Building Cheap Miners : My "Secret"

[nsummy]

Ohh, i thought E7-4870 was top of the line? Cant see a better one in this list: https://ark.intel.com/products/series/59139/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E7-Family - Care to share your knowledge?

Well now I feel like a dummy.  I saw E7-8870s in the list before and thought it would be more of a boost than just double the accessible RAM which won't do us any good.    8870s can address 4.1TB while the lowly 4870 can only address 2.05TB  I don't think that will give us the kind of performance boost we are looking for.  I guess next time I'll make sure to check the specs instead of just going... Ooooh bigger numbers, has to be faster right?

Found 4 8837s for 35 shipped, they are on the way... LOL

The only difference between the 88 and 48 is that the 88 can fit into a motherboard with 7 other processors and the 48 is limited to a motherboard with a max of 4. Though in all of my searching I have yet to see a 8 E7 chip server being sold online.

[nsummy]

Thanks! Is there something in the product number that says "Iris Pro thingy"?

In the product description, yes.  Look at the link the nsummy posted, it clearly states the mini pc comes with an Iris Pro graphics.  If it states Iris Pro you are good to go.  If it states Intel HD graphics, you would not be.

Correct, and if you want to know about another "secret", I read about these processors and searched high and low for them, its bizarre, like they were never sold in any computer.  I think the Iris was mostly sold with macbook pros, so anything you search for will likely lead to that.  How I found this particular model though:  After wasting hours on ebay, I went to newegg and went to this section:  Home -> Components -> Barebone / Mini Computers ->  Mini-PC Barebone.  On the left there is a filter to select what type of GPU you want.  I just selected all of the Iris GPUS and got lucky.  I think this address will take you there:  https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100008345%20601188532%20601190202%20601290807%20601290808  There is one for $360 but its only a dual core.  I think another trick to this is that it also has to be a quad core with hyper threading so that it can run 8 threads.

[PharmEcis]

Ohh, i thought E7-4870 was top of the line? Cant see a better one in this list: https://ark.intel.com/products/series/59139/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E7-Family - Care to share your knowledge?

Well now I feel like a dummy.  I saw E7-8870s in the list before and thought it would be more of a boost than just double the accessible RAM which won't do us any good.    8870s can address 4.1TB while the lowly 4870 can only address 2.05TB  I don't think that will give us the kind of performance boost we are looking for.  I guess next time I'll make sure to check the specs instead of just going... Ooooh bigger numbers, has to be faster right?

Found 4 8837s for 35 shipped, they are on the way... LOL

The only difference between the 88 and 48 is that the 88 can fit into a motherboard with 7 other processors and the 48 is limited to a motherboard with a max of 4. Though in all of my searching I have yet to see a 8 E7 chip server being sold online.

Because the DL580's are only 4.  You have to move to a DL980 to find the 8 chip unit.  At least that's what I figured out today.  However the DL980 units are going for about $2k a piece...

[spinx]

Ohh, i thought E7-4870 was top of the line? Cant see a better one in this list: https://ark.intel.com/products/series/59139/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E7-Family - Care to share your knowledge?

Well now I feel like a dummy.  I saw E7-8870s in the list before and thought it would be more of a boost than just double the accessible RAM which won't do us any good.    8870s can address 4.1TB while the lowly 4870 can only address 2.05TB  I don't think that will give us the kind of performance boost we are looking for.  I guess next time I'll make sure to check the specs instead of just going... Ooooh bigger numbers, has to be faster right?

Found 4 8837s for 35 shipped, they are on the way... LOL

Cache is the most important factor here, mining cryptonight with xmr-stak. The configuration of the miner should be based on the amount of cpu cahce available. Each miner thread needs 2Mb of L3 cpu cache.

For the E7 family i made this formula to estimate cryptonight performance:

13 * corespeed in ghz * (amount of cache per cpu / 2 ) * number of physical cpu's * = Totalt H/s running one thread per 2MB cache

For me:

13 * 2,66 * (24/2) * 4 ~ 1650 H/s

[DoreenGresham]

我觉的这是一个非常不错的想法，但目前我应该不会这么做

[bengaltiger]

?

