My new mining rig - quad 7970 - Going for 3Gh/s

[pontiacg5]

Does anyone know if you can start mining using logmein? I haven't used it since I set up a VPN server at work, but it looks like Remote Desktop Connection does funny thing to video drivers that logmein might not.

I'm not sure why I'm asking, I'll just go install the client and try it out lol

I use Team Viewer 8 to manage all my rigs.

Thanks for the answer, I figured that was too nice for plasma. I also own a custom S/S business, with 99% of my clients/jobs being food industry so it's almost all S/S with a bit of aluminum in my shop. Does water produce burr free cuts? Or does it still need a bit of love after being cut? Going to have to look into getting a 5x10 table soon.

Take care!

Oh cool, thanks guys! I'll have to give teamviewer a shot. Trying to install logmein over RDC seems to have fried my miner, looks like I'm going to have to drive over to shut it off. Damn!

I suggest nobody else try that one lol!

Water does leave a bit of a burr, but nothing you can't file away real easily. I just use a burr knife on the nice rectangular parts and toss the little bits in a tumbler for 30 minutes or so. A lot of stuff is just electro-polished which breaks the burr really well, if that gives you any idea how small it is. I usually hold a weeks work and send it out as a lot, not too expensive at lot charges and makes some killer looking parts! Aluminum is a lot more forgiving and mostly ready to go off the table.

If you do get one make sure you put some thick plate at the bottom of your tank! Oh, and shoveling the spent crap out sucks. Words cannot describe, trust me!


Edit: Whooo! It finally restarted 

[bitcork]

Amazing thread, sorry for the long poast guise, just starting out on these forums and I enjoy typing 

Do we all agree that this rig at 3Gh/s would net about 55 Bitcoins in a year at a 2% difficulty per month increase?...according to the calculator I used.

So, an approx. $2500 investment would bring back about $7500 in a year at $136 price of Bitcoin at the time of this post?

Is this how the math should work?

A true Newbie question.....

Not quite but you have a grasp of the miner's dilemma. Difficulty will not increase at 2%/monthly since ASICs are hitting the scene. Explore alternative cryptocurrencies like PPCoin or Litecoin. Expect them to flood with former Bitcoin miners as ASICs continue to penetrate the market.

My time is worthless I guess haha 

'Tis a miner's life! I just think about how lucky we got it compared to San Francisco 1849, they had to give up air conditioning and consider the idea of spooning with other men for warmth!

Do we all agree that this rig at 3Gh/s would net about 55 Bitcoins in a year at a 2% difficulty per month increase?...according to the calculator I used.

So, an approx. $2500 investment would bring back about $7500 in a year at $136 price of Bitcoin at the time of this post?

Is this how the math should work?

A true Newbie question.....

can you share the link of the calculator?

And this one: http://bitclockers.com/miningcalculator

I have 2 computers with 2x 7970 in each.. I have a 1000W power supply an dthe other computer has 1200 W power supply, Can someone help me how much my electricity gonna cost? .30 per/kilowatt ... Is that true that 2 cards my not use the whole power from the computer so lets say 1200W power supply is only draining 600W?

Yes, it is true that although you have a 1200W PSU, you will not draw that amount all the time. Chances are you never will even reach that limit, even for only second. I have 2x7970s (Gigabyte non-GHz ed.) and they each draw about 150W @ 551KH/s mining LTC. Windows Task Manager monitoring reports zero CPU and disk usage. DDR3 RAM usage is 1Gb (out of 4). I'm using cgminer 3.0.0 and Win8 x64. I do only pay $0.07 for electricity so check your profitability, your electric costs are somewhat on the high end of the spectrum. Are you located rurally?

My riser cables aren't marked as shipped yet either! I paid good money for US shipped cables! WTF!!

Thank you to everyone else for the nice comments on my case!

