Help me build my 1st rig! $4k budget.

[wetjet43]

I've been handed $4,000 and asked to build a mining rig. If you had to spend somebody elses money to build a rig, and share 50% of the profits for your time, and not have to worry about power, what would you build? I like shopping on newegg, but I always check amazon and other places for a better deal.

I really wanted to get a butterfly labs 50 GH/s asic miner, but I'm not about to fork over somebody elses money and say we'll get the product in a year, if at all.

Do I go for 7970, or a 7950 GPU? Do I put 3 GPU's on a single motherboard, or build 3 single GPU miners?
I know the CPU and memory aren't important, as a celeron will work just fine on 2 gigs of memory.

I'm mainly looking for advise on the GPU, motherboard, Power and what OS to run it on (win or linux?)

Thanks!

[Uliena]

I would suggest on getting http://www.msi.com/product/mb/990FXA-GD80.html (I have this one with 3 7950's).
Look for 80+ gold powersupply with over 1 kW (I have corsair AX1200[had it prior]).

[Catanonia]

For 4K I reckon you could get 3 rigs built with 3 7950 each cards in. Maybe 4 rigs at a squeeze using cheaply found kit.

Each card on bitcoin should give you 550mhashes or there abouts.

So 9 x 550 = about 5Ghashes or 12 x 550 = 6.6 Ghashes

not to shabby, but pricey at 4k

[ryantc]

I would suggest on getting http://www.msi.com/product/mb/990FXA-GD80.html (I have this one with 3 7950's).
Look for 80+ gold powersupply with over 1 kW (I have corsair AX1200[had it prior]).

3 7950s can run on a 850-1000 PSU,80+ gold or above
PSU is pricey and money is wasted when you don't need that extra.

[middlemarkal]

I've been handed $4,000 and asked to build a mining rig. If you had to spend somebody elses money to build a rig, and share 50% of the profits for your time, and not have to worry about power, what would you build? I like shopping on newegg, but I always check amazon and other places for a better deal.

I really wanted to get a butterfly labs 50 GH/s asic miner, but I'm not about to fork over somebody elses money and say we'll get the product in a year, if at all.
spend 2000 for gpu rig and 2000 on bfl

Do I go for 7970, or a 7950 GPU? Do I put 3 GPU's on a single motherboard, or build 3 single GPU miners? 3 7950 cards [on one mobo to reduce the price of the over head cheap ram and cpu/color]
I know the CPU and memory aren't important, as a celeron will work just fine on 2 gigs of memory.

I'm mainly looking for advise on the GPU, motherboard, Power and what OS to run it on (win or linux?)7950 gigabyte with 3 fans they are great, open air case with riser, mobo with 3 pcie*16 and the pcie*1 to expand later, linux is a bit more performan but much more complicated then Windows

Thanks!

[wetjet43]

I would suggest on getting http://www.msi.com/product/mb/990FXA-GD80.html (I have this one with 3 7950's).
Look for 80+ gold powersupply with over 1 kW (I have corsair AX1200[had it prior]).

It's only got pci-e 2.0 slots. Won't I get better performance out of a 3.0 slot?

Thanks!

[baad]

I would suggest on getting http://www.msi.com/product/mb/990FXA-GD80.html (I have this one with 3 7950's).
Look for 80+ gold powersupply with over 1 kW (I have corsair AX1200[had it prior]).

It's only got pci-e 2.0 slots. Won't I get better performance out of a 3.0 slot?

Thanks!

No, 2.0 is enought.

[wetjet43]

I would suggest on getting http://www.msi.com/product/mb/990FXA-GD80.html (I have this one with 3 7950's).
Look for 80+ gold powersupply with over 1 kW (I have corsair AX1200[had it prior]).

It's only got pci-e 2.0 slots. Won't I get better performance out of a 3.0 slot?

Thanks!

No, 2.0 is enought.

So there's zero performance gain from going with a pci-e 3.0 motherboard over a pci-e 2.0 motherboard?

This will save me some money if so. I haven't ran an amd processor since my old k62-450!

[crazyates]

3x 890FXA-GD70 - $400 used
3x Any low end Athlon II - $100 used
3x 2GB sticks of DDR3 RAM - $60 new
3x Sandisk 8GB USB drives - $30 new
3x Seasonic X-1050 - $650 new

That leaves ~$2800 for GPUs.

9 GPUs (3 per rig) - 7950s (9x 500MH/s) = 4.5GH/s
12 GPUs (4 per rig) - 7870s (12x 400MH/s) = 4.6GH/s

I would recommend the fewer but faster GPUs, as they're less to hassle with.

[meebs]

For 4K I reckon you could get 3 rigs built with 3 7950 each cards in. Maybe 4 rigs at a squeeze using cheaply found kit.

Each card on bitcoin should give you 550mhashes or there abouts.

So 9 x 550 = about 5Ghashes or 12 x 550 = 6.6 Ghashes

not to shabby, but pricey at 4k

i just built a rig with 2x gigabyte 7950's (the $300 model on newegg.. rev 2.0)

does 630 mhash and 670+ khash (scrypt mining)

rock solid and a beast.

DOES NOT UNDERVOLT, however. this is a card for balls to the walls mining, not undervolting/low heat applications.

[crazyates]

i just built a rig with 2x gigabyte 7950's (the $300 model on newegg.. rev 2.0)

does 630 mhash and 670+ khash (scrypt mining)

rock solid and a beast.

DOES NOT UNDERVOLT, however. this is a card for balls to the walls mining, not undervolting/low heat applications.