[Amstellodamois]

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/PC-Gigabyte-Brix-GB-BSi7HA-6500-Intel-Core-i7-6500U-2x-2-50GHz-GB-BSi7HA-6500/152714522870?hash=item238e7eb0f6:g:SW0AAOSw8-xZ2AHF

Minimal since it has no GPU assist w/ only Intel HD video and not Iris Pro w/ 128mb of RAM.

Thanks! Is there something in the product number that says "Iris Pro thingy"?

i7's that have Iris are
5950HQ
5850HQ
5750HQ
5755C
5775R

i5's that have Iris are
5675C
5675R
5575R

That's the kind of answers I love, many thanks!

[sundownz]

Been on vacation since Dec 22nd.

No issues related to the Z400s at all.

I did have one system go down due to either a bad GPU or PSU -- which I will troubleshoot when I get home. The Z400 will produce a beep code if something is bad (so I have yet to see any failure of PSU, GPU, or Riser cause a cascade and take out any other hardware) -- I simply had one of my employees shut that one system down and unplug it in the meantime.

Cannot complain about these things at all... ROCK SOLID.

Ordered 12 more for the 5th rack that I'll start later this month =)

nice info, hope you had a good vacay. 
Have you tried using pci extenders on the z400 to expand to say 6 or 8 cards?

Thanks! I actually had another trip right after the vacation trip (business this time) -- Z400s solid again!

I have not yet tried the PCI-E expansion cards... but I did buy two of them to experiment with.

If I can get more than four cards running I will advise in this thread.

[sundownz]

You also tested 4gpu on z400, also stable? You are running 3 because of psu?

For GTX-1060 I do use four GPUs -- no problem.

I have just ordered two units of the build you have done with z400. Thank you for the information.   my cost for each unit was $1178 excluding x5660 with 4 1060 gpu running. Once up and running I plan on adding after the learning curve.

What do you recommend for wallet in terms of your long term holds? Hardware based offline ? any recommendations ?

thanks
Have a great 2018!

I actually keep my BTC on Coinbase -- but for other coins I use the official software QT wallets and back up my wallet file in several locations to hold long term.

[sundownz]

What hashrate are you guys getting on the X5660? I'm curious as I am just getting started with Intense Coins on XMRIG and am just looking for a sanity check that I have things running correctly.

About 230 H/S using XMRig software.

[sundownz]

So...Sundownz, being a business owner, are you able to use this equipment as a tax write-off? I am not sure where cryptocurrency stands in all of this.

I do my taxes on mining separately.

But, yes, since I am doing this for profit the equipment is a deduction... my CPA is working it all out on whether I need to depreciate it over time, though, so I may not get to take 100% of it as a write-off in the first year.

[sundownz]

Sundownz, my wallet would like to thank you for the more than $5k I've spent in the last 24 hours to start my own setup.  In many ways I feel like a big dummy.  Being an IT hardware guy all my life this is right up my alley and really, mining feels no different than running prime95 and submitting results... lol  I should have started this years ago when I was in my 5k sq ft automotive shop and had plenty of power.  I'd be a millionaire by now if I had.  I'm not a trader.  I'm too emotional so I do stupid things with the little bit I've tried.  However, mining is something tangible and I can definitely wrap my head around getting paid for work.

I dipped my toes in the mining pool finally this week and once I realized that with the hardware I already had (1080, 780 and a 7950) I was going to average $300/m... Well I went a little crazy buying things.  I've got 9 1060s and 3 1080s on the way! lol  

I bought a DL580 G7 w/ 4 cpus to setup as my first rack.  I'm comfortable in Linux so I figured I'd try to get the one machine up and off the ground to start.  It coming with 4x1200w PSU's made me feel it was good value for the $.  I want to CPU mine and also run 11 GPUs through it.

I've got lots of space and currently 400A of service.  If all goes well I'm thinking of burying containers in the ground and using geothermal cooling loops to keep the hardware cool as I'm in TX and it gets rather hot down here.