Your case is indeed enviable! I would just take out one pair of 120mm fans on either side to give the hot air a place to escape. I imagine you expected to push the hot air to the middle and then let the GPU fans push down. Like I mentioned above, I have 2x7970s and I just left the PC case open and pointed a desk fan at them, solved all my temperature problems (one was running at upper 80s and the other at upper 90s, not acceptable for 24/7 use). The desk fan uses just .05KWh so it's a cost I can certainly afford especially since I have no other way to cool my GPUs enough at 550KH/s!

I would also check and see if the power connectors on your mobo are strong enough (I suspect they are). I haven't read about anyone having PCI-e problems with your particular mobo, may be something worth investigating. You can always buy custom-made MOLEX-powered PCI-e risers from Cablesaurus: http://www.cablesaurus.com/.

[lemonys]

I've had no success with Remote Desktop and LogMeIn when it comes to remote monitoring\configuring MSI Afterburner or Catalyst software.  Everything looks normal, except for those GUI windows.  I am guessing it is a video driver issue interacting with the remote logon programs (which makes sense to me).

Does TeamViewer solve these issues?

Thanks in advance.

[pontiacg5]

Amazing thread, sorry for the long poast guise, just starting out on these forums and I enjoy typing  

My riser cables aren't marked as shipped yet either! I paid good money for US shipped cables! WTF!!

Thank you to everyone else for the nice comments on my case!

Your case is indeed enviable! I would just take out one pair of 120mm fans on either side to give the hot air a place to escape. I imagine you expected to push the hot air to the middle and then let the GPU fans push down. Like I mentioned above, I have 2x7970s and I just left the PC case open and pointed a desk fan at them, solved all my temperature problems (one was running at upper 80s and the other at upper 90s, not acceptable for 24/7 use). The desk fan uses just .05KWh so it's a cost I can certainly afford especially since I have no other way to cool my GPUs enough at 550KH/s!

I would also check and see if the power connectors on your mobo are strong enough (I suspect they are). I haven't read about anyone having PCI-e problems with your particular mobo, may be something worth investigating. You can always buy custom-made MOLEX-powered PCI-e risers from Cablesaurus: http://www.cablesaurus.com/.

Thanks!

I think I'll give that a try, that's about the only thing I haven't tried yet that is. My plan was pushing air down the cards, and pulling it out the top. That's still how I have it set up at least.

I'm hoping I won't have power problems, cablesaurus has a wicked lead time and I couldn't find them anywhere else. I bought some off of ebay, but they are unpowered. I'm hoping they get here rather soon haha. The difficulty is just going to keep jumpin' on up while I'm playing at half power!

Something interesting happened though, I'm not exactly sure what but I think cgminer might have overridden my clock values from CCC. I saw this and just had to take a screenshot though  



This was the crash I had driving home from work. Makes a little more sense now, kinda...

Lemonys - I am glad to report that teamviewer does not have those issues!

[kevcoins]

good discussions and sharing .. learning every bit 2 built my own machine

[bitcork]

Something interesting happened though, I'm not exactly sure what but I think cgminer might have overridden my clock values from CCC. I saw this and just had to take a screenshot though  

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/miner_zps617f76dd.jpg

This was the crash I had driving home from work. Makes a little more sense now, kinda...

CGMiner has excellent OC controls. I'm no GUIMiner expert but maybe it's modifying your GPU's engine/memory while GUIMiner tries to do it's own thing? I don't mine with GUIMiner but AFAIK, it was built on CGMiner, which has it's own (excellent) OC controls. I know that some settings in CGMiner (GUIMiner?), when not set properly, can give higher-than-actual hash rates. Don't quote me but I think they're the "intensity" and "thread concurrency" settings. I'd be surprised if GUIMiner didn't have these settings built in.

If you want help setting up CGMiner, just download the compiled EXE from ckolivas (source code is on Github if you want to compile, otherwise, he hosts the latest version of CGMiner here: http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/)

Since we have the same video cards, you can probably just use my CGMiner config settings (took me ALOT of lurking to figure them out). Copy and past the following into CGMiner's "cgminer.conf" file:

{
"pools" : [
   {
      "url" : "stratum+tcp://poolname.com:port",
      "user" : "username",
      "pass" : "password"      
   },
   {
      "url" : "stratum+tcp://poolname.com:port",
      "user" : "username",
      "pass" : "password"      
   },
   {
      "url" : "http://poolname.com:port",
      "user" : "username",
      "pass" : "password"
   }
],
"intensity" : "13,13",
"vectors" : "1,1",
"worksize" : "256,256",
"lookup-gap" : "2,2",
"thread-concurrency" : "22400,22400",
"gpu-engine" : "0-975,1050",
"gpu-memclock" : "0-1600,1625",
"gpu-powertune" : "20,20",
"temp-cutoff" : "84,84",
"temp-overheat" : "80,80",
"temp-target" : "75,75",
"api-port" : "4028",
"expiry" : "120",
"gpu-dyninterval" : "7",
"gpu-platform" : "0",
"gpu-threads" : "1",
"hotplug" : "5",
"log" : "5",
"no-pool-disable" : true,
"queue" : "1",
"scan-time" : "60",
"temp-hysteresis" : "3",
"shares" : "0",
"kernel-path" : "/usr/local/bin"
}

You can't make intensity go above 13 on our cards.

You'll also want to create a .bat (batch, "bash") file with these contents:

setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
color F2
cgminer

Once you create that batch file, put it in the cgminer folder and run it from there. I didn't even install the OC utility on my rig, just installed the OS, GPU driver (AMD 12.8 with APP SDK 2.8 included, you need APP SDK), DirectX (may not be necessary), and CGMiner.
And Cablesaurus' lead time is ~7 days right? That's what I thought I read when I ordered. I'd be PO'd if I have to wait longer, not that I have the extra GPU's to plug into PCI 1x yet 

[meathelix]

at a 2% difficulty per month increase?

Good luck with that...

Expect x10 to x30 in the next 12 month

that is a huge increase. x30 and im assuming you are saying litecoin will be harder again?

[pontiacg5]

CGMiner has excellent OC controls. I'm no GUIMiner expert but maybe it's modifying your GPU's engine/memory while GUIMiner tries to do it's own thing? I don't mine with GUIMiner but AFAIK, it was built on CGMiner, which has it's own (excellent) OC controls. I know that some settings in CGMiner (GUIMiner?), when not set properly, can give higher-than-actual hash rates. Don't quote me but I think they're the "intensity" and "thread concurrency" settings. I'd be surprised if GUIMiner didn't have these settings built in.

If you want help setting up CGMiner, just download the compiled EXE from ckolivas (source code is on Github if you want to compile, otherwise, he hosts the latest version of CGMiner here: http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/)

Since we have the same video cards, you can probably just use my CGMiner config settings (took me ALOT of lurking to figure them out). Copy and past the following into CGMiner's "cgminer.conf" file:

{
"pools" : [
   {
      "url" : "stratum+tcp://poolname.com:port",
      "user" : "username",
      "pass" : "password"      
   },
   {
      "url" : "stratum+tcp://poolname.com:port",
      "user" : "username",
      "pass" : "password"      
   },
   {
      "url" : "http://poolname.com:port",
      "user" : "username",
      "pass" : "password"
   }
],
"intensity" : "13,13",
"vectors" : "1,1",
"worksize" : "256,256",
"lookup-gap" : "2,2",
"thread-concurrency" : "22400,22400",
"gpu-engine" : "0-975,1050",
"gpu-memclock" : "0-1600,1625",
"gpu-powertune" : "20,20",
"temp-cutoff" : "84,84",
"temp-overheat" : "80,80",
"temp-target" : "75,75",
"api-port" : "4028",
"expiry" : "120",
"gpu-dyninterval" : "7",
"gpu-platform" : "0",
"gpu-threads" : "1",
"hotplug" : "5",
"log" : "5",
"no-pool-disable" : true,
"queue" : "1",
"scan-time" : "60",
"temp-hysteresis" : "3",
"shares" : "0",
"kernel-path" : "/usr/local/bin"
}

You can't make intensity go above 13 on our cards.

