Urgent HELP Selecting Hardware (PSU)

[gameboy366]

Hi guys,

I will purchase 5 GTX 1070 today. Can you suggest how much powerful PSU will be good enough. I will be adding 3 more cards later and run full 8 gpus on the motherboard. Is Gold rating for PSU worth it ? My electricity rate is 0.08$

Should I buy two PSUs instead of one (I am budget conscious)

Also please tell me the best and the second best CPU for my rig (In case first one is not available to me).

Also should I go for a USB 3.0 Pendrive or SSD ?

Thanks

[cpmcgrat]

Hi guys,

I will purchase 5 GTX 1070 today. Can you suggest how much powerful PSU will be good enough. I will be adding 3 more cards later and run full 8 gpus on the motherboard. Is Gold rating for PSU worth it ? My electricity rate is 0.08$

Should I buy two PSUs instead of one (I am budget conscious)

Also please tell me the best and the second best CPU for my rig (In case first one is not available to me).

Also should I go for a USB 3.0 Pendrive or SSD ?

Thanks

If you're budget conscious and plan on doing this into the future you should get a single Platinum PSU. Each PSU you add to your system will take overhead power (usually around 20% of draw) in converting AC to DC power. Putting 2 will double that power overhead.

[jillscarbrough]

I will purchase 5 GTX 1070 today. Can you suggest how much powerful PSU will be good enough. I will be adding 3 more cards later and run full 8 gpus on the motherboard. Is Gold rating for PSU worth it ? My electricity rate is 0.08$

For safer calculation use TDP, and remember TDP is the maximum power consumed by your cards under regular use. And how about mining process? that is not a regular use. Agree?

Some miner claiming that calculating using TDP is overkill, this is mining and your devices will run 24/7. And I will say for sure, with a stress test such as FurMark your card would consume power more than TDP.

GTX 1070 has TDP 150Watt (you can calculate by your self with the number of your card plus another part). And give them power spare.

Should I buy two PSUs instead of one (I am budget conscious)

If one PSU can handle (enough power and cable connector) all of your devices, use only one PSU. Two or three PSU it's okay.

Also please tell me the best and the second best CPU for my rig (In case first one is not available to me).

Even we don't know what mobos you are using. Or maybe you mean is PSU?
Server PSUs would be great if you can get it with cheap price (more durable).

Also should I go for a USB 3.0 Pendrive or SSD ?

Yes, would be better using SSD, fast booting, fast installing and many more.

[gameboy366]

Looks like I would need a 1300+ watt PSU. But I have read guys running a 6*1070 rig with 800W psu.

A single 1300W PSU costs a lot compared to 2*700W PSUs. But then I don't have any experience in mining.

[jillscarbrough]

Looks like I would need a 1300+ watt PSU. But I have read guys running a 6*1070 rig with 800W psu.

A single 1300W PSU costs a lot compared to 2*700W PSUs. But then I don't have any experience in mining.

In fact, You can under-volt your cards. Like I said before that I use safer calculation, so I'm using TDP.
Then, tried it! only with tried you will know, and you'll get an experience.

[Eternu]

I have 4 x GTX 1070 on my rig with two PSU of 750W (80% plus certificate), and everything works fine. But for 5 cards you would need some PSU that have five 8-pin connectors, or 2 x PSU's that have more than two 8-pin connectors. You don't want your PUS's to overload, seen that happen, its bad. Those five cards would need around 750W + other components, so I guess that you would need PSU of at least 1000W (with good power certificate).

About CPU... you don't need anything fancy, some basic CPU would be just fine. Because it will work only for OS and other programs, nothing extreme. I have some Intel Celeron CPU, not sure which exactly.

If I were you, I would go for SSD. Its faster and its more practical. I have SSD in my rig, and it was not wasted investment.

[mdpiot]

Looks like I would need a 1300+ watt PSU. But I have read guys running a 6*1070 rig with 800W psu.

A single 1300W PSU costs a lot compared to 2*700W PSUs. But then I don't have any experience in mining.

