Motherboard / first rig advice

[volish]

Hi,

I am writing for some advice/recommendations before I go ahead and start buying stuff. I am wanting to build a mining rig using 6 x AMD Radeon RX580 GPU using the PCI 1X to 16X risers and also have a separate AMD Radeon RX580 GPU plugged right into a 16X slot directly on the motherboard. I plan to use an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU and 32Gb RAM. The reason for the beefy CPU, RAM and GPU on the motherboard is because I would also like to use this rig as a computer for gaming and running simulations etc, for space and neatness I would like one multipurpose machine rather than two specific machines.

1.Do you have any recommendations about what motherboard would be appropriate for this?

2. Would the Biostar TB350-BTC for AMD be a suitable choice?

3. Would one of those popular Veddha 6 open cases have enough room to be able to add the extra GPU to the motherboard?

4. Due to local availability I am thinking of going for a Corsair RM1000X 1000W Modular 80+ Gold PSU, from experience do you think that would be ok?

Much appreciated for your time, help and advice.
 

[1715237506]

1715237506

[jmigdlc99]

Hi,

I am writing for some advice/recommendations before I go ahead and start buying stuff. I am wanting to build a mining rig using 6 x AMD Radeon RX580 GPU using the PCI 1X to 16X risers and also have a separate AMD Radeon RX580 GPU plugged right into a 16X slot directly on the motherboard. I plan to use an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU and 32Gb RAM. The reason for the beefy CPU, RAM and GPU on the motherboard is because I would also like to use this rig as a computer for gaming and running simulations etc, for space and neatness I would like one multipurpose machine rather than two specific machines.

1.Do you have any recommendations about what motherboard would be appropriate for this?

2. Would the Biostar TB350-BTC for AMD be a suitable choice?

3. Would one of those popular Veddha 6 open cases have enough room to be able to add the extra GPU to the motherboard?

4. Due to local availability I am thinking of going for a Corsair RM1000X 1000W Modular 80+ Gold PSU, from experience do you think that would be ok?

Much appreciated for your time, help and advice.
 

It is good that you are doing research on the best mining equipment to use but i hope you also do diligence on the prospect of mining in the coming months. There are huge risks incoming and mining may soon be unprofitable for most people.

That being said:

1. & 2. I would suggest the ASUS B250 Mining Expert board. You can maximize efficiency with 19 GPUs and this has been tried and tested.

3. Get a cheap open air cases that already supports multiple GPUs. If a case is advertised to only support x amount of GPUs then that is all it will support.

4. Server PSU would be the best of course, but a Corsair Gold rated-PSU would be fine too. Whats important is that you calculate the total power consumption of your GPUs and make sure they are not more than 80% of the total PSU's capacity.

[racebum]

spend more on the 1200w psu. a 1000w is pushing it for 6 580s and that's even undervolted. the hx1200 or hx1200i are great choices from corsair.

there are many good gaming boards which support 6 gpus and you can dual use them for gaming, the only issue in your case is the 580 is a weak gaming card. i guess you could stay at 1080p

you can get 6gpu rig racks on amazon for 59 or so. it's easier than building your own

make sure you check that whatever board you get really can support 6 gpus. not all can. 6*150w = 900w + 65w system or 130w or so if you dual mine on the cpu means you have a 1030w draw or about 960w if you don't use the cpu to mine

that's max load on a 1200w psu and too much for a 1000

on a 1200w psu you want to see no more than 1000w on your kill a watt at the wall when you test

[volish]

Much appreciated for your responses.

There are huge risks incoming and mining may soon be unprofitable for most people.

Are you talking about Ethereum switching to POS and the Ethereum ASIC's here? Is there anything else that you think could make it become unprofitable?

there are many good gaming boards which support 6 gpus and you can dual use them for gaming, the only issue in your case is the 580 is a weak gaming card. i guess you could stay at 1080p

My thinking is to have 7 cards in total. 6 connected via risers that will be dedicated to mining and one plugged directly to the motherboard for gaming/simulations. Would it be a problem if I use a 1080ti for the GPU that I use for gaming/simulation and 580s for mining? Do you have any examples of motherboards that would be suitable?

spend more on the 1200w psu

If I have 7 GPUs in total and one being a 1080ti do you think that the 1200w psi would still be suitable?

Thanks again

[jmigdlc99]

Are you talking about Ethereum switching to POS and the Ethereum ASIC's here? Is there anything else that you think could make it become unprofitable?

There is that, but there are also: Equihash ASICS claiming most of NVIDA GPU profits, FPGAs being developed, and increasing difficulty.

My thinking is to have 7 cards in total. 6 connected via risers that will be dedicated to mining and one plugged directly to the motherboard for gaming/simulations. Would it be a problem if I use a 1080ti for the GPU that I use for gaming/simulation and 580s for mining? Do you have any examples of motherboards that would be suitable?

No problem with that setup. A good mining motherboard would be the ASUS B250 Mining Expert. Can support 19-GPUs for maximum efficiency.

If I have 7 GPUs in total and one being a 1080ti do you think that the 1200w psi would still be suitable?

It will probably not. Check the specs of your GPU and see how much power it consumes. Like i said "Whats important is that you calculate the total power consumption of your GPUs and make sure they are not more than 80% of the total PSU's capacity."

[manji]

Would it be a problem if I use a 1080ti for the GPU that I use for gaming/simulation and 580s for mining?

no problem as long as no power shortage but a bit Lag.

