GPU Miner Question

[ProfLayton]

I have been wanting to build a dedicated miner for a little while now, and I figured I should post some questions so I don't end up wasting money and time.

When it comes to a GPU miner, do I need to worry about my CPU at all? Can I buy a cheap/non-powerful cpu and be perfectly fine? I would think so, but I am not 100% sure how exactly the miners work exactly, still trying to figure that out.
Also, a little off topic, is there a way to daisy-chain together GPUs for extra power? Or would I have to just use each one as a separate device mining (using GUIMiner)?

Thanks in advance

[rainwater]

I have been wanting to build a dedicated miner for a little while now, and I figured I should post some questions so I don't end up wasting money and time.

When it comes to a GPU miner, do I need to worry about my CPU at all? Can I buy a cheap/non-powerful cpu and be perfectly fine? I would think so, but I am not 100% sure how exactly the miners work exactly, still trying to figure that out.
Also, a little off topic, is there a way to daisy-chain together GPUs for extra power? Or would I have to just use each one as a separate device mining (using GUIMiner)?

Thanks in advance

for bitcoin, just GPU. cpu and ram dont matter
buy the cheapest AMD cpu and 2GB ram and you should be fine.

for litecoin, I think cpu+ram play a part (small part) but it's still on the GPU

[ProfLayton]

I have been wanting to build a dedicated miner for a little while now, and I figured I should post some questions so I don't end up wasting money and time.

When it comes to a GPU miner, do I need to worry about my CPU at all? Can I buy a cheap/non-powerful cpu and be perfectly fine? I would think so, but I am not 100% sure how exactly the miners work exactly, still trying to figure that out.
Also, a little off topic, is there a way to daisy-chain together GPUs for extra power? Or would I have to just use each one as a separate device mining (using GUIMiner)?

Thanks in advance

for bitcoin, just GPU. cpu and ram dont matter
buy the cheapest AMD cpu and 2GB ram and you should be fine.

for litecoin, I think cpu+ram play a part (small part) but it's still on the GPU

I figured as much, I just couldn't find enough info to support it on my own.
Thanks for the quick response

[rnts08]

Daisy chain GPUs? It's called SLI but don't bother with that.

Find a MB with as many PCI-e slots you can find, put as many (ATI/Radeon) GPU-cards in it as humanly possible, get a good power-supply, scrap together whatever the cheapest CPU/RAM combination that will fit on the MB you can find. Run BAMT or linux from an USB stick with the appropriate drivers, SDK and miners. The more GPU's you can fit in the motherboard/chassis with or without extenders/risers the better you will do.

[Qdentica]

Correct!
The MB is very important for mining rigs - preferably go for an Extended ATX MB with 5-7 PCI-E buses.
The PCI-E bus speed does not matter. The CPU does not matter. Memory, also - does not matter.
What matters is the GPU(s) (and GDDR for Litecoin).

A quality MB, PSU and proper cooling is advisable though!
All the best.

[ProfLayton]

Correct!
The MB is very important for mining rigs - preferably go for an Extended ATX MB with 5-7 PCI-E buses.
The PCI-E bus speed does not matter. The CPU does not matter. Memory, also - does not matter.
What matters is the GPU(s) (and GDDR for Litecoin).

A quality MB, PSU and proper cooling is advisable though!
All the best.

I have been looking for a good PCI-e MB for a little while now, the best I can find (that is less than $200+) has 3, and that is on newegg. Where would you recommend shopping for computer hardware?

[bigvern]

For litecoin, you need to make sure your motherboard has as much ram as the graphics card.

BigVern

[FloridaBear]

For litecoin, you need to make sure your motherboard has as much ram as the graphics card.

BigVern

Not sure I understand this--cgminer only appears to use about 60 MB to mine (I assume per GPU). That may vary depending on shader count, concurrency, etc., but for my 7970 (which has 3 GB, and is only using 1.3 GB while mining), it doesn't appear to require anywhere near as much RAM as the GPU.

Can we get a definitive answer on RAM for litecoin mining?

[ProfLayton]

For litecoin, you need to make sure your motherboard has as much ram as the graphics card.

BigVern

Not sure I understand this--cgminer only appears to use about 60 MB to mine (I assume per GPU). That may vary depending on shader count, concurrency, etc., but for my 7970 (which has 3 GB, and is only using 1.3 GB while mining), it doesn't appear to require anywhere near as much RAM as the GPU.

Can we get a definitive answer on RAM for litecoin mining?

I am pretty sure you don't need RAM at all. I don't see why you would considering the fact that all of the processing is happening on your GPU. But, there may be something different with litecoin...

[rainwater]

random thought: sometimes when you mine with both GPU, and CPU(so cpu is at 100%), the GPU gives a better hash rate! 

something called "pci express throttling" some motherboards do

[dirtriderdan]

remember you can daisey chain psus to keep it cheap too.  Perhaps you already have some lower wattage (still good) ones.

[rainwater]

remember you can daisey chain psus to keep it cheap too.  Perhaps you already have some lower wattage (still good) ones.

yikes, how do you do that? isn't that a fire hazard

[lolbillfrist]

seems like the cost of electricity and aisc coming out would make gpus pointless to run.

[BTCPlay]

Don't place more than 4/5 GPUs per CPU and be sure to have a power supply of at least 1200W and plenty of coolers on your system or it will ne toasted!
For additional GPUs you should setup a new system/CPU.

seen some sick rigs on youtube