PLEASE Rate This LTC Rig

[daserpent1]

I am going to get build a new LTC mining rig. It is supposed to be a mining rig as well as a high desktop for other uses (so squeezing every dollar out of  the system is not the only motive here)

Do you think these specs will be alright :

4 x MSI Radeon HD 7950 R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC (or should I get SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 7950 ?)
Asus SaberTooth 990 FX
AMD 8350 FX (8cores)
G.Skill 8 GB RAM
Corsair AX1200i 1200W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139039)
WD 2TB 7200rpm
Samsung DVD R Optical Drive
Dell 22inch Full HD Monitor
+ optional liquid cooling for CPU

Will cost me around $2600

Please comment with your suggestions.

[philly_cop_41320]

I rate this a super buy, but why go so crazy with the monitor, surely you have an old CRT for monitoring purposes and can save a few bucks. Invest in the monitor later on after you've made your first few thousand in btc.

[daserpent1]

No, i have never used a desktop. I only have a laptop. So, don't have any desktop parts lying around.

[daserpent1]

Any inputs?

[spiderJ]

The 7950's have the best $/hash ratio, I've got 2 x 7950's Twin Frozr and they get 1,200 kh/s with no overclock and run at a steady 62C

[tonightwefeast]

I'd say no need for water cooling since mining utilises GPUs not the CPU so its just wasted money

EDIT: I just read it was going to double as a gaming PC so water cool away my friend

[mrvegad]

Looks good to me. GL!

[dmelj]

Nice to have a 2TB hard drive, but for mining it won't do anything.  You could probably downgrade and save a few bucks.

[bstock]

2 things I'd note:

-Motherboard - That mobo won't fit all 4 cards natively, so you'll need at least one PCI Express extender cables, and likely two (because the top and middle cards plugged in would cover up the 2nd and 4th slots). Might want to consider getting 4x PCI Express x16 extenders, but this goes into my next point.
-No case specified. Case selection is pretty important when trying to fit 4 cards on one system, especially if you plan to multipurpose it for a gaming machine.

You might want to consider building two machines; One for gaming with two of those video cards, and another cheaper system that you can run 24x7 for the other two. I recently built two systems using the following:

Mobo: $85 - ASRock 970 Extreme - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280
Proc: $39 - AMD Sempron 145 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888
Ram: $37 - 2x2GB DDR3 Ram - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277
Storage: $9 - SanDisk Cruser Fit 8GB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171587
PSU: $100 - KINGWIN ABT 1050W - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121070

I used that PSU for 3x 7970's, but if you do 2x 7950's could get something a lot smaller, and you could also save money on your primary system's PSU as well. I think if you break it down, you'd end up spending about the same or maybe only $100 more to split it up like this, with the benefits being that you can still have half the mining going even while playing games, and you won't have to do anything crazy to fit the video cards in cases.

P.S. That 8GB thumb drive I use for the OS on my mining rigs, they run headless (server) linux. I'm not sure if that'd work if you plan to use Windows, so something to keep in mind. Also I built my systems for BTC, so the ram amount may need adjustment as I'm unfamiliar with how much ram you should have for LTC.

P.P.S. If you're building a gaming machine, I'd highly recommend an SSD for the OS drive, and a regular disk drive for a storage disk. SSD's make a HUGE difference in loading times and performance, and games that get installed to the SSD will run much faster.

[daserpent1]

Thanks for the replies. I just found out that many people are having problems with the cards that are being sent my sapphire and MSI. Many are DOAs and others have fan issues within a week of arrival.

Is there any way to make sure that I get a good card the first time itself?

[alesz1]

I am going to get build a new LTC mining rig. It is supposed to be a mining rig as well as a high desktop for other uses (so squeezing every dollar out of  the system is not the only motive here)

Do you think these specs will be alright :

4 x MSI Radeon HD 7950 R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC (or should I get SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 7950 ?)
Asus SaberTooth 990 FX
AMD 8350 FX (8cores)
G.Skill 8 GB RAM
Corsair AX1200i 1200W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139039)
WD 2TB 7200rpm
Samsung DVD R Optical Drive
Dell 22inch Full HD Monitor
+ optional liquid cooling for CPU

Will cost me around $2600

Please comment with your suggestions.

nice one :-)

[lysr]

buy a cheaper monitor, you probably won't even need one

[codwala]

it looks great but how much is this set up going to cost you ? would you be better off just spending all the money buying litecoins instead of being so out of pocket ?

[Nytcrawler]

I am running 2 x Sapphire 7950s and they are perfect. They make around 500Mh/s each at stock speed (950Mhz) and 550Mh/s each at 1,050Hmz. Plus I have an A10-5800 APU which chips in around 100Mh/s on the side

[gotforce]

I'd stick with the Sapphire's from my experience, they are great cards! That's not to knock the XFX's, but I've not heard as much about them Looking good though! Enjoy your monster rig

[kr4x]

that is a ballin setup