i am offering help/advice on biulding rigs

[zackclark70]

i have 20 rigs with 4 7950s in each and 1 with 3 cards
list of things i can help with

hardwere problems
overclocking 7950s ( saphire mainly )
watercooing
biulding rigs in boxes not crates
and a whole load of otherstuff lol just ask 

[1715693864]

1715693864

[1715693864]

1715693864

[1715693864]

1715693864

[suryc]

I'm very interested to see how you've done it with plastic boxes. I use plastic crates that are open, and they still get to hot sometimes (especially when stacked).

You can upload the pictures to photobucket (www.photobucket.com). There will be a "direct link" to each image on photobucket, which you can use to include it in your post by putting the link inside of image tags

For example, if you write:

Code:

[img]http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo183/hikari_miyako/babypenguin.jpg[/img]

It will show up like this:



Sorry, I didn't have any images handy, I just picked one from the photobucket browse page.

[GoldSeal]

It really amazes me that some of you guys haven't managed to burn your houses down yet.

[dogie]

Worst. Setup. Ever. Its like offering to instruct someone how to cut off their own penis.

[zackclark70]

Worst. Setup. Ever. Its like offering to instruct someone how to cut off their own penis.

i have deleted all the posts i know it works and i get a good hashrate / low temps 99.99% uptime thats fine im fed up with people say its crap ect it is 100 times beter than all the milk crate rigs/ open rigs i dont care anymore all you lot can work it out yourselfs have a nice day

[Kluge]

Dammit... Now I want to see it. Milk crates are a step up from a lot of off-the-shelf enclosures, but they still suck. How bad could it be? Was it like a big plastic box with a couple fan holes?

[zackclark70]

stackable box with 1 120mm x 360mm hole each side fans mounted in 1 side to move cool air threw the box wooden card mouning rails to stop vibrations ect ( was a pick of the test set up not the fineshed product but hay fed up of people critacizing my suff )

[AvenG]

here:

http://www.cryptobadger.com/2013/04/build-a-litecoin-mining-rig-hardware/

[zackclark70]

lol at how bad milk crate rigs are  ( i have 20 rigs of 4 7950s and have tryed nearly every difrent rig setup out there lol ) thats why it was anoying people sed my rig was the worst ever

[Eb0la]

lol at how bad milk crate rigs are  ( i have 20 rigs of 4 7950s and have tryed nearly every difrent rig setup out there lol ) thats why it was anoying people sed my rig was the worst ever

question for you.

I have 2 system each with 4x 7950.  I am running into an issue when trying to bring the 4th online.  CGMiner says its SICK then DEAD and reports the temp as 511 degrees

I have a corsair 1200watt PSU and I think I have narrowed it down to this.  The card that dies is the one that I have to use 4 pin Molex to 6-8pin PCI-E power.  What do you use for your setup?

thanks!

[zackclark70]

lol at how bad milk crate rigs are  ( i have 20 rigs of 4 7950s and have tryed nearly every difrent rig setup out there lol ) thats why it was anoying people sed my rig was the worst ever

question for you.

I have 2 system each with 4x 7950.  I am running into an issue when trying to bring the 4th online.  CGMiner says its SICK then DEAD and reports the temp as 511 degrees

I have a corsair 1200watt PSU and I think I have narrowed it down to this.  The card that dies is the one that I have to use 4 pin Molex to 6-8pin PCI-E power.  What do you use for your setup?

thanks!

most 7950s have 2 6/8pin conectors use 1 adapter and 1 psc conecter on 2 cards and try using gpuz to see what the card gets on the 12v rail
im gesing you have an ax1200 or a ax1200i i have both of them and thay work fine with 4 cards

when i use adapters i use 1 on the first card 1 on the second card then use the 6 psu ones 1 in the first 1 in the second 2 each for the last 2 cards the pci slots on the motherboard con only put out a ltd amount of power if i can rember i think its( pcie 16 75w)( pcie 8 50w)( and pcie 4 25w)

so its best not to use adapters on pcie 4 that could be the prob

[Justin00]

Do red crates make it go faster ??

here:

http://www.cryptobadger.com/2013/04/build-a-litecoin-mining-rig-hardware/

[HellDiverUK]

Maybe people would take you more seriously if you could:

a) learn to spell
b) use capitalization
c) use punctuation
d) didn't delete posts, making your thread make no sense.

Just putting it out there, you know?

[gambitv]

I think zackclark70 is just trying to do the community a service. I like the idea of custom rigs for these tasks. The more ideas out there the more help for all of us in perfecting our boxes.

I think the way to go now is RaspberryPi with dedicated ASIC devices hooked up to them.

But if that is too much work, you can take the easy route and just buy shares in virtual mining via TAT.VIRTUALMINE available on bitfunder.com.

i have 20 rigs with 4 7950s in each and 1 with 3 cards
list of things i can help with

hardwere problems
overclocking 7950s ( saphire mainly )
watercooing
biulding rigs in boxes not crates
and a whole load of otherstuff lol just ask 

[deslok]

lol at how bad milk crate rigs are  ( i have 20 rigs of 4 7950s and have tryed nearly every difrent rig setup out there lol ) thats why it was anoying people sed my rig was the worst ever

question for you.

I have 2 system each with 4x 7950.  I am running into an issue when trying to bring the 4th online.  CGMiner says its SICK then DEAD and reports the temp as 511 degrees

I have a corsair 1200watt PSU and I think I have narrowed it down to this.  The card that dies is the one that I have to use 4 pin Molex to 6-8pin PCI-E power.  What do you use for your setup?

thanks!

A refrence 7950 pulls 250-300 watts when used in a gpgpu scenario
That puts the draw for 4 of them at the full capacity of your psu and it's unlikely that your entire 1200 watts is available via 12v power.
you're going to need to investigate dual psu options, larger psu's or limit yourself to 3x 7950 using that particular psu.

[zackclark70]

lol 3 cards is under 750w from the wall and 4 cards is under 950w from the wall if you dont overclock them even ocd a 1200w psu is plenty

[counter]

Ok I've got some newb questions maybe u can help me with.  I have a simple Dell Pentium 4 Windows XP Home Edition pc. I don't game expect for xbox and ps3 and things like that so this is all new to me. 

GPU's i get the basics that it is stronger then a cpu but I confused by all the add ons and want to know what the basic setup for someone like me would be.  For someone like me how do I get started mining?  Do I have to by all these different components or do I just need to rig a video card to my pc to get started and is a GPU another name for a video card?

Sorry if this is really basic and newbish but I just don't get what my first to should be and what I can expect will happen once it's taken.  And and all help is very much appreciated. 

[zackclark70]

hardwere wise you will need a good gpu conpatable with your motherboard have a look at your psu its prob 350w or so and dosent have 2 8pin gpu conectors  and a cheep brand
( cheep brands dont last verylong under high loads )

so you might need a psu and a gpu ( a corsair hx series  psu used are not to expencive  with 1 card you would only need a 500w good brand psu )

if you have a pcie slot a 7950 / 7970 are good ( i prefer 7950s ) do not buy xfx gfx cards thay run hot and dont get the best hash rate

i use 7950 saphire vaporx dualbios oc edition ( run cool and good hashrate ) if you put it in your pc case i would leave the side of the case off for beter air flow


softwere wise reaper is probably the best to start with just google how it works  if you need help with that just mesage me

and other questions just ask

thanks

zack


before everyone jumps on my speling its not my falt im dislexic

[mccminer]

Ok I've got some newb questions maybe u can help me with.  I have a simple Dell Pentium 4 Windows XP Home Edition pc. I don't game expect for xbox and ps3 and things like that so this is all new to me. 

GPU's i get the basics that it is stronger then a cpu but I confused by all the add ons and want to know what the basic setup for someone like me would be.  For someone like me how do I get started mining?  Do I have to by all these different components or do I just need to rig a video card to my pc to get started and is a GPU another name for a video card?

Sorry if this is really basic and newbish but I just don't get what my first to should be and what I can expect will happen once it's taken.  And and all help is very much appreciated. 

First off, I don't think that there's a whole lot of support for XP in the mining community.  Just what I've read, haven't tried it myself.  Most seem to use Windows 7 or Linux.

If you can get past the OS hurdle, the next step would be to add a GPU (aka Video Card).  nVidia hardware doesn't work well with the requirements of BTC mining.  AMD cards perform much better for the same investment.

Once that's added, you'll need mining software.  Plenty to choose from.  I prefer cgminer.

Lastly, you'll need to select a pool to participate in and set up and account.  At this point, solo-mining by yourself would be like playing the lottery.

If mining is interesting to you and you just want to try it, then by all means go for it.  If you think it's a "get rich" plan, then you need to do more research.  Let's say that you invested the $400'ish in a new 7970 GPU, and conservatively let it run at 580MH/s, so that you can still use your machine for other things.  That rate will find you about .02 BTC/day at the current difficulty.

[suryc]

Ok I've got some newb questions maybe u can help me with.  I have a simple Dell Pentium 4 Windows XP Home Edition pc. I don't game expect for xbox and ps3 and things like that so this is all new to me. 

GPU's i get the basics that it is stronger then a cpu but I confused by all the add ons and want to know what the basic setup for someone like me would be.  For someone like me how do I get started mining?  Do I have to by all these different components or do I just need to rig a video card to my pc to get started and is a GPU another name for a video card?

Sorry if this is really basic and newbish but I just don't get what my first to should be and what I can expect will happen once it's taken.  And and all help is very much appreciated. 

Just want to give a shot at a very simplified answer:

Yes, A GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is a video card. The ones discussed here and that are of any use for mining are the high-end ones that need their own power, so as zack said, you may need a larger power supply to support putting one in your existing computer. Also, you need to make sure your computer has space (these are big video cards) and they go in a PCIe16x slot. I agree, the ideal card is a 7950. There are many different manufacturers that use AMD's 7950 chip, that is the Sapphire that zack suggests, I also use MSI, and have heard good things about Gigabyte. Any of them will work. If you can get one of these installed in your PC then all you need is software and there are many guides online on how to use that.

Good luck and we're here to help if you have any questions.

[counter]

sorry I was on the phone and forgot I posted this.  Hey I really apreaciate the detailed replies zachclark70, mccminer and suryc!

I will look over ur reply fully zach as I was unsure that comment was directed at me initially but I'm sure ur post will really help me get an idea of what I need to do if I do start mining. 

mccminer and suryc, your posts really helped me understand and simplify the basics of what I was confused about.  It's what I suspected but was always unsure I totally got what I was reading so thanks all of you for taking the time to break it all down.  I have come close to mining ltc with my pc but decided against it at the last minute. I now fully understand what ppl are discussing generally when they talk about the cards so I must say thanks again for the rundown!

[Marduk]

Ok I've got some newb questions maybe u can help me with.  I have a simple Dell Pentium 4 Windows XP Home Edition pc. I don't game expect for xbox and ps3 and things like that so this is all new to me. 

GPU's i get the basics that it is stronger then a cpu but I confused by all the add ons and want to know what the basic setup for someone like me would be.  For someone like me how do I get started mining?  Do I have to by all these different components or do I just need to rig a video card to my pc to get started and is a GPU another name for a video card?

Sorry if this is really basic and newbish but I just don't get what my first to should be and what I can expect will happen once it's taken.  And and all help is very much appreciated. 

I just spent a week attempting to get an old computer mining on Win XP.  I eventually gave up.  Drivers can be installed for a AMD 7xxx series card, however there is no OpenCL support on XP anymore.  I went through numerous drivers and combinations of different SDKs, but I could not get it CGminer or GUIminer to recognize my card (HD7950).

I ended up running BAMT on a USB stick.

[zackclark70]

Ok I've got some newb questions maybe u can help me with.  I have a simple Dell Pentium 4 Windows XP Home Edition pc. I don't game expect for xbox and ps3 and things like that so this is all new to me. 

GPU's i get the basics that it is stronger then a cpu but I confused by all the add ons and want to know what the basic setup for someone like me would be.  For someone like me how do I get started mining?  Do I have to by all these different components or do I just need to rig a video card to my pc to get started and is a GPU another name for a video card?

Sorry if this is really basic and newbish but I just don't get what my first to should be and what I can expect will happen once it's taken.  And and all help is very much appreciated. 

I just spent a week attempting to get an old computer mining on Win XP.  I eventually gave up.  Drivers can be installed for a AMD 7xxx series card, however there is no OpenCL support on XP anymore.  I went through numerous drivers and combinations of different SDKs, but I could not get it CGminer or GUIminer to recognize my card (HD7950).

I ended up running BAMT on a USB stick.

i have a couple of rigs on xp  i cant rember how i did it thow i will have a look and let you know

[Marduk]

i have a couple of rigs on xp  i cant rember how i did it thow i will have a look and let you know

Are you running 7xxx cards?  It seemed that was my problem with XP.  There's no OpenCL support on the newer drivers for XP.  Moving to an old enough driver to get the OpenCL then did not have 7xxx support. 

[zackclark70]

that are 7950s i will have a look when i get a min

[razorfishsl]

Worst. Setup. Ever. Its like offering to instruct someone how to cut off their own penis.

With a blunt knife.....

Take a product likely to catch on fire... put it in a highly inflammable petroleum product, finally stack it on a cotton carpet with a real wood floor underneath.....

[zackclark70]

Worst. Setup. Ever. Its like offering to instruct someone how to cut off their own penis.

With a blunt knife.....

Take a product likely to catch on fire... put it in a highly inflammable petroleum product, finally stack it on a cotton carpet with a real wood floor underneath.....

why are you troling  
just so you know i dont have carpets in my comp room and its fake wood ontop of concrete

[counter]

Ok I've got some newb questions maybe u can help me with.  I have a simple Dell Pentium 4 Windows XP Home Edition pc. I don't game expect for xbox and ps3 and things like that so this is all new to me. 

GPU's i get the basics that it is stronger then a cpu but I confused by all the add ons and want to know what the basic setup for someone like me would be.  For someone like me how do I get started mining?  Do I have to by all these different components or do I just need to rig a video card to my pc to get started and is a GPU another name for a video card?

Sorry if this is really basic and newbish but I just don't get what my first to should be and what I can expect will happen once it's taken.  And and all help is very much appreciated. 

I just spent a week attempting to get an old computer mining on Win XP.  I eventually gave up.  Drivers can be installed for a AMD 7xxx series card, however there is no OpenCL support on XP anymore.  I went through numerous drivers and combinations of different SDKs, but I could not get it CGminer or GUIminer to recognize my card (HD7950).

I ended up running BAMT on a USB stick.

Yea I suspected it wouldn't be easy.  I have been having problems with my driver not being compatible with my zyxel 2.0 USB.  I'm getting a message that says" USB 2.0 non hi speed USB hub".  I'm trying to figure out how to download a driver and get my connection back on track.  Right now it is pitiful and when cellphones are around it gets pretty terrible. 

I've read that I need down download a program that will tell me what motherboard exactly I have and what I need to fix the problem as I understood it. This is all new to me and I'm trying to do more reading before I take task head on.  I read the Microsoft is dropping support for Win XP in 2014 and it was suggested that I get windows 8.  Today I saw mention of Windows 8.1 on the news so I have look into it so I can better understand my options. 

I would really like to start mining asap but with limited funds to get a rig setup and the trouble with Win XP leaves me in a bit of predicament.  I will try and get a handle on all this tomorrow and with any luck I'll be able to get a 7970 going.

