6 GPU Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 OC (non-x) Rig

[dloganbill]

Hey everyone.  I've been lurking for a while and finally gave into the mining bug.  I have parts coming to build a 6 GPU dedicated mining rig, and being a newbie, I have a few questions.  First I'll outline the parts I've ordered and if you see problems, I'd like to hear about them.

6x  Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 OC
1x  ASRock H81 Pro BTC Motherboard
1x  Intel Pentium Dual-Core G3220
1x  8GB Kingston HyperX Blu RAM
1x  EVGA SuperNOVA 1300G2 1300W Power Supply
1x  Corsair RM Series 850W Power Supply decided to upgrade
1x  Seasonic X-1050 1050W Power Supply
1x  Dual PSU Adapter Cable
4x  Powered 1x to 16x Riser Cables
2x  Powered USB Riser Cables
1x  Power Switch

Now for the questions:

1.  Power Supplies
Does anyone see any issues with my power supply selection?  I've been trying to get a good idea of the actual power draw of these cards.  I've seen everything from <225W (Tom's Hardware (link)) to over 300W.  The guys at Bits be Trippin' just posted a video (link) with 6 280X Toxic cards that were pulling enough for them to install 2x1000W + 1x600W.  So now I'm nervous that I won't have enough power supply.  My plan is to install one card at a time using the 1300W PSU until I hit about 1000W on the KillAWatt, then install the second PSU and continue adding cards to the 850W 1050W while checking loads on both PSUs.  Seem logical?  Does anyone with a similar build have hard data to share regarding what their power draw is?

2.  Riser Cables
In the Bits Be Trippin' build linked above (1:30), they recommend using the 2 4-pin molex connectors and leaving all the powered risers disconnected from power.  Thoughts?  Lastly, as shown in my build list, I didn't order a 16x to 16x riser.  Was that a mistake?  Is it necessary to have one?

3.  Operating System
This probably belongs in a separate post, but I'll ask here anyway.  What operating system is preferred for this type of build?  I found this thread (link), but it doesn't really offer any solid answer.  I have no Linux experience, but am not afraid of learning.  I've been leaning towards Litecoin BAMT v1.5 or SMOS v1.3 (with auto-donate disabled).  It seems a lot of people are using Win 8.1.  What are the pros and cons of the different OS options?  My end goal is to be able to access and control the rig while I'm away from home and outside of my local network.  I assume Logmein or TeamViewer would work with Win 8.1, but I'm not sure how to accomplish this with a Linux based OS.  This will be a dedicated mining machine with no need for NAS etc.  I just want a stable work horse that doesn't need to be babysat.

4.  Mining Software
It seems like cgminer is the common choice.  On the surface it seems like sgminer would be the better option for me.  Thoughts?

5.  Mining Pools
I haven't seen anyone try this, so I assume there is a good reason.  As everyone knows, there are several options for coin switching pools with profitability algorithms.  Which is best?  That is very fuzzy.  Why not do a side-by-side comparison with a multi-gpu rig and point each card to a different pool for a few weeks?  Then at the end of the test report the difference in profitability?
Edit:  I see this is being done already. (link)

I apologize for the long post and numerous questions.  Thanks in advance for the advice!!  I'm still waiting on a few parts to show up, but will post pics as I make some progress.

[NameTaken]

2150W of combined power should be sufficient, but you will need to take into consideration your home electrical capability. Powered risers is unnecessary and x16 to x16 would not make any difference. In Windows you can use CGWatcher and CGRemote, as well as have the rig function as a server such as NAS or FTP. Found higher hashrate with SGMiner in conjunction with optimized .CL and .BIN. There are many multipool comparisons people have done.

[dloganbill]

Thanks.  Are you running this same card?  What kind of hash rates are you getting?  As for electrical, I'm installing this system in my basement near the panel and am adding two additional 20A breakers to feed it.

[cloudrck]

Sgminer is a fork of cgminer, and is actively being developed specifically for scrypt mining. cgminer is more well known, but no longer supports scrypt, so people are stuck using an old 3.7.2 version.

As long as those PSU's can actually push that much power than you should be fine.

[BayCoins]

I have the same PSU and Mobo combo.. Had some issues with the EVGA not firing the BTC-81 if I connected the Molex to the mobo. I'd test this right away when you get your CPU and ram installed. I am RMA'ing the PSU so just a heads up it may just be a defective unit i've been dealing with.

As far as risers go, you only need 1X regular risers.. The Molex takes care of the rest unless you want to add 1-2 powered 1x risers just to be safe. PSU #1 should power the mobo, cpu, molex and up to 3 GPU's. GPU 4,5,6 should be powered by a second 1000-1200w PSU. This setup will give you both breathing room and the ability to expand/adjust if you are able to drop voltages on the cards.

[dloganbill]

I'm not sure I follow exactly. I'm hoping someone has actual load data on these cards in action.

I think Tom's Hardware is pretty optimistic so I've increased what they say up to 300W for my estimations. I was expecting to run the 850W with 2 GPUs plus board load. I'm thinking that should be 300*2+150=750W (750/850=88% load). Then the 4 cards on the 1300W would be 4*300=1200W (1200/1300=92% load). Am I on the right track?

[hairyteeth]

I have made some rigs with same cards.
But my motherboard only recognize 5 of them.
And I have this problem on all my rigs, so it isn't a card problem.
I have 2 power supply bequiet 1200W.

