Best Hash/Watt GPU Setup, Undervolting

[carly200]

Hi,

I want to build a GPU Setup for mining (majorly LTC) and want to focus on best Hashrate/Watt, possibly through undervolting. (Not overall profitability!)

Phase A: I will start with a 1 GPU Setup and extend (Phase B) to a second/3rd card if components look promising. Next step would then be a 4 card setup in Phase C.
I will not use riser cards!

I think I will put them in a Cooler Master HAF XB.

My approach (open for discussion): use an efficent base setup, and increase efficency through adding cards.


Phase A/B:

• Any suggestions for highly efficient mobo/CPU combinations? (CPU reusable in Phase C as well?)
• Intel/AMD, Socket?
• Boards/Architectures that allow undervolting?
• high efficency under system load

• Choice of GPU: I tend towards 7950s (two PCI-slot width only!), but I don't know which are not voltage locked and can be undervoltet; I would go with a different GPU if through undervolting better Hash/watt is possible.
  
• what about new and upcoming R9 280 (no X) and 290/290x

Phase C

• Choice of MoBo?

e.g.
ASrock Z87 Extreme9/ac
Asus Maximus V Extreme


Unfortunately there is lots of information on how to OC and squeeze out more Hashes from many cards, but very little information about increasing system and card efficiency. I also noticed many contradicting about voltage lock on cards.
Also lots of information is scattered through the web.... maybe we can try to gather some of that knowledge in this thread.

Discussions about profitability should be limited to a minimum, since my request is not about overall profitability, but realizability. Managing system in enclosed casing and long term stability.

Any suggestions? Links to undervolting attempts and hashrates and energy measurements?

[ivanlabrie]

Wait for the radeon 290 non x and get a couple of those, and a decent x79 extreme 4, pair it with an i7 4820k and get a decent heatsink for it. It mines really well, and the 290x is getting over 850kh/s oced whilst drawing 300w. A 290 non x will probably yield 5-10% less and consume less as well, whilst costing 400-450usd.

[leannemckim46]

Wait for the radeon 290 non x and get a couple of those, and a decent x79 extreme 4, pair it with an i7 4820k and get a decent heatsink for it. It mines really well, and the 290x is getting over 850kh/s oced whilst drawing 300w. A 290 non x will probably yield 5-10% less and consume less as well, whilst costing 400-450usd.

Still waiting R9 290 also, cause there is no refund system for my country so I cannot try it out first

[SpeedDemon13]

AMD HD 7950 or HD 7970, until R9 290 and R9 290X come down in price. Core i7 is overkill, unless you plan to CPU mine at the same time. Get a cpu that's at least dual core and power efficient. A good 750 watt 80-plus gold or higher PSU, I suggest a 1000 watt. A motherboard with at least 4 PCI Express slots.

[Prelude]

The king of efficiency right now is a 7970/R9-280X which is voltage unlocked. Not sure why Ivan is suggesting that you buy an expensive X79 setup, ignore that. My preferred setup is an old Core2Duo with a 5 PCI-e slot LGA775 P45 chipset motherboard. Pair that with a Seasonic XPower 1250w and you're golden to run a 5x7970 rig. If you want a 6 or 7 card setup, I recommend an MSI Z77A-GD65 plus the cheapest Ivy Bridge CPU you can find.

I'm waiting on 290/290x to continue growing my farm personally.

Edit: Sorry, should've read your post properly before commenting. If risers are out of the question (they shouldn't be, you're going to have lots of fun trying to cool 4 GPUs in a case) then you'll be raising your costs by a few hundred dollars. Look for any quad crossfire/sli board and have at it.

[carly200]

got any real (running longer than 10min) kHash and Watt readings?

[Prelude]

got any real (running longer than 10min) kHash and Watt readings?

6X 7970. 5 reference cards all running 1040/1800 with voltage between 1000mv to 1050mv, averaging 200w to 220w each. 6th card is an Asus 7970DCII which is voltage locked, so I run maxed out 24/7 stable at 800KH/s. That card consumes 300w unfortunately. Wish it's voltage was unlocked.



6X 7970. All Sapphire 7970 Dual-X and all running 1040/1500 with voltages ranging from 1025mv to 1100mv. Averaging 210-240w per card.



6x 7950. All Gigabyte Windforce cards. All but one run at 1140/1250, with the other one dying at anything over 950/1250. Voltages are locked at 1250mv, but lowered with a modded BIOS to 1.09v. Cards consume 300w each.



People who say 7950s are the way to go don't know what they're talking about.

[ivanlabrie]

I agree on the r9 280x front...the cpu was a suggestion for cpu mining.

