R9 280x Rig

[wbmillerkc]

Hey All

I have $3000 to lose, and am planning to get into mining. New Egg has all of this in stock. According to several calculators I should see a ROI in 3 months on Mulitpool or Megamulitpool provided the bottom doesn't drop out. (a risk I know)

Does anyone see a problem with the following specs? or a suggestion on how to do things better on the hardware?

Motherboard   Gigabyte   GA-990FXA-UD3              $149.99           1
CPU   AMD   FD4130FRGUBOX                                   $99.99           1
Memory   Corsair   4 Gig x 2  DDR3 1866                $94.99           1
Power Supply   Thermaltake   SP-1200M Bronze    $219.99           2
Graphic Card   Gigabyte   GV-R928XOC-3GD REV2   $439.99           4
PSU   Add2Psu                                                   $26.00           1
Powered Riser Amazon 16x+to+16x+powered riser        $16.99           4
Rack                                                       $120.00           1
Hard drive   Kingston 60 Gig SSD   SV300S37A/60G        $59.99           1

The MOBO will take 2 more GPU's on 1x to be added later.

[1713907733]

1713907733

[atp1916]

Lookin' good overall.

A few notes:
I can confirm that board works with at least 5 cards as i am running 5 270s on it with no issues.

That FX4130 chip is a 125w monster (Zambezi core), just a FYI.  Its Vishera equiv. is the 4300 which has a lower TDP.

You also may do better going with the x1-x16 powered risers, as the full length x16-x16 cables tend to be difficult to work with at times.  I am running all x1-x16 risers on the board and at least 5 of the slots don't need a sense mod.  I can't seem to get the 6th card up (yet), so there may be a slot that needs the full x16-x16 cable.  You may be wise to get at least 1 x16-x16 powered cable if you do intend on expanding to more cards.

Once you get it assembled definitely check back in, preferably to this thread!

[wbmillerkc]

Lookin' good overall.

That FX4130 chip is a 125w monster (Zambezi core), just a FYI.  Its Vishera equiv. is the 4300 which has a lower TDP.

Thanks for the advice.... I haven't ordered anything yet, so that's easy to change. 35 watts is 35 watts.
On the risers...maybe a 16x to 16x on the number 1 slot?

The only thing that concerns me is the PSUs. I've built plenty of systems in the past, but it's been a few years, and nothing with these power requirements. 2400w should be plenty even after I add 2 more cards later...

But in the past it's always been 1 600w PSU was enough, plug it in and move on. Now there are multi rails, full modular psu's and I'm a little shaky on how to hook them up. I figure the Add2Psu will help simplify things. The Themaltake's have 2 12v rails, and I saw in another thread where all the GPU's need to be hooked to the "main PSU"

I'm not sure how that relates to 2 PSU's the same wattage, I don't really think it does as long as you balance things out, system and 2 cards on one, 2 cards on the other, but I'm not sure.

With almost $3k invested... I don't want to let the magic smoke out.

Advice/guidence/suggestions/prayers? 

[dimscorp]

Thanks for the advice.... I haven't ordered anything yet, so that's easy to change. 35 watts is 35 watts.
On the risers...maybe a 16x to 16x on the number 1 slot?

As far as i understand you don't need the full bandwidth of the cable to mine. Wide risers are only for gaming.

[Voltage2]

Also you dont need that much RAM if you are planning to only mine on this PC. If you are planning on using BAMT (https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=2924.0) , you only need 2 gig RAM because it cant see/use more.
I would recommend using BAMT because it does increase the hashing speed of your cards.

[wbmillerkc]

Lookin' good overall.
Once you get it assembled definitely check back in, preferably to this thread!

Thanks everyone for the input!

[wbmillerkc]

Lookin' good overall.

A few notes:
I can confirm that board works with at least 5 cards as i am running 5 270s on it with no issues.

Once you get it assembled definitely check back in, preferably to this thread!

Hey Apt1916.... I have something a little weird going on. UPS brought my box of goodies and I started to assemble the rig. For right now I'm just running 1) 1200w PSU and 3 R9 280x cards. One GPU on MOBO, and one GPU on 1x riser. Windows 8 sees them in the device manager and all is good. The problem comes in when I install the 3rd GPU.

