4 ati 5970's on msi 890

[jjshabadoo]

Looking to max out my first mining rig and wondering if anyone has done this with a stable and clean set-up also, what if any OC they are able to get without pci-e extenders.

The rig will be in a very cool basement about 15-20c ambient without a case of course. I'm using two seasonic gold 750w power supplies and just a flash drive with linuxcoin and an athlon x2 with 2gb ram. Anyone configure the power supplies in a particular manner to even out the usage? I was thinking about plugging two cards plus mobo connector into one psu and then two cards, plus cpu connector into the other psu. I also have a wattage meter to measure draw of course.

Any help/thoughts would be appreciated.

[Definit]

not sure if that will cover 4 5970's respectably as far as OC'n them

i plan on running my rigs on BAMT w/ 3x 5970's on 1 1300w rosewill lightning. and to me thats close...

let me know how that works out for u tho.

[DeathAndTaxes]

not sure if that will cover 4 5970's respectably as far as OC'n them

i plan on running my rigs on BAMT w/ 3x 5970's on 1 1300w rosewill lightning. and to me thats close...

let me know how that works out for u tho.

Have you checked your actual power usage w/ a Kill-a-watt?  You might be surprised.

3x5970, sempron, MB w/ everything turned off in bios, 2x120mm fans, usb key, 80-Gold PSU .... 870W at the wall. At 90% efficiency that is only 780W DC. 

[Definit]

interesting... let me know how it works, cuz i have about 7 rigs i plan on adding in 3x5970's... on 1300w psu's each rig... if i can have room to run 4x5970's ima do it... since i have 22 5970's i need to get running, lol...

i have to get some thumbdrives to run BAMT first tho, since i got Win7 on hdd's at the moment...

[A_CardeN]

I am also very interested in this.  I have 1000w Majesty PSUs with a bundle of 5850 and 5870.  Right now I can only run 3 5850 per rig without running in to power issues.  But I do OC the HECK out of my cards, but I would like to know how to get more in there and use less power.

Good idea about disabling stuff in BIOS.  I am on W7 though, I suppose I should learn Linux.

[DeathAndTaxes]

1) Underclock the GPU RAM. You results may vary but I can get the 5970s down to 160MHz on the RAM.
2) Don't overclock too hard and don't overvolt.
3) Use a lightweight linux.  You save two places 1) system resources are ligher = lower electrical load and 2) you can use a usb key
4) Go into BIOS and turn off everything you need.  SATA controller, onboard sound, usb3.0, RAID controllers, serial, even MB LEDs  
5) Use a Sempron 140.  You don't need anything more powerful for linux.  I underclock mine to Ghz instead of 2.7GHz.
6) Use an 80-Plus power supply.
7) Don't go crazy with the fans.  I keep fans @ 70%, and use a pair of 120mm fans for extra cooling per rig.  You want your rigs cool but no need to get stupid.
Use a driver version that doesn't have CPU bug (or if you can't for windows use affinity to limit miner to single core).

Every little bit helps.  Sempron saves 20W compared to higher end CPU even on idle.  Underclocking RAM is a big one.  Looks like 20W to 40W per card.  Linux (both USB and lightweight system resources) is about 20W lighter compared to windows.  Getting rid of CPU bug helps even on Sepron and more on higher end CPU.  On my I5-2500K workstation it saves about 28W.  Turning off all the junk you don't need in bios saves me 15W (may vary a lot by bios).  Underclocking the CPU another 10W or so.  The difference between 80Plus-Gold and junk powersupply can be as much as 20%.  On a 800W DC load that is 160W. 

It all adds up though especially if you have 15 5970s and 5 rigs.  

[Definit]

most gracious for those tips/steps

i will make the check list for my future endeavours 

i have a lot to learn, but hopefully i'll get there soon with the help out here.

[jjshabadoo]

admittedly though, I don't know squat about linux. I thought linux coin with a guide would be easy, but already screwed up the bitcoin client I guess through restarts and now it won't run. I also can't set the stupid digital clock which is causing me issues. I was incredibly naive about dealing with linux as a newbie. I'm a hardware guy with plenty of experience overclocking and building gaming rigs, water cooled, etc. Anyway, I am into bitcoin for the long haul and will keep learning. I have cheap power and also want to see the network succeed over the long haul as I can't stand the international banking cartels.

I am also pretty freaked out about how frail the whole wallet system appears to be. I'd be crushed if I mined a bunch of coins and lost it all because of some stupid software screw up. That's one thing that really scares me about linux as well since I have no idea how to work with or troubleshoot it.

Should I avoid the whole linux coin and just run straight ubuntu and go from there?

Or am I in over my head and just stick to windows?

Thanks for the help.

[DeathAndTaxes]

A dedicated mining rig should have no wallet with coins in it, no reason for it. 

Enable encryption for your wallet.dat file and make routine backups.  What happens to the client is irrrelivent.  That single file contains your "wealth".  If you have a secure backup you can't lose your coins.

Using LinuxCoin as a dedicated mining platform isn't too tough.  If you want a general purpose computer for holding your wallet, surfing the web, playing flash games, mining, writing word docs, and playing mp3s then no Linuxcoin isn't for you.

Linuxcoin/BAMT are mining platforms.  Very industrial and intentionally spartan.  Personally I wish Linuxcoin was even more spartan.

[jjshabadoo]

This is just a dedicated rig for sure. I only want to use it to mine as efficