Building Cheap Miners : My "Secret"

[sundownz]

Did some swapping around of pools / algos today...

All CPUs except the two Ryzen 1700X that I own I moved to ZPOOL on the Yescrypt algo (Ryzens still doing ITNS). This actually seems like a great choice... profit calcs show ~$800-1.2k / month just on my CPUs. I can't complain about that one bit.

All AMD GPUs left on ITNS duty but moved back to the official pool on the highest diff port (was having issues with Hash Vault banning my IP every once and a while... so hope that fixes it). This is showing ~$3100 / month at current ITNS value.

All NVidia GPUs moved back to ZPOOL (I have been on Hash Refinery for a while as ZPOOL had some issues when NiceHash went down and thus they were flooded with traffic) with an 18 algo mix to switch between... a few office / home machines are fixed on Neoscrypt at all times... but all dedicated NVidia machines use NEMOS to profit switch (and of course CPUs are fixed on Yescrypt as mentioned above).

Based on the last ~6 hours I am looking at  ~$19.7k / Month in return -- even at the much lower BTC price of the moment (I used $13.6k / BTC for my calcs above).

[eleceng1979]

Nice!  I'm just small time compared to you.  I am curious about the dl580.  I have wondering how you like it or even run it.  It seems your z400's are more cost effective and less power hungry.  I have been eyeing 32/40 core dl580's for cpu duty + GPU's on their internal psu.  Any thoughts?

Awesome setup by the way...

PS... I put one 13 gpu rig on zpool to test the waters once NH was hacked.  I didn't like it at all.  Mining Pool Hub was better hash accepted and her payouts for identical rigs over 24 hours on awesome miner using 45 minute algo switching.  I found the key was to drive time her to yield better results on ppnls

[sundownz]

Nice!  I'm just small time compared to you.  I am curious about the dl580.  I have wondering how you like it or even run it.  It seems your z400's are more cost effective and less power hungry.  I have been eyeing 32/40 core dl580's for cpu duty + GPU's on their internal psu.  Any thoughts?

Awesome setup by the way...

Thanks! =)

The DL580 is pretty sweet... as of right now I am just using the CPUs.

They return ~10% of my Yescrypt return (so $80-120 per month).

Really pretty respectable.

I do plan to hook up 8x RX560 GPUs to it at some point as well using the internal PSUs. I may get around to that around the end of January.

[kalakabgr]

Lovely rack bro! Impressive, you wmight want to show us a video of the farm working once you have a chance!

[eleceng1979]

Have you tried MPH?  See my edited post above yours...

I am really digging the dl580 but it is a beast.  I found there is a way in the bios to force 0 redundancies of the PSU's to force 1200 + 1200 to the distribution board.  The other 2 1200's would melt down the distribution and aren't allowed I think.  Obviously this is internet knowledge as I haven't comitted yet.

[rhyker]

Ah great to see there are more people who got the idea and worked it out into the details. Great read!

I have a question though: any particular reason why you are using a Z400? They don't come cheap here in NL: 200+ EUR. Why not use its predecessor: XW4600 (http://h20331.www2.hp.com/Hpsub/downloads/MWP_Z400_vs_xw4600_architecture_3-17-2009.pdf) ? And/or even older versions of it like the  XW4400 / XW4550? Or the XW predecessors of the Z600/Z800 = XW6xx0 / XW8xx0 / XW9xx0? As they all come with the same 3x PCIe setup (and one extra for XWx6x0 or higher range) with upto 150W power. As those XW models can be held for about 40-100EUR per workstation. And the money we save with that could go to a Corsair / EVGA / Coolermaster PSU (can't find Rosewill here in NL) to power the GPUs with minimal modding. I did study http://www.hp.com/canada/products/landing/workstations/files/hp_choosing_right_workstation.pdf ... however not seeing anything why it wouldn't work. What am I overlooking? Would appreciate your thoughts.

And been a while I did any mining; last time is years ago with GridSeed / GAW / Zeusminer ASICs. What OS do you recommend / use? I was looking into this from a Hackintosh perspective, but a Linux flavor is better? Or just Windows 10?

[coinits]

Lovely rack bro! Impressive, you wmight want to show us a video of the farm working once you have a chance!

Only in crypto would a dude salivate and compliment another dude's rack.

[Michael20]

Yes the xw4600 seems also interesting, too bad that the power supply isn't that big

[sundownz]

Ah great to see there are more people who got the idea and worked it out into the details. Great read!

I have a question though: any particular reason why you are using a Z400? They don't come cheap here in NL: 200+ EUR. Why not use its predecessor: XW4600 (http://h20331.www2.hp.com/Hpsub/downloads/MWP_Z400_vs_xw4600_architecture_3-17-2009.pdf) ? And/or even older versions of it like the  XW4400 / XW4550? Or the XW predecessors of the Z600/Z800 = XW6xx0 / XW8xx0 / XW9xx0? As they all come with the same 3x PCIe setup (and one extra for XWx6x0 or higher range) with upto 150W power. As those XW models can be held for about 40-100EUR per workstation. And the money we save with that could go to a Corsair / EVGA / Coolermaster PSU (can't find Rosewill here in NL) to power the GPUs with minimal modding. I did study http://www.hp.com/canada/products/landing/workstations/files/hp_choosing_right_workstation.pdf ... however not seeing anything why it wouldn't work. What am I overlooking? Would appreciate your thoughts.