[Prelude]

Oh, and if you're going for power efficiency you'll obviously want a gold rated power supply. Seasonic is the way to go. If you're like me and you want to squeeze every little bit out of your setup, you will want to run your rig on 240v, not 120v. That alone will add about 3% efficiency to the PSU, especially under heavy mining loads. It's also less stressful on the power supply and should extend it's service life.

[carly200]

i am in europe, so 240 is the way ;-)

i am interested in efficent boards/cpus, any recommendations?

which (cheap) board/cpu will work to start with a 3 card setup (no pcie-risers!)
I want to use it as a setup to tweak and get more experience with the components

[Prelude]

i am in europe, so 240 is the way ;-)

i am interested in efficent boards/cpus, any recommendations?

which (cheap) board/cpu will work to start with a 3 card setup (no pcie-risers!)
I want to use it as a setup to tweak and get more experience with the components

Is the sole purpose of this rig GPU mining? Or do you want to do other things with it?

If only GPU mining, CPU and motherboard have no importance at all. I have a preference for Intel CPUs and motherboards as they tend to use a couple watts less than their AMD counterparts, but either brand will give you the same result. AMD is a little cheaper, and the watt difference will likely never make up the difference in price. I still chose Intel, though.

Why are you so against using risers? It's absolutely the best way to mine. Using risers would allow you to use a cheaper motherboard, and would greatly lower each GPU's temperature. This results in less power being used (hotter a GPU is the more watts it consumes), less fan wear and less noise from each GPU, and likely a prolonged service life for each GPU as all components (GPU, RAM, VRMs) will run much cooler.

Like I said earlier, this is my ideal setup:

Seasonic 1250w (Bullet-proof Seasonic quality and can handle 5 properly tuned 7970s)
5x 7970 / R9 280X
Intel socket 775 motherboard with 2 PCI-e 16x slots and 3 PCI-e 1x slots (One card in second 16x slot, 4 cards with risers)
Any 45nm Intel C2D underclocked and undervolted as low as the motherboard will allow, and one core disabled if MB allows (65nm may also be used, but consumes more watts)
4GB DDR2

I regularly see base systems as described above (MB, CPU, RAM) going for $60~$80 on my local classifieds here in Montreal. You won't do better than that in terms of cost.

If you really don't want to use risers (Again, why???) then your best bet will be a used quad SLI X58 motherboard (There may only be tri-SLI X58 boards), a used or new P67,Z67,Z77,Z87 which has a PLX chip on board to add more PCI-e lanes and allow 4 16x slots. If Z77 or above, only use Ivy Bridge or Haswell CPUs else not all PCI-e slots will be enabled. Get a cheap Celeron or Pentium CPU, no need for an i3, i5, or i7. Another easy but expensive route for quad SLI motherboards will be X79 based systems, but there are no cheap CPUs for those. Your best bet will be a used i7 3820 for $200~$250.

Basically, you should use risers if you're goin to expand past 1 or 2 GPUs.

This will get you going if you want to buy new with possibilty for 3 GPUs without risers:

Motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130645 Ivy Bridge
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130727 Haswell

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116889 Ivy Bridge
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116950 Haswell

[carly200]

thanks for the info and recommendations.

no riser, because i want it in a proper case. I won't discuss it, since it is not an option for me... (i see the problems and pros and cons, but it is not open to me)

Hardware prices in europe are way higher, often € = $, so I don't want to buy too many different boards/CPUs to experiment, but land a good choice right away.

which MB/CPUs allow undervolting?

Last CPU that I undervoltet was a Pentium M (Banias)... lol... since then, most CPUs I have seen are voltage locked, or Boards don't allow for it.


Energyconsumption of Board and CPU is important, since in 1-2 card setups it is a factor. Also board quality (components) make some part of the energysupply to the cards.
I don't want the board to burn in 2 months.

unfortunatly the info, whether a GPU is voltaged locked or not is very distributed, also most retailers don't offer conlcusive information that allows to pick the right cards.

last year I was looking at AMD Sempron 145, but I think an Intel C2D is a better choice. Any recommendation for a Board (allowing 3 GPUs)?
(thanks for the recommendations of the updated IB/Haswell Boards)

[ivanlabrie]

thanks for the info and recommendations.

no riser, because i want it in a proper case. I won't discuss it, since it is not an option for me... (i see the problems and pros and cons, but it is not open to me)

Hardware prices in europe are way higher, often € = $, so I don't want to buy too many different boards/CPUs to experiment, but land a good choice right away.

which MB/CPUs allow undervolting?

Last CPU that I undervoltet was a Pentium M (Banias)... lol... since then, most CPUs I have seen are voltage locked, or Boards don't allow for it.