Do you have any examples of motherboards that would be suitable?

MSI Z170A Gaming M5

If I have 7 GPUs in total and one being a 1080ti do you think that the 1200w psi would still be suitable?

Let's calculated TDP those cards although I know when run mining isn't like that.

RX580 has TDP @185W = 1110W
1080ti has TDP @250W = 250W

It's better to have a lot of power left for PSU such as 1500W or more.

[ciciteng]

I recommend that you can consider to upgrade your main board to new Asus H370 Mining Master. It's support 20 GPU on single main board. There's always a good to have a spare GPU slot for your fix GPU card right now.
When you start mining you will always want more and more to add your rig hash power, thus provides spare slot for future update is always good.
Your selection type of GPUs is seems reasonable.

[toefu]

the risk is very high right now, GPU mining lives on 3 families of algos mainly, cryptonight, equihash and ethhash.

ASICs are about to take over equihash,
ASICS partially took over cryptonight, FPGA is threatening to clean out the rest of cryptonight (if successful)
I still laugh at the POS threat to ETH, but that's a different topic. With most GPU miners forced in to ETH, profitability will be bad for a while. and if you believe in POS for Eth, then ETH will be completely dead.

Running a gaming rig and mining rig on the same is a terrible idea. 6 rx580's will raise your room temps by 3-5 degrees F in a normal sized room with no additional ventilation. Also mining machines tend to feel a bit sluggish when mining, no way i would be firing up a first person shooter while mining. you could browse and mine just fine though.

Also remember that a normal room breaker is only 20 amps, which is only 1800 watts or so.

If i was to get in to mining right now, it'd be to sit back and watch fpga status and then decide. ASIC has already played their cards, if FPGA's area real (not talking about the $4k solutions but the ones that are sub $1k), then GPU's are screwed for a while.

[Midcrypto]

I would avoid the Biostar BTC platform entirely. A good 50% of them have have PCIE hardware issues significant enough to affect hashrate. Cannot be resolved via BIOS updates and it is not related to risers, drivers, GPU's or power.

[manji]

starting when 2016-2017 many demands for the GPU then since then the price of GPU soared 300% from a normal price until now though slightly decreased.

GPU miner will die ..

then mid-2017 to March 2018 a lot discussing the increase Dag file Ethash algorithm, especially ETH and will POS also then followed a price of almost all coins that fell until now hasn't returned to normal.

GPU miner will die ..

well now many are discussing ASIC will take over all anti-ASIC algorithm then reappear the forecasters predict the GPU miner will die.

in fact, until now the GPU miners have never died and are still mining including me.

[lordvek]

Right now the Green Team seems more versatile in different algos, so I would consider using 1070tis instead of the RX580s.
As for other parts of the setup, a general idea is to put on as cheap a CPU and RAM as possible, but
some emerging miner software (zealot/Enemy e.g.) seem to have better results if a good CPU is present.
Also, don't forget about an SSD for fast swapfile operation.

[volish]

Thanks for your advice. It sounds like if I go for it my gf will just have to like it or lump it and put up with two separate machines.

I was going to go for all 1080ti's but decided to think about buying a crappier rig and put the rest of the money that I would have spent anyway directly into coins as a hedge. What do you think about that idea?

I noticed that the prices for gpu's has recently come down and seem to be available again, I suppose that is at least partly to do with the fall in crypto prices? I am thinking that if you wait until the prices are high and you don't have a rig, there will be availability issues again.

[manji]

I was going to go for all 1080ti's but decided to think about buying a crappier rig and put the rest of the money that I would have spent anyway directly into coins as a hedge. What do you think about that idea?

Personally, for now, if you want to buy a mining rig or ASIC, have to think of many things such as ROI, coin prices, as well as electric bills.

Actually, I bought all the mining rigs between 2016 - January 2018 until for now it's still profitable (for me not for all miners)

I noticed that the prices for gpu's has recently come down and seem to be available again, I suppose that is at least partly to do with the fall in crypto prices? I am thinking that if you wait until the prices are high and you don't have a rig, there will be availability issues again.

Yes it could be because it's,
Also news about Bitmain releasing new products, news about NVIDIA will release 11 Series and many things that can affect.

[volish]

Having done a bit of research I am super interested in the FPGA idea that was mentioned. I think these would have a good resale value compared to an outdated ASIC. For me personally I do a lot of automation projects so I could find other good uses for it if needed.

Is there software available that can be downloaded and used today or is it still all under development?

Are these restricted to certain coins like ASICs?

Thanks again    

[jmigdlc99]

Is there software available that can be downloaded and used today or is it still all under development?

Are these restricted to certain coins like ASICs?

Currently, there is no mining software publicly available for FPGAs. If you have an FPGA, you might be able to get software from the FPGA threads in this forum. But again, that would depend on your deal with the developer and it's cost and quality could vary.

FPGA's are not restricted to certain coins because they can be repgrogammed. Just like GPUs, but more complex.

[volish]

I am probably being extremely naive here, obvs a total noob to all of this.

Could you just follow this process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZBZPOEVyJA

but implement in something like matlab and simulink (maybe using the parallel computing toolbox) and upload to the fpga to avoid having to do it all directly with Verilog? What approach do most people take?

Are the other hashing algorithms similar to this or are they radically different? Are they also in the public domain?

[lordvek]

The hashing algorithms are not just what makes a blockchain.