My first mining rig - please help

[Moscut]

Hi guys!

i decided to join the mining world and start with gpu mining.

Budget: around 10k€
my Plan: i was thinking to build my first mining rig, configure it, optimize all settings and see how it goes. If it fits my expectations i will stock up.
electricity cost: 16 cent/khW (i might switch my provider wich will safe me around 1-2 cent)


I would really appreciate your help in choosing the right hardware for me - just a little note, personaly i am willing to learn about flashing bios, changing straps, optimizing stuff with OC and so on but thats my first mining rig and i dont want to loose my AWESOME motivation cause nothings works (like driver problem) dont get me wrong! Of course i am not going to mine with the stock settings. Also, i would really love it if the hardware would be really quite, and the cooling would be good (guess like everybody else)

So after some research what is available here (in Austria), here is the list:

GPU:
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 470 4G D5        226,29 €
ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 470 OC, STRIX-RX470-O4G-GAMING, 4GB   249,00 €   
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 470 8G D5   289,00 €   
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 480 4G D5 4GB      260,82 €
Gigabyte Radeon RX 480 G1 Gaming 8G, 8GB   290,04 €
Gigabyte Radeon RX 570 Gaming 4G, 4GB   211,00 €
Gigabyte Aorus Radeon RX 570 4G, 4GB           215,75 €
Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 580 Nitro+ OC 4GB   254,00 €
Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 570 4GD5, 4GB   220,00 €
MSI Radeon RX 570 Gaming X 4G, 4GB           234,90 €
ASUS Expedition Radeon RX 570 OC, EX-RX570-O4G, 4GB            218,00 €
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 570 8GD5, 8GB   249,90 € (i am not 100% sure if i can get that card)
Gigabyte Radeon RX 580 Gaming 4G, 4GB   224,90 € (i am not 100% sure if i can get that card)
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 4GD5, 4GB   251,00 €
Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 4GD5, 4GB   230,00 €
MSI Radeon RX 580 Armor 4G OC, 4GB          235,46 €
Gigabyte Aorus Radeon RX 580 4G, 4GB           236,92 €
MSI Radeon RX 580 Gaming X 4G, 4GB           261,00 €
Gigabyte Aorus Radeon RX 580 8G, 8GB           286,00 €
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 8GD5, 8GB   294,00 €
MSI Radeon RX 580 Armor 8G OC, 8GB           280,00 €
ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 580 OC, ROG-STRIX-RX580-O8G-GAMING, 8GB      318,00 €

I read here at these forum that 27 page official 570/580 Thread but still cannot decide what to choose   What i remember is that in generaly the RX 5xx series have more "driver problems", specialy in setting up and optimizing but is better for resale? Or did everything change already

CPU:
Intel Celeron G1840, 2x 2.80GHz, boxed         34,80 € (1150)
Intel Pentium G4400, 2x 3.30GHz, boxed         54,27 € (1151)

Are those enough? What about cooling? Is the boxed enough?

Motherboard:
ASRock Z97 Anniversary (90-MXGVH0-A0UAYZ)   80,17 €   1x PCIe 3.0 x16, 3x PCIe 2.0 x1, 2x PCI
ASRock H81 Pro BTC R2.0   103,14 €   1x PCIe 2.0 x16, 5x PCIe 2.0
ASRock Z97 Extreme4/3.1   142,90 €   3x PCIe 3.0 x16 (1x x16, 1x x8, 1x x4), 3x PCIe 2.0 x1, 1x M.2/​M-Key (PCIe 2.0 x2/​SATA, 22110/​2280/​2260/​2242/​2230)
Gigabyte GA-F2A88X-D3HP   79,47 €   1x PCIe 3.0 x16, 1x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4), 3x PCIe 2.0 x1, 2x PCI
MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon   135,79 €   3x PCIe 3.0 x16 (1x x16, 1x x8, 1x x4), 4x PCIe 3.0 x1, 1x M.2/​M-Key (PCIe 3.0 x4/​SATA, 2280/​2260/​2242)
ASUS Prime Z270-A   154,19 € 3x PCIe 3.0 x16 (1x x16, 1x x8, 1x x4), 4x PCIe 3.0 x1, 1x M.2/​M-Key (PCIe 3.0 x4/​SATA, 22110/​2280/​2260/​2242), 1x M.2/​M-Key (PCIe 3.0 x4, 2280/​2260/​2242)