Energyconsumption of Board and CPU is important, since in 1-2 card setups it is a factor. Also board quality (components) make some part of the energysupply to the cards.
I don't want the board to burn in 2 months.

unfortunatly the info, whether a GPU is voltaged locked or not is very distributed, also most retailers don't offer conlcusive information that allows to pick the right cards.

last year I was looking at AMD Sempron 145, but I think an Intel C2D is a better choice. Any recommendation for a Board (allowing 3 GPUs)?
(thanks for the recommendations of the updated IB/Haswell Boards)

Sempron is cheaper and more efficient...get a 970 chipset am3+ gigabyte board and r9 280x sapphire toxic cards. Those are unlocked if used with sapphire trixx (comes with the cd).
You can upgrade to an fx8320 if you wish later on and get a nice gaming rig too.
Platinum seasonic or XFX psu is a good idea.

[Prelude]

thanks for the info and recommendations.

no riser, because i want it in a proper case. I won't discuss it, since it is not an option for me... (i see the problems and pros and cons, but it is not open to me)

Hardware prices in europe are way higher, often € = $, so I don't want to buy too many different boards/CPUs to experiment, but land a good choice right away.

which MB/CPUs allow undervolting?

Last CPU that I undervoltet was a Pentium M (Banias)... lol... since then, most CPUs I have seen are voltage locked, or Boards don't allow for it.


Energyconsumption of Board and CPU is important, since in 1-2 card setups it is a factor. Also board quality (components) make some part of the energysupply to the cards.
I don't want the board to burn in 2 months.

unfortunatly the info, whether a GPU is voltaged locked or not is very distributed, also most retailers don't offer conlcusive information that allows to pick the right cards.

last year I was looking at AMD Sempron 145, but I think an Intel C2D is a better choice. Any recommendation for a Board (allowing 3 GPUs)?
(thanks for the recommendations of the updated IB/Haswell Boards)

Just about every motherboard will allow voltage control, and CPUs don't have a choice in the matter. They get what the motherboard tells it it's getting.

95% of the following boards and generations will allow voltage control and multiplier adjustment:

S775 (Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Pentium Single and Dual):
Chipsets: P35,P45,X38,X48

S1366 (i3, i5, i7, etc)
Chipsets: P58, X58

S1156: Don't know enough about this socket

S1155: (Celeron, Pentium, i3, i5, i7 Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge)
Chipsets: P67, Z68, Z77, Z87

S1150: (Celeron, Pentium, i3, i5, i7 Haswell)
Chipset: Z87

S2011: i7 only, all boards allow control


Buy a MSI Military Class motherboard. They are top notch (better than Asus) and their service is amazing should you ever need it (Asus support is absolute dog shit)

For unlocked 7970s, the info is out there but needs to be gathered. From my first hand experience, I can tell you that any reference card (blower style) is fully unlocked. Sapphire Dual X cards are also fully unlocked. Powercolor are GPU unlocked but memory locked. Everything MSI is unlocked. Everything Asus (Save Top & Matrix) is locked. All new Gigabytes are locked, older revisions are unlocked.

The only cards I've had die are Asus cards. Avoid Asus for everything, they aren't what they used to be. What's hilarious is they make monster cards like DCII series, market them to overclockers, but they lock the voltages on them. Have I mentioned that you should avoid Asus?

[Prelude]

thanks for the info and recommendations.

no riser, because i want it in a proper case. I won't discuss it, since it is not an option for me... (i see the problems and pros and cons, but it is not open to me)

Hardware prices in europe are way higher, often € = $, so I don't want to buy too many different boards/CPUs to experiment, but land a good choice right away.

which MB/CPUs allow undervolting?

Last CPU that I undervoltet was a Pentium M (Banias)... lol... since then, most CPUs I have seen are voltage locked, or Boards don't allow for it.


Energyconsumption of Board and CPU is important, since in 1-2 card setups it is a factor. Also board quality (components) make some part of the energysupply to the cards.
I don't want the board to burn in 2 months.

unfortunatly the info, whether a GPU is voltaged locked or not is very distributed, also most retailers don't offer conlcusive information that allows to pick the right cards.

last year I was looking at AMD Sempron 145, but I think an Intel C2D is a better choice. Any recommendation for a Board (allowing 3 GPUs)?
(thanks for the recommendations of the updated IB/Haswell Boards)

Sempron is cheaper and more efficient...get a 970 chipset am3+ gigabyte board and r9 280x sapphire toxic cards. Those are unlocked if used with sapphire trixx (comes with the cd).
You can upgrade to an fx8320 if you wish later on and get a nice gaming rig too.
Platinum seasonic or XFX psu is a good idea.