For the remote access stuff, Google's Chrome Remote Desktop is basically Windows RDP with a FAR nicer interface.  It lists all the PCs and tells you which ones are up or down and even last online time if a box goes down.  I was a hardcore Windows RDP user and I switched to the Chrome version.  All you have to do is run the Chrome RDP installer while you are logged into Chrome and then from anywhere in the world that PC would be accessible when you are logged into Chrome.

Thanks for all of your posts.  A lot of people don't want to share their secrets or how they are doing things so what you are doing really is helping out the average Joe!

I am glad my post was able to help you -- and thanks for sharing more info =)

[PharmEcis]

Cache is the most important factor here, mining cryptonight with xmr-stak. The configuration of the miner should be based on the amount of cpu cahce available. Each miner thread needs 2Mb of L3 cpu cache.

For the E7 family i made this formula to estimate cryptonight performance:

13 * corespeed in ghz * (amount of cache per cpu / 2 ) * number of physical cpu's * = Totalt H/s running one thread per 2MB cache

For me:

13 * 2,66 * (24/2) * 4 ~ 1650 H/s

Excellent.  I'm hoping to pick up a big batch of obsolete server iron this week to toss in one of my containers and this will def help in picking proper CPUs for highest efficiency!

[nsummy]

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/PC-Gigabyte-Brix-GB-BSi7HA-6500-Intel-Core-i7-6500U-2x-2-50GHz-GB-BSi7HA-6500/152714522870?hash=item238e7eb0f6:g:SW0AAOSw8-xZ2AHF

Minimal since it has no GPU assist w/ only Intel HD video and not Iris Pro w/ 128mb of RAM.

Thanks! Is there something in the product number that says "Iris Pro thingy"?

i7's that have Iris are
5950HQ
5850HQ
5750HQ
5755C
5775R

i5's that have Iris are
5675C
5675R
5575R

There is more to the list than this
There are a bunch of Skylake processors with them:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylake_(microarchitecture)#Mainstream_and_high-end_desktop_processors
Along with Haswell:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haswell_(microarchitecture)#Desktop_processors

Additionally some of the Xeon E3 V4 processors have it: https://www.anandtech.com/show/9532/the-intel-broadwell-xeon-e3-v4-review-95w-65w-35w-1285-1285l-1265

[nsummy]

Ohh, i thought E7-4870 was top of the line? Cant see a better one in this list: https://ark.intel.com/products/series/59139/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E7-Family - Care to share your knowledge?

Well now I feel like a dummy.  I saw E7-8870s in the list before and thought it would be more of a boost than just double the accessible RAM which won't do us any good.    8870s can address 4.1TB while the lowly 4870 can only address 2.05TB  I don't think that will give us the kind of performance boost we are looking for.  I guess next time I'll make sure to check the specs instead of just going... Ooooh bigger numbers, has to be faster right?

Found 4 8837s for 35 shipped, they are on the way... LOL

Also, while 35 bucks is still a good deal, the 8837 is probably the worst processor out of that series that you could get.  Its the only one that doesn't have hyperthreading

[VyprBTC]

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/PC-Gigabyte-Brix-GB-BSi7HA-6500-Intel-Core-i7-6500U-2x-2-50GHz-GB-BSi7HA-6500/152714522870?hash=item238e7eb0f6:g:SW0AAOSw8-xZ2AHF

Minimal since it has no GPU assist w/ only Intel HD video and not Iris Pro w/ 128mb of RAM.

Thanks! Is there something in the product number that says "Iris Pro thingy"?

i7's that have Iris are
5950HQ
5850HQ
5750HQ
5755C
5775R

i5's that have Iris are
5675C
5675R
5575R

There is more to the list than this
There are a bunch of Skylake processors with them:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylake_(microarchitecture)#Mainstream_and_high-end_desktop_processors
Along with Haswell:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haswell_(microarchitecture)#Desktop_processors

Additionally some of the Xeon E3 V4 processors have it: https://www.anandtech.com/show/9532/the-intel-broadwell-xeon-e3-v4-review-95w-65w-35w-1285-1285l-1265

Non of the skylakes are Iris Pro 6200 which is what was asked for.