The system immeadiatly boots when I turn the PSU on, I don't have to hit the power switch. The mouse works fine before and as windows loads, but within 10 seconds of loading the slows down, and stops working. Weird. This happens with 2 GPU on the MOBO, or on 1x powered riser, or 16x riser. All tested in different slots.

I think the problem may be related to the PSU, which has 2 12v rails, not a single rail. but there only 3 PCI-e 8 pin power sockets on the back of the PSU, and no markings as to if they are on separate rails or not. Nothing in the manual either.

PSU is a Thermaltake 1200w M bronze. I'm thinking the 2 rails are the problem, but am not sure how to work around it. Cut the risers and treat the single PSU as if it was 2? Do the same when I add GPU's 4,5,6? My risers are powered 1x-16x from Amazon, and have the power wires from the molex soldered into the 16x side of the riser board... Cut those loose and solder onto the cut wires on the riser?

Maybe the mouse is just a side effect of some kind? It's a logitec USB wireless running on windows drivers, runs fine with 2 GPU's, but not 3. Not sure if there is a connection there or not.

The whole thing is beyond what experience I've had in the past, and has me a little befuddled.

[minecrew]

I have $3000 to lose

I recommend you to buy some bitcoins, maybe 0.5 BTC and start to trade, and after that, take miner. If you will just buy mining rig, you will not be able to know, what is most profitable to mine at that moment.

[Dimrain13]

Get a cheaper CPU if its just for Mining.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888

[Wipeout2097]

Get a cheaper CPU if its just for Mining.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888

Get at least the dual-core Sempron 180 or 190.

Please stop suggesting underpowered CPUs for the sake of $5 on a $2000 rig. They can't handle well some work validations (e.g maxcoin), fast scrypt coins, high intensity, CGWatcher, teamviewer, and whatever else a rig operator needs. Not to speak of more rejects and stales (not sure here)

[wbmillerkc]

Get a cheaper CPU if its just for Mining.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888

Get at least the dual-core Sempron 180 or 190.

Please stop suggesting underpowered CPUs for the sake of $5 on a $2000 rig. They can't handle well some work validations (e.g maxcoin), fast scrypt coins, high intensity, CGWatcher, teamviewer, and whatever else a rig operator needs. Not to speak of more rejects and stales (not sure here)

CPU is already bought, here, and installed. Vishera quad core, I like to over build a little. That doesn't help on my PSU problem though....

[Wipeout2097]

Get a cheaper CPU if its just for Mining.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888

Get at least the dual-core Sempron 180 or 190.

Please stop suggesting underpowered CPUs for the sake of $5 on a $2000 rig. They can't handle well some work validations (e.g maxcoin), fast scrypt coins, high intensity, CGWatcher, teamviewer, and whatever else a rig operator needs. Not to speak of more rejects and stales (not sure here)

CPU is already bought, here, and installed. Vishera quad core, I like to over build a little. That doesn't help on my PSU problem though....

Sorry, I can't help here. I stay away from 2 PSUs mixed with risers (of variable quality), even more because I have access to relatively inexpensive 1050W and EVGA Supernova 1300W which suffices for me. There are some forum members way more experienced than myself.

[wbmillerkc]

Lookin' good overall.

A few notes:
I can confirm that board works with at least 5 cards as i am running 5 270s on it with no issues.

Once you get it assembled definitely check back in, preferably to this thread!

Can I ask what OS you're running? The rig is up and running just fine with Windows 8.1 and 2 GPU's, but Windows locks up when I add the 3rd GPU.

[wbmillerkc]

Lookin' good overall.

Once you get it assembled definitely check back in, preferably to this thread!

I got it up and running... I just stuck it in a milk crate for now. I got one bad card from the Egg, which is pretty unusual, but they are in the process of RMA'ing it. The only thing I haven't gotten figured out yet is tuning the GPU's. They're running at 634 right out of the box... which isn't bad, but I'd like to see 700+

I've read all the threads about tuning, but everything I tried either makes no difference, or drops the hash. It looks like most of the settings in Sgminer config file are set to "0,0", which is I assume "default" settings for what the GPU will generate. The script won't let me change the Thread Concurrency... I Think because SGminer has generated a *.bin file running the card at 22400 TC.... I THINK....
Changing the Mem clock, and/or GPU Engine shown no improvement, neither do any of the settings you can change within the SGMiner console.

Has anyone had any success tuning a Sapphire 280x 100363BF4L?