[counter]

i have a couple of rigs on xp  i cant rember how i did it thow i will have a look and let you know

I'm also very interested to learn more about how you got yours setup.  It's good to know that there might be some hope.

[gregyoung14]

Hey interesting thread you got going, lets see if you can offer me any insight.

I'm trying to get a x6 7950 up and running smoothly. I've been doing some preliminary testing on different, OS's, tried, BAMT, CentOS, Xubuntu, Ubuntu, Windows, I've cycled through all of these a million times. Originally I had a 850w corsair and 600w corsair, but that was a no go. Tried a 1000w corsair and 600w corsair still no go, tomorrow I give it a run with a 1600w Lepa, that'll solve my power promblems hopefully.

I'm running MSI 7950's the R7950 TWIN FROZR 3GD5/OC to be specific. Now with this card under volted at 1.087 and many other settings in cgminer, I can easily hit 680, with close to 12% reject shares in Windows. In Xubuntu it was about 615 12% stale, in Ubuntu with a higher clock/memory about 650, with again 12% stale, and so this was just testing one card, but as soon as I plugged in a second or third card Windows would lock up with driver issues. Ubuntu/Xubuntu would have power issues. (with the 1000w) with the 850w I could see two fine in any OS, and could mine with both pulling 680 with 12% reject shares.

I was using 12.7, 12.8, 13.1 drivers, tried all three, 13.1 seems to be doing good right now. And for the SDK 2.8

Now for the issue of PCIe slots, all three of my 16x slots handle non powered and powered extenders fine. my 1x slots one and two are good, but the third one I think might need a presence short, it was being picky. As far as powered extenders go, I was planning to do something like all the 16x powered(three) and 1x (three) non powered. This should be ok I think, or do pcie 1x pull less power through the board and would benefit more from a powered extender? And or should I just power extend all 6 of them?

As far as cooling goes, I can keep any card at 680 hashing constant, and keep the card below 65c with fans at under 60% (Not bad right?  ) So cooling isn't an issue. I have an open rig design, custom aluminum rig that I build, all the cards spaced out and bolted in and elevated. Excellent air flow/cooling etc. So heat from the GPU's isn't an issue.

Now do you think a 1600w 80 plus gold psu the Lepa one, that should be able to handle x6 cards just fine. What OS would you recommend for the best hashing? I really enjoy Xubuntu and Ubuntu, I just need to be sure to get up there with the hash rate and low rejected shares. I'm mining a lot of new little scrypt coins on small pools so I thought maybe it was the pool? I threw in some settings into cgminer, scan time, query, and one more I forgot, combined with a lower intensity of 18 opposed to 20, that were able to push the rejected shares  down to close to 5% however I was only mining at 650 (this is in windows)

So what are recommendations on OS, PSU, pcie slots/extenders, drivers?   

[zackclark70]

Ok I've got some newb questions maybe u can help me with.  I have a simple Dell Pentium 4 Windows XP Home Edition pc. I don't game expect for xbox and ps3 and things like that so this is all new to me.  

GPU's i get the basics that it is stronger then a cpu but I confused by all the add ons and want to know what the basic setup for someone like me would be.  For someone like me how do I get started mining?  Do I have to by all these different components or do I just need to rig a video card to my pc to get started and is a GPU another name for a video card?

Sorry if this is really basic and newbish but I just don't get what my first to should be and what I can expect will happen once it's taken.  And and all help is very much appreciated.  

I just spent a week attempting to get an old computer mining on Win XP.  I eventually gave up.  Drivers can be installed for a AMD 7xxx series card, however there is no OpenCL support on XP anymore.  I went through numerous drivers and combinations of different SDKs, but I could not get it CGminer or GUIminer to recognize my card (HD7950).

I ended up running BAMT on a USB stick.

Yea I suspected it wouldn't be easy.  I have been having problems with my driver not being compatible with my zyxel 2.0 USB.  I'm getting a message that says" USB 2.0 non hi speed USB hub".  I'm trying to figure out how to download a driver and get my connection back on track.  Right now it is pitiful and when cellphones are around it gets pretty terrible.  

I've read that I need down download a program that will tell me what motherboard exactly I have and what I need to fix the problem as I understood it. This is all new to me and I'm trying to do more reading before I take task head on.  I read the Microsoft is dropping support for Win XP in 2014 and it was suggested that I get windows 8.  Today I saw mention of Windows 8.1 on the news so I have look into it so I can better understand my options.  

I would really like to start mining asap but with limited funds to get a rig setup and the trouble with Win XP leaves me in a bit of predicament.  I will try and get a handle on all this tomorrow and with any luck I'll be able to get a 7970 going.

there is a program caluld everst ultimate edition tou can download if free for 30 days then delete it after lol

i hate windows 8 stick with windows 7 if you can 8 is only good with a toutch screen

tthis is my sesting rig http://s1315.photobucket.com/user/zackclark70/library/ it is alot neeter than then the pick were taken

[suryc]

Hey interesting thread you got going, lets see if you can offer me any insight.

I'm trying to get a x6 7950 up and running smoothly. I've been doing some preliminary testing on different, OS's, tried, BAMT, CentOS, Xubuntu, Ubuntu, Windows, I've cycled through all of these a million times. Originally I had a 850w corsair and 600w corsair, but that was a no go. Tried a 1000w corsair and 600w corsair still no go, tomorrow I give it a run with a 1600w Lepa, that'll solve my power promblems hopefully.

