Casual Miner Setup Question

[pccs]

I just ordered a 7970 and currently have a 6450. My motherboard is kinda old ... Asus Crosshair am2. It has 2 PCI slots, I was wondering if I could install both cards and hook up the 6450 to the monitor for browsing etc while the 7970 is dedicated to mining only? Should I get a null plug for the 7970 or just connect it to my monitor(Dual input monitor).


7970 Card: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1823334

                      Lol, shows out of stock now, must have got the last one this morning!

MB Asus Crosshair am2

CPU is AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor

4G Ram

750W Thermaltake Toughpower PSU - about 6 or 7 years old lol.

Gonna finally have to upgrade to win7 64 bit from XP 32 bit if I can. I don't wanna go to Win 8.

I was wondering if I should run the 64 bit Win7 or just go with the 32? Old MB and CPU???

Anyone have any suggestions or see potential problems with this set-up?

[middlemarkal]

your mobo has 2 slots 16 bits so you're ok for 2 video cards.

yes you can mine with just one card.

for BTC and even LTC 4 GIG is on windows 7 32 bits is fine but limit.

PS is ok, but old.

Everything is fine just keep the cost down and run as is.

PS bitminter.com  is the eseayest pool/miner 

[pccs]

PS bitminter.com  is the eseayest pool/miner

I'll have to check it out, haven't been there yet.

I've never run 2 graphics cards at the same time.

Stupid question coming up!

Is there a way to tell the 7970 that I only want to use it for mining, while I only want the 6450 for browsing etc..?

[pccs]

That old PSU is gonna bug the **** outta me.

I should just bite the bullet and get a new one, save this for a backup.

[c789]

cgminer readme:

Single pool, first card regular desktop, 3 other dedicated cards:

Code:

cgminer -o http://pool:port -u username -p password -I d,9,9,9

So, if you have 2 cards and want to mine and also do things on your desktop(d) on the first card, and use the second one 100% for mining, do

Code:

cgminer -o http://pool:port -u username -p password -I d,9

[Cereal]

If you use Guiminer, you can select the card you want to use in a drop down-menu.

The 7970 will show up as 'tahiti'

As long as you keep your monitor connected to your old card this card will be used as primary card.

In windows you don't need to connect a monitor/dongle on the 'mining' card for it to work, but you can't change overclock settings in AMD control panel. So for first use you should connect a monitor and set your desired settings. (max core clock, min mem clock, manual fan).

You should use 64-bit windows, i've run into memory issues running 32-bit windows for LTC mining (only 3 GB available). With 64-bit you can use >4GB in the future.

Of course there are multiple ways you get this done, but guiminer is a relatively easy entry in the mining world. Welcome

[pccs]

Thx c789:

What exactly does the -I arg do?  I can't find a good explanation anywhere, just examples.

Can you explain the difference between "-I d,9,9,9" and "-I 9"

My guess:
It looks like the -I 9 will use all GPUs available, and the -I d,9,9,9 will use one GPU for desktop, and all others for mining?

If I only have 2 cards would -I d,9 work? As long as GPU0 was the 6450 and GPU1 was the 7970

Single pool, regular desktop:

cgminer -o http://pool:port -u username -p password

Single pool, dedicated miner:

cgminer -o http://pool:port -u username -p password -I 9

Single pool, first card regular desktop, 3 other dedicated cards:

cgminer -o http://pool:port -u username -p password -I d,9,9,9

Multiple pool, dedicated miner:

cgminer -o http://pool1:port -u pool1username -p pool1password -o http://pool2:port -u pool2usernmae -p pool2password -I 9

What is the purpose of the multiple pool option? Will it switch if one goes down or something like that?

You should use 64-bit windows, i've run into memory issues running 32-bit windows for LTC mining (only 3 GB available). With 64-bit you can use >4GB in the future.

I've been thinking about linux and the Centos option looks good, just not sure if it will work with my cards. Will probably go with Win7 or 8(runnin XP 32 now), card wont be here till Friday so I have a cpl days to figure it out.

[c789]

Can you explain the difference between "-I d,9,9,9" and "-I 9"

I = Intensity. A higher number means more intense/dedicated mining. There's probably a more technical explanation but that's the main idea.

The first scenario has 4 cards and the first is used for a desktop and mining. The other 3 are 100% dedicated to mining.
The 2nd scenario has 1 card used 100% for mining.

My guess:
It looks like the -I 9 will use all GPUs available, and the -I d,9,9,9 will use one GPU for desktop, and all others for mining?

All correct, except for "and all others for mining?"  All of the cards will be mining, but card 0 will also be used for desktop usage. It will mine with less intensity than if it were set to "9". Try an experiment: try and mine with "-I 9" on the card you're using for your desktop. Your mouse movements and keyboard strokes will be delayed on the screen. That's frustrating. You can experiment and try a setting of 5 or 7 or whatever for the desktop card. I think d is actually equal to 4...I could be wrong about that though. Play around and find a good balance between desktop usage and mining intensity.

If I only have 2 cards would -I d,9 work? As long as GPU0 was the 6450 and GPU1 was the 7970

Yep.

What is the purpose of the multiple pool option? Will it switch if one goes down or something like that?

Yep.

[pccs]

It's starting to make some sense now.

I = intensity 1-9 with d being the default of(~4-5).

Can't wait to get my card, will be a long weekend tweakin it.

The other PCIe slot on my MB is only x 4, if I bought another 7970 would I get the same performance in that slot?

[DrG]

It's starting to make some sense now.

I = intensity 1-9 with d being the default of(~4-5).

Can't wait to get my card, will be a long weekend tweakin it.

The other PCIe slot on my MB is only x 4, if I bought another 7970 would I get the same performance in that slot?

For crypto mining the slot bandwidth is not important.  Even a 1x slot is fine for a 7970 on extender.

[pccs]

For crypto mining the slot bandwidth is not important.  Even a 1x slot is fine for a 7970 on extender.

Great, thx.


I might have to pick up another 7970 somewhere, looks like I bought the wrong card(XFX). Supposedly it is locked, guess I'll have to wait and see what the hash rate is. The good thing is I won't be able to fry it! Any good threads on ppl smokin their GPUs lol.

Hopefully the 7970 will do OK with Litecoin too, haven't looked into that yet.

If I get another one I might try the Sapphire.

[DrG]

No need to get another 7970 unless you want to crossfire later.  7950 is better bang for the buck for both LTC and BTC.

[pccs]

Never checked on the 7950, it wasn't listed in the hardware guide I was lookin at when I got the 7970.

Well, I'm off to Linux land. Can't buy Win7 and I'm not gonna buy win8.

Installed 3 different distros of Linux on usb drive, hopefully I'll find one I can handle.

[c789]

All but one of my boxes are on Xubuntu Linux, and I used this guide:

http://goo.gl/vP3G9

This guide should work for regular Ubuntu as well, but Xubuntu uses less system resources than Ubuntu. The only thing I changed was when you get to this line:

Code:

sudo sh ./ati-driver-installer-11-11-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/precise

...it always gave me problems. I did the following instead and I never had a problem:

Code:

sudo sh ./ati-driver-installer-11-11-x86.x86_64.run

Just make sure the .run file is executable before you do any of this. Also, the driver installer version may be different from 11-11. If so, just use the correct version when you enter the command.

When the dialog box pops up, select "All distributions" (or something to that effect), and then select "Automatic" instead of "Custom" installation.

[pccs]

To make a long boring story short, I managed to get Ubuntu 12.1(I think) stable. I think I installed the 64 bit, not sure. Received the 7970 but I'm not installing that until I get CGMiner or orther app working on the 6450.

All but one of my boxes are on Xubuntu Linux, and I used this guide:

Is there a way to copy the commands out of that file, when I open it up on google docs I cant copy and paste anything. That really looks like a pain in the ass, is there anything easier just to get runnin, then I can work on CGMiner and optimizing later.

One good thing, my backup drive with 30G of music which was corrupted with WinXP is now working! Bad part is I still need to get my old sound card to work. Sound Blaster Audigy, it's probable 12 yrs old or so but still works.

[c789]

Is there a way to copy the commands out of that file, when I open it up on google docs I cant copy and paste anything.

You can save the document as a PDF to your computer, and copy & paste from there. If that doesn't work, copy & paste from the PDF to a text file, and then copy & paste from the text file to the Terminal to run the commands.

Convoluted, but it works

[pccs]

Found a text version of it in the download ... readme file lol.

Plugged in my old sound card and it worked, was thinking I'd have to buy a new one, didn't have to do anything. I don't know if it is using the best drivers, but It sounds just fine.

I should have went to Linux 10 years ago! All it took was ~4 pots of coffee, ~4 packs cigs and a couple days of research before getting started. It feels like I just got out of Microsoft prison lol