And been a while I did any mining; last time is years ago with GridSeed / GAW / Zeusminer ASICs. What OS do you recommend / use? I was looking into this from a Hackintosh perspective, but a Linux flavor is better? Or just Windows 10?

I prefer Windows 10 simply for ease of use -- and the Z400s all come with Win10 Pro pre-installed.

I do have ethos on my single HP DL580 server system and I find it annoying to use (I have no real Linux experience).

-----

As for choosing the Z400... at least here they are plentiful, cheap, and after I did some reading about how reliable they are I made the call -- I've yet to have one fail on me so I think it was a good call.

The xw4600 does look like it could work out for mining as it does have four PCI-X slots like the Z400.

Although, I do mine on all my CPUs and the older boards don't support CPUs that are as good as the Z400. My bank of Xeon X5660 CPUs (six core) bring in quite a bit of revenue.

If you aren't using the CPUs and they are cheaper I don't see why the xw4600 wouldn't work out for you.

[sundownz]

Have you tried MPH?  See my edited post above yours...

I have not tried MPH as I really didn't much like the web interface.

ZPOOL has done me well for the most part -- I did run off to Hash Refinery for a while as the Nicehash crash overloaded ZPOOL for a few weeks.

I moved back to ZPOOL once it became stable again (yesterday).

[sundownz]

Based on the last ~6 hours I am looking at  ~$19.7k / Month in return -- even at the much lower BTC price of the moment (I used $13.6k / BTC for my calcs above).

Same calculation this morning @ $14.1k BTC / Current ITNS Price:

ITNS Revenue - $3283.43
ZPOOL Revenue (using 11 hour average) - $17340.39
----------
$20,623.82 / month

Gotta say I am very happy with my latest tweaks so far as long as it's stable while I'm out of town for the next 10 days.

[CryptoCruncher]

Hello all,

Stoked to see that I can actually do something with an old T5500 that was about to be tossed into the dumpster at work...  It came with a 1GB Nvidia Quadro 600 card and 12 Gb Hynix Ram.
A quick search brought me here and since I had been planning to build a miner I struck gold it seems...

First problem is that the system won't boot up.  I got a blank HD in it, but I have the dreaded "2-3-4 blink with solid amber power light Pb7" code. Tried the usual and I am now looking at replacing the X5650 CPU.  If that works I am planning to add a few 580's and fire it up.

Love to hear if someone else has had to work through this particular issue before and has insights.  I'll post my build notes along the way...

 

Update: swapped in a new X5660, still getting the same error.  Looking for a new CRH6C motherboard now...  Maybe it makes more sense to get a HPZ400 as it is close to the price of a replacement motherboard.  Hm.

[jebidia]

Awesome Rigs!!

Curious what algos you like at zpool for the nvidias?

[CryptoCruncher]

Just found a source for T7500's @ $125...  I see a single mention someone earlier in the thread; just wondering has anyone had success turning a T7500 into a mining rig?  They seem to be close to the T5500 in design...

[rhyker]

Just found a source for T7500's @ $125...  I see a single mention someone earlier in the thread; just wondering has anyone had success turning a T7500 into a mining rig?  They seem to be close to the T5500 in design...

$125 ?! I can't find them for any cheaper than 275+ EUR so that's a steal! Especially considering this ...

Dell T5500 is the equivalent of a HP Z400-series
Dell T3500 is the equivalent of a HP Z600-series
Dell T7500 is the equivalent of a HP Z800-series

... and T7500 seems to come with 1100W PSU by default. And with two PCie 16 slots with upto 225W (instead of 150W of HP Z400) out of a total of the similar 4x PCie according to http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/workstation-precision-t7500 . It sure has great perspective.

[sundownz]

Awesome Rigs!!

Curious what algos you like at zpool for the nvidias?

Right now X17 is killing it... but I do have 18 algos to switch between. I'll share which ones they are when I get home -- currently in Mexico.

[zer0k]

So...how many GPU's can you fit inside a DL380 with the PCIE expander?

Or does anyone know of a "budget" second hand server that can fit GPU's inside with the case closed?
All of the GPU/compute setups are either impossible to find or are $2k+ for the chassis

I'm using Rosewill 4U setups right now and they're awesome, but finding something like a DL580 for cheap would be cool 

[CryptoCruncher]

Just found a source for T7500's @ $125...  I see a single mention someone earlier in the thread; just wondering has anyone had success turning a T7500 into a mining rig?  They seem to be close to the T5500 in design...

$125 ?! I can't find them for any cheaper than 275+ EUR so that's a steal! Especially considering this ...

Dell T5500 is the equivalent of a HP Z400-series
Dell T3500 is the equivalent of a HP Z600-series
Dell T7500 is the equivalent of a HP Z800-series

... and T7500 seems to come with 1100W PSU by default. And with two PCie 16 slots with upto 225W (instead of 150W of HP Z400) out of a total of the similar 4x PCie according to http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/workstation-precision-t7500 . It sure has great perspective.

I just bought the last two T7500's for $100 a piece.  Starting my build soon... 

[RealSwissMiner]

Got the fourth rack 100% done:

So awesome - the amount of gear in that picture makes me droll. Makes me feel like I need to also scale up big time

[palapeseta]

Got the fourth rack 100% done:

I just saw the basement of your home and I have wanted to do something similar in mine.