I'm running MSI 7950's the R7950 TWIN FROZR 3GD5/OC to be specific. Now with this card under volted at 1.087 and many other settings in cgminer, I can easily hit 680, with close to 12% reject shares in Windows. In Xubuntu it was about 615 12% stale, in Ubuntu with a higher clock/memory about 650, with again 12% stale, and so this was just testing one card, but as soon as I plugged in a second or third card Windows would lock up with driver issues. Ubuntu/Xubuntu would have power issues. (with the 1000w) with the 850w I could see two fine in any OS, and could mine with both pulling 680 with 12% reject shares.

I was using 12.7, 12.8, 13.1 drivers, tried all three, 13.1 seems to be doing good right now. And for the SDK 2.8

Now for the issue of PCIe slots, all three of my 16x slots handle non powered and powered extenders fine. my 1x slots one and two are good, but the third one I think might need a presence short, it was being picky. As far as powered extenders go, I was planning to do something like all the 16x powered(three) and 1x (three) non powered. This should be ok I think, or do pcie 1x pull less power through the board and would benefit more from a powered extender? And or should I just power extend all 6 of them?

As far as cooling goes, I can keep any card at 680 hashing constant, and keep the card below 65c with fans at under 60% (Not bad right?  ) So cooling isn't an issue. I have an open rig design, custom aluminum rig that I build, all the cards spaced out and bolted in and elevated. Excellent air flow/cooling etc. So heat from the GPU's isn't an issue.

Now do you think a 1600w 80 plus gold psu the Lepa one, that should be able to handle x6 cards just fine. What OS would you recommend for the best hashing? I really enjoy Xubuntu and Ubuntu, I just need to be sure to get up there with the hash rate and low rejected shares. I'm mining a lot of new little scrypt coins on small pools so I thought maybe it was the pool? I threw in some settings into cgminer, scan time, query, and one more I forgot, combined with a lower intensity of 18 opposed to 20, that were able to push the rejected shares  down to close to 5% however I was only mining at 650 (this is in windows)

So what are recommendations on OS, PSU, pcie slots/extenders, drivers?   

I'll give your questions a shot (and I assume we're talking Litecoin/Scrypt):

You should be able to get by with a 1600 for the 6 7950s, the problem with the 1000 + 600  was probably the split, the 600 could probably only power two of the cards, and 150W of its power was being left unused.  

You can go PCIe 1x to 16x for GPUs without a powered extender without any trouble. In my experience, powered extenders provide no benefit.

I have about a 1% rejection rate and I have 7950s tuned to 630-650 with core around 1050Mhz and memory at 1400.
You can push these cards to 1150 core / 1575 memory (maybe more), and that is probably what you're doing if you're getting 680, but it isn't worth it when you take into account the increased rejection rate and that it is about 50W additional power draw (per card) with 1150/1575 as compared to 1050/1400.
So unless electricity is free for you, that extra 30-50 Kh/s is not worth it for 50W more power.

I use cgminer and xubuntu for everything.

[zackclark70]

Hey interesting thread you got going, lets see if you can offer me any insight.

I'm trying to get a x6 7950 up and running smoothly. I've been doing some preliminary testing on different, OS's, tried, BAMT, CentOS, Xubuntu, Ubuntu, Windows, I've cycled through all of these a million times. Originally I had a 850w corsair and 600w corsair, but that was a no go. Tried a 1000w corsair and 600w corsair still no go, tomorrow I give it a run with a 1600w Lepa, that'll solve my power promblems hopefully.

I'm running MSI 7950's the R7950 TWIN FROZR 3GD5/OC to be specific. Now with this card under volted at 1.087 and many other settings in cgminer, I can easily hit 680, with close to 12% reject shares in Windows. In Xubuntu it was about 615 12% stale, in Ubuntu with a higher clock/memory about 650, with again 12% stale, and so this was just testing one card, but as soon as I plugged in a second or third card Windows would lock up with driver issues. Ubuntu/Xubuntu would have power issues. (with the 1000w) with the 850w I could see two fine in any OS, and could mine with both pulling 680 with 12% reject shares.

I was using 12.7, 12.8, 13.1 drivers, tried all three, 13.1 seems to be doing good right now. And for the SDK 2.8

Now for the issue of PCIe slots, all three of my 16x slots handle non powered and powered extenders fine. my 1x slots one and two are good, but the third one I think might need a presence short, it was being picky. As far as powered extenders go, I was planning to do something like all the 16x powered(three) and 1x (three) non powered. This should be ok I think, or do pcie 1x pull less power through the board and would benefit more from a powered extender? And or should I just power extend all 6 of them?

As far as cooling goes, I can keep any card at 680 hashing constant, and keep the card below 65c with fans at under 60% (Not bad right?  ) So cooling isn't an issue. I have an open rig design, custom aluminum rig that I build, all the cards spaced out and bolted in and elevated. Excellent air flow/cooling etc. So heat from the GPU's isn't an issue.