PSU:
203,29 €       Corsair HX Series HX1200 80PLUS Platinum 1200W ATX 2.4       1x 20/24-Pin, 2x 8-Pin EPS12V, 8x 6/8-Pin PCIe, 12x SATA, 8x IDE, 1x Floppy • +3.3V: 30A • +5V: 30A • +12V: 100A • -12V: 0.8A • +5Vsb: 3.5A
299,00 €        EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1300 1300W ATX 2.3       1x 24-Pin, 2x 4/8-Pin ATX12V, 6x 6/8-Pin PCIe, 2x 6-Pin PCIe, 12x SATA, 5x IDE, 1x Floppy • +3.3V: 24A • +5V: 24A • +12V: 108.3A • -12V: 0.5A • +5Vsb: 3.0A
260,77 €        be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W ATX 2.4       : 1x 20/24-Pin, 1x 8-Pin EPS12V, 1x 4/8-Pin ATX12V, 1x 4-Pin ATX12V, 8x 6/8-Pin PCIe, 1x 6-Pin PCIe, 10x SATA, 7x IDE, 2x Floppy, 4x Lüfter • +3.3V: 25A • +5V: 25A • +12V1: 35A • +12V2: 35A • +12V3: 45A • +12V4: 45A • -12V: 0.5A • +5Vsb: 3.0A
275,00 €        Thermaltake ToughPower DPS G 1200W Platinum ATX 2.31       1x 24-Pin, 1x 8-Pin EPS12V, 1x 4/8-Pin ATX12V, 8x 6/8-Pin PCIe, 12x SATA, 8x IDE, 2x Floppy • +3.3V: 25A • +5V: 22A • +12V: 100A • -12V: 0.3A • +5Vsb: 3.0A
277,84 €         Gigabyte XP1200M 1200W ATX 2.31      1x 20/​24-Pin, 2x 4/​8-Pin ATX12V, 6x 6/​8-Pin PCIe, 12x SATA, 8x IDE, 2x Floppy • +3.3V: 25A • +5V: 22A • +12V: 100A • -12V: 0.3A • +5Vsb: 2.5A

Psu/GPU Pin? Do i need to buy extra "Pins"?

Ram:
Kingston HyperX Fury blue DIMM 4GB, DDR3-1600, CL10   32,37 €
Kingston HyperX Fury blue DIMM 8GB, DDR3-1600, CL10    61,50 €

Are 4gb enough or better take 8gb?

SSD:
SanDisk Plus 120GB, SATA   55,99 €  Interface: SATA 6Gb/s • Read: 530MB/s • Write: 400MB/s

Case: i was thinking to make something like that  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfE_QidD75M. Do you guys have some cheap alternatives?

Thanks!

[Bones972]

GPU
If I were starting out (and a budget like your) I would seriously look into Nvidia cards.  The 1070 base is just as good as a Bios Mod AMD RX---.  The 1080Ti is what I aspire to change to...  They do well on ETH and are kick butt on some of the Alt coins.  Price is a bit higher to begin with but resale value is incredible.  Just look at Ebay and other places at the used prices...  They are usually very close to the price of a new card.  

If your heart is set on AMD then I would go RX470.  From what I have heard guys are having issues mix and matching the RX400 and RX500 on the same system so that may be an issue...

CPU
Go with the Sky Lake 4400.  I have tried to get the Caby Lake  2.8 to work but have never been able to get more than 4 cards to run on one.  I am not saying it is not possible but both my Sky Lakes were plug and play...

Mobo
I would probably look into the Asus 270's.  6 workable slots and easy to update mod bios if you need to.

PSU
Don't skimp on a PSU.  When I started I picked up a cheap 1k and well... you get what you pay for.  I prefer the EVGA's but I have a Corsair that holds it's own.