You'll also want to create a .bat (batch, "bash") file with these contents:

setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
color F2
cgminer

Once you create that batch file, put it in the cgminer folder and run it from there. I didn't even install the OC utility on my rig, just installed the OS, GPU driver (AMD 12.8 with APP SDK 2.8 included, you need APP SDK), DirectX (may not be necessary), and CGMiner.
And Cablesaurus' lead time is ~7 days right? That's what I thought I read when I ordered. I'd be PO'd if I have to wait longer, not that I have the extra GPU's to plug into PCI 1x yet 

I was using Cgminer when I had that spike, I've since uninstalled CCC and am using Cgminer for overclocking. CCC seems redundant now that I'm not using Guiminer anyway.

I owe you a bunch for that config file though, I'm running about 200MH on average faster now! Plus my cool card is averaging 680 on stock clock speeds, with a little overclocking 700 might be possible 

Cablesaurus's lead time is up to ten days now. Might as well order them straight from china if I'm going to wait that long!

Difficulty just jumped to 10.1 million, that's somewhere near 12% right?

[razoredge]

This is a very sweet looking set up. I am envy

[pontiacg5]

This is a very sweet looking set up. I am envy

Thanks!

I've made my first .1 bitcoin mining today. Whooo! Three cards are still clocked down to 500mhz, and I'm still averaging ~2.0GH/s according to BTC!

And my cable risers were marked as shipped! No tracking number though, which is odd for ebay 

I'm also no longer a noobie, guess I might have to venture out into the big forums 

[bitminer2049er]

So then is cgminer faster or guiminer faster? Also can someone tell me what -v-w128 does?

Thanks

[pontiacg5]

Cgminer is faster. -V sets the vector count, -w sets the work size, 128 in that case. You should find the values that work best for your card online, the hardware comparison is a good place to start.

[Joshster]

Nice rig, looks like my old one with 5970's but I am shifting the cards as I am moving and won't have much space and I won't be the bill payer on the electric so it would be rude for me to take all that juice and just be complicated.

[ElGabo]

Nice rig. You spent a lot of time I think...

Looks nice

[Schland]

Nice case or stand! You should sell these if you can manufacture these at lower costs, this is potentially more profitable than mining.

[msaadw]

can you share complete specs of your mining rig for reference ?

[pontiacg5]

ElGabo - Thanks! I do have a lot of time into this thing though you can't see it here.



That took a while, but everything fit the first time I cut it, so in the end it was worth it

Schland - Thanks! I do plan to sell these eventually once I get it set up and working well. I could make custom cases, somewhat like mountainmods, but a whole lot less universal looking. I figure the price would be around that of a nice mid range atx case, think they would sell?

Msaadw - Sure, here you go

GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GV-R797TO-3GD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video ...
Intel Core i3-3220 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ...
Team Xtreem Dark 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model TXD316G1600HC9QC-D
Rosewill LIGHTNING-1300 1300W Continuous@50°C,80 PLUS GOLD Certified,Pipe-rock Modular Design,Single +12V Rail,ATX12V v2.3/EPS12V ...

If all you care about is bitcoins then this build is overkill on mobo, ram, and CPU. Altcoins might be another story though 

The HDD is a cheap SSD I had around for spare parts. It's a Corsair Nova, and it's the biggest piece of crap I've ever seen. I can not run as a bitcoin node because the blockchain corrupts before I download it all. Not the first problem I've had with corsair SSDs, but I do have many many computers running with OCZ Vertex 3's, some even striped. 1MB/s read/writes are awesome! I recommend them, big time!

[anzu]

wow thats so awesome nice work man!

[pontiacg5]

Thanks!

Well, after not a whole lot of abuse the power supply failed! Mining would restart the computer instantly, unless I removed two cards...

