Building new open-frame dedicated LTC rig w/7950s,not sure about the final setup

[unixunderground]

Even though I've been interested in the concept of crypto-curriencies and used bitcoins ever since late 2010, and while I deeply regret not getting into the whole mining thing back then, after getting to know litecoins, I decided that mining at this point, sounded like being worth a shot , also considered, that in the worst case scenario, I'll just end up either selling the HW I'm going to use for my rig, or use it somewhere else.


So anyway, I'm really not sure about what to buy, but with a start budget of 750$, here's what I came up with:
1x: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131858R (it has 5x PCI 3 16x, so it seems like a good choice as I'd be able to add more cards in cross as soon as I have some more money)

1x: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125414 (apparently it gets up to 620 kH/s, which isn't bad considering the 299$ price)

And as far as the PSU goes, I'm really not sure about what I should buy to be able to run 5 cards (even though I doubt I'll be using more than 2-3 for the next few months) Any advices?

For now that's actually all that I was thinking of buying, as I don't think I'd need anything else, besides a couple of PCI risers that are near free on ebay (1-3$), as I have HDs laying unused all over my place, as well as random ram modules of all kinds.

I would be putting everything in an open frame setup, so space isn't an issue.

What do you guys think about the mobo and the 7950? Would it be a good choice or should I be looking at something else instead?

Thanks in advance!

[ryantc]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128509
have a look at the mobo, which allows you to put 5 pcie 16, of course you will need pcie extend cable
I remember there is one gigabyte mobo can hold 6 pcie 16 but can't find it.
but the price is definitely cheaper than the asus one.

for psu, go biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig, coz cheaper PSU won't give you enough 6+2 pins for video cards, since you choose 7950, each card you will need 2*6-pins
if you plan to have 2 or 3 of 7950, have a look at the HX850 which comes with 6*6pins
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011

[unixunderground]

Thanks for your suggestion.

I actually ended up going with this PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139014
It's probably a little bit overkill, but I just thought I may find a use for it anyway at a later point..

The http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128509 mobo you suggested does also look like a great deal too, so I'll wait a while if somebody maybe has another suggestion, or else I'll pull the trigger quite soon.

What kind of CPU could I actually mount on that? (as cheap as possible, as long as it works, as I won't be using it for anything else other than mining)

And also, which 7950 should I get? There are 14 version+, (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=100006663&isNodeId=1&Description=7950&x=0&y=0) and I have to apologize for my noobish question, but what difference is there actually between them? I thought a certain GPU model was the always the same..