8th Alt coin thread. Or what to do now that asics are all over the place.

[jmigdlc99]

This year I am no longer focusing on what gear to use.

But how to expand my cheap reliable power.

If the new focus is on surviving and counting on cheaper reliable power, what do you guys think about optimizing mining rigs with 19-GPU builds?

From what i've seen most are simply running 13-GPU rigs with pure or mixed AMD / NVIDIA GPUs but i believe true efficiency lies in maximizing the 19-GPU capable ASUS B250 mining expert motherboard. With 19 GPU builds you save on electricity by running less motherboards, CPUs, SSDs, etc.

Has anyone had any experience in using p106/p104 mining cards to build truly efficient 19-GPU rigs?

I did have my hands on a 16 card beast  did a review  but it had the p106  which is like the 1060 it is simply not that efficient.

the p102 is better but is costly

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/61173/nvidia-p102-100-crypto-mining-card-5gb-gddr5x/index.html

it is a modded 1080ti.  I would have loved to have had the p102 that they were looking to build I may have kept it after the review.

When it becomes more available to the public, i agree that the p102 will be a much better option.

But i'm also interested in stability. Don't know exactly where i read it from, but some have said that 19-GPU builds are a pain to build and are a hassle to maintain? Does this mean 19-GPU builds regularly crash or require more constant attention compared to regular 13-GPU builds?

[1714487686]

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[1714487686]

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[philipma1957]

This year I am no longer focusing on what gear to use.

But how to expand my cheap reliable power.

If the new focus is on surviving and counting on cheaper reliable power, what do you guys think about optimizing mining rigs with 19-GPU builds?

From what i've seen most are simply running 13-GPU rigs with pure or mixed AMD / NVIDIA GPUs but i believe true efficiency lies in maximizing the 19-GPU capable ASUS B250 mining expert motherboard. With 19 GPU builds you save on electricity by running less motherboards, CPUs, SSDs, etc.

Has anyone had any experience in using p106/p104 mining cards to build truly efficient 19-GPU rigs?

I did have my hands on a 16 card beast  did a review  but it had the p106  which is like the 1060 it is simply not that efficient.

the p102 is better but is costly

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/61173/nvidia-p102-100-crypto-mining-card-5gb-gddr5x/index.html

it is a modded 1080ti.  I would have loved to have had the p102 that they were looking to build I may have kept it after the review.

When it becomes more available to the public, i agree that the p102 will be a much better option.

But i'm also interested in stability. Don't know exactly where i read it from, but some have said that 19-GPU builds are a pain to build and are a hassle to maintain? Does this mean 19-GPU builds regularly crash or require more constant attention compared to regular 13-GPU builds?

the 16 card had a special back plane and run not stop in a 95f room for 5 weeks zero issues rock solid gear.

Just not that efficient.


 a 19 card build   with carefully tweaked risers  would be  better power wise, but  if all 1080ti's it would be hard to power or cool.

it would pull over 3000 watts more like 3500.  It would need 2 delta 2400 watt plus'

[jmigdlc99]

-snip-

the 16 card had a special back plane and run not stop in a 95f room for 5 weeks zero issues rock solid gear.
Just not that efficient.


 a 19 card build   with carefully tweaked risers  would be  better power wise, but  if all 1080ti's it would be hard to power or cool.
it would pull over 3000 watts more like 3500.  It would need 2 delta 2400 watt plus'

We are talking about the 19-GPU motherboard that is ASUS B250 Mining Expert right?

How do you figure that it would be hard to power 13pcs of 1080ti and 6pcs of p102 mining GPUs? I am of the impression that the ASUS B250 already has built-in ATX adapters capable of supporting up to 3 PSUs. Do motherboards have a maximum electrical load or are problematic with high powered rigs? I've only mostly run 1070s and 470s in the past.

[xleejohnx]

The way the market is now there will always be a coin that be mined for a profit.
There is way to much money to lose if there is not one available.
But i do agree with phil that we are about to see coins fall.
The mother tree of crypto can only hold so many before it falls.

[philipma1957]

-snip-

the 16 card had a special back plane and run not stop in a 95f room for 5 weeks zero issues rock solid gear.
Just not that efficient.


 a 19 card build   with carefully tweaked risers  would be  better power wise, but  if all 1080ti's it would be hard to power or cool.
it would pull over 3000 watts more like 3500.  It would need 2 delta 2400 watt plus'

We are talking about the 19-GPU motherboard that is ASUS B250 Mining Expert right?

