BOUNTY 0.2 btc - Need help configuring GUIminer & Bitcoinqt for 3x 7950s

[superdork]

** Reward 0.2 BTC  for the person who can help me get and maintain optimal mhash/s results
(and understand how this works so I don't have the same problems again!)

***if more than one poster helps I will divide the total bounty based on which advice helped the most

I have been a Mac user for the last 10 years and have gotten back into the PC world only in the last month since becoming fascinated with Bitcoin, so please try to use plain english as technical talk will probably go over my head.



Right now GUIminer is telling me I am getting 156 khash/s        

Shouldn't my HD 7950 cards get about 500 Mhash/s ?      
and with three wouldn't that mean about 1500 mhash/s?

What am I doing wrong?   (It said I was getting about 500 mash/s when I first got it running about an hour ago)

My system

3x HD7950
2x 8Gb Kingston memory
asrock 970 extreme4
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual-core 260 3.2GHz Processor ADX260OCK23GM

running GUIMiner with Bitcoin client as server  


1)   Is there a book or any single source that explains Bitcoin IN DETAIL? Not a basics guide, not a startup guide, an IN DEPTH, detailed source that I can read to increase my comprehension?

* I have spent a decent amount of time on this forum, and read-  
Bitcoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System - Satoshi
Bitcoin Step by Step- Michael Caughey

2a) are there ANY tutorials that go in depth into setting up the SETTINGS on GUIminer?
    is there a GUIMiner manual? or a thread that explains how to set it up in plain english?

2b) What does CPU affinity mean? Why do I see several boxes on other people's videos, but only 2 on mine?

2c) Is there a setting on GUIMiner that I need to adjust to have all of my cards mining?

2d) Under the device dropdown menu I get the following choices, what do they mean?

    [0-0] Tahiti
    [0-1] Tahiti
    [0-2] Tahiti
    [0-3] AMD Anthion(tm) II x2 260

2e) Should I create a "new miner"?  and should it be OpenCL, CG, CUDA?

2f) When I set Bitcoin client path, that just means select the Bitcoin program on my computer, right?

2g) Do I need to Set a Bitcoin Data Directory?

2h) Anything else I should know about GUIMiner or any adjustments I should make?

3) What are "Extra flags"?    

are they just commands that adjust aspects of performance?

    The link below made more sense than most things I have read, but it is still not clear to me.

http://bitbash.blogspot.com/2011/04/extra-flags-for-bitcoin-mining.html

3b) is there a more comprehensive source for info on extra flags?

4)xxxxx I figured this out


5) xxxxx I figured this out

5b) is there an application (better and more detailed than info I get from afterburner and from bitminter)   I can download that will tell me exactly how my system is performing? what hash rate my cards are producing? overclocking information? other valuable performance info I may have left out?

6) I want to learn more about overclocking before I attempt it. Where should I start?

6a) find the safe ranges of settings and temperatures, don't go outside of that, right?

6b) your opinion- is it worth going extra hard because I have replacement warranties on these things?
(It is a replacement or refund at the store, I have returned goods there and they are not strict on returns there is always a line and I could intentionally go when there is a line and they won't have time to check)

if there is a thread or threads that cover this in plain english, please post the links and I will be happy to read, I apologize if this has been covered

[superdork]

EDIT: I changed the OP and the Thread title so that the other thread would not be wasting space on the front page.

this was a thread about CPU overheating, that problem has been solved.

[demzie]

for a starter to fix the connection: yes you should do that..
You could even wash your cpu, but let it dry real good haha

[glub0x]

I will explain you how to mine LITECOIN as this is what i do with my 7950. For bitcoin it should not be so different as they both use cgminer.

So first read this post that i found VERY usefull
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=117221.0

Then i supposed you instaled amd sdk and amd drivers

i also supposed you created an account in a mining pool and get a username / password ( be carefull your workers have a different username/password than your account)
if not look here and choose one https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki/Comparison-of-mining-pools

If you are not afraid with console i advise you to use it instead of guiminer.

1) setx command
Click on the start icon, search for "cmd" and open cmd.exe.
type this in it (will help to get 100% out of your graphics cards

setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100

close cmd and open it again.