Now do you think a 1600w 80 plus gold psu the Lepa one, that should be able to handle x6 cards just fine. What OS would you recommend for the best hashing? I really enjoy Xubuntu and Ubuntu, I just need to be sure to get up there with the hash rate and low rejected shares. I'm mining a lot of new little scrypt coins on small pools so I thought maybe it was the pool? I threw in some settings into cgminer, scan time, query, and one more I forgot, combined with a lower intensity of 18 opposed to 20, that were able to push the rejected shares  down to close to 5% however I was only mining at 650 (this is in windows)

So what are recommendations on OS, PSU, pcie slots/extenders, drivers?   

i only run windows with 4 max cards per rig ( 900w undervolted 630kh or 1100w standad voltages ) have you confermed the voltages with gpuz ?

i use a 1200w platinum psu with each 4 cards (ax1200)

if you run 6 cards on a 1600w psu wou will be running it verry neer its limet

if i rember corectly
pcie 16 can pull 75w from the board
pcie 8   can pull 50w
pcie 4   can put 25w
pcie 1   was less

if your mining new script coins solo mine them https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=83371.0

all i know about the rivers i used was thay were the newest ones 50 days ago

underclock the cpu asmuch as posable

how much ram do you have ? each card on my com uses 1.5gb system ram when using reaper

have you looked at the card vrm temps in gpuz ?

with 4 cards at 630-640kh i get around 1% stales  when pool mining

[gregyoung14]

Hey interesting thread you got going, lets see if you can offer me any insight.

I'm trying to get a x6 7950 up and running smoothly. I've been doing some preliminary testing on different, OS's, tried, BAMT, CentOS, Xubuntu, Ubuntu, Windows, I've cycled through all of these a million times. Originally I had a 850w corsair and 600w corsair, but that was a no go. Tried a 1000w corsair and 600w corsair still no go, tomorrow I give it a run with a 1600w Lepa, that'll solve my power promblems hopefully.

I'm running MSI 7950's the R7950 TWIN FROZR 3GD5/OC to be specific. Now with this card under volted at 1.087 and many other settings in cgminer, I can easily hit 680, with close to 12% reject shares in Windows. In Xubuntu it was about 615 12% stale, in Ubuntu with a higher clock/memory about 650, with again 12% stale, and so this was just testing one card, but as soon as I plugged in a second or third card Windows would lock up with driver issues. Ubuntu/Xubuntu would have power issues. (with the 1000w) with the 850w I could see two fine in any OS, and could mine with both pulling 680 with 12% reject shares.

I was using 12.7, 12.8, 13.1 drivers, tried all three, 13.1 seems to be doing good right now. And for the SDK 2.8

Now for the issue of PCIe slots, all three of my 16x slots handle non powered and powered extenders fine. my 1x slots one and two are good, but the third one I think might need a presence short, it was being picky. As far as powered extenders go, I was planning to do something like all the 16x powered(three) and 1x (three) non powered. This should be ok I think, or do pcie 1x pull less power through the board and would benefit more from a powered extender? And or should I just power extend all 6 of them?

As far as cooling goes, I can keep any card at 680 hashing constant, and keep the card below 65c with fans at under 60% (Not bad right?  ) So cooling isn't an issue. I have an open rig design, custom aluminum rig that I build, all the cards spaced out and bolted in and elevated. Excellent air flow/cooling etc. So heat from the GPU's isn't an issue.

Now do you think a 1600w 80 plus gold psu the Lepa one, that should be able to handle x6 cards just fine. What OS would you recommend for the best hashing? I really enjoy Xubuntu and Ubuntu, I just need to be sure to get up there with the hash rate and low rejected shares. I'm mining a lot of new little scrypt coins on small pools so I thought maybe it was the pool? I threw in some settings into cgminer, scan time, query, and one more I forgot, combined with a lower intensity of 18 opposed to 20, that were able to push the rejected shares  down to close to 5% however I was only mining at 650 (this is in windows)

So what are recommendations on OS, PSU, pcie slots/extenders, drivers?   

I'll give your questions a shot (and I assume we're talking Litecoin/Scrypt):

You should be able to get by with a 1600 for the 6 7950s, the problem with the 1000 + 600  was probably the split, the 600 could probably only power two of the cards, and 150W of its power was being left unused.  

You can go PCIe 1x to 16x for GPUs without a powered extender without any trouble. In my experience, powered extenders provide no benefit.

I have about a 1% rejection rate and I have 7950s tuned to 630-650 with core around 1050Mhz and memory at 1400.
You can push these cards to 1150 core / 1575 memory (maybe more), and that is probably what you're doing if you're getting 680, but it isn't worth it when you take into account the increased rejection rate and that it is about 50W additional power draw (per card) with 1150/1575 as compared to 1050/1400.
So unless electricity is free for you, that extra 30-50 Kh/s is not worth it for 50W more power.

I use cgminer and xubuntu for everything.

The power isn't an issue if the PSU can handle it and is stable. I don't pay for electricity, it's included in rent with no cap. I had the clock/mem at about 1150/1400 for 680 and before 1050/1400 which returns like you said about 630 but I was getting a much higher rejection rate, I'm starting to wonder though if that was the pool and not anything on my end. Though those hash rates were in windows, in xubuntu, i get about 80 less hashes. What drivers/sdk are you using in Xubuntu? And how many cards do you have stable in one rig in xubuntu? Also do you have any way of under volting your cards in xubuntu? My cards undervolt fine in afterburner in windows, cgminer isn't able to force the volt lower or cgminer is reporting in accurate numbers. Either or.