Memory
I have both 4 and 8 gb builds both work just fine on Win 10.

Case
I use these cases on all my rigs.  Took me a bit to get used to making them but after the 2nd case I built they seem to get much easier.

SSD
Depends on what OS and Mining system you are going to be using.  If you can use Linx then SmOS only requires a thumb drive (CHEAP!).  Check their post in here and read up on that system.  If you want to go Windows then I would go with the SSD and also check into Minerstat's post in this forum.  I have all my rigs on that and that system is super easy to run once it is installed.

Hope that helps... Wish I had been smart enough to make a post like yours before I jumped into the deep end of the pool ha ha!  

[Cereberus]

I would advise to not make any compromises with the motherboard and the PSU, all other pieces can be found a workaround for them. I would recommend you a Asrock H81 Pro BTC motherboard as it supports easily 6 Graphic cards for mining without the need to modify anything in the bios. For the PSU get one very powerful to hold 6 cards, a 1300 Evga Platinum rated would be good enough. For the other parts decide which ever you like.

[Moscut]

Hey guys and thanks for your reply!

Gpu: 1070 gtx sounds very interesting! To be honest i did not make a good research on that card before posting.
Unfortunately I didn't understand what you said about 1080ti  but i think you meant that that card is not good for mining? When I read something on the internet  about  1080ti it's almost  all the time negative (for mining)
On the other side 1070 looks very good, (i compared on whattomine.com) 1070 vs other cards. Yes, 1070 is more expensive but you get a lot more options to mine on more platforms with better results than 4xx series.  Am I right?

And my hearth was always  on Nvidia side for some reason I just thought always that the 4xx RX serie is much more profitable for mining.

Mobo: i will take Asrock H81 Pro BTC or Asus Z270.

Psu: 203,29 €       Corsair HX Series HX1200 80PLUS Platinum 1200W is enough? Or
299,00 €        EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1300 1300W ATX 2.3 ?

Cpu: I didn't understand you here, so will the G4400 work or not?
 

Thanks!

[Bones972]

Unfortunately I didn't understand what you said about 1080ti  but i think you meant that that card is not good for mining? When I read something on the internet  about  1080ti it's almost  all the time negative (for mining)

No the 1080Ti is FAST!!  Its the fastest stock card out there as far as I know.  I hope to change all my cards over to them when I have the $$$

On the other side 1070 looks very good, (i compared on whattomine.com) 1070 vs other cards. Yes, 1070 is more expensive but you get a lot more options to mine on more platforms with better results than 4xx series.  Am I right?

Yep!

And my hearth was always  on Nvidia side for some reason I just thought always that the 4xx RX serie is much more profitable for mining.
A lot of guys like the AMD because they can boost them with Bios mods.  I dont Bios mod so it does me little good.  My gaming rigs always have Nvidia cards in them.


Cpu: I didn't understand you here, so will the G4400 work or not?
Yes go with the 4400.  Both I have had have worked right out of the box with over 4 GPU's.

[Moscut]

Unfortunately I didn't understand what you said about 1080ti  but i think you meant that that card is not good for mining? When I read something on the internet  about  1080ti it's almost  all the time negative (for mining)

No the 1080Ti is FAST!!  Its the fastest stock card out there as far as I know.  I hope to change all my cards over to them when I have the $$$

750€ x 6 (1080ti) = 4500€ = 1500 watt (if it's 250watt? / card)
4500€ = 18 x rx 470 = 2250 watt (if it's 125 watt / card)

Maybe I am thinking wrong but wouldn't  I get much more mhs with 18 x 470 than 6 x 1080ti ?

[Cereberus]

Hey guys and thanks for your reply!

Gpu: 1070 gtx sounds very interesting! To be honest i did not make a good research on that card before posting.
Unfortunately I didn't understand what you said about 1080ti  but i think you meant that that card is not good for mining? When I read something on the internet  about  1080ti it's almost  all the time negative (for mining)
On the other side 1070 looks very good, (i compared on whattomine.com) 1070 vs other cards. Yes, 1070 is more expensive but you get a lot more options to mine on more platforms with better results than 4xx series.  Am I right?

