Hello, so I am planning to set up a 6x GPU (I have RX 470 planned) rig. I am going to get more in future, so few questions have been bothering me.
1) Where do you all buy cards from? Amazon/Ebay? how big of stock do they have usually? Because often they are out of stock, what are the reliable alternatives? Used vs New? there's 20$-30$ difference or so, I guess buying new is better in my case? (Once again, RX 470)
2) Which ones are most reliable models/manufacturers for mining?
3) If I'd like to buy it in a bulk (maybe 50, maybe 100, maybe more) what can I do? Is it possible to contact manufacturers directly? or they don't do that?
4) Where do you all place rig on, the floor? is there any stands or server racks everyone uses? I am getting 1 rig first, is it just safe to leave it on some kind of metallic panel or even just bare floor?
5) I am getting proper desktop PSU from good brands (for example thermaltake, EVGA, etc) is it still risky like unbranded server PSUs to catch fire in any way? Of course all kinds of electronics can catch fire but how do I prevent any dangers? Is it still quite risky?
6) Where do I power my rig (well obviously I'll need specialized enviroment when I get many rigs) in regular office setting, I mean 1 rig for now, can 220v EU plugs take 1200W power supply without any specific equipment and tweaking? And isnt 1200W enough for 6 RX 470s?
7) Should I build some kind of custom frame that people build or should I just leave GPUs in the standard PC case? I am getting one of those 6 PCI MBs.
Thank you very much for reading, I may have few other questions later.
1) Newegg. Amazon is probably also a good source, but I've been dealing with NewEgg for years with very few issues.
2) IMO Sapphire, Gigabyte, EVGA. MSI has a generally good reputation but I've never used any of their cards. Ignore Powercolor, VERY poor reliability IME.
The more critical part is "does the card use ball bearing fans" - if it does NOT, AVOID IT LIKE THE PLAGUE IT WILL DIE TOO FAST, no matter who the maker is.
3) I doubt a manufacturer counts anything under MANY THOUSANDS as "bulk".
Can't hurt to ask a DEALER about that though, I know NewEgg offers discounts on "multiple buys" on some items, though sometimes they limit number of an item sold to a single buyer.
4) On shelves. They don't have to be fancy shelves.
Setting a rig directly on metal is BAD if it's not in a case, you WILL short out the motherboard - you need some sort of insulating panel to mount it on.
5) PS don't tend to catch on fire, and any reputable PS will be in a metal case that will catch whatever sparks might happen in a short situation and the capacitor pieces when a cap shorts out and detonates.
Server PS don't tend to be "unbranded", just because you've never heard of the brand. Delta of fan making fame also makes a LOT of very good "OEM" server power supplies, for example.
I personally stick with Seasonic X-series for the most part, but EVGA has a good reputation on their G2/P2/T2 units.
Avoid Seasonic "Prime" and EVGA "G3/P3/T3" power supplies - for the sake of "quiet" they moved to a junk sleeve-bearing fan that WILL die far too quickly, stick with ball-bearing fan designs that LAST.
"Hydro" "Rifle" "Fluid Dynamic" and other such terms are just fancy marketing names for fancy sleeve-bearing designs that DIE when the lubricant runs out - and that lube usually runs out far too soon.
I've got TONS of ball-bearing fans that have lasted more than a decade with NO issues (and a Rotron metal-frame fan that exceeds *30* years old) and just keep spinning and blowing air reliably.
I've NEVER had a sleeve-bearing fan that lasted 5 (and all of those in ROOM AIR box-type fans where the bearings are lightly loaded low RPM), and it's rare for them to last more than 1 year without losing the lube and dying.
6) any 220 volt outlet should be able to easily handle a 1200 watt load - that's only 6 amps or so.
I haven't seen a PS for decades that didn't accept 220 volts in, and not care about the frequency between 50 and 60 hertz - worse case it MIGHT have a slide switch for 110 to 220.
1200 watt PS should easily handle a 6 card RX 480 rig, much less a 6 card 470 rig.
7) You won't get 6 GPUs into a standard PC case. GPUs now are pretty much all "double-slot" width and most standard PC cases only have 7 slots widths available.
Some have 8 but those tend to get a bit expen$ive, and anything OVER 8 gets VERY expen$ive.
8 GB cards are always 8000 Mhs memory, from what I've seen - 4 GB cards are pretty much always 6600 Mhs or 7000 Mhs memory, this matters quite a bit to ETH/ETC hashrate but not a lot to most other mining.