Hey interesting thread you got going, lets see if you can offer me any insight.

I'm trying to get a x6 7950 up and running smoothly. I've been doing some preliminary testing on different, OS's, tried, BAMT, CentOS, Xubuntu, Ubuntu, Windows, I've cycled through all of these a million times. Originally I had a 850w corsair and 600w corsair, but that was a no go. Tried a 1000w corsair and 600w corsair still no go, tomorrow I give it a run with a 1600w Lepa, that'll solve my power promblems hopefully.

I'm running MSI 7950's the R7950 TWIN FROZR 3GD5/OC to be specific. Now with this card under volted at 1.087 and many other settings in cgminer, I can easily hit 680, with close to 12% reject shares in Windows. In Xubuntu it was about 615 12% stale, in Ubuntu with a higher clock/memory about 650, with again 12% stale, and so this was just testing one card, but as soon as I plugged in a second or third card Windows would lock up with driver issues. Ubuntu/Xubuntu would have power issues. (with the 1000w) with the 850w I could see two fine in any OS, and could mine with both pulling 680 with 12% reject shares.

I was using 12.7, 12.8, 13.1 drivers, tried all three, 13.1 seems to be doing good right now. And for the SDK 2.8

Now for the issue of PCIe slots, all three of my 16x slots handle non powered and powered extenders fine. my 1x slots one and two are good, but the third one I think might need a presence short, it was being picky. As far as powered extenders go, I was planning to do something like all the 16x powered(three) and 1x (three) non powered. This should be ok I think, or do pcie 1x pull less power through the board and would benefit more from a powered extender? And or should I just power extend all 6 of them?

As far as cooling goes, I can keep any card at 680 hashing constant, and keep the card below 65c with fans at under 60% (Not bad right?  ) So cooling isn't an issue. I have an open rig design, custom aluminum rig that I build, all the cards spaced out and bolted in and elevated. Excellent air flow/cooling etc. So heat from the GPU's isn't an issue.

Now do you think a 1600w 80 plus gold psu the Lepa one, that should be able to handle x6 cards just fine. What OS would you recommend for the best hashing? I really enjoy Xubuntu and Ubuntu, I just need to be sure to get up there with the hash rate and low rejected shares. I'm mining a lot of new little scrypt coins on small pools so I thought maybe it was the pool? I threw in some settings into cgminer, scan time, query, and one more I forgot, combined with a lower intensity of 18 opposed to 20, that were able to push the rejected shares  down to close to 5% however I was only mining at 650 (this is in windows)

So what are recommendations on OS, PSU, pcie slots/extenders, drivers?   

i only run windows with 4 max cards per rig ( 900w undervolted 630kh or 1100w standad voltages ) have you confermed the voltages with gpuz ?

i use a 1200w platinum psu with each 4 cards (ax1200)

if you run 6 cards on a 1600w psu wou will be running it verry neer its limet

if i rember corectly
pcie 16 can pull 75w from the board
pcie 8   can pull 50w
pcie 4   can put 25w
pcie 1   was less

if your mining new script coins solo mine them https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=83371.0

all i know about the rivers i used was thay were the newest ones 50 days ago

underclock the cpu asmuch as posable

how much ram do you have ? each card on my com uses 1.5gb system ram when using reaper

have you looked at the card vrm temps in gpuz ?

with 4 cards at 630-640kh i get around 1% stales  when pool mining

With this information does that suggest that I should absolutly need a  powered 1x to 16x? Because the cards do need some power from the board, right?

I'm thinking about solo mining, its a possiability. I prefer a pool though for accessibility and tracking information. I havent been able to open the ports needed to RDC into my rig from outside my local connection. My internet is through my apartment so before it connects to a large ISP it goes through the apartments servers and what not, which I can't get access to.

Why should I underclock the cpu? Lower power draw? any other reasons?

I've only been looking at GPU temps, should I be watching the vrm more carefully? What are safe/good temps

I have 8gb of ram, but cgminer doesn't need ram the way reaper does, my physical memory used never breaks 15%

What coin are you mining with 1% stales and which pool?

[zackclark70]

gregyoung14

there is alot of debait about powerd risers do a quick serch on bitcoin talk or google
vrm temps should be ok up to 100 (i never let my cards get over 80c vrm2)
i have mined litecoin on give-me-ltc 0-1% stales
i have mined pxc on phenixmining.com 0.5-1% stales

i underclock the cpu saves power and puts less load on the motherboard

[gregyoung14]

gregyoung14

there is alot of debait about powerd risers do a quick serch on bitcoin talk or google
vrm temps should be ok up to 100 (i never let my cards get over 80c vrm2)
i have mined litecoin on give-me-ltc 0-1% stales
i have mined pxc on phenixmining.com 0.5-1% stales

i underclock the cpu saves power and puts less load on the motherboard

Yeah the debate about powered risers goes on and on, I've read a lot about that. I found a fella who has the same Mobo as me with x6 cards running perfectly, 3 powered risers, 3 unpowered. So I'm in the process of collaborating with him, it looks like I need to presence short a few pcie slots and I'll be good to go.

