cheap and good used i5-3550).... I have been using both CPU and GPU to work using Nicehash Windows miner (the 1.7 version, which can mine Cryptonight with CPU and Ethash/DaggerHashimoto with GPU) for my kids gaming PCs.

My kids PCs mine using Nicehash Windows miner while they are not using their PCs, and gets about 60 bucks worth of BTCs per month. In turn they will use these BTC to top up their credits using BTC.

The i5s performs quite well and I could imagine i7-6800 especially the K series to be even better.

[QuintLeo]

K series should be very good in any CPU-based algos...

... however 1 decent GPU is equivalent to tens of CPUs

 Not for Monero. Some of the high-end many-core CPUs put out just as much as many mid-range GPUs.

 I'm going to be curious how well the high-core-count Zen stuff does on XMR.

[citronick]

philip.... check out this crazy 16 slot PCI mobo.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1433925.msg16380747#msg16380747