Questions About Headless Mining on Win7

[bo122081]

I've seen several places that it's possible (desirable?) to go headless on Win7 systems. I would eventually like to swap to Linux, but this being the first mining system I'm setting up, I'd like to cross one brand new bridge at a time, I haven't used *nix in YEARS.

I've seen several suggestions on how this could work, such as VNC or RDP. Which is better for the purposes of mining (LTC, if that matters)?

Will going headless let me devote 100% of my GPUs to mining, even with no onboard video, or will the 'primary' GPU still reserve/need some power for the OS?

I also assume that going headless will free up resources from the primary GPU to mine more efficiently (and save me from buying another monitor...)?

[bwstacker]

If you are in crossfire you will not ned a monitor. It works fine. I use Team Viewer to check my miners when I mined with windows. I use Kubuntu 13.04 now. works great. If you had trouble installing stuff on linux I found a good guide at http://www.distrogeeks.com/install-cgminer-latest-ubuntu/. This is a killer linux guide. You can even mine Litecoins with the install. Just copy and paste. Then find a guide to install ssh server. Then you are headless. Linux is killer. Free to. I have had to many problems with windows. Linux is the best. It is almost like it was made for the data mining stuff. Hope this may have helped you. If not o well. Windows will give you problems after awhile with cgminer and bfgminer. It would not start. Plus windows cost money. Linux is free. Hackers dream it is. Long live BITCOIN.

[bwstacker]

What kind of setup do you have? I maybe able to help you out.

[bo122081]

I've got 3 7950s and an MSI K9A2 Platinum, AMD 64x2 processor, a bunch of RAM (don't know how much I'll actually use), debating between using an old 250GB drive I have, or trying to run off a USB for power savings, have 2x 600W 80+ PSU, but will likely trade those out for a 900-1000W 80+ PSU. Going to be assembling into an egg-crate rig most likely, though I have a couple other options, case-wise.

As far as I understand at this point through a lot of awesome help from parts hereabout:

Dummy plugs are not likely to be needed
I will need powered risers (purchasing these tonight, most likely)
1 900-1000W PSU will likely be safer and cheaper to run than trying to go dual 600s.

I'll also be picking up a Kill-a-watt for testing and monitoring.
I have a spare 5450 I could use a primary until headless works out - or if I can't get it set up right.

I plan on adding in 2 more GPUs in the next 2-4 months, as well, for a total of 5 GPUs.

Was going to try to rig a ton of case-fans up to the egg crate, rather than a box fan or something, as I assume this will save on power overall. Though, I was going to do some research on that before implementing. I could be off-base.

I've been running cgminer on a couple of non-dedicated computers for a few weeks now to try to learn the software before the real rig is set up.

My goal is to have the rig set up and mining within 2 weeks from now.

[milone]

Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think TeamViewer works without a monitor plugged in (maybe a dummy plug corrects this). I *think* I've seen that reported, and also that TightVNC did not have this issue. It has to do with the way TeamViewer captures the desktop as an image, and with no monitor no desktop is rendered... or something along those lines.

Also, I have two non-crossfired 7950s with monitors plugged into only one. Although CCC only wants to show me the one with monitors connected, other software (including cgminer) and overclocking utilities like Trixx see both. So don't rely on what CCC shows.

A bit of a plug here, but since you're on Windows you may find CGWatcher helpful to watch your miners for you, and CGRemote to remotely control them (with or without CGWatcher). There are no issues with running CGRemote on headless miners.

CGWatcher

http://manotechnology.blogspot.com/p/cgwatcher.html

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=185553.120


CGRemote (in beta)

http://manotechnology.blogspot.com/p/cgremote.html

[Graet]

yep, i'll correct you
teamviewer works very well, you can even uninstall and reinstall GFX drivers over it if needed (some other remote desktop apps fail at this).
I ran various rigs with 1-5 GFX cards (6950s and 7970s) for >2years only plugging in a monitor to change bios settings or troubleshoot boot issues. turned gpus off now but still teamviewer to my fpga rig
the file transfer feature is great for updating mining software to multiple rigs etc
View > select single window > click on miner window and you can fit a heap on one monitor too
Hope thats a help

[bo122081]

Awesome help guys. I'm really considering handing out a lot of tips to the people who've given me hands up this month once my rig's up. So much help so far, and only a minimal amount of trolling to sift through. (None in this thread so far)