Something like a Raspberry Pi .. but with cpu power ?

[ocminer]

Hey,

I'm using a rpi with some fpga boards but already hitting the limits of the ARM cpu with something around 10 boards.. Load is quite high even though it's already overclocked and cgminer usually uses us relatively low cpu.

Is there something (embedded) which is as easy to set up as an rpi but has more/enough cpu power ? A beagleboard is too expensive, could also buy an eee pc for that.. But maybe someone has an other idea ?

[Xialla]

what about this one?

http://cubieboard.org/

[ct1aic]

Did you tried using a second RPI?

[Trongersoll]

how about a microATX Atom motherboard from intel. ASUS makes an AMD equivalent. Look on Amazon or tigerdirect or newegg. Basically it is a netbook without the stuff ya don't need. Uses about 40 watts and has all the interfaces ya need. pretty much a PC on a board.

[Bitcoinorama]

how about a microATX Atom motherboard from intel. ASUS makes an AMD equivalent. Look on Amazon or tigerdirect or newegg. Basically it is a netbook without the stuff ya don't need. Uses about 40 watts and has all the interfaces ya need. pretty much a PC on a board.

Don't you mean mini-itx? Still needs to purchase processor etc.

[FlappySocks]

My E350 mini-itx uses about 30 watts. Makes a great Linux server, and plenty powerful enough.

[Trongersoll]

how about a microATX Atom motherboard from intel. ASUS makes an AMD equivalent. Look on Amazon or tigerdirect or newegg. Basically it is a netbook without the stuff ya don't need. Uses about 40 watts and has all the interfaces ya need. pretty much a PC on a board.

Don't you mean mini-itx? Still needs to purchase processor etc.

yeah, mini, i was working from memory.

you need a low power PS, RAM, some kind of harddrive or usb dongle, monitor, keyboard and internet connection. I have one of these mining with one video card in the pci-e slot. the onboard video only did about 10Mh/s. If i remember right, there are like 10 usb ports on this. No separate CPU required: http://www.amazon.com/Asus-C60M1-I-SATA3-Motherboard-Combo/dp/B007ZT1FAI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1370029898&sr=8-2&keywords=atom+motherboard

Intel: http://www.amazon.com/Intel-BOXD2500HN-Dual-Core-Mini-ITX-Motherboard/dp/B007BHTMX6/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1370029898&sr=8-7&keywords=atom+motherboard

[turtle83]

Hey,

I'm using a rpi with some fpga boards but already hitting the limits of the ARM cpu with something around 10 boards.. Load is quite high even though it's already overclocked and cgminer usually uses us relatively low cpu.

Is there something (embedded) which is as easy to set up as an rpi but has more/enough cpu power ? A beagleboard is too expensive, could also buy an eee pc for that.. But maybe someone has an other idea ?

beaglebone black is for ~$45 - 50. Its for 20-30% more juice.

BTW which board do you run with pi? I run 10 ztex quads @20 - 25% cpu on pi model B

[ocminer]

Hey,

I'm using a rpi with some fpga boards but already hitting the limits of the ARM cpu with something around 10 boards.. Load is quite high even though it's already overclocked and cgminer usually uses us relatively low cpu.

Is there something (embedded) which is as easy to set up as an rpi but has more/enough cpu power ? A beagleboard is too expensive, could also buy an eee pc for that.. But maybe someone has an other idea ?

beaglebone black is for ~$45 - 50. Its for 20-30% more juice.

BTW which board do you run with pi? I run 10 ztex quads @20 - 25% cpu on pi model B

Hmm strange, me too... 10 ztex @ 70% CPU... Which version of cgminer are you using ? Any special options ? My system load is always around 0.70 - 0.75 ..

[turtle83]

Hey,

I'm using a rpi with some fpga boards but already hitting the limits of the ARM cpu with something around 10 boards.. Load is quite high even though it's already overclocked and cgminer usually uses us relatively low cpu.

Is there something (embedded) which is as easy to set up as an rpi but has more/enough cpu power ? A beagleboard is too expensive, could also buy an eee pc for that.. But maybe someone has an other idea ?

beaglebone black is for ~$45 - 50. Its for 20-30% more juice.

BTW which board do you run with pi? I run 10 ztex quads @20 - 25% cpu on pi model B

Hmm strange, me too... 10 ztex @ 70% CPU... Which version of cgminer are you using ? Any special options ? My system load is always around 0.70 - 0.75 ..

The load average is irrelavent, but 70% CPU sounds like a lot.

I used 3.1.0, 3.1.1 and currently on 3.2.0 all use similar CPU ... The binary i use is linked from my sig.

FWIW i use Raspbian Server Edition from http://sirlagz.net/2013/02/14/raspbian-server-edition-version-2-3/ and not running any fancy GUI things on it.

Are you using model A or B?

[ocminer]

Also no GUI or anything.. just a naked "wheezy" with openvpn and cgminer 3.2.0..

I compiled it myself directly on the pi.. disabled anything but ztex fpga's ..

Hmm, I'll try your binary.. Strange..

[MWNinja]

Beaglebone Black is cheaper (overall cost) and faster than the Raspberry Pi (it has eMMC flash, so a uSD card isn't required, except for reflash).  I'm not sure what kind of limits it has, I am currently running 6 cairnsmore1 boards with it, and will soon add 5 of the ASICMiner USB devices.

The Pi tends to run quite a bit hotter in my experience.  Still I'm not sure why you would be seeing so much CPU load, perhaps try the Arch linux mining distro (minepeon) and see if that helps.  

[cp1]

Why do you use openvpn and not ssh?

[FlappySocks]

Also no GUI or anything.. just a naked "wheezy" with openvpn and cgminer 3.2.0..

Openvpn?  I just use ssh & byobu

[turtle83]

Also no GUI or anything.. just a naked "wheezy" with openvpn and cgminer 3.2.0..

I compiled it myself directly on the pi.. disabled anything but ztex fpga's ..

Hmm, I'll try your binary.. Strange..

And... also how much memory does your system have? Have u tuned the amount of memory allocated for GPU? Maybe if its starved of memory cgminer needs to do more stuff? Just speculating...

[ocminer]

I'm using openvpn as the board is not at home and thats the way it connects into my lan.
But openvpn is not the reason for the cpu usage.

It has got 512 MB RAM, only 45 are used though..

[turtle83]

in case it helps... i use

Code:

cgminer <snip:pools> --queue=5 --syslog

Dont think that should matter....

Try out my binary and let me know if that helped. Maybe some library you have installed sucks more CPU than it should... If my .deb also sucks cpu, i could give u a dump of each package version i have installed, and then u can compare with yours...

[fpgaminer]

Slightly on-topic:  I'm also looking for a "replacement" for my Raspberry Pi.  One of my RasPi's was supposed to run some Block Erupter sticks, but she choked on the USB 3.0 hub.  Does anyone know if BeagleBone Black's SoC has better USB support?  I tried a little Googling but came up inconclusive.  Or perhaps the Allwinner A10 SoC (used in Cubie, for example) has better USB support?

[jspielberg]

I think the samsung google chromebook has USB3 and you install an alternate linux.  And for $250 it includes it own uninterruptible power supply (well... 10 hour battery or some such).

Some details:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=103468

Looks like USB3 is supported at least for an external hard drive.

[PeZ]

A beagleboard is too expensive, could also buy an eee pc for that.. But maybe someone has an other idea ?

A $45 Beaglebone Black?

Why don't you buy a bunch of Pi's instead of trying to run everything off of one? A Cubie is more powerful but it's just another small slow CPU that is overpriced.