Building a rig

[dbhughes]

Hi, been following and reading for a few months, and trying to decide between getting a rig or a BFL. I have decided that I'm not interested in bringing home tons of money from all of this. I would prefer to have a bit of fun building a computer and recouping some of my costs. From reading threads of building, I've compiled a list of required items. I've left out the GPU's for the moment, as that will be an afterthought. Right now I'm interested in the cost of the machine bare bones.

List of requirements:
CPU: AMD Sempron 145 2.8GHz Single-Core Processor  ($35.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G46 ATX  AM3+ Motherboard  ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Hard Drive: Some random cheap hard drive
Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($27.37 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: Encore ENUWI-1XN42 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($9.98 @ Outlet PC)
Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair TX Series v.2.3 750W  ($100 @ Newegg)
Fan: XIGMATEK Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk Edition CPU Cooler ($35 @ Newegg)

Total: $325

Can anyone find any fault in this. It'd be great if there were some place to buy a cheap pre-built computer minus GPU's though, and just add them myself. I plan on just loading a Windows OS on this, as I have no experience with Linux/Ubunu/don't see the 'huge' benefit from these, I'm a mac user.

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[dbhughes]

How many GPU's can fit within a single computer? Can I use up the slots within the case and then have cable leading to more?

I could get:
7970 x 2
5850 x 6
5830 x 2

Can anyone post any comments/criticism/any better recommendations?

[adrianmik]

Depending on your GPUs You night want to re-think the case - open air setup should give you better cooling.

I have not used this motherboard personally (Using asrock 970 extreme4) but I heard they are ok as long as you don't exceed 3 GPUs - some hacks are required if you do

Hope that helps you a bit

[goldware]

That's pretty cool. I might take some of my BTC profits and try some mining...not sure yet.

[dbhughes]

Would there be any issue buying some somewhat powerful desktop off ebay/craigslist and just swapping out the GPUs?

[dbhughes]

I'm not against open air. I could just build one of those milk carton setups. I have no idea about motherboards, I'm going in blind.

It goes back to my question though, can you 'theoretically' have as many GPUs connected to a motherboard as it can handle, regardless of the pin connections?

Depending on your GPUs You night want to re-think the case - open air setup should give you better cooling.

I have not used this motherboard personally (Using asrock 970 extreme4) but I heard they are ok as long as you don't exceed 3 GPUs - some hacks are required if you do

Hope that helps you a bit

[Timzim103]

How many GPU's can fit within a single computer? Can I use up the slots within the case and then have cable leading to more?

I could get:
7970 x 2
5850 x 6
5830 x 2

Can anyone post any comments/criticism/any better recommendations?

I would recommend you get a Kilawatt electricity usage meter. You can get one on Amazon for about 16$ and it will let you see how many watts that rig is pulling. The GPU cards will be using much more when they are all mining than when they are sitting idle. How about drivers for the cards? I am not sure, but are the drivers the same for 7xxx and 5xxx series? I think I read someone managed to make a combination like this work before, just mentioning it as something you might want to look into first.

[chaos4u]

i would look at the  cooler master HAF 912

new egg part number : N82E16811119233

it should have more than enough room for your future video cards .

also the poster who mentioned the number of video cards a mother board can support should be seriously considered .

while some mobo have 4 pci e headers on  them it does not mean  it will support 4 cards . so some research into the motherbaords that work properly with 4 or mores cards would probably save you some future headaches

and you may want to bump up the power supply to a 1000 aswell   just to ensure you have the power run those 4 cards .  coirsair series is fine .

and if you plan on using the system for anything else i would get rid of that sempron .    but thats a personal prefence .

also if you plan on keeping your wallet on this system invest in a backup  either a internal hardrive or a external harddrive with back up software.

[tronath]

If you have the inital capital, why not go for a FPGA instead? better investment if you're able to get one right away & can afford it. Electricity will not be an issue with it either.. Plus, some have red LEDS!

[simtel12]

Are there any FPGAs that you would recommend?  How about ones to stay away from?

[tronath]

I haven't purchased one, but this is a good site for info: http://bitcoinfpga.com/

[M0nsieurChat]

As far as I know, there's only BFL (ButterFly Labs) and Avalon currently planning to ship ASICS to end-users.

There's also ASICMINER in which you can invest. They're using ASICS to pay their investers with dividends.

Edit : you were talking about FPGAs, my bad..

[dfs59xy]

I am not sure, but are the drivers the same for 7xxx and 5xxx series? I think I read someone managed to make a combination like this work before, just mentioning it as something you might want to look into first.

Pretty sure the drivers are different... but interesting idea mixed cards on one MB.   I read that you can mix them on a MB for multi-heading, but you can't link them with Crossfire tech for gaming.  But I haven't seen a clear tutorial/example of someone actually doing it for mining vs. gaming.

[chaos4u]

also a good read can be found in

the bitcoin talk forum   bitcoin/mining/hardware/motherboard of choice for 6 or more GPU's

some good reading there.

[ccwirral]

How many GPU's can fit within a single computer? Can I use up the slots within the case and then have cable leading to more?

I could get:
7970 x 2
5850 x 6
5830 x 2

Can anyone post any comments/criticism/any better recommendations?

I just ordered 2x 7970 from gigabyte with 3GB. The only downside is that certain newer batches are voltage locked so no overclocking. You will need to mine in a pool for bitcoin or have a look at some of the altcoins. Even litecoin is getting difficult at the hashrate you will achieve with these setups. Best of luck.

[roflplatypus]

well, gpu mining is barely profiable now, but once bfl launches, it will use too much electricity. also, use linux. it's free. however, the bitcoin wiki page on mining hardware is good, as is bitcoinx[.]com/profit .

[namzycad3]

dont forget if u can have good source of used GPU that also will bring down your cost.

[andrewsg]

The real issue once you consider building something with 3+ GPUs is heat dissipation. Many motherboards support 3 GPUs and many cases can fit them. There are also a good amount of PSUs out there to power them, but cooling 3x high end GPUs is a completely different matter.

For reference, there is a thread going of someone who managed 4x 7970s in a custom built case, but 3 of them get throttled due to overheating.

But maybe you live in Iceland or Canadia and can leave a rig running in a garage.

[camdoo]

MTV HEHE

[zezeto]

how many hashes u got with this rig?