I have one of my rigs running 8 1070s with a 1200w Platinum PSU.  I have the GPUs undervolted and drawing ~100watts each for a total draw from the wall at ~950watts. I try to only use 80% of the rated capacity of the PSU.  I tried to not skimp on anything to do with power and play things safe.

The other thing to look for are the cables that come with the PSU.  I have a SilverStone ST-1200-PT and came with 8 PCIe cables (8 pin to 8(6+2) pin).  Certain 700watt PSUs only have 2 or 3 8pin PCIe ports on the PSU.  So while you might have the wattage you may not have enough ports or cables.  Also do not buy aftermarket cables unless specifically for your PSU, the connector going into the GPU is standard but the connector going into the PSU can vary by manufacturer.

For CPUs I use Pentiums just based on availability at the time but would of went with Celeron.  My preference is SSDs, got mine for ~$30 for 30-60gb ones.  I have a couple test OS builds on USB sticks that I seem to have issues with, but granted these are cheap freebie sticks.

[klintistwood]

why don't you give a try to a server PSU ? They usually offer much more power for a decent price. I paid my 2400W PSU something like 140$ and at least it's made to be running 24/7

[gameboy366]

I can't find any reputable server psu brand except HP. Most of them are Chinese. Also it looks more risky as it will be my first rig and not many people are using them for small scale.

I think I will buy 2*650W or 2*750 for my my 8*1070 rig (5 cards now + 3 later down the road).

Or maybe a 1000W for my first 5 cards and later an additional 450W when I add 3 more cards.

Any PSU over 1000W looks very costly.

There is also this cable problem which looks very confusing to me.

[Eternu]

I can't find any reputable server psu brand except HP. Most of them are Chinese. Also it looks more risky as it will be my first rig and not many people are using them for small scale.

I think I will buy 2*650W or 2*750 for my my 8*1070 rig (5 cards now + 3 later down the road).

Or maybe a 1000W for my first 5 cards and later an additional 450W when I add 3 more cards.

Any PSU over 1000W looks very costly.

There is also this cable problem which looks very confusing to me.

2*750W PSU should be just fine. But have in mind that you will need 8-pin PCI-E connector for every GPU. One question tho, are you planing to have only 8 GPU's? If not, maybe 1000W would be better choice to start with.

EDIT: 1000W+ PSU are costly yes, but in some cases its money wisely spend. Sometime its better to pay a bit more, because you will get a lot more in return. Think about what you want and think in advance.

[flip4flop]

I would probably go with at least a 1200 watt psu. Even undervolted to 65% my 1070s we’re pulling 136 watts a piece. I ended up going with two 1000w evga GQ PSU just for piece of mind and I got a good deal. You could also look at getting two 750 watt psu which could end up being cheaper than buying a 1200+ watt PSU. Toss on a add2psu and you will be good to go and have more connections available if you choose to expand in the future. Always keep in mind to not exceed 80% of the PSU capacity at the wall to keep everything safe for running 24/7.

[Za1n]

I would seriously consider holding on to that money for now and be ready to buy up the coin(s) you intended to mine directly in the next few months. The rig you are contemplating will probably cost you well over $3,000 right now due to the highly inflated GPU prices. The coin mining difficulty levels are all at all time highs and showing no signs of slowing down, meanwhile most coin prices are continuing to go lower, also with no signs of reversing any time soon.

Using ETH as one example, I expect it to retest the $500-$600 range within the next month or two, and possibly even go much lower. Even using the $500 figure as a low you could instead buy 6 ETH directly and hold with that money. A 5x 1070 rig will currently mine 0.0117 ETH per day, meaning it would take you 512 days of mining to earn those same 6 ETH coins. This of course assumes that difficulty does not rise anymore which we all know will not be the case. Also, this does not factor in the electricity required to mine those 6 ETH over that time period, so you would likely be looking at a much, much longer payback period probably on the order of 800+ days.

[mdpiot]

I would seriously consider holding on to that money for now and be ready to buy up the coin(s) you intended to mine directly in the next few months. The rig you are contemplating will probably cost you well over $3,000 right now due to the highly inflated GPU prices. The coin mining difficulty levels are all at all time highs and showing no signs of slowing down, meanwhile most coin prices are continuing to go lower, also with no signs of reversing any time soon.