An idea for install the card number 6  ?

[dloganbill]

What OS are you running? Here is a thread that has helped some Windows users.
https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=11761.0

[Rocco1180]

hi,

6x r9 290 will take @stock voltage and non OC 2100W. (incl board, cpu and memory)

I use the asrock h61 pro btc without powered riser.

I have no problems. The Board is build for using x1 riser without molex.

Operating system is Win 8 (easy to setup and you can use afterburner)

cgminer and cgwatcher

[dloganbill]

Thanks for the input. I may be running the PSUs pretty hard according to your data. What advantages are there from using afterburner? Under volting I assume? I'm leaning towards trying out litecoin BAMT first. I like the idea of ditching the hdd.

[Rocco1180]

i tried bamt because of win 7 is supporting only 4 gpu's.

But BAMT dit only activate the card connected to the monitor. All the other cards did not work. And unfortunatly you cant use a dummy plug.

I cant solve this problem. Maybe you have more luck or experience with linux.

Please post your experience.

In the end i use win 8 and its fine.

I use afterburner for undervolting.

[dloganbill]

I don't have any Linux experience yet, but there is a wealth of information available here. I'll try it first and leave Win 8.1 as my backup plan.
Your problem seems odd since BAMT was made to run headless. Did you try running with with no monitors plugged in and ssh in?

[Rocco1180]

no.

i only tried bamt with monitor.

[paulcipher]

I've only used BAMT with from two to five cards. Never had an issue not recognizing cards. Only once but it was because the motherboard didn't support running cards in all five slots. What motherboard are you using? BAMT works great in my opinion, I've got the rigs down in a corner in my basement so it's nice not always having to go down there to administer them.. Plus I can log in from my iphone or work computer, etc.

I'm also pretty sure that BAMT doesn't come with drivers for the R9 cards, I installed those drivers before I tried using my 280x cards on it.

As for OP, go with two 1200w PSUs or a 1300 + 1000. The psu combination you have may work fine but if all things peak out at the same time you could run into issues. Better to have more and not need it than the other way around  

[dloganbill]

Thanks.  If my cards will ever show up, I'll be able to start testing things out.  I prefer to keep PSU load under 90%.  If run steady above that point, I'll upgrade the 850W.

Which version of BAMT are you running that isn't compatible with R9 cards?  It was my understanding that the last 3 versions of litecoin BAMT were somewhat optimized for R9 cards.  V1.5 includes the latest version of Catalyst.

Also, how do you remote into BAMT from work?  That is one piece of the puzzle I haven't looked into yet that I want to incorporate.

[dloganbill]

Well I got nervous today and decided to go ahead and return the 850W PSU and buy a 1050W Seasonic. That should be plenty of overhead.

New plan:
1300W SuperNOVA will power motherboard, CPU, RAM, and three Tri-X 290 GPUs
3*300W+150W=1050W
1050W/1300W=81%

1050W Seasonic will power remaining three GPUs
3*300W=900W
900W/1050W=86%

I'll update the original post to reflect this.

[eCoinomist]

Seriously, 6 R9 290X in one board is overkill and expensive to build by the time you add in all the power supplies.
These 290's are extremely power hungry and heat up like crazy. Even if you manage to get it up and running stable (unlikely), it will be super heated and probably break down or have issues within months.

Just do some cost analysis for yourself, using a standard cheap Asus or AsRock mobo which sells under $69 and can ran 4 GPUs is a much better option in my experience. Saves you money, troubles, headache, time fiddling around and most importantly, has been proven by many to run stable over extended periods.

My 3 GPUs setups have been running smooth for over a year now. And I'm very certain that it's cheaper per Mhash than building 6 GPU rigs for the same cards, no matter what card you use, be it R9 280x, or 290 series.

[dloganbill]

Yes I'm new at this and I may eat my words later, but I really disagree.

Everything I've read about these tri-x cards show they run very cool. Totally different animal in comparison to reference coolers.

Secondly, I view the "rig" as an overhead expense. (Motherboard, CPU, and ram)
Think of it from a business perspective. The GPUs are called workers  . If I want to run a business, I have to first by a building to put workers. Profitability per building for three workers is not as good as 6 workers in the same building. And the manager is key to any successful business.

[paulcipher]

I'd tend to agree with the ecoinomist about running fewer cards on one rig and more rigs. My five card (280x) are a pain in the ass as compared to my three card 7950 rig. The three card rig has run problem free for a long while now whereas the five card rig there is always some issue I'm looking into. I understand your point and a lot of people run six card rigs but with as cheap as mobos, ram and cpu's are, it's really not a big deal to run more rigs with fewer cards... I'm pretty sure it's more cost effective to but I haven't done a spreadsheet yet to prove it!

I'm actually using SMOS which as someone pointed out is set up for the R9 cards out of the box. Just have to make sure you edit the crontab to turn off the auto donating. Otherwise it's been really rock solid for me.

And as far as SSH'ing in from work I just set up port forwarding on my wireless router so I can hit the rig from the outside world.

Good luck, get a bottle of asprin cuz you'll need it for all the headaches you're about to endure!

[dloganbill]

You may be right. I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Time will tell.

Besides, if it were easy, everybody would be doing it right?