And my hearth was always  on Nvidia side for some reason I just thought always that the 4xx RX serie is much more profitable for mining.

Mobo: i will take Asrock H81 Pro BTC or Asus Z270.

Psu: 203,29 €       Corsair HX Series HX1200 80PLUS Platinum 1200W is enough? Or
299,00 €        EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1300 1300W ATX 2.3 ?

Cpu: I didn't understand you here, so will the G4400 work or not?
 

Thanks!

If you are going to build with Nvidia Gtx 1070 cards, HX series 1200 will hold up well up to six cards without problems as the power is the same as advertised in Nvidia website(personally tested) while if you will go for the Rx series get the Evga PSU as they consume more power than advertised by AMD, if you use stock settings. Beside that the GTX 1070 will use less watt than advertised when mining Zcash and Ethereum, about 125 watt with Zcash and about 110 watt with Ethereum.

For the motheboard don't play with fire, get one which can be easily installed in 6 GPU ,even 5 GTX 1070 are great for mining, so both options are OK as a motherboard for your purpose.

[Moscut]

Well if you guys say HX 1200 is enough for 6x1070gtx I will go for it.

But what about the 1080ti? Does it mine really that much better than the 1070 gtx ?

[Jdope]

If I were you I'd split half of the GPUs cost between gtx 1070 and msi rx 570, now the difference in money between them and the sapphire radeons are not that big but msi cards are cool and quiet, even in a surrounding temprature of 35 degrees they don't go over 55 degrees on me, I'm talking about the rx 470 but the rx 570 will probably be the same, Nvidia cards have such good resale value that you can't go wrong with a rig of them. The Mobo you can try getting the ASRock h81 pro btc, or if you couldn't find it, people have been giving good reviews about the MSI z170A, plus I would think it would have a good resale value as it's not just for mining. The CPU/RAM I would get the cheapest option you'll find, try to get 8gb of ram as that will cost you like 20 euros per rig which on a bigger picture is not at all costly.

The Corsair psu sounds really good, a 6 card right will never go over 1200w, also yes the gtx 1080ti mines much better than the 1070 but it's much more costly.

[Vaccinus]

Well if you guys say HX 1200 is enough for 6x1070gtx I will go for it.

But what about the 1080ti? Does it mine really that much better than the 1070 gtx ?

no don't buy the 1080tu the 1080 is far better option for the money you invest, 1070 and 1o80 are the way to go, the 1080ti is too expensive for little gain over the 1080

[Bones972]

But what about the 1080ti? Does it mine really that much better than the 1070 gtx ?

My 1070's run about 430h on Zec and 28Mh/s on Eth at around 100 watts

I stole the below numbers form "philipma1957"
1080's                      say it does 515h
1080 ti's                   say it does 700h

So....
Six card build for 1070 would do 2580h
Six card build for 1080 would do 3090h
Six card build for 1080ti woud do 4200h.
 
The 1080 ti rig does 1.6 times more than the 1070 rig and 1.35 times more then the 1080 rig.
to get the same hash out of the 1070's or base 1080's you would have to run 2 rigs (2xCPU, 2xMobo, 2xRam, 2xPSU)
Lets say Mobo is $100, CPU is $50, Ram is $40 and PSU is $280, and Operating System $30 Total is $500 just to get the second rig up and running.

You then need 10x 1070's to match 6 1080 ti's (Base price $350 x 10 = $3,500)
You then need 9x 1080's to match 6 1080 ti's (base price $480 x 9 - $4,320)
6x 1080ti's cost (base price $700 x 6 = $4,200)

Using the base prices of 1070 @ $350, 1080 @ $480 and 1080ti @ $700.00

Rig 1 GTX 1080 ti  
$4200     6x GPU's
$500       Mobo,CPU, Ram, PSU, OS
$4,770    Total Cost

Rig 2&3 GTX 1080
$4,320    9x GPU's
$1,000    2x Mobo, 2x CPU, 2x Ram, 2x PSU, 2x OS
$5,320    Total Cost for both Rigs

Rig 4&5 GTX 1070
$3,500    10x GPU's
$1,000    2x Mobo, 2x CPU, 2x Ram, 2x PSu, 2x OS
$4,500    Total Cost for both Rigs.

