How does this rig sound?

[systic]

Gonna build a dedicated rig to mess around with some mining. I use to love overclocking and all sorts of cooling for benchmartks etc so decided to start a mining rig.

MOBO - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128521
MEMORY - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146748
CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888
GPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125413      X2


already have a few http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119161 for open case cooling
Have this PSU already also I will use - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817170029
and a little 80 gig WD hd ill use

Now i know computers but new to mining (been mining on a 7970 on personal pc a couple months). Thinking crossifre at around 1100mhz with guiminer on windows 7 unless there is good reason to do different.


Also i shouldn't need power risers right?

[chalupa_batman]

my rig currently has 3 cards, 1 riser, doesnt need to be powered.

if i were u i'd consider getting a board with more pci/pci-e slots, and a more powerful psu. it'll give u the option to upgrade later on, add more cards. im using the gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3, can technically go up to 6 cards, but im gonna max it at 5. just ordered a 1500w psu so it'll be able to handle all 5.

[systic]

How many cards can my board support? The whole pci x1 to pic x16 riser deal confuses me tbh

[bitbyebit]

How many cards can my board support? The whole pci x1 to pic x16 riser deal confuses me tbh

Just keep reading and asking.  People are friendly here .. (most of the time)

[computerguy]

How many cards can my board support? The whole pci x1 to pic x16 riser deal confuses me tbh

ok to get you excited the max supported would be 7.  that being said 7 will not happen. (most likely driver issues will result with AMD driver crashes)

you have 3 1x pci express which are perfect for bitcoin mining which does not require more then 1x.
to make those 1 x work you need a x1 to x16 adapter . try this link http://cablesaurus.com/PCIe-x1--%3E-x16-Adapter-Extender-Cable-w-Molex-Connector.  i KNOW these work since i have several of them. 

so with the 2 pci express 16 x or (4x) and 3 1 x with adapter you can have 5 .

to make it to 6 or 7 (good luck with 7) you need a pci to pci express (1x) adapter and that will allow you to use a pci express card in a pci slot with riser. (cablesaurus used to have them i bought them from him before but evidently he does not currently.

so i recommend ordering the 3 1x to 16x adapter and use the 2 normal 16 x pci express slots that gives you 5 available and that is plenty. 

your power supply will not run that much anyhow so you can slowly keep adding cards if you have the adapters on hand.

you do not have to order from cablsaurus  but i KNOW that all of his stuff is tested to work. (the reason why i bought it all form him)

i know i have a whole box of pci express riser cables leftover for multiple motherboards i have worked with, it can be very confusing as to what cable you need.

good luck

[Sarcgasm]

Take some caution though when trying to power 5+ cards.   That load can apparently start melting the 24pin connector to the motherboard.  I had it happen to me before, and I think it had something to do with maximum voltage pin 2 could handle or something like that.

[burek]

You do not need CrossFire for mining. In fact it's not recommended.

Configuration is fine, PSU should hold up. Keep in mind that in case of extreme overclocking each 7970 would be consuming 300W. That's 300Wx2 + 25W approx. for system == 625W continuous power. For a rig that's working 24/7 it is recommended that PSU can deliver at least twice the power the system draws continuously.

[systic]

You do not need CrossFire for mining. In fact it's not recommended.

Configuration is fine, PSU should hold up. Keep in mind that in case of extreme overclocking each 7970 would be consuming 300W. That's 300Wx2 + 25W approx. for system == 625W continuous power. For a rig that's working 24/7 it is recommended that PSU can deliver at least twice the power the system draws continuously.

I can get another psu since i have that one already and run 2. Do you open multiple miners? 1 for each card? or does 1 miner handle them all?

[tbenz9]

I took the approach of buying older hardware off ebay for very cheap.  I have built 3 dedicated rigs, each one with 4 modern Graphics Cards. 

$40 for the motherboard
$5 for the CPU
$6 for the CPU heatsink
$2.50 each for PCI Riser

I had extra RAM and HDD.

Let me know if you are interested in the specific hardware I'm using.