Get Dual X over Toxic. Cheaper and easier to hit better hash rates with, unless you flash the Toxic to Dual-X BIOS. XFX is manufactured by Seasonic, so no issues if you go with them. Coolermaster "V" series is also Seasonic. I have 2 V1000s, great units based on Seasonic's KM3 platform.

I don't think the premium for Platinum over Gold is worth it, though. Especially since you're on 240v.

[BitcoinHeroes]

thanks for the info and recommendations.

no riser, because i want it in a proper case. I won't discuss it, since it is not an option for me... (i see the problems and pros and cons, but it is not open to me)

Hardware prices in europe are way higher, often € = $, so I don't want to buy too many different boards/CPUs to experiment, but land a good choice right away.

which MB/CPUs allow undervolting?

Last CPU that I undervoltet was a Pentium M (Banias)... lol... since then, most CPUs I have seen are voltage locked, or Boards don't allow for it.


Energyconsumption of Board and CPU is important, since in 1-2 card setups it is a factor. Also board quality (components) make some part of the energysupply to the cards.
I don't want the board to burn in 2 months.

unfortunatly the info, whether a GPU is voltaged locked or not is very distributed, also most retailers don't offer conlcusive information that allows to pick the right cards.

last year I was looking at AMD Sempron 145, but I think an Intel C2D is a better choice. Any recommendation for a Board (allowing 3 GPUs)?
(thanks for the recommendations of the updated IB/Haswell Boards)

Sempron is cheaper and more efficient...get a 970 chipset am3+ gigabyte board and r9 280x sapphire toxic cards. Those are unlocked if used with sapphire trixx (comes with the cd).
You can upgrade to an fx8320 if you wish later on and get a nice gaming rig too.
Platinum seasonic or XFX psu is a good idea.

Get Dual X over Toxic. Cheaper and easier to hit better hash rates with, unless you flash the Toxic to Dual-X BIOS. XFX is manufactured by Seasonic, so no issues if you go with them. Coolermaster "V" series is also Seasonic. I have 2 V1000s, great units based on Seasonic's KM3 platform.

I don't think the premium for Platinum over Gold is worth it, though. Especially since you're on 240v.

Anybody manage to get Toxic and Vapor flashed and compare it to Dual X? Which one is better?

[Prelude]

thanks for the info and recommendations.

no riser, because i want it in a proper case. I won't discuss it, since it is not an option for me... (i see the problems and pros and cons, but it is not open to me)

Hardware prices in europe are way higher, often € = $, so I don't want to buy too many different boards/CPUs to experiment, but land a good choice right away.

which MB/CPUs allow undervolting?

Last CPU that I undervoltet was a Pentium M (Banias)... lol... since then, most CPUs I have seen are voltage locked, or Boards don't allow for it.


Energyconsumption of Board and CPU is important, since in 1-2 card setups it is a factor. Also board quality (components) make some part of the energysupply to the cards.
I don't want the board to burn in 2 months.

unfortunatly the info, whether a GPU is voltaged locked or not is very distributed, also most retailers don't offer conlcusive information that allows to pick the right cards.

last year I was looking at AMD Sempron 145, but I think an Intel C2D is a better choice. Any recommendation for a Board (allowing 3 GPUs)?
(thanks for the recommendations of the updated IB/Haswell Boards)

Sempron is cheaper and more efficient...get a 970 chipset am3+ gigabyte board and r9 280x sapphire toxic cards. Those are unlocked if used with sapphire trixx (comes with the cd).
You can upgrade to an fx8320 if you wish later on and get a nice gaming rig too.
Platinum seasonic or XFX psu is a good idea.

Get Dual X over Toxic. Cheaper and easier to hit better hash rates with, unless you flash the Toxic to Dual-X BIOS. XFX is manufactured by Seasonic, so no issues if you go with them. Coolermaster "V" series is also Seasonic. I have 2 V1000s, great units based on Seasonic's KM3 platform.

I don't think the premium for Platinum over Gold is worth it, though. Especially since you're on 240v.

Anybody manage to get Toxic and Vapor flashed and compare it to Dual X? Which one is better?

Dual X is an easy 740KH/s @ 1040/1500

[ivanlabrie]

Get the cheapest...yeah, dual x might be good, I wasn't sure it was unlocked.
And r9 280x tends to be cheaper than 7950s these days. unless you buy used gear.

[walnutter]

Here is the guide that shows how to flash 7970 bios. I did this to my 2 vapor-x 7970's and hashrate increased from 550 to 750 and could lower voltage to 1.100.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=200777.0

[Prelude]

Yep, if buying new 280X is the way to go until we get results from 290/290X.