So with the above example the 1070 does cost less by $270 to get the same hash rate.  
To me... The space saved from 2 rigs and the amount of heat generated makes more sense to go with a single rig doing that than 2 rigs.  
At current Zec prices it would take you just over a week to make up for that $270 difference and save you a ton on electric and heat generation

[jwarren81]

It really depends on whether you are going to expand past a single rig or not.  Also, whether you have the space, power and cooling for more than one rig.  If you will only every build one rig, then sure go to the max efficiency as possible.

But if a second rig is at all possible, I would recommend that over a single dense rig.  Two rigs running 5 cards each to start is great and will generate very little heat with 1070's and run about 650W per rig..  And you have room to expand to 12 or even 14/16 with proper planning ahead with parts selection.  This is basically what I have done and I now have two 1070 rigs with six cards each, which I will be adding a 7th to soon.  Next step after that is to add two more rigs and re-distribute the existing cards between them, then continue adding GPUs every other week till they are maxed.  Rinse and repeat.  It's a good cost effective way of expanding without a lot up front.

[Jdope]

But what about the 1080ti? Does it mine really that much better than the 1070 gtx ?

My 1070's run about 430h on Zec and 28Mh/s on Eth at around 100 watts

I stole the below numbers form "philipma1957"
1080's                      say it does 515h
1080 ti's                   say it does 700h

So....
Six card build for 1070 would do 2580h
Six card build for 1080 would do 3090h
Six card build for 1080ti woud do 4200h.
 
The 1080 ti rig does 1.6 times more than the 1070 rig and 1.35 times more then the 1080 rig.
to get the same hash out of the 1070's or base 1080's you would have to run 2 rigs (2xCPU, 2xMobo, 2xRam, 2xPSU)
Lets say Mobo is $100, CPU is $50, Ram is $40 and PSU is $280, and Operating System $30 Total is $500 just to get the second rig up and running.

You then need 10x 1070's to match 6 1080 ti's (Base price $350 x 10 = $3,500)
You then need 9x 1080's to match 6 1080 ti's (base price $480 x 9 - $4,320)
6x 1080ti's cost (base price $700 x 6 = $4,200)

Using the base prices of 1070 @ $350, 1080 @ $480 and 1080ti @ $700.00

Rig 1 GTX 1080 ti  
$4200     6x GPU's
$500       Mobo,CPU, Ram, PSU, OS
$4,770    Total Cost

Rig 2&3 GTX 1080
$4,320    9x GPU's
$1,000    2x Mobo, 2x CPU, 2x Ram, 2x PSU, 2x OS
$5,320    Total Cost for both Rigs

Rig 4&5 GTX 1070
$3,500    10x GPU's
$1,000    2x Mobo, 2x CPU, 2x Ram, 2x PSu, 2x OS
$4,500    Total Cost for both Rigs.

So with the above example the 1070 does cost less by $270 to get the same hash rate.  
To me... The space saved from 2 rigs and the amount of heat generated makes more sense to go with a single rig doing that than 2 rigs.  
At current Zec prices it would take you just over a week to make up for that $270 difference and save you a ton on electric and heat generation

That calculation is awesome, never thought about it this way, also on the gtx 1070 rigs you can get a PSU that's way under 280$, you can get a golden evga 1000w for about a 120-130$ and even that would be a litte too much for them, and in my experience its easier to resell a lower value gpu than it is to resell a higher value one, i may be wrong though!

[Moscut]

I am totally agree with you guys about the space/cooling - did not think exactly in that direction that it affect the decision what rig i am gonna build. Actually for my current situation i prefere to spent less space on rigs and less heat so ....


i think i am gonna go 6 x 1080 ti if it really makes 1.6 times more hashes - if so, wich one? MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Armor 11G or 750€ or EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC Black Edition Gaming 774€ ?

