Thinking about building a cheap rig

[Monetizer]

SO recently I have been getting more and more interested in bitcoin/litecoins and I wanted to build my own rig. I am thinking of building an open case rig with just a single 7950 to start with and adding another card with possible profits. Is this a good idea? Has anyone tried this? And can someone recommend a build that may work with this plan?

[Ion77]

I think it is better to buy 2x7850 then, and adding two more later...

[shirou]

If you just like to mine, then your plan won't be bad (neither good, but at least you can use the 7950 as a gaming card).

When you are looking on your return on investment, you have to start big. You need to mine high from the beginning. The difficulty is your biggest enemy, and it isn't going better.
I'm mining with 4 7950 and 2 7970 and I have only an hashrate of 3.3 Gh/s. (+/- 0.14btc/day and it will diminish). So... the decision is yours.

But the 7950 is a good mining/gaming-card.

[zvs]

I think it is better to buy 2x7850 then, and adding two more later...

agreed

7850 is best buy if gaming isnt a concern, can be had for about $100 after selling games + rebate.  resale value wont drop much below that in 2 months

[Oldie]

I think it is better to buy 2x7850 then, and adding two more later...

agreed

7850 is best buy if gaming isnt a concern, can be had for about $100 after selling games + rebate.  resale value wont drop much below that in 2 months

Not sure if that's true, the MSI 7790 is $109 after rebate and before selling games (so take another 20-30 off), and can mine at 300k.  Less power consumption, less heat, is quieter (fan only at 40-50% at fill 1200oc).  These cards are wonderful, have 6 of them.

[zvs]

I think it is better to buy 2x7850 then, and adding two more later...

agreed

7850 is best buy if gaming isnt a concern, can be had for about $100 after selling games + rebate.  resale value wont drop much below that in 2 months

Not sure if that's true, the MSI 7790 is $109 after rebate and before selling games (so take another 20-30 off), and can mine at 300k.  Less power consumption, less heat, is quieter (fan only at 40-50% at fill 1200oc).  These cards are wonderful, have 6 of them.

ah, wow

yeah, thanks for reminding me... totally forgot about the 7790's... i see one on newegg right now for $110 after rebate.. i'm going to assume games aren't worth as much as a month ago, but should still drop the price to about $70 for that..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127726

that is the 'good' game bundle too..

AMD announced today that it is adding bonus games to the Never Settle Reloaded program as a limited-time offer called "LEVEL UP with NEVER SETTLE RELOADED." The promotion adds Tomb Raider to the AMD Radeon HD 7790 graphics card.

Starting today, this limited-time promotion will run, while supplies last, at participating retailers. AMD expects those retailers to come online next week as they update their checkout systems to support the new promotion.

[Ion77]

My 7850 mines 402 Kh/s - I think it is very good card in relation to money and power! 100 Kh more than 7790 and price is about the same!

[zvs]

My 7850 mines 402 Kh/s - I think it is very good card in relation to money and power! 100 Kh more than 7790 and price is about the same!

i only do bitcoins... my 7850 maxes out at around 340mhash for bitcoins..

it may be possible to get higher, but mine instacrashes whenever i try to increase voltage

[Geez]

I got an 7950 that I use for gaming and also mining every once in a while. For pure mining maybe a cheap mobo and three to four 7850s wouldn't be bad.

[Littleshop]

My 7850 mines 402 Kh/s - I think it is very good card in relation to money and power! 100 Kh more than 7790 and price is about the same!

I agree. 7850 or higher. 7950 preferred.  The better cards will have higher resale value. 

[RATM69]

I was looking at buying another rig for Alt coins. I currently have 5 Gigabyte 7950's WF3 I'm getting 600 Khs out of each of these cards running stock bios settings with cgminer. This is what I was looking at for a 2 card rig.

•   GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 ATX AMD Motherboard $69.99 plus a $10.00 MLR
•   2 - GIGABYTE Radeon HD 7950 GV-R795WF3-3GD Video Card $309.99 each
•   Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory $39.99
•   AMD A4-3300 2.5GHz Socket FM1 Dual-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic $39.99
•   Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit $99.99
•   Refurbished: Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JB 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 / ATA-6 3.5" Hard Drive $22.99 sales ends 5/20

As I type this the total cost with shipping is $900.04. Note that some of these items are on sale and one sale ends tomorrow.

[Monetizer]

I just looked over it. Looks just like what I am thinking of making. Would it work with a smaller graphics card (5850 or something)

I am looking to base mine of this but starting with a single graphics card. Also is that cpu necessary or could I use a celeron or something?

[crazyates]

I was looking at buying another rig for Alt coins. I currently have 5 Gigabyte 7950's WF3 I'm getting 600 Khs out of each of these cards running stock bios settings with cgminer. This is what I was looking at for a 2 card rig.

•   GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 ATX AMD Motherboard $69.99 plus a $10.00 MLR
•   2 - GIGABYTE Radeon HD 7950 GV-R795WF3-3GD Video Card $309.99 each
•   Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory $39.99
•   AMD A4-3300 2.5GHz Socket FM1 Dual-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic $39.99
•   Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit $99.99
•   Refurbished: Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JB 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 / ATA-6 3.5" Hard Drive $22.99 sales ends 5/20

As I type this the total cost with shipping is $900.04. Note that some of these items are on sale and one sale ends tomorrow.

For a dedicated rig, just go Linux. Save yourself the $100.