630MH/s per card, or for both combined?

[computerparts]

4K on a gpu rig? Lol waste that money away.

[wetjet43]

4K on a gpu rig? Lol waste that money away.

Correction, 4k on 3 gpu rigs with 3 9750 gpu's each.

[wetjet43]

Thank you everybody for pointing me in the right direction. Your help was very valuable.

Here's what I've decided to go with. After weighing going with an AMD motherboard, and an Intel, I chose the Intel. From what I've read, the processor basically takes a nap during the mining process. I didn't go with celerons, but a standard socket 1155 G2020 pentium.

3 rigs total being built for the $4k invested from my friend. (Thank you "L"!)

- CPU:
Intel Pentium G2020 Ivy Bridge 2.9GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80637G2020
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116886

- Motherboard:
MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130687

- Memory: ( I didn't fill it up, but decided to keep the system memory higher than the combined memory of the video cards due to a bug that I read about in cgminer )
CORSAIR XMS3 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233190

- GPU: (3 per rig)
MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127667&Tpk=MSI-7950%20TF&IsVirtualParent=1

- Power Supply:
COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series RSC00-80GAD3-US 1200W ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171055

- Tower (decided to not take a trip to home depot!)
COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

- Wireless 802.11 card:
Cheap 802.11 b/g pci card. Didn't need anything fancy here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166021

I'll use a few old 40 gig hard drives I've got sitting around for either xp or ubuntu. Maybe I'll just use ubuntu on a memory stick. I haven't decided yet on the OS yet. Any pro's or con's to using either with CGMiner?

Thanks again everybody!

[LouReed]

Thank you everybody for pointing me in the right direction. Your help was very valuable.

Here's what I've decided to go with. After weighing going with an AMD motherboard, and an Intel, I chose the Intel. From what I've read, the processor basically takes a nap during the mining process. I didn't go with celerons, but a standard socket 1155 G2020 pentium.

3 rigs total being built for the $4k invested from my friend. (Thank you "L"!)

- CPU:
Intel Pentium G2020 Ivy Bridge 2.9GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80637G2020
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116886

- Motherboard:
MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130687

- Memory: ( I didn't fill it up, but decided to keep the system memory higher than the combined memory of the video cards due to a bug that I read about in cgminer )
CORSAIR XMS3 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233190

- GPU: (3 per rig)
MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127667&Tpk=MSI-7950%20TF&IsVirtualParent=1

- Power Supply:
COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series RSC00-80GAD3-US 1200W ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171055

- Tower (decided to not take a trip to home depot!)
COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

- Wireless 802.11 card:
Cheap 802.11 b/g pci card. Didn't need anything fancy here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166021

I'll use a few old 40 gig hard drives I've got sitting around for either xp or ubuntu. Maybe I'll just use ubuntu on a memory stick. I haven't decided yet on the OS yet. Any pro's or con's to using either with CGMiner?

Thanks again everybody!

That GPU on newegg is out of stock. Did you buy the last of them, or find em someplace else?

[Marrs]

I haven't decided yet on the OS yet. Any pro's or con's to using either with CGMiner?

Driver support is better on Windows. On the other hand, Linux is free.

[crazyates]

I haven't decided yet on the OS yet. Any pro's or con's to using either with CGMiner?

Driver support is better on Windows. On the other hand, Linux is free.

In general, Win will have butter support for almost anything compared to linux. For me, I can set up a Win miner in prolly 30 min after the OS is installed. Linux might take a lil longer, but I think it's a better and more customizable miner.

[wetjet43]

Thank you everybody for pointing me in the right direction. Your help was very valuable.

Here's what I've decided to go with. After weighing going with an AMD motherboard, and an Intel, I chose the Intel. From what I've read, the processor basically takes a nap during the mining process. I didn't go with celerons, but a standard socket 1155 G2020 pentium.

3 rigs total being built for the $4k invested from my friend. (Thank you "L"!)

- CPU:
Intel Pentium G2020 Ivy Bridge 2.9GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80637G2020
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116886

- Motherboard:
MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130687

- Memory: ( I didn't fill it up, but decided to keep the system memory higher than the combined memory of the video cards due to a bug that I read about in cgminer )
CORSAIR XMS3 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233190

- GPU: (3 per rig)
MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127667&Tpk=MSI-7950%20TF&IsVirtualParent=1

- Power Supply:
COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series RSC00-80GAD3-US 1200W ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171055

- Tower (decided to not take a trip to home depot!)
COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

- Wireless 802.11 card:
Cheap 802.11 b/g pci card. Didn't need anything fancy here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166021

I'll use a few old 40 gig hard drives I've got sitting around for either xp or ubuntu. Maybe I'll just use ubuntu on a memory stick. I haven't decided yet on the OS yet. Any pro's or con's to using either with CGMiner?

Thanks again everybody!

That GPU on newegg is out of stock. Did you buy the last of them, or find em someplace else?

I actually ordered mine from SuberBiiz. They didn't have 6 of them in stock, but they let me place a back order. They'll ship out in about a week.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MSI-7950TF

[wetjet43]

I haven't decided yet on the OS yet. Any pro's or con's to using either with CGMiner?

Driver support is better on Windows. On the other hand, Linux is free.

In general, Win will have butter support for almost anything compared to linux. For me, I can set up a Win miner in prolly 30 min after the OS is installed. Linux might take a lil longer, but I think it's a better and more customizable miner.

Thanks crazy. I'll keep this in mind.