2 or 3 GTX 1080 cards in a tower case.

[bluestickermining]

So I'm new to the whole mining and thought I would try this:
I want to do some ether / zcash / monero mining but also want to build a gaming computer in the future.

I thought I would try this motherboard and put in 2 or 3 GTX 1080 cards. I should be able to skip the risers
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132953
https://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll1280/13-132-953-V01.jpg

Put in a tower case like this https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9H54R72869

Am i missing anything? Thanks in advance

[wacko]

Am i missing anything?

You're missing the heat problem. Running even two high-end cards in a case usually adds quite a bit to the working temperatures, especially for the top card. I'm running a couple of 1080 Ti cards in my desktop, but they're water-cooled. If you put two air-cooled cards like this in a case, they'll be mining @ 70C+ even if heavily undervolted. And at stock settings they'll be constantly overheating. And I'm also running mine on a board where there's 3 slots space between the pci-e slots. That asus board from you link has only 2 slots space between each pci-e x16. Many higher-end aircooled cards won't even fit in there cause their coolers are 2.5+ slots wide. That board will only work with 3 GPUs if they're watercooled, and even Hybrids won't work there well — you'll probably want full cover blocks on your cards.

[Elder III]

You would need a motherboard with spacing similar to this one: https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813145044 --- in order to consider running 3 high end GPUs in it (unless you go with water blocks).  I have 2 GTX 1080 Ti GPUs in my personal gaming PC and it works out fairly well in a full tower case.  I have a reference GPU on the bottom, since a blower style cooler works best in that spot in order to exhaust as much hot air outside the back of the case rather then up into the top GPU.  If I was going to run 3 GPUs, I would want the biggest case I could afford and run reference models underclocked for the bottom and middle GPUs, with high CFM fans inside the case pushing cool air from the front intake fans right into those blower style coolers. Combine that with the best aftermarket model cooler for the topmost GPU and you might be good.  I'd feel best about it with the middle GPU (bottom as well if possible) being watercooled.

[bluestickermining]

Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it.

Maybe the better idea would be use a quality full tower case with good air flow and a cheaper motherboard with cable risers so a can control the spacing between the cards better.

[wacko]

Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it.

Maybe the better idea would be use a quality full tower case with good air flow and a cheaper motherboard with cable risers so a can control the spacing between the cards better.

Money wise it definitely doesn't make sense to go with the closed case setup. It'll be hot, you'll need expensive board, expensive case, and probably won't be happy anyway unless it's water-cooled (cause that thing is gonna be either very noisy or very hot if air-cooled). I'd go this route only if you need a good desktop anyway, and already have the board and the case, so it's then just the matter of paying a bit more for the watercooled versions of the cards. That's basically my scenario where I just wanted a gaming rig anyway, tried air-cooled 1080 Ti's in it first, realized that it sucks to run even single card inside (noisy or hot) and switched to water-cooled cards which are only some $50-60 extra each.

[Warshamsn]

Curious, do you SLI the same as you would for gaming as you do for mining?

[bluestickermining]

The problem I'm having is I'm trying to do this in a 900 sq. ft. condo so I don't have a basement where I can stick an open air rig.

This article was interesting http://www.legitreviews.com/silent-ethereum-mining-evga-geforce-gtx-1060-22-mhs_195529

"By lowering the power target we managed to go from ~110 Watts of power at 22.8 MH/s to just ~65 Watts of power at 22.1 MH/s. As you lower the power target the hashrate does take a slight performance hit, but loosing roughly 0.5 MH/s for cutting the power use by 45 Watts is pretty slick. We also managed to drop our temperature from 70C down to 58C and on this 0dB graphics card model that means the fans stop spinning!"

[wacko]

Curious, do you SLI the same as you would for gaming as you do for mining?

Actually, even though I have an HB Bridge that came with my motherboard, I don't enable SLI for my cards. In my experience these multi-gpu technologies just suck. Half the games don't support it at all, and for the other half you'll get increased framerate but more stuttery gameplay in general. After all these years neither AMD nor nvidia has managed to make their multi-gpu tech good enough to provide as fluid gameplay as you get with a single card. Sometimes it can be measured if you run smth like FCAT and actually see the frametime graph with some frames jumping well above what you'd expect for the current fps with sli/crossfire enabled. And for some games/systems the measured frametimes look alright, but when you actually play the game it just feels wrong. No wonder they seem to be moving away from sli/crossfire with directx12. I tried both gtx 1070 and gtx 1080 ti in sli, and it just wasn't good experience, so I disabled sli and just run 2 cards separately.

As for the mining, it doesn't matter whether the cards are SLi'd or not — no difference in hashrates.

[Elder III]

If you can get a large full tower case with room for radiators, you could go watercooling for all 3 video cards if you buy something like this model:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487266&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Video+Card+-+Nvidia-_-N82E16814487266&gclid=Cj0KCQiA6enQBRDUARIsAGs1YQhTHfICr_U4LGoKqwFUTTPQXVuLFl4DMlC-xE9CbiP2VWHatytXjiUaAnpiEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 --- shop around for other deals, that's just an example of the type of AIO cooler I'm thinking of. If you buy a case like the CoolerMaster HAF 932 series that allows up to 4 120mm case fans on the side panel, you could potentially have all 3 GPU radiators on the side panel, I think the top panel would hold that many as well but the bottom GPU hoses and radiator might not reach up that high. You coudl definitely make it work and still have good intake and exhaust airflow.

[wacko]

If you can get a large full tower case with room for radiators, you could go watercooling for all 3 video cards if you buy something like this model:

That's similar to what I'm using (also EVGA Hybrid, but 1080 Ti). These cards do want some fresh air though for the vrm fan, it's ok to put them with 1 free slot in between, but stacking them together without any space in between is gonna hurt the vrm temps quite a bit. That's if he decides to go with that Asus z270 board or a similar one. If he goes with smth similar to that Threadripper board from your link then, of course, it's not a problem.

[Elder III]

If you can get a large full tower case with room for radiators, you could go watercooling for all 3 video cards if you buy something like this model:

That's similar to what I'm using (also EVGA Hybrid, but 1080 Ti). These cards do want some fresh air though for the vrm fan, it's ok to put them with 1 free slot in between, but stacking them together without any space in between is gonna hurt the vrm temps quite a bit. That's if he decides to go with that Asus z270 board or a similar one. If he goes with smth similar to that Threadripper board from your link then, of course, it's not a problem.

Yeah, finding a motherboard with the layout for 3 GPUs to have that extra slot space isn't easy, but something like this Threadripper motherboard would be ideal: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813145030 ---

[phuocduong]

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133358&cm_re=thermaltake_view_71-_-11-133-358-_-Product

you should use this case, using for 3x 1080Ti

[Makak4R]

maybe think about vegas 56
they have turbine construction - that means air will be blow out
and it give good ROI on cryptonight coins - same as 1080ti but cost less
and last it is 2 slot width, not 3 slot like 1080ti

[Elder III]

The 1080 or 1080 Ti are also 2 slots thick unless you get one of the larger aftermarket coolers (Gigabyte Aurus for example).

That Thermaltake case would be great for a custom water cooling loop, but not so much for AIO units since it doesn't have any option to mount fans or radiators on the side of the case.

[wacko]

maybe think about vegas 56
they have turbine construction - that means air will be blow out
and it give good ROI on cryptonight coins - same as 1080ti but cost less
and last it is 2 slot width, not 3 slot like 1080ti

And Vega's coolers are complete crap, they require super high RPM to keep the memory cool even in an open rig. In a closed case, with 3 of them, they'll be throttling all the time like there's no tomorrow.

[bluestickermining]

These cases are rated great for ventilation. https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9H53Y60681

Maybe I'll just do 2 cards to start. I want to learn by doing. 2 cards and getting it all figured out will be good for me. Then I convert it to a gaming machine and move the cards into something bigger.