A quick trip to microcenter resulted in a EVGA Supernova NEX1500, a stupid expensive power supply but worth every penny!



This PSU is USB connected and tells you all sorts of cool stuff like input voltage, wattage, amperage, as well as output voltages, currents, wattage and more. Would be really useful to those of you who pay for power!
This rig draws 1250W of input power at full tilt, enough to drop the 120V down to 115V or so!

I also replaced the shitty SSD with a cheap laptop drive.





In case you were wondering what a Gigabyte 7970 Ghz looks like under that honkin' cooler. I pulled this one apart to replace the thermal compound, it runs a little cooler with arctic silver now. 

The VRAM heatsink is a place of aluminum 0.050" thick. It is not attached to the heatpipes in any decent way, and on top of that it's warped all to hell and back. These cards are straight garbage! I have never in my life seen such a crappy heatsink design. I will never be buying gigabyte stuff again after this experience.

And a little teaser of what's coming next 

[redlight]

Hey everyone, I just finished building my first mining rig, thought I'd post it up here and see what you all think  

How it started...

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130424_132743_zps055df7b7.jpg

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130424_132940_zps6234b1d1.jpg

I didn't take pictures of bending it up. Press brakes are pretty damn intimidating, no distractions lol

Testing for fitment!

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130424_141942_zpsa0a26431.jpg

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130424_142206_zps2de12f1f.jpg

I managed to get everything right the first time around!

The components...

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130426_174722_zps5a888349.jpg

Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 board. Z77, 1155. Gotta love all the pcie bandwidth!
Intel i3 3220. Probably overkill, but I want to use this for other things occasionally too.
16GB of some off brand 1600 ram
and
4 gigabyte 7970 Ghz editions

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130426_175811_zps046a3b7c.jpg

Testing out the nut riveter and standoffs.

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130426_220532_zps1b247e44.jpg

The power supply, 1300W. Lots and lots of PCI-e plugs!

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130426_180603_zpscbd2c37c.jpg

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130426_183645_zps32da0f26.jpg

Dang, that's gonna be hard to keep cool....

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130428_170054_zps0b08cbec.jpg

My "idea" of a solution...

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130428_170114_zpsfffb6d33.jpg

Cable ties, built in so I can lightly pull the cards apart.

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130428_170139_zpsab1520ba.jpg

Fan grilles in a few choice spots to keep cables away from fans. I split the chassis fan headers to power all these fans, this board only had 4.
Oh, and a couple of baby resistors to make it all go. Anyone familiar with GM's early vats lol

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130428_170216_zps6daee0c1.jpg

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130428_170227_zps5b70a63c.jpg

I hate these stupid intel fans. I've built at least 6 machines with these heatsinks and I've never been able to reliably use the built in wire ties!

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130428_170301_zps952c6dce.jpg

This thing is a gigantic piece of crap. Unfortunately my ol' trusty Maxtor died on me

And finally, a little results...

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130428_170441_zps15006ba1.jpg

Damn!! Too much heat, not enough room to get rid of it! Three of the 4 are throttling at around 95-97 degrees. The one on the end manages to get 630-640 at stock clocks, -v -w128 in guiminer.

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/20130428_170623_zps53c6db93.jpg

And with a bit of clocking... I can't get any higher than 1175 stable right now. At those clocks I'm averaging around 680. I'm hoping for a little more when I get these spaced out and cooled down a little.

So, my new plan of attack is going to be spacing these cards out. I've ordered 4 8x to 16x cable risers, 8x because that's all the bandwidth my processor has for each. I know I don't need any more than 1x for mining, but I want to use it for other things too haha.

Even crippled up she's still averaging around 1900 MH/s. I've got the top three cards severely underclocked right now. Any recommendations to increase that are greatly appreciated haha


Stay tuned, interesting things happening when the risers decide to show up  


I just realized that the lights are flickering in my living room because of this beast! Good thing it's going to run in a machine shop, free power!

Looking good! I like the high quality pictures.