[nsummy]

Ohh, i thought E7-4870 was top of the line? Cant see a better one in this list: https://ark.intel.com/products/series/59139/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E7-Family - Care to share your knowledge?

Well now I feel like a dummy.  I saw E7-8870s in the list before and thought it would be more of a boost than just double the accessible RAM which won't do us any good.    8870s can address 4.1TB while the lowly 4870 can only address 2.05TB  I don't think that will give us the kind of performance boost we are looking for.  I guess next time I'll make sure to check the specs instead of just going... Ooooh bigger numbers, has to be faster right?

Found 4 8837s for 35 shipped, they are on the way... LOL

Cache is the most important factor here, mining cryptonight with xmr-stak. The configuration of the miner should be based on the amount of cpu cahce available. Each miner thread needs 2Mb of L3 cpu cache.

For the E7 family i made this formula to estimate cryptonight performance:

13 * corespeed in ghz * (amount of cache per cpu / 2 ) * number of physical cpu's * = Totalt H/s running one thread per 2MB cache

For me:

13 * 2,66 * (24/2) * 4 ~ 1650 H/s

one thing to also remember is there is a big difference between the E7s and the E700s and X7000s (which are the most common).  The E7 series comes with AES-NI while the previous gen does not.

[nsummy]

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/PC-Gigabyte-Brix-GB-BSi7HA-6500-Intel-Core-i7-6500U-2x-2-50GHz-GB-BSi7HA-6500/152714522870?hash=item238e7eb0f6:g:SW0AAOSw8-xZ2AHF

Minimal since it has no GPU assist w/ only Intel HD video and not Iris Pro w/ 128mb of RAM.

Thanks! Is there something in the product number that says "Iris Pro thingy"?

i7's that have Iris are
5950HQ
5850HQ
5750HQ
5755C
5775R

i5's that have Iris are
5675C
5675R
5575R

There is more to the list than this
There are a bunch of Skylake processors with them:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylake_(microarchitecture)#Mainstream_and_high-end_desktop_processors
Along with Haswell:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haswell_(microarchitecture)#Desktop_processors

Additionally some of the Xeon E3 V4 processors have it: https://www.anandtech.com/show/9532/the-intel-broadwell-xeon-e3-v4-review-95w-65w-35w-1285-1285l-1265

Non of the skylakes are Iris Pro 6200 which is what was asked for.

haha well I think technically what was asked for were model numbers that say "Iris Pro thingy."  Either way the model of Iris Pro is irrelevant as long as it has 128 eDram.  I think there are also a few processors out there that have this edram but not an integrated GPU.

[PharmEcis]

Also, while 35 bucks is still a good deal, the 8837 is probably the worst processor out of that series that you could get.  Its the only one that doesn't have hyperthreading

Which means that taking 24MB of L3 cache and dividing by 2 nets 12 threads and you can only run 8 correct?

[spinx]

Ohh, i thought E7-4870 was top of the line? Cant see a better one in this list: https://ark.intel.com/products/series/59139/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E7-Family - Care to share your knowledge?

Well now I feel like a dummy.  I saw E7-8870s in the list before and thought it would be more of a boost than just double the accessible RAM which won't do us any good.    8870s can address 4.1TB while the lowly 4870 can only address 2.05TB  I don't think that will give us the kind of performance boost we are looking for.  I guess next time I'll make sure to check the specs instead of just going... Ooooh bigger numbers, has to be faster right?

Found 4 8837s for 35 shipped, they are on the way... LOL

Cache is the most important factor here, mining cryptonight with xmr-stak. The configuration of the miner should be based on the amount of cpu cahce available. Each miner thread needs 2Mb of L3 cpu cache.

For the E7 family i made this formula to estimate cryptonight performance:

13 * corespeed in ghz * (amount of cache per cpu / 2 ) * number of physical cpu's * = Totalt H/s running one thread per 2MB cache

For me:

13 * 2,66 * (24/2) * 4 ~ 1650 H/s

one thing to also remember is there is a big difference between the E7s and the E700s and X7000s (which are the most common).  The E7 series comes with AES-NI while the previous gen does not.

So theoretically which cpu should be the best one for cryptonight? As well as which is best bang for the buck?