Critique my first mining rig! And let me know if I'll need any other parts!

[COLT601]

So let me just start off by saying this is a lot more complicated than I originally anticipated. I just want to mine some ITNS Coin.

Here is my parts list:

7x AMD RX 580 8 gig GPU's
Intel Pentium G Processor
2x Cosair 750w power supplies
Dual power supply adapter
Kingston 120 gig SSD
8 gig DDR4 ram
Asus Z270-A motherboard
6x PCI-E Riser
Windows 10 bootable USB drive
Monitor
Keyboard
Mouse

Is there anything else at all I will need? Besides one extra PCI-E riser for the 7th GPU

I have all of the GPU's and both power supplies here already but still waiting on the rest of the parts to ship. While waiting, I figured I would put one of the GPU's to work, and I dug out an old Lenovo (4-5 years old) i3 desktop PC.  Figured it would be quick and easy but here is what I had to do...

Upgrade from 8.1 to Windows 10
Went to install the RX 580 in the PCI-E slot. Man these GPU's are huge! It would not fit in the PC case so I got some tin snips out and trimmed the case so I could pop it in the slot. Powered PC on and some red lights lit up on the GPU, figured that was a good sign.

Went and downloaded drivers and software for the GPU. When installing, got an error that said no GPU found. Hmm okay, turned out in addition to being inserted in the slot, they also have to be plugged directly into a power supply. Stock power supply in the computer had no accommodations for anything else besides what was plugged into the motherboard. No worries I thought, I'll just run one of my new power supplies!   Opened that baby up only to find the plug that goes into the motherboard and the other little one were significantly larger than what the motherboard in the computer could accommodate. Ugh.

Hmm I thought, maybe I can just plug the GPU into the new power supply and let the motherboard and rest of the computer run off the factory lenovo one.  After digging through a billion cables that came with it, I found the one that connects to the GPU. So I plugged that in and turned on the power supply. Fan didnt move so I don't think it was actually doing anything. Tried to install the drivers again and same result, no AMD graphics card found. So I'm going to concede that the shitty old computer just isn't compatible with the new equipment.

But during this it raised some more questions... The GPU came with a 6 pin and an 8 pin cable, both cables had two ends that split off. I assume BOTH of the extra ends get connected to the cable that goes to the power supply. I'm confused as to why they just didn't make a two way plug instead of making a cable with three plugs?

And that leads to another question... how in the heck am I going to plug all 7 GPU's into the power supplies?

As you can see I don't have any real experience in either building mining rigs or computers, but I'm giving it a shot. Would appreciate any help or insight!!!

[1715230431]

1715230431

[halker2010]

Well this is a decent build and you can earn a decent amount if you tune your cards properly .
first i suggest you to use a usb3 flash drive and hiveos for mining it has great web interface with built in drivers ,miners and flashing tool for amd it also supports mixed gpus and you can control them from your own pc without need of extra keyboard mouse and monitor.

2th try getting an wattman so you find out exact power draw of your rig it comes useful later down the road with electricity.

also some gpus with 8 and 6 pin can work with just 8 pin in try to test that.

[COLT601]

Bump

[leowonderful]

Seems like a good build. The cable issue is one of the reasons why I prefer to use server PSUs with BBs or soldered on cables- it's possible to make a rig with one weak psu or a picopsu and a server psu powering many GPUs as the server PSU can be fitted with all six-pin or eight connectors (or really whatever cables you want). Better value most of the time.

[DrG]

You were doing well until you decided to power the old I3 system with the Lenovo PSU AND your GPU with the new PSU - BE VERY CAREFUL using 2 PSUs. You could fry everything and possibly injure/kill yourself if you don't know what you're doing.

The second PSU won't power on unless it gets a power on signal (a simple short between 2 pins on the 24 pin connector). You can do this with a paper clip. EVGA actually packages a PSU tester thingy that shorts these pins for you. My recommendation - don't fuss around with the old system - it was not designed to handle a large GPU.

If you don't know what you're doing building a rig, then watching some youtube videos might be helpful. BitsBe Trippin probably has the most organized channel for rig builds. Here's a cradle to the grave video that you should watch - it will answer A LOT of your questions - and then you'll realized some things are easy and others are hard lol. Powering 7 cards is always going to be an issue for any rig builder.


Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA_sH4q2toU&t

[DrG]

Oh, always buy extra PCIe risers. Most likely at least 1 in that 6 pack you have will be bad. I've gotten packs where 4 out of 6 had bad parts. Having a test machine to test out each riser first is always helpful - maybe use the Lenovo rig for that and use a cheap 450 or 500W spare PSU for the testing. Sometimes the risers are really bad quality and do burn out a PCIe slot.

And make sure you plug the Riser into the slot correctly. Even the best of us can get this messed around sometimes. I think PhillipMa1957 said he burned a slot before by plugging a riser into the slot backwards. So watch the above video to not do that.