2) verification
Normaly in the guiminer folder you have a folder called cgminer, go inside

for me it s done this way

cd Desktop
cd cgminer/guiminer

then you can start to look if things work properly by doing this

guiminer.exe -n

this should output your 3 graphics card ( thaiti probably)

3) mining!
then you can try different configuration to mine.
this one will work but will give like 350khs (just try)

cgminer.exe --scrypt -o yourpool.com:port -u workername -p password   --thread-concurrency 8192  -I 13 -g 1

then normally with 7950 you should have 550 khs (litecoin is 10x lower hashrate than btc)

cgminer.exe --scrypt   -o yourpool.com:port -u workername -p password --thread-concurrency 21712  -I 20 -g 1

Please note
1 make a .bat file on your desktop wich is much easier to use.
2 for litecoin you want to tweak  the arguments --thread-concurrency &  -I . For bitcoin remove the --scrypt argument and you have to use other arguments i think.
3 litecoin is going to be much more profitable with your cards, even if you trade it back for bitcoin
4 to stop cgminer, type "q"


good luck


[Edit] 1MgiDgvf6LqBRxEghy4NXLFxeiKepbHFqK

[PatMan]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gw7YPYgMgNNU42skibULbJJUx_suP_CpjSEdSi8_z9U/edit?pli=1

[superdork]

glub0x - thanks. Litecoins is what I will be going after too, but for now I went with bitcoin just to get up and running....

UPDATE-  I am mining on Bitminter and pulling a nice steady 1480 mhash/s !!!!!   

*no overclocking just standard, I ordered a pcie extender cable to move my middle 7950 off the mobo and onto a different spot on my cooler master haf xm

once I move that then I will start playing around with how hard I can push my cards


PatMan- That is a great article.  I read it about a week ago and I will probably go linux/xumubuntu soon. I went windows first just because I figured it would be easier to get started. (learn how to mine first, rather than try to learn linux and learn to mine, since that makes too many variables for me if something goes wrong)

I have a copy of "Linux for dummies" and have bookmarked a few tutorials. Once I am comfortable mining, have got Litecoin going well and have my overclocking dialed in then I plan to move to xumbuntu, but one major step at a time....


glub0x- any advice on Litecoin pools?

here is my gameplan-

 to start off, I want the easiest most user friendly way to get mining litecoin

then once I am comfortable I want the most profitable

[glub0x]

i am quite new to this world of mining too...
i like litecoinpool.org but i think you can't create an account anymore (to avoir one pool to get 51%)


So i guess you'll have to try a few of them ...

[PatMan]

You're welcome,

I started mining using windoze as I too knew diddly squat about Linux, but I had so many issues with windows drivers and miner programs with windoze I decided to give Linux a go - it just works far better with loads more stability. I always wanted to familiarise myself with Linux/Xubuntu but mining gave me a good excuse to actually do it - glad I did too.

Good luck.

[superdork]

Thanks for the help guys!


I have my rig up and running as I may have mentioned before, merged mining bitcoin and namecoin and pulling a steady 1480 or so without overclocking and with slightly less than ideal positioning of cards (until I get a pcie extender cable to mount my middle 7950 on the side off the frame to create more space between the cards)

I have been super busy the last few days, and with my rig working I have not really dug into trying to implement any of the strategies on here.... but when I do

I will make good on paying out tips for advice. I will be as far as possible, dividing the total bounty amongst contributers based on how much their advice helped me. I should be able to do this in the next day or two at which point I will read any links posted, try advice etc and see where it gets me.


Stuff that I am still seeking advice about:

I need a litecoin pool and a very easy one would be nice, if I can merge mine (I haven't looked into that possibility with ltc) that would be cool.

in depth info on "Extra flags"

what is the most informative source on bitcoin that goes beyond 101 basics getting started stuff? As of now it seems that it is this forum, but everyone here learned somewhere, did they all learn hands on and from each other or are their sources of analysis and theory of bitcoin that I am unaware of?

[glub0x]

what is the most informative source on bitcoin that goes beyond 101 basics getting started stuff? As of now it seems that it is this forum, but everyone here learned somewhere, did they all learn hands on and from each other or are their sources of analysis and theory of bitcoin that I am unaware of?

yep all from forum for me


for the pool again choose one from the list
try litecoinpool.org if you can register, if not i used that one WeMineLTC.com for a few days and it was working fine.
they are really straight forward...