(Rig Feedback) Ancient Parts from an Ancient Rig

[The_JMiner]

I just took apart my 5 year old computer  ( i would let me baby brother play with it).

Anyways besides the hard drive, cd-rom I do not believe there is anything else to salvage am I right?

It uses DDR Memory (not ddr2) and it has a single core pentium 4 with an intel mother board with a 300W power supply.

Can I use ANYTHING for a future mining rig?
I am keeping the hard drive since it still has personal information of course.

[x0Jakeyboy0x]

I just took apart my 5 year old computer  ( i would let me baby brother play with it).

Anyways besides the hard drive, cd-rom I do not believe there is anything else to salvage am I right?

It uses DDR Memory (not ddr2) and it has a single core pentium 4 with an intel mother board with a 300W power supply.

Can I use ANYTHING for a future mining rig?
I am keeping the hard drive since it still has personal information of course.

You could probably use it as a box. Really don't need much of anything to run linux and a miner. If it has the slots for a good graphics card. And you would need to up the power supply.

[dextrose]

The CPU/memory are fine, use whatever you have there.  The power supply might be light, so that would probably be something to upgrade.  The case may have terrible airflow, but that may be easily fixed with some fans.  All in all, it might work.

The kicker here are the PCI slots.  Assuming you have no PCIe (I suppose you might, and if so, you're good to go to an extent), you'd need to use these:  https://cablesaurus.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4&products_id=21

If you go for more than 1 PCI->PCIe card, that'll add a bit of cost, and you'd likely need to find some way to handle the video cards since they probably won't fit in the case normally.  You'd also likely need some riser cables, maybe even some powered ones if you're looking at a higher-end video card, so that'll keep adding up.

[The_JMiner]

I probably will not even consider it.

Question when looking at the power requirements for a video card if it says 450W so if I buy 2 should I presume I need 900W power supply?

[SkipDaShu]

I probably will not even consider it.

Question when looking at the power requirements for a video card if it says 450W so if I buy 2 should I presume I need 900W power supply?

 Eh not exactly.

When they say 450w they make some assumptions.  

1) It's a crappy non 80+ certified power supply (PSU) with weak 12v rails (eg Orion 585w).
2) This wattage is to also cover some typical mobo, cpu, a HDD or two and a optical drive or two.

A second card should only require you to go up by the amount JUST the card draws... say 150w but that really depends on the cards.  Mostly look for the correct total # of PCIe plugs and the power supply will usually be up to snuff.

I run single HD5850s off of Rosewill 80+ certified 530w PSUs (RG530-S12) and they've outlasted everything except my PC Power & Cooling units.

I run two HD5830s off of same sort of PSUs in the 630~750w range.  Again, I've had good look with the better Rosewills from Newegg but Sentey makes a good unit if you're not up for the Seasonic or PCP&C prices. (RG630-S12, RG700-S12).  A bit bigger unit from Sentey GSP850-SM.

These units are also running 4 or 6 core CPUs that are at full load 24/7 with BOINC while the GPUs mine with Diablo under CrunchBang (#!) Linux.

Hope this helps.  Skip

[The_JMiner]

Thanks Skip

I was looking at some  Radeon 5750 and wanted to do a dual set up thats why I asked. Very useful info thanks!

[fascistmuffin]

The P4 should be fine to use, but everything else is going to be a bust, minus hdd and cd-rom like you said. Luckily, there's a bunch of LGA775 mobos around with PCI-E buses that should be cheap enough for mining.

[SkipDaShu]

Thanks Skip

I was looking at some  Radeon 5750 and wanted to do a dual set up thats why I asked. Very useful info thanks!

Oh yea, the HD5750s are very light on the power supply and a good buy.  You MIGHT also look at the HD5770s.  When I did some calcs (payback times) two weeks ago that was one of the best bang for the buck cards I could buy at easily available new prices.  Quick check shows them to be almost the same price as 5750s on newegg.com.   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102898

I think you could run two of these off of a good 530~550w PSU assuming you're not running 5 HDDs and a loaded OC'd 6 core AMD also.  When the run the special (every other month) you can pick up one of those RG530-S12 units for ~$50.  Mine run in a garage that got to 106F today.

As long as I'm spewing out opinions... I used to do a lot of BOINC number crunching on vid cards and I've had a fairly wide variety of cards (HIS, XFX, Diamond, MSI, Gigabyte, Power Color, BioStar, Sapphire, Palet, EVGA, BFG, Zotacs, etc. etc.) and at least with ATI GPU based cards I've had my best luck with Sapphires.

Best of luck to ya,  Skip

PS: Is this just a mining rig?  If so, I'd forgo using a case if there's a "Container Store" nearby.  My old BOINC farm from late last year.  I can show ya'll this only because you don't know were I live so you can't call the guys from the funny farm to come get me ;-)

http://skipsjunk.net/linked-pics/crunchers_cur.jpg

[SkipDaShu]

The P4 should be fine to use, but everything else is going to be a bust, minus hdd and cd-rom like you said. Luckily, there's a bunch of LGA775 mobos around with PCI-E buses that should be cheap enough for mining.

And a slew of CPUs that'll go in 'em on the used market if his P4 isn't LGA775/  As I recall the earlier ones weren't but then I'm old and my personal memory will not pass memtest.

If you're buying new stuff you might save a couple $$ going with a AM2/3 socket for an AMD X2 of some sort.

[The_JMiner]

How does this look?

Seagate Barracuda V ST3120023A 120GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA66

SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VX-2L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express (one for now a 2nd later?)

Rosewill Green Series RG530-S12 530W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS Certified, Single 12V Rail, Active PFC

Kingston 1GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (

GIGABYTE GA-H61M-D2P-B3 LGA 1155 Intel H


Intel Core i3-540 Clarkdale 3.06GHz

All under 410$?

I figure this is perfect to mine and my gf needed a computer for browsing and what now.
Feedback appreciated .....

[The_JMiner]

Ok fail just realized I had an LG1155 mobo and an 1156 processor.

Changed the processor so I should be good.

[Tonka Branded Truck]

I really[ frickin like Big Rigs. more horsepower = bigger engines!!! i know this isnt about that sort of Big Rig but i like sharing, this is bitcoin after all, we're all friends here folks