Good advice.  If you are getting into mining just looking to make a profit its a very difficult time.  That being said that is what everyone said last June, I didn't do it then and kicked myself for it.  I only started in late December with three rigs and about 30% paid back so far but I am HODL'ing all my ether in hopes of big price increases this year as well as diversifying into promising ICOs.  I also went into this with the HOPE of only breaking even and was fine if I lost half my investment.

I was also looking at getting a computer to use for VR so it helped justify that for one of them (or at least to my wife..hehe) and then I can setup a second one for the kids.  All of the GPUs I bought I can sell still for the same or more than I paid for but if it becomes completely unprofitable to mine I may just keep them all for doing some AI modeling now that i have all this compute power!

I did weigh my options of just investing the 10k+ I laid out for this into crypto but liked the idea of hedging my bets a bit and having somewhat of an asset if the market really took a crapper.  I did want to do one more rig but it started to get too difficult to get GPUs as I still have a few on backorder to finish my 3rd rig.

[Za1n]

Good advice.  If you are getting into mining just looking to make a profit its a very difficult time.  That being said that is what everyone said last June, I didn't do it then and kicked myself for it.

Yes, people have been saying it for awhile now, and while the timing may have been off the advice is still sound. The problem is that last June we were still in a strong bull market with a lot of upward price potential to look forward to and the mining difficulty was quite a bit lower than it is right now.

Now 9 months later the mining difficulty is still at stratospheric levels and continuing to climb, hardware prices are easily 2 to 3x what they were last June, but coin prices have plummeted 50% from their highs with no real signs of reversing. Indeed, coin prices may very well continue to drop some more.

I fully expect we will drop below $1 per day a GPU in profit very soon, and may even drop down into the 50 cent/day range. Trying to pay off a $600 video card that should only cost $200 with a 50 cent/day profit is going to change a lot of opinions on the feasibility of mining in short order. Even with free electricity, taking 1200 days or 3-1/4 years to payback your GPU investment is not too attractive of a prospect, assuming the GPU even lasts that long while 24/7 mining.

[gameboy366]

Yes. There is battle going on in my brain for choosing weather to mine or just buy coins. Market has reached very low within last 2 days.

But I think I will still mine just for the fun part and because for past 4 years I have been saying that's it too late now, so this time weather I pass or fail I have to give it a shot.

Another MAJOR downside will be Nvidia releasing new GPUs later this year which will further increase the difficulty while making the current cards obsolete both for mining and for reselling later, coupled with the low prices of cryptocurrencies and high price of GPUs (which will not come down no matter how unprofitable mining becomes), it looks like game over or disaster for small guys or new guys. Only worth it if you hold all of your coins and hoping that they might increase in value in future but then some analysts say that Etherium will drop in value once it goes POS.

But still risk wise, buying coins is a very low risk compared to mining and risk to reward ratio sucks for mining.

[manji]

of course, Gold rated or you have more budget can get Platinum rated. PSUs more 1200Watt can 2x750W or 1600W (brand is EVGA or Corsair). I suggest SSD 128GB or more for brand Samsung, Corsair (I have experienced it).

[mdpiot]

Good advice.  If you are getting into mining just looking to make a profit its a very difficult time.  That being said that is what everyone said last June, I didn't do it then and kicked myself for it.

Yes, people have been saying it for awhile now, and while the timing may have been off the advice is still sound. The problem is that last June we were still in a strong bull market with a lot of upward price potential to look forward to and the mining difficulty was quite a bit lower than it is right now.

I agree, I believe the sound advice investment wise is its not a good time to start.  I pulled the trigger in mid December to jump in and felt that it was very risky then but was willing to accept the risk and was at a point I was willing to take the loss.  I believed then ethereum would hit 2k by June and the market is doing basically what I thought it would do until then and still believe in it hitting 2k by then.  Any of my friends who are interested in starting mining I warn them not to at this point except for the ones who want to do it more for fun.