Building Cheap Miners : My "Secret"

[nsummy]

I suppose its my turn to contribute something.  If you are into Cryptonight mining, which it sounds like a few of you are, check out this Gigabyte mini-pc for $250:  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164036

You won't be adding any graphics cards (unless you are using eGPUS) but this thing will hash at 614 H/S.  You might be wondering how its possible to get that kind of performance out of a cpu with a 6 mb l3 cache.  The game changer is that this processor has an embedded Iris Pro GPU with a 128 MB L4 cache.  XMR-Stak recently included an optimization to take advantage of this cache space.  It should ROI itself in 2.5 months.  You have to provide your own ram and HD, but it does come with a wifi card so you could put this thing anywhere.

Ok, I picked up and set up one of the 5575rs (identical to the 5775, just i5 instead of i7). Out of the box and just using xmr-stak with the energy saver off, I'm getting around 200-202 h/s, which is not great but not bad. I haven't figured out how to enable support for the Iris Pro yet, still working on that, but I'm feeling pretty confident I can get it up significantly...

EDIT: ok, not exactly identical, it's 2.8-3.3ghz and 4mb l3 instead of 3.3-3.8 and 6mb l3, but I still think I can get it up much higher than 200h/s

If it has an Iris pro then the L3 size is irrelevent.  The issue you will run into though is that the I5 only have 4 cores and no hyperthreading.  To take full advantage you need 8 threads.  Make sure for the low power setting you are putting in 5.  you should probably be in the 300s

So you're pulling 600 h/s on your i7? What needs to be changed in the config or CPU file . . . I'm only pulling in 250, I didn't mess around with any of the low power settings, it's still on the stock "false" -

Correct.  When I ran it with the default settings out of the box I think I got around 250 also.   Here is my cpu.txt:


"cpu_threads_conf" :
[
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 0 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 1 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 2 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 3 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 4 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 5 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 6 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 7 },

],

In most situations you wouldn't mine using the hyperthreads let alone affine to them, but I think this low power mode must be less cpu intensive at the cost of more memory.

In /etc/security/limits.conf  I also added the following 2 lines:
* soft memlock 262144
* hard memlock 262144

and in /etc/sysctl.conf added:
vm.nr_hugepages=128


Proof:

Many thanks!

I picked up a Brix unit with the 4770R chip for a steal and stock it wasn't doing so great.

Used your settings and put Virtual memory in windows 10 to 16GB (I have 8GB ram) and bam, 574 H/s.

About what you would expect for a Haswell i7 given that your Broadwell chip is 5-10% more powerful given an equal clockspeed.

Although it must be throttling as its dropped to ~540 h/s. These Brix units are terrible with heat/cooling. Should be fine to stick it in the shed outside where it gets much cooler.

Not sure what's up with mines then. I have 4 of them on win10 and 1 on linux mint all have 1 8gb stick in them VM is set to 32gb And I only get the initial boost to 574 within 10 minutes I'm down to 250-275 Mh/s.

I'll play with them for another 2 weeks, once I hit day 29 I'll be returning all of them.

I found that running it without a display connected would cause it to run at like 340 H/s. Mine also will literally hit Tjunction max and throttle two of the cores. Never had a computer that literally maxed out temp wise (99C)

These Brix units are about as poor a miner money could buy, even a laptop might be better at dissipating heat. Good numbers but very unstable and a headache in general.

That said, if the CPU were on a typical motherboard I doubt there would be any issues, at least heat wise.

Ultimately my plan was to aquire these CPU's : https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Intel-E3-1265L-V4-QHF4-QHF6_60666712127.html

I bought one to test with, knowing it would hash lower due to the lower GHz but still be viable since it has the 128mb L4 cache. But the Chinese ended up screwing me claiming they were "out of stock" AFTER my initial and shipping payment has cleared...... Like you fuck you if you sell shit you dont have, at least be fucking up front about it! and the listing is still up!

I inquired about these for $50 each, but they randomly quoted me $293. https://szbrilliant.en.alibaba.com/product/60665524980-804912762/Intel_Core_i7_5775C_Processor_6M_Cache_up_to_3_70_GHz_LGA1150.html?spm=a2700.icbuShop.prewdfa4cf.8.32efd7dd1sqMNO

Not sure what the deal is with these people but its fucking irritating and I hate it.

Never again with Alibaba or any of that Chinese shit. My first and only dealing with them.

I disagree.  Mine has been mining non-stop since I posted my initial link.  No display, no heat issues.  There has to be something up with your settings.

Make sure you go into the Brix Bios and go to the Advanced Screen and set Turbo Mode to on.

I dont think you understand, mine is thermally throttling. As in, its hitting the max temp allowed (99C) and in HWinfo64 indicates 2 cores are throttling. Yes, it turbos fine but the 4770R is built on a 22nm process and what youve got is 14nm and likely more efficient even if the TDP's might be the same. (though yours may be configured at a lower TDP as allowed by intel).

I need to crack mine open and repaste. 100C is actually super hot for CPU's and personally ive never owned one thats maxed out its Tjunction max like that.

Yah I forgot you didn't get the same model as me.  I would honestly recommend trying to run this on command line linux before getting too crazy with hardware modifications.  Windows has so many stupid power saving functions built in that I wouldn't be surprised it there is something slowing this down, especially if speedstep is enabled. Linux will run it at full bore.    If you aren't worried about warranty returns though it might be worth it to completely disassemble that case and let it run out in the open.

As for those processors you posted,  there are a few on ebay, but they are around $200.  not bad, but not really groundbreaking considering you can't put more than one on a MB like the higher end xeons.   50 bucks for the 5775Cs would be a screaming deal though.  Those are even more rare and anyone selling them thinks they are worth 400 bucks.  I like the Alibaba listing that says "professional test" and shows what looks like a bunch of community college world of warcraft players sitting there.

[greyday]

I dont think you understand, mine is thermally throttling. As in, its hitting the max temp allowed (99C) and in HWinfo64 indicates 2 cores are throttling. Yes, it turbos fine but the 4770R is built on a 22nm process and what youve got is 14nm and likely more efficient even if the TDP's might be the same. (though yours may be configured at a lower TDP as allowed by intel).

I need to crack mine open and repaste. 100C is actually super hot for CPU's and personally ive never owned one thats maxed out its Tjunction max like that.

Yah I forgot you didn't get the same model as me.  I would honestly recommend trying to run this on command line linux before getting too crazy with hardware modifications.  Windows has so many stupid power saving functions built in that I wouldn't be surprised it there is something slowing this down, especially if speedstep is enabled. Linux will run it at full bore.    If you aren't worried about warranty returns though it might be worth it to completely disassemble that case and let it run out in the open.

As for those processors you posted,  there are a few on ebay, but they are around $200.  not bad, but not really groundbreaking considering you can't put more than one on a MB like the higher end xeons.   50 bucks for the 5775Cs would be a screaming deal though.  Those are even more rare and anyone selling them thinks they are worth 400 bucks.  I like the Alibaba listing that says "professional test" and shows what looks like a bunch of community college world of warcraft players sitting there.

Or try running some external fans in push/pull (and/or leave the case open) and see if that helps with the cooling, to make sure that's the problem. I will say my 7557s run pretty hot, the fans are loud, but when I added them to a shelf on my rack (which has a pull fan behind it), the temps dropped significantly...

[sundownz]

Correct.  When I ran it with the default settings out of the box I think I got around 250 also.   Here is my cpu.txt:


"cpu_threads_conf" :
[
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 0 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 1 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 2 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 3 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 4 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 5 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 6 },
    { "low_power_mode" : 5, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 7 },

],

In most situations you wouldn't mine using the hyperthreads let alone affine to them, but I think this low power mode must be less cpu intensive at the cost of more memory.

In /etc/security/limits.conf  I also added the following 2 lines:
* soft memlock 262144
* hard memlock 262144

and in /etc/sysctl.conf added:
vm.nr_hugepages=128

I was seeing ~585 from mine with your settings until thermal throttle. Finally got it going under Ubuntu Linux.

Cool little box indeed. Now to mess with keeping it cool & maintaining the speed.

Settles into mid to high 400s after warming up. Maybe I'll put it in my garage for the winter, haha!

[sundownz]

So I am learning Linux in preparation for my Dell PowerEdge R815 servers to get here... ended up grabbing 36 of them total (initially I bought 9... but I couldn't help myself).

These things are cheap to work on too... 2GB RAM sticks are $5-7 each... NEW hard drives are $38.99 each (300GB)... so I'm liking that as a value guy (hence my love for the HP Z400s).

Can't wait to fire them all up and rack up some ITNS coin!

Today I installed Ubuntu on my Gigabyte BRIX mini system and my single HP DL580 G7 system. I had been using ETHOS on the DL580 but I couldn't get a lot of stuff to work... so switched over. On the BRIX I tried PIMP-OS first but it didn't like the integrated graphics.... looks like I'm gonna be a solid Ubuntu guy on all the Dells.

[greyday]

So I am learning Linux in preparation for my Dell PowerEdge R815 servers to get here... ended up grabbing 36 of them total (initially I bought 9... but I couldn't help myself).

These things are cheap to work on too... 2GB RAM sticks are $5-7 each... NEW hard drives are $38.99 each (300GB)... so I'm liking that as a value guy (hence my love for the HP Z400s).

Can't wait to fire them all up and rack up some ITNS coin!

Today I installed Ubuntu on my Gigabyte BRIX mini system and my single HP DL580 G7 system. I had been using ETHOS on the DL580 but I couldn't get a lot of stuff to work... so switched over. On the BRIX I tried PIMP-OS first but it didn't like the integrated graphics.... looks like I'm gonna be a solid Ubuntu guy on all the Dells.

Welcome! Ubuntu is a great intro to Linux, as it's as plug-and-play as you want it to be, so you can learn the guts while still having a working system. I suggest Lubuntu for the Brix, it frees up more resources to mess around with stuff.

[PharmEcis]

So I am learning Linux in preparation for my Dell PowerEdge R815 servers to get here... ended up grabbing 36 of them total (initially I bought 9... but I couldn't help myself).

When you go all in, you really go all in don't you!  No wonder the prices sky rocketed!

[soothaa]

So I am learning Linux in preparation for my Dell PowerEdge R815 servers to get here... ended up grabbing 36 of them total (initially I bought 9... but I couldn't help myself).

These things are cheap to work on too... 2GB RAM sticks are $5-7 each... NEW hard drives are $38.99 each (300GB)... so I'm liking that as a value guy (hence my love for the HP Z400s).

Can't wait to fire them all up and rack up some ITNS coin!

Today I installed Ubuntu on my Gigabyte BRIX mini system and my single HP DL580 G7 system. I had been using ETHOS on the DL580 but I couldn't get a lot of stuff to work... so switched over. On the BRIX I tried PIMP-OS first but it didn't like the integrated graphics.... looks like I'm gonna be a solid Ubuntu guy on all the Dells.

Holy shit.. how much did you drop on that? $50,000?

[skinsfan0521]

Hi,

I see that there is some talk of people using the T7500s for mining, but not a lot of follow-up on the setups. Just curious what your experience has been so far? I've got a few that I'm planning on using as well, but haven't started yet. I'm wondering how many GPU you're able to get running on one of these with the included 1100w power supply? It seems to me that you can get 4 with a couple power cables adapters (8 pin to (2) PCIe 6+2 pin and 6 pin to PCIe 6+2 pin).

Thanks!

[dhouse]

So I am learning Linux in preparation for my Dell PowerEdge R815 servers to get here... ended up grabbing 36 of them total (initially I bought 9... but I couldn't help myself).

These things are cheap to work on too... 2GB RAM sticks are $5-7 each... NEW hard drives are $38.99 each (300GB)... so I'm liking that as a value guy (hence my love for the HP Z400s).

Can't wait to fire them all up and rack up some ITNS coin!

Today I installed Ubuntu on my Gigabyte BRIX mini system and my single HP DL580 G7 system. I had been using ETHOS on the DL580 but I couldn't get a lot of stuff to work... so switched over. On the BRIX I tried PIMP-OS first but it didn't like the integrated graphics.... looks like I'm gonna be a solid Ubuntu guy on all the Dells.

whoa what are you doing with these servers exactly? very curious!

[sundownz]

So I am learning Linux in preparation for my Dell PowerEdge R815 servers to get here... ended up grabbing 36 of them total (initially I bought 9... but I couldn't help myself).

These things are cheap to work on too... 2GB RAM sticks are $5-7 each... NEW hard drives are $38.99 each (300GB)... so I'm liking that as a value guy (hence my love for the HP Z400s).

Can't wait to fire them all up and rack up some ITNS coin!

Today I installed Ubuntu on my Gigabyte BRIX mini system and my single HP DL580 G7 system. I had been using ETHOS on the DL580 but I couldn't get a lot of stuff to work... so switched over. On the BRIX I tried PIMP-OS first but it didn't like the integrated graphics.... looks like I'm gonna be a solid Ubuntu guy on all the Dells.

Holy shit.. how much did you drop on that? $50,000?

Not quite. I grabbed them pretty early before I shared the link on here & Facebook groups & I got a bulk discount so closer to $30k with SH, memory, and hard drives.

[sundownz]

whoa what are you doing with these servers exactly? very curious!

I will be CPU mining ITNS on them at the moment.

Assuming ITNS has an even partial price recovery I estimate I can get them paid off in 4-6 months on CPUs only.

My fallback is Yescrypt mining which is also quite profitable on CPUs... but I am a big holder of ITNS & I've mined since August on a smaller scale. I believe the project has potential so I want to mine as many as I can.

------

Also... I will be experimenting with adding GPUs to them as they do have robust PSUs and several PCI-E slots.

[dhouse]

whoa what are you doing with these servers exactly? very curious!

I will be CPU mining ITNS on them at the moment.

Assuming ITNS has an even partial price recovery I estimate I can get them paid off in 4-6 months on CPUs only.

My fallback is Yescrypt mining which is also quite profitable on CPUs... but I am a big holder of ITNS & I've mined since August on a smaller scale. I believe the project has potential so I want to mine as many as I can.

------

Also... I will be experimenting with adding GPUs to them as they do have robust PSUs and several PCI-E slots.

Interesting - how many CPUs can one of them use? Why did you choose servers specifically?

Thanks again for this thread, lots of interesting ideas!

[sundownz]

whoa what are you doing with these servers exactly? very curious!

I will be CPU mining ITNS on them at the moment.

Assuming ITNS has an even partial price recovery I estimate I can get them paid off in 4-6 months on CPUs only.

My fallback is Yescrypt mining which is also quite profitable on CPUs... but I am a big holder of ITNS & I've mined since August on a smaller scale. I believe the project has potential so I want to mine as many as I can.

------

Also... I will be experimenting with adding GPUs to them as they do have robust PSUs and several PCI-E slots.

Interesting - how many CPUs can one of them use? Why did you choose servers specifically?

Thanks again for this thread, lots of interesting ideas!

These servers are loaded with 4x 12-Core AMD Opteron 6300 series CPUs each -- so they will kick butt at CPU mining. Each one should do ~2200 H/S on Cryptonite algos (nearly as much as four modern Ryzen 1700X CPUs at a much lower price). I'm going to test them on Yescrypt as well and share that data when I get some running.

Since I cannot get more AMD GPUs to to Cryptonite I was looking for the most cost effective way to add a ton of CPU power -- these servers fit the bill well with 48-cores per box.