How do you figure that it would be hard to power 13pcs of 1080ti and 6pcs of p102 mining GPUs? I am of the impression that the ASUS B250 already has built-in ATX adapters capable of supporting up to 3 PSUs. Do motherboards have a maximum electrical load or are problematic with high powered rigs? I've only mostly run 1070s and 470s in the past.

okay 19 cards  1080ti  =  19 cables for the risers 38 cables for the cards or 57 cables. the closest to that using atx would be 3 corsair ax1500i  they have 9 2x cables = 18 so three of them = 54 cables and $$$. and 4500 watts max

If you went with 2 delta 2400 watts (very hard too find)  and the better break outs

https://www.parallelminer.com/product/x8-breakout-board-adapter-compatible-with-hp-750w-1200w1500watt-hp-power-supply-copy/

you can do 4 of them or 64 cables  this would work.  but the delta 2400 is hard to find  you could use other hp power supplies

[fr4nkthetank]

The dirty secret is that CPU/GPU mining is what drove the crypto expansion to this point.  We mine coins through innovation, trade them, spend them, give them value because they are worthwhile to have and use.  If you remove the distributed profit incentive then I think this is the end of the current "phase".  Whether that is good or bad is not for me to say.  Mining is what got most people here.    A new era is upon us.  Adapt or die.  

[philipma1957]

The dirty secret is that CPU/GPU mining is what drove the crypto expansion to this point.  We mine coins through innovation, trade them, spend them, give them value because they are worthwhile to have and use.  If you remove the distributed profit incentive then I think this is the end of the current "phase".  Whether that is good or bad is not for me to say.  Mining is what got most people here.    A new era is upon us.  Adapt or die.  

so true  and then bitmain mowed it all down and harvested the coins selling them off and driving the prices down.

laughing all the way to the bank.

but that is the way of the world.

For me the only way to continue mining growth is to grow the solar with buysolar.
We have an idea we will be trying it should be nice. Time will tell.

[soothaa]

The dirty secret is that CPU/GPU mining is what drove the crypto expansion to this point.  We mine coins through innovation, trade them, spend them, give them value because they are worthwhile to have and use.  If you remove the distributed profit incentive then I think this is the end of the current "phase".  Whether that is good or bad is not for me to say.  Mining is what got most people here.    A new era is upon us.  Adapt or die.  

On the flip side, people are seeing this and despising Bitmain and the like for it, so coins are choosing to adapt by rejecting their machines. I hope this trend continues.

[dragonmike]

What I despise is freaking Windows Update deciding to downgrade my video drivers without asking me. I was going through the spring update all good and well and then wondered why the miner wasn't working.

Damn thing flattened my display drivers and installed an old version on top of it. Brilliant... Not.

IIRC 1709 did not touch the display drivers. Why did this update do so??

[soothaa]

What I despise is freaking Windows Update deciding to downgrade my video drivers without asking me. I was going through the spring update all good and well and then wondered why the miner wasn't working.

Damn thing flattened my display drivers and installed an old version on top of it. Brilliant... Not.

IIRC 1709 did not touch the display drivers. Why did this update do so??

I'm using a combo of blocking Microsoft domains from my network as well as this:

We have been using this little tool to completely disable Windows Updates for the past ~year or so now.  They just came out with a v1.1 yesterday, I believe we have been using v1.0. --- https://www.sordum.org/9470/windows-update-blocker-v1-1/ --- I was skeptical of it at first, but it's been working flawlessly on 16 rigs (although not all of them have been running a full year yet.

[MagicSmoker]

What I despise is freaking Windows Update deciding to downgrade my video drivers without asking me. I was going through the spring update all good and well and then wondered why the miner wasn't working.

Damn thing flattened my display drivers and installed an old version on top of it. Brilliant... Not.

IIRC 1709 did not touch the display drivers. Why did this update do so??

Exact same thing happened to just one of my rigs (AMD). My other AMD rig and both Nvidia rigs sailed through fine, except for the fact it took 45+ minutes and several reboots and all that seemed to change is the addition of a shortcut for the shitty Edge browser on the desktop.

So, how does one go about blocking M$ domains? Is this done in the hosts file?

[dragonmike]

Thing is, by setting your ethernet connection to "metered", you do actually prevent Windows to update anything (or almost). So nothing really nasty could happen that way. It was because it kept pestering me about it for a while that I decided to go through with the batch of updates (including the chunky 1803).

The difference with 1709 is that 1803 "updated" my display drivers (without asking me of course) - including resetting all registry entries (re-enabled ULPS, re-enabled Crossfire and removed the compute mode reg key - for all 7 GPUs, grr). 1709 didn't do that.

At least M$ is consistent in increasing the level of stupid.