What about the PSU ? I guess Corsair HX1200 80PLUS Platinum 1200W is not enough?!? If it is not what about  EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1300? Also if i am going to buy 6x1080ti to i need extra pins?


Some other Question:
Moba:
- PCIe x16 or x1 have zero difference on mining right?
Random:
- What wallet to i use? Wich one is safe?
- can i convert all Altcoins into BTC?

Thanks

[jwarren81]

I'm an Asus / Corsair fanboy so I personally use them.  I have two of the HX1200i powering my 1070 rigs and Asus STRIX 1070 OCs.  They are all rock solid.

With heavy TDP reduction you can probably get away with 6x 1080ti's on 1200W but I'm not sure.  For those you may consider a server power supply with breakout board and then a small power supply for the motherboard.  Depends on your aversion to noise.

You will want all PCI-E 1x to 16x powered risers to fit all the cards. And you are correct, they make no difference mining wise.

Coinbase has treated me well for a BTC/ETH/LTC wallet.  Also have a Shift Card Visa debit card that pulls from one of my Coinbase wallets to spend BTC directly from.

Using zpool or miningpoolhub, you can multi algo mine for maximum profits and get paid out in BTC directly to Coinbase.  I personally use zpool.ca.

[Bones972]

Heat... Heat... Heat... Today is my first day mining over 80 degrees outside and one of my rigs in the garage has already shut down on me.  My three in the basement are fine but I am tapped out on electric there so I have to have 2 in the garage to spread the load.  That is why I personally feel that more powerful cards are better for heat distribution and electric consumption than several weaker rigs running everywhere you can plug them in. 

[Elder III]

Using EWFB's miner I get ~615 sols with a reference GTX 1080 Ti, at ~153 watts, if I'm not doing anything else with that PC (it's my personal PC) it climbs up as high as 630 sols. If you're willing to let it use the full 250 watts or more then you can hit around 700 sols, but the hash to watt ratio is pretty bad imo.

On a business rig with 6x GTX 1080 Ti we only get ~ 580 sols at the same settings, using Nicehash's Excavator miner. I'm not sure at this point if it's that much lower due to the different miner or if the weak little Celeron CPU in the business rig is bottlenecking somewhat.

In any case, with some tweaking you can get nice efficiency from a GTX 1080 Ti and they will hold excellent resale value for quite awhile. I don't think I would set up a farm just with GTX 1080 Tis (unless I was very wealthy), but having one rig out of 5-10 rigs made sense for us.

[JaredKaragen]

FYI, consider other algos.

With my equivalent of 3x 1070's, I pull $10+/day.
http://zpool.ca/?address=1PHSDYvVp6HpqtuUPocK41DrdeHbbezaeP

[Moscut]

Hello guys and thanks a lot for your replies! really appreciate it  


So after spending huge amount of hours of researching, calculating, tax authorities and so on i decided to go with 6 x 1080TI  

- Moba: MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon 134€ (3x PCIe 3.0 x16 (1x x16, 1x x8, 1x x4, - 4x PCIe 3.0 x1, )
- GPU: 6 x 1080ti but wich one? can you please help me to choose? A dream would come true if there would be a good cooling and its not that loud
- PSU: Do you think Corsair HX Series HX1200 80PLUS Platinum 1200W is enough 203€ or  should i go EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1300 1300W ATX 2.3 ? 299€ Do i need to underclock/undervolt der GPU because of the bad hash to watt ratio?
- Ram: Kingston HyperX Fury blue DIMM 8GB, DDR3-1600, CL10    61,50 €
- SSD: SanDisk Plus 120GB, SATA   55,99 €
- Case: I will build one myself  

So in my case i would need 3 x Riser, correct? (from x1 to x16)


thanks again!

[jwarren81]

Personally, I would get a six pack of risers and run them all that way.  Nothing directly on the board.  Its $50 for six powered risers on amazon and makes it all very consistent.

Then you could run it like this: