Happy New Years! Seventh alt coin thread!

[QuintLeo]

I bet you most
Of us had these at some point.

Still puts out after 5 years

hahaha yes have 1 of those and 1 in 450w lol

I've never owned a CM series and don't plan to ever do so.
I DID get a couple of the "refurb" AX 860 that Newegg had on sale last week though - first "Corsair" power supplies I've owned in decades - but only because they've been widely reported to be Seasonic KM3 under the hood like the SS-860 or X-850 supplies I own (but different pinout on at least some of the modular cables for some weird unknowable outside of Corsair reason).

[fgm]

Best site to check for psu reviews is https://www.techspot.com/products/power-supplies/
You have multiple reviews for the same psu and everybody should check it out before spending money on some shit psu.

[VyprBTC]

I bet you most
Of us had these at some point.

Still puts out after 5 years

hahaha yes have 1 of those and 1 in 450w lol

I've never owned a CM series and don't plan to ever do so.
I DID get a couple of the "refurb" AX 860 that Newegg had on sale last week though - first "Corsair" power supplies I've owned in decades - but only because they've been widely reported to be Seasonic KM3 under the hood like the SS-860 or X-850 supplies I own (but different pinout on at least some of the modular cables for some weird unknowable outside of Corsair reason).

I got them almost free after rebate like 5-10 years ago. was actually the first psu's i ever bought.

[philipma1957]

I bet you most
Of us had these at some point.

Still puts out after 5 years

hahaha yes have 1 of those and 1 in 450w lol

I've never owned a CM series and don't plan to ever do so.
I DID get a couple of the "refurb" AX 860 that Newegg had on sale last week though - first "Corsair" power supplies I've owned in decades - but only because they've been widely reported to be Seasonic KM3 under the hood like the SS-860 or X-850 supplies I own (but different pinout on at least some of the modular cables for some weird unknowable outside of Corsair reason).

I got them almost free after rebate like 5-10 years ago. was actually the first psu's i ever bought.

I had so many psu's  in my house and at the solar array I lost track.

I now buy corsair for atx   basically they sell replacement cables   at the best price.

[Storx]

Phillipma,

Some info that may interest you, my friend has solar on his RV and he wants to get into crypto mining to maybe earn a few coins while he travels the country, i told him it is a little late right now but he insist on it. He travels the country as a travel nurse and he thought of the idea of building a small rig to run in the generator spot on his RV, currently its missing the generator, but its big enough for like a 4-5 card rig and has good ventilation if setup correctly, so i talked him into trying the idea out on his personal PC he currently own in his home, which has an GTX 960ti.

Test 1:

since true sinewave inverters are so expensive and the PCIE connections are just +12dc and GND, we ran power cables directly from the post his solar controller is wired into and i soldered them to a PCIE pigtail and plugged it into the GPU in a DC to DC configuration, ran the PC off normal 120v, but the GPU would be powered by the solar controller/battery circuit. PC booted up fine and it mined without a single hiccup the 20ish minutes we ran it for, no issues at all, just the solar controller adjusted to the load.

Test 2:

Since running this PC wouldn't be viable off the batteries, we decided to try running it off the alternator off the diesel engine in the RV, he claims it has like a 160amp alternator... fired the engine up and the computer was able to mine just perfectly off the voltage coming from the car alternator. We decided to run this setup through an old audio capacitor i had laying around, but it worked and i couldn't see a reason it couldn't mine this way while he driving, since the alternator would place very minimal load on the diesel engine, probably not even change the mpg....

Test 3:

Since running this PC wouldn't be viable off the batteries while not driving, we decided to try running it off solar alone, cut the switch to the battery bank and started mining, the rig would mine perfectly tell a cloud caused voltage to drop to low and computer would grey out the GPU tell we rebooted the PC, which it came back and worked as normal again.

Test 4:

We tried Test 3 again, but we added a server PCU and soldered the +12v and GND from the server PSU to the +12v and GND wires on the makeshift PCI cables we hacked together. We booted the PC up and started mining while watching the load on the server PSU, what we did was we went into the controller and setup a custom battery charging config, setup the charge to a max of 14.7v. The server PSU would see literally less than 2watts of use while it would mine in this configuration, as soon a cloud would drop the voltage on the solar controller output, the load would shift to the server PSU flawless, no hiccups and it did this numerous times over and over without stopping the mining action...

Currently we have it running this way on a test, we let it mine solely off solar the rest of the afternoon tell the voltage levels dropped the load over to the server psu and its been mining all night off the server psu. We are going to run it all day tomorrow to see if we experience any issues with this setup. I thought it was something you would be interested in since your trying to do something with solar and mining DC to DC may be a cheaper alternative for you in the future on some rigs.

The plan going forward is to setup multiple circuits on his current PC. We are going to setup a circuit for when he is driving, allowing him to supply solar+alternator voltage, then we are going to setup a circuit for server psu+solar for when he staying at a campground or rv lot with power.

The idea is to allow it mine off grid/driving during periods of no solar, then use as much solar as it can to mine with during the day with the seamless transition.

[QuintLeo]

Just finished up initial work on a project.
Been wanting to move my Polaris cards over to LINUX but the high power consumption was a drawback - so I did some digging and found that AMD DOES in fact allow for undervolting and underclocking on them under LINUX with a bit of work.
Apparently one of their employees has written a "ROCm-smi" utility (also called ROC-smi in some places) that is similar in concept to the long-running Nvidia utility - but it's still pretty basic and limited from what I've seen of it, and I have not tried it out yet.

Instead, I went the route pioneered by Phoronix in their https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/linux-graphics-x-org-drivers/amd-linux/918649-underclocking-undervolting-the-rx-470-with-amdgpu-pro-success article, with some additional input from https://github.com/ktsol/dwarfing/blob/master/amdgpu-mod.sh, and did a bit of patching work on the applicable AMDGPU module that is in charge of voltage and clock control.

Just getting the drivers installed and working was a bit of a nightmare, but the key there proved to be https://math.dartmouth.edu/~sarunas/amdgpu.html - which I THINK also offers the option to make NVidia and AMD COEXIST ON LINUX for the first time in a few years (but this time around the Nvidia card has to be the "primary" display-running card)

Test system was one of my FM2 motherboards with A10-7860K APU (never did figure out how to get X working on the iGPU - yet - but haven't tried VERY hard yet), using my pair of Sapphire RX 470 reference cards, a Gigabyte 480 4GB I just got on a "refurb" sale, and a MSI 480 8GB that was also on sale recently.

Cards are STOCK at this point - I plan to BIOS mod them eventually for memory straps - so the hashrates aren't impressive.

Before I did my patching to the kernel module, the system was pulling about 770 watts (the iGPU DOES work on this setup, but can't do ETH on it so it's doing D.Net RC5-72 work - which adds about 30 watts to that total).

After kernel mods (I went with 830 mv instead of the Phoronix 818 just to be conservative, and a "fixed" 20% underclock at this point instead of the dwarfing "configurable" option or the Phoronix 13%), I ended up with the SAME hashrate at about 540 watts.

At this point, I can easily add a 5'th card and STILL come in under my 700 watt "standard rig" target (motherboard only has 5 slots anyway).
A low wattage motherboard/CPU setup would probably be able to run 6 cards on a 700ish watt rig, though I might have to do a bit more "fine tuning" to get it to that point.

I'm not sure how far this could be pushed, might play with it some more over the rest of the week to find out - and DEFINITELY will be adding a 5'th RX card before I call it "done".
I'm also thinking about cleaning up the setup, setting it up with "generic" admin/password type access, and pushing it out as a "basic" mining OS for contributions, as AMD-capable mining OSs at this point are either kinda limited (rxOC) or CHARGE way too bloody much (EthOS, the MONTHLY charge for SimpleMining, don't get me started on PIMP).
One thing I DO want to figure out is how to get X to run the display on the iGPU instead of the first discrete GPU - I THINK I know how to do it, and I THINK it will work without causing stuff like fan/clocks control to stop working (like FGLRX had major issues with).

I did specifically size it to fit on a 16GB USB drive, as those are pretty much the "entry level" any more, but I am sure I could get it down to 8 without a lot of work - there's stuff from the standard XUbuntu installation that is NOT needed that I've not uninstalled yet.

(edit) 5'th card up and running, now for more fine tuning like strap mods.

[QuintLeo]

Test 1:

since true sinewave inverters are so expensive and the PCIE connections are just +12dc and GND, we ran power cables directly from the post his solar controller is wired into and i soldered them to a PCIE pigtail and plugged it into the GPU in a DC to DC configuration, ran the PC off normal 120v, but the GPU would be powered by the solar controller/battery circuit. PC booted up fine and it mined without a single hiccup the 20ish minutes we ran it for, no issues at all, just the solar controller adjusted to the load.

The one thing I would worry about is that solar and car alternator systems are NOT in fact +12VDC, but 13.6 "nominal" and commonly up to 15 VDC when charging.

If you're just feeding the risers and the GPU with that, it PROBABLY won't be an issue as they use on-board power conversion circuitry to regulate it down to the voltages they actually use, and their caps are probably rated for 16 VDC - marginal but as long as you don't get voltage spikes probably OK.
I'd be inclined to put a pair of 15 amp silicon diodes in series on each riser feed, and the same on each +12VDC line to a PCI-E power connector, to drop the voltage a bit just to be sure you don't overvolt the GPUs and risers.
Might be able to get away with 10 amp diodes instead, if you leave the diodes out in the air enough for them to get decent cooling.

[Storx]

Test 1:

since true sinewave inverters are so expensive and the PCIE connections are just +12dc and GND, we ran power cables directly from the post his solar controller is wired into and i soldered them to a PCIE pigtail and plugged it into the GPU in a DC to DC configuration, ran the PC off normal 120v, but the GPU would be powered by the solar controller/battery circuit. PC booted up fine and it mined without a single hiccup the 20ish minutes we ran it for, no issues at all, just the solar controller adjusted to the load.

The one thing I would worry about is that solar and car alternator systems are NOT in fact +12VDC, but 13.6 "nominal" and commonly up to 15 VDC when charging.

If you're just feeding the risers and the GPU with that, it PROBABLY won't be an issue as they use on-board power conversion circuitry to regulate it down to the voltages they actually use, and their caps are probably rated for 16 VDC - marginal but as long as you don't get voltage spikes probably OK.
I'd be inclined to put a pair of 15 amp silicon diodes in series on each riser feed, and the same on each +12VDC line to a PCI-E power connector, to drop the voltage a bit just to be sure you don't overvolt the GPUs and risers.
Might be able to get away with 10 amp diodes instead, if you leave the diodes out in the air enough for them to get decent cooling.

That is some great advice, to be completely honest with you, we didnt even think about the voltage being that high when we ran it off the diesel engine. The GPU seemed to not have any issues with it, atleast the one we are testing it out on. Im shocked we didn't damage the GPU trying to run it this way, because the alternator ramped up to 14.7v under load of mining....

In regards to hooking up the GPU, the gpu is plugged directly into the mobo of the test pc currently... no riser at all being used for this setup. The GPU itself is getting its 12v and grnd from outside of the atx psu.

Im pretty sure the solar controller is capable of adjusting the max voltage down closer to 12v, just need to look further into it. Neither of us are experts on this solar controller. Its an outback flexmax unit that he upgraded to because it is capable of charging lithium cells vs his older controller he had previously. He replaced the onboard battery bank when it failed with an diy 18650 setup. He built it out of these really cool kit connectos he bought from china a while back.. they work amazingly well. I built both of my 30ah packs for my electric bicycle out of them and those diy packs have over 2 years of riding on them...

[vapourminer]

That is some great advice, to be completely honest with you, we didnt even think about the voltage being that high when we ran it off the diesel engine. The GPU seemed to not have any issues with it, atleast the one we are testing it out on. Im shocked we didn't damage the GPU trying to run it this way, because the alternator ramped up to 14.7v under load of mining....

In regards to hooking up the GPU, the gpu is plugged directly into the mobo of the test pc currently... no riser at all being used for this setup. The GPU itself is getting its 12v and grnd from outside of the atx psu.

Im pretty sure the solar controller is capable of adjusting the max voltage down closer to 12v, just need to look further into it.

id kinda worry about the voltage regulators on the card. the more voltage they have to drop the more power is wasted as heat and the hotter they will become. at least if irc, might be wrong on that. i would monitor the vreg temp in gpuz (enable logging) or something if the card supports it.

[philipma1957]

car generators/alternators  will go up to 16 volts if you are gunning  the engine.

I have  a link  for a dc to dc    somewhere someplace let me look for it.


 this is too much $$
and limits to 150 watts

https://www.trcelectronics.com/View/TRACO-Power/TEP%20150-2412WI.shtml


but  you need something like this 

[Raja_MBZ]

car generators/alternators  will go up to 16 volts if you are gunning  the engine.

I have  a link  for a dc to dc    somewhere someplace let me look for it.


 this is too much $$
and limits to 150 watts

https://www.trcelectronics.com/View/TRACO-Power/TEP%20150-2412WI.shtml


but  you need something like this 

I'm looking around here in mining section after quite some time. Glad to see you're still helping after all these years. I remember in setting up my first rig, you helped a lot. Few merits for ya!

I bet you most
Of us had these at some point.

Still puts out after 5 years

That's exactly what I always loved and always bought, and I still have three of those running right in my room right now.

[citronick]

On another topic....

While mining RVN, I tried my first experience on a decentralized exchange ... never knew that such a crypto exchange exist -- similar interface to Bittrex, Binance, Poloniex... but this decentralized exchange operates fully on its own "blockchain" or at least that how I imagined how a decentralized exchange works. Anyways, check it out at https://crypto-bridge.org/ --- you need to download the DEX client ~ "cryptobridge decentralized exchange beta 0.10.5"

Now I know why Binance announced that they are planning something similar and will be launching their own blockchain.

If this is the future of digital crypto exchanges.... I am very impressed.

Check it out.

[konqueror]

On another topic....

While mining RVN, I tried my first experience on a decentralized exchange ... never knew that such a crypto exchange exist -- similar interface to Bittrex, Binance, Poloniex... but this decentralized exchange operates fully on its own "blockchain" or at least that how I imagined how a decentralized exchange works. Anyways, check it out at https://crypto-bridge.org/ --- you need to download the DEX client ~ "cryptobridge decentralized exchange beta 0.10.5"

Now I know why Binance announced that they are planning something similar and will be launching their own blockchain.

If this is the future of digital crypto exchanges.... I am very impressed.

Check it out.

Definitely this is the future. And there is an online version at https://wallet.crypto-bridge.org.

[QuintLeo]

The one thing I would worry about is that solar and car alternator systems are NOT in fact +12VDC, but 13.6 "nominal" and commonly up to 15 VDC when charging.

That is some great advice, to be completely honest with you, we didnt even think about the voltage being that high when we ran it off the diesel engine. The GPU seemed to not have any issues with it, atleast the one we are testing it out on. Im shocked we didn't damage the GPU trying to run it this way, because the alternator ramped up to 14.7v under load of mining....

In regards to hooking up the GPU, the gpu is plugged directly into the mobo of the test pc currently... no riser at all being used for this setup. The GPU itself is getting its 12v and grnd from outside of the atx psu.

Im pretty sure the solar controller is capable of adjusting the max voltage down closer to 12v, just need to look further into it.

It can't go TOO low or it doesn't charge the batteries.
Standard lead-acid batteries (which are still the norm in solar/wind power systems 'cause they're CHEAP for the capacity, and the weight isn't an issue) require a good bit more than 12 VDC to charge them - and tend to deliver a bit more than 12 VDC under light-to-medium load when fully charged.

[BSAlex]

for those of you still chasing XMR profits, I just swapped from claymore to xmr-stak-win64 and am seeing better results; more consistent poolside hashrate reports, etc....