I also have a single HP DL580 G7 server with 4x 10-Core Xeon chips (thanks to a suggestion made early on in this thread) but these Dell's are much more cost effective.

[Juggar]

whoa what are you doing with these servers exactly? very curious!

I will be CPU mining ITNS on them at the moment.

Assuming ITNS has an even partial price recovery I estimate I can get them paid off in 4-6 months on CPUs only.

My fallback is Yescrypt mining which is also quite profitable on CPUs... but I am a big holder of ITNS & I've mined since August on a smaller scale. I believe the project has potential so I want to mine as many as I can.

------

Also... I will be experimenting with adding GPUs to them as they do have robust PSUs and several PCI-E slots.

Interesting - how many CPUs can one of them use? Why did you choose servers specifically?

Thanks again for this thread, lots of interesting ideas!

These servers are loaded with 4x 12-Core AMD Opteron 6300 series CPUs each -- so they will kick butt at CPU mining. Each one should do ~2200 H/S on Cryptonite algos (nearly as much as four modern Ryzen 1700X CPUs at a much lower price). I'm going to test them on Yescrypt as well and share that data when I get some running.

Since I cannot get more AMD GPUs to to Cryptonite I was looking for the most cost effective way to add a ton of CPU power -- these servers fit the bill well with 48-cores per box.

I also have a single HP DL580 G7 server with 4x 10-Core Xeon chips (thanks to a suggestion made early on in this thread) but these Dell's are much more cost effective.

You mean each server does 2200 H/s right? Why did you buy these when a single radeon 7870 can do an easy 450 H/s on cryptonight and ROI in less than 2 months assuming you pay $75 (average price).

[CaptainHangover]

Sundownz....

Can you please do me a massive favour and tell me if it boots without riser 1 in place???

Reason being I'm thinking of running 2 GPU's in each (Prob ITX sized)

Regards

CH

[sundownz]

You mean each server does 2200 H/s right? Why did you buy these when a single radeon 7870 can do an easy 450 H/s on cryptonight and ROI in less than 2 months assuming you pay $75 (average price).

A few reasons...  finding 170+ pcs of 7870s or any GPU right now isn't going to be easy or practical.

Also keep in mind each server is now a system I can *also* add GPUs into.

[Juggar]

You mean each server does 2200 H/s right? Why did you buy these when a single radeon 7870 can do an easy 450 H/s on cryptonight and ROI in less than 2 months assuming you pay $75 (average price).

A few reasons...  finding 170+ pcs of 7870s or any GPU right now isn't going to be easy or practical.

Also keep in mind each server is now a system I can *also* add GPUs into.

Sure, but at this point id heavily favor something with a 2 month ROI over a much longer term investment. Im also not sure what GPU's you can add but im sure there will be power and space restrictions.

But, more power to you. I hope it works out well for you.

[coins4commies]

where the hell are you getting $75 for a 7870???

[Juggar]

where the hell are you getting $75 for a 7870???

the internet.

[sundownz]

You mean each server does 2200 H/s right? Why did you buy these when a single radeon 7870 can do an easy 450 H/s on cryptonight and ROI in less than 2 months assuming you pay $75 (average price).

A few reasons...  finding 170+ pcs of 7870s or any GPU right now isn't going to be easy or practical.

Also keep in mind each server is now a system I can *also* add GPUs into.

Sure, but at this point id heavily favor something with a 2 month ROI over a much longer term investment. Im also not sure what GPU's you can add but im sure there will be power and space restrictions.

But, more power to you. I hope it works out well for you.

It will be a bit interesting to add GPUs to it -- but I think it'll be fun.

It does have 6x PCI-E slots (no physical x16 slots) -- and no support for powering GPUs (just checked the manual on that) so I would need an external secondary PSU & risers. Seems to be do-able -- I'll be finding out.

As always -- I'll post up in here on how it goes =)

-----

That being said... my pallet(s) of servers should be here on 2/1/18 so I'll post up some more first hand info then.