I will take note of the VRM temps, Id imagine there below 100

I'll give that second pool a look, I used to use give-me-ltc, but have moved on from ltc sadly.

And underclocking the cpu to save power and less load is super clever, I like your thinking. Deft will tweak the bios a little for that.

[zackclark70]

gregyoung14

there is alot of debait about powerd risers do a quick serch on bitcoin talk or google
vrm temps should be ok up to 100 (i never let my cards get over 80c vrm2)
i have mined litecoin on give-me-ltc 0-1% stales
i have mined pxc on phenixmining.com 0.5-1% stales

i underclock the cpu saves power and puts less load on the motherboard

Yeah the debate about powered risers goes on and on, I've read a lot about that. I found a fella who has the same Mobo as me with x6 cards running perfectly, 3 powered risers, 3 unpowered. So I'm in the process of collaborating with him, it looks like I need to presence short a few pcie slots and I'll be good to go.

I will take note of the VRM temps, Id imagine there below 100

I'll give that second pool a look, I used to use give-me-ltc, but have moved on from ltc sadly.

And underclocking the cpu to save power and less load is super clever, I like your thinking. Deft will tweak the bios a little for that.

i have croshair iv mother boards ( managed to get 20 used ones for just over 2000 gbp best motherboerds i have ever used
i run 4 cards with non powerd risers no problems

you would be suprised how hot vrms get i beleve that are rated 120c but amd rate them 100c ( im gesing its to be on the safe side )

just rember when you underclock to undervolt aswell 

[razorfishsl]

Worst. Setup. Ever. Its like offering to instruct someone how to cut off their own penis.

With a blunt knife.....

Take a product likely to catch on fire... put it in a highly inflammable petroleum product, finally stack it on a cotton carpet with a real wood floor underneath.....

why are you troling  
just so you know i dont have carpets in my comp room and its fake wood ontop of concrete

It is not a troll idiot boy... some people just don't know the risk......
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1212060/fire-breaks-out-south-horizons-one-injured

These are also 'fake' wooden floors over concrete, not to mention the smoke is what kills, 1 PVC crate in a small area is already enough to kill a family....

[zackclark70]

Worst. Setup. Ever. Its like offering to instruct someone how to cut off their own penis.

With a blunt knife.....

Take a product likely to catch on fire... put it in a highly inflammable petroleum product, finally stack it on a cotton carpet with a real wood floor underneath.....

why are you troling  
just so you know i dont have carpets in my comp room and its fake wood ontop of concrete

It is not a troll idiot boy... some people just don't know the risk......
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1212060/fire-breaks-out-south-horizons-one-injured

These are also 'fake' wooden floors over concrete, not to mention the smoke is what kills, 1 PVC crate in a small area is already enough to kill a family....

the room is seporated from the rest of the house
i have smoke alarms that i have riged relays onto so if 1 of them goes off all comps are disconected from the mains there is sombody in the house 24/7 and know how to put a fire out ( co2 fire exting )

[Madazam]

How much power rig with 3 5970 and 1 6990 will need for LTC and BTC mining?. I am assuming LTC takes more.

As per my reading 5970 takes around 300w and 6990 around 400w at top load.

So this means 1300 w with 200 w for Mobo etc. should a 1600w LEPA would do ?

Also i read, card take around 75w from mobo so does that means its 375 for a single 5970 or this is included in the 300w?

Till now i have found this(http://www.amazon.com/LEPA-1600-Watts-Crossfire-Certified-G1600-MA/dp/B007W5TV6K/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1371839485&sr=1-1&keywords=lepa+1600w).

Any other recommendation ?

[zackclark70]

How much power rig with 3 5970 and 1 6990 will need for LTC and BTC mining?. I am assuming LTC takes more.

As per my reading 5970 takes around 300w and 6990 around 400w at top load.

So this means 1300 w with 200 w for Mobo etc. should a 1600w LEPA would do ?

Also i read, card take around 75w from mobo so does that means its 375 for a single 5970 or this is included in the 300w?

Till now i have found this(http://www.amazon.com/LEPA-1600-Watts-Crossfire-Certified-G1600-MA/dp/B007W5TV6K/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1371839485&sr=1-1&keywords=lepa+1600w).

Any other recommendation ?

i have only ever used 7950 and 7970s  for mining

nomaly the total wattage covers what it pulls from the motherboard

i have found if you use a lowpower cpu or  underclok / undervolt   motherboard cpu and ram can be less than 120w

i would say looking at the numbers that psu should be fine ( if your on 110v it would pull upto 16A from the wall )

buy your self a plug in watt meeter to check what wattage you are puling from the wall just to be safe

if you have any questions just ask

zack

[tom_o]

You can also disable any extra cores on the cpu which can reduce power draw significantly, it's the difference between my rig not booting and being able to run a 7970 at 1085/1500 mining litecoin.

[zackclark70]

You can also disable any extra cores on the cpu which can reduce power draw significantly, it's the difference between my rig not booting and being able to run a 7970 at 1085/1500 mining litecoin.

with my 1090t cpus i have found lowering the multiplyer to x8 and voltage to 1.1v it uses th same as disabaling 5 cores lol