Monero fork is due on 28.03.18
After the fork monero will be mined with modified algo (so called V7). At the moment other cryptonight coins do not follow the fork.
So we have question - to keep mining coins with old algo with ASIC threatening any use of GPU for mining or to switch to new algo.
BTW XMR-STAK will release updated version of miner that will automatically switch to new monero algo and Claymore do not announce any intensions to update cryptonight miner to new algo.

I expect a big drop in overall monero hashpower just after the fork. Should we try to get a few extra coins from it?

[soothaa]

I expect a big drop in overall monero hashpower just after the fork. Should we try to get a few extra coins from it?

I'll be switching over to XMR the very minute the fork happens - I expect a massive hashrate drop

[vg54dett]

On another topic....

While mining RVN, I tried my first experience on a decentralized exchange ... never knew that such a crypto exchange exist -- similar interface to Bittrex, Binance, Poloniex... but this decentralized exchange operates fully on its own "blockchain" or at least that how I imagined how a decentralized exchange works. Anyways, check it out at https://crypto-bridge.org/ --- you need to download the DEX client ~ "cryptobridge decentralized exchange beta 0.10.5"

Now I know why Binance announced that they are planning something similar and will be launching their own blockchain.

If this is the future of digital crypto exchanges.... I am very impressed.

Check it out.

Give us a review of your experience ! would be very interesting

[cryptbro]

for those of you still chasing XMR profits, I just swapped from claymore to xmr-stak-win64 and am seeing better results; more consistent poolside hashrate reports, etc....

Monero fork is due on 28.03.18
After the fork monero will be mined with modified algo (so called V7). At the moment other cryptonight coins do not follow the fork.
So we have question - to keep mining coins with old algo with ASIC threatening any use of GPU for mining or to switch to new algo.
BTW XMR-STAK will release updated version of miner that will automatically switch to new monero algo and Claymore do not announce any intensions to update cryptonight miner to new algo.

I expect a big drop in overall monero hashpower just after the fork. Should we try to get a few extra coins from it?

Definitely going to have the rigs at the ready haha. Think Nicehash will have the algo? Hope not lol.

[BogdanCo]

for those of you still chasing XMR profits, I just swapped from claymore to xmr-stak-win64 and am seeing better results; more consistent poolside hashrate reports, etc....

Monero fork is due on 28.03.18
After the fork monero will be mined with modified algo (so called V7). At the moment other cryptonight coins do not follow the fork.
So we have question - to keep mining coins with old algo with ASIC threatening any use of GPU for mining or to switch to new algo.
BTW XMR-STAK will release updated version of miner that will automatically switch to new monero algo and Claymore do not announce any intensions to update cryptonight miner to new algo.

I expect a big drop in overall monero hashpower just after the fork. Should we try to get a few extra coins from it?

You are spreading wrong information... Monero fork is due on 6.04.2018: https://github.com/monero-project/monero
Claymore did announce a new version for both CPU and GPU miners: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=647251.msg32659476#msg32659476

[QuintLeo]

for those of you still chasing XMR profits, I just swapped from claymore to xmr-stak-win64 and am seeing better results; more consistent poolside hashrate reports, etc....

Monero fork is due on 28.03.18
After the fork monero will be mined with modified algo (so called V7). At the moment other cryptonight coins do not follow the fork.
So we have question - to keep mining coins with old algo with ASIC threatening any use of GPU for mining or to switch to new algo.
BTW XMR-STAK will release updated version of miner that will automatically switch to new monero algo and Claymore do not announce any intensions to update cryptonight miner to new algo.

I expect a big drop in overall monero hashpower just after the fork. Should we try to get a few extra coins from it?

You are spreading wrong information... Monero fork is due on 6.04.2018: https://github.com/monero-project/monero
Claymore did announce a new version for both CPU and GPU miners: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=647251.msg32659476#msg32659476

The Monero fork was originally announced for March 28, but it looks like it may have been pushed back a bit for additional testing.
XMRig already had a new miner update out last week, xmr-stak had support for the changed algorithm announced but not sure if their update is published yet.
I figure hashrate will dump bigtime if only due to the existing botnets probably not being able to upgrade for a while (if ever), plus some folks WON'T get the word for a while.