[soothaa]

So, how does one go about blocking M$ domains? Is this done in the hosts file?

Yes, you can do that or if you have a smarter/nicer/more advanced router you can just blackhole all the domains.

Example:
Domain Overrides
download.windowsupdate.com   127.0.0.1      
microsoft.com   127.0.0.1      
update.microsoft.com   127.0.0.1      
windowsupdate.com   127.0.0.1      
windowsupdate.microsoft.com   127.0.0.1      

[vapourminer]

What I despise is freaking Windows Update deciding to downgrade my video drivers without asking me. I was going through the spring update all good and well and then wondered why the miner wasn't working.

Damn thing flattened my display drivers and installed an old version on top of it. Brilliant... Not.

IIRC 1709 did not touch the display drivers. Why did this update do so??

when you have a stable setup make a disk image of the OS. that way if you blow the OS or drivers away just load the good image back on and good to go.

i use macrium reflect free. saved me a lot of grief many times. both miner rigs and my other computers. anytime i change something and it works i make a new image.

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

i also have windows update totally disabled anyway. not sure if i want to update from 1709. miner is stable so im good atm. the 1709 image with drivers and miners setup the way i like it is my insurance policy for anything that sneaks through.

[MagicSmoker]

...
i also have windows update totally disabled anyway.
...

Yeah, I thought I had it disabled, too. I've tried all sorts of tricks, many of them posted in this thread, with the most recent a utility called "Windows Update Blocker" that Elder III mentioned. I ran "WUB" on 3 of the 5 rigs to see if it made any difference and it didn't. All 5 rigs began pestering me to reboot to finish installing updates, which means the little fuckers already began the update.

Blocking the M$ domains is basically the nuclear option, but I honestly can't think of anything else to try besides ditching W10 completely and going with SMOS or the like.

[MagicSmoker]

So, how does one go about blocking M$ domains? Is this done in the hosts file?

Yes, you can do that or if you have a smarter/nicer/more advanced router you can just blackhole all the domains.

Example:
Domain Overrides
download.windowsupdate.com   127.0.0.1      
microsoft.com   127.0.0.1      
update.microsoft.com   127.0.0.1      
windowsupdate.com   127.0.0.1      
windowsupdate.microsoft.com   127.0.0.1      

My router is as dumb as a box of rocks, meaner than a junkyard dog* and rides the short bus to school, so it looks like I'll be editing the hosts file.


* - "Leroy Brown" by Jim Croce

[Stubo]

...
i also have windows update totally disabled anyway.
...

Yeah, I thought I had it disabled, too. I've tried all sorts of tricks, many of them posted in this thread, with the most recent a utility called "Windows Update Blocker" that Elder III mentioned. I ran "WUB" on 3 of the 5 rigs to see if it made any difference and it didn't. All 5 rigs began pestering me to reboot to finish installing updates, which means the little fuckers already began the update.

Blocking the M$ domains is basically the nuclear option, but I honestly can't think of anything else to try besides ditching W10 completely and going with SMOS or the like.

I run my own WSUS (windows update) server so I don't have that problem. I approve all updates that my windows hosts can install. So, one thing that you may want try (that is a lot easier that blocking MSFT domains) is to configure your hosts to use a WSUS server that does not exist. Basically, you just modify a local group policy setting on each machine.

To do this, run the local group policy editor - "gpedit.msc". Then under Computer Configuration, open Administrative Templates, then Windows Components, and Windows Update. Under Windows Update, there is a setting "Specify intranet Microsoft update service location". Modify this setting to enable it and then enter bogus entries for the top 2 boxes (intranet update service and intranet statistics server) like "http://myserv:8530", and click Ok and close the editor. Now, if you go into Windows Update, you will see in red text "*Some settings are managed by your organization" and if you click "Check for Updates", you will get an error connecting to the update service. If you want to update anyway, you can use the link just below the button - "Check online for updates from Microsoft Update."

I hope this helps.

[rdluffy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=139&v=ZVUCwmSyD6E

Look guys, I told not to buy anything from Bitmain and not support at all...now it's a lost cause probably

[Schtroumpf]

Mine the non-asic coins like:

Monero, Masari, or Nerva

if you only mine monero & rvn it's a mistake ..you only dump the price of the only coins "gpuminer-friendly"
we must also mine zec, eth & all those others coins that didn't fork
we mine and sell them to dump their price! (until asics are too many & difficulty too high for a gpu of course)
wouldn't it make more sense ?

[JaredKaragen]

In for replies.  Can't comment yet; need to finish off at work first, but at least I have the thread saved