Building a rig (Hardware noob)

[Kasaf]

Hey guys,

I have this old motherboard lying around http://uk.msi.com/product/mb/P6N-SLI.html#?div=Detail and I was thinking about using it for a mining rig.

I wanted to get two HD 7950's to use for mining either bitcoin or litecoin. Can this mobo support both of them?

Should I use 7970's instead? Thanks for the help.

[1715466000]

1715466000

[aqrulesms]

7950s are the most efficient for mining litecoin.

The motherboard can definitely run both of them as it has two Pci-e slots.

[Kasaf]

I decided it might be better to start a fresh and build a new rig from scratch.

Does this build seem ok?
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/PB4T

Assuming I can get 900Mhash from the two cards combined the bitcoinx profit calculator says i can break even in around 5 months.

[KJaneway]

5 months is crap: Two points to consider: Your Calculation is based on a constant difficulty. Look here: http://bitcoindifficulty.com/ and make your own guess on how hight difficulty would be in 5 months.
Second: Break Even Point is not the Point when you get your hardwarecosts back. Break even poin is much earlier: When you have mined that many coins (and exchanged them) that you would have no profit and no losses AFTER Selling your used Hardware you reached the break even point. That would be after mining 25-35% of the original value of your rig. Everything you mine after that is profit as you can always sell your parts..


Your build seems fine. Perhaps use a cheaper Mainboard: For two cards: ASRock 970 Extreme3. For three cards: ASRock 970 Extreme4. And I don't know how good XFX PSUs are. Corsair or Seasonic are very good ones.
Maybe this one: Corsair Professional Series HX750 80PLUS Gold 750W or this one: Corsair Professional Series Gold AX850 850W (three GPUs)

[BBQKorv]

I decided it might be better to start a fresh and build a new rig from scratch.

Does this build seem ok?
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/PB4T

Assuming I can get 900Mhash from the two cards combined the bitcoinx profit calculator says i can break even in around 5 months.

ASICs will skyrocket the BTC difficulty, don't plan more than just a couple of weeks ahead now. Litecoin on the other hand might stay profitable better, but thats not guaranteed since it will attract plenty of GPU miners.

[Kasaf]

Thanks for the advice, I've updated the build to this so far: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/PIns

I've been reading a bit about LTC mining, so I was hoping i'd be able to mine those on this rig if the bitcoin difficulty goes too high.

[Kasaf]

Been looking at different 7950 cards on ebuyer and I've found this one: http://www.ebuyer.com/454252-sapphire-hd-7950-boost-3gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-11196-19-20g

Will I be alright with this one, or do you guys recommend a different 7950?

[middlemarkal]

Been looking at different 7950 cards on ebuyer and I've found this one: http://www.ebuyer.com/454252-sapphire-hd-7950-boost-3gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-11196-19-20g

Will I be alright with this one, or do you guys recommend a different 7950?it's a boost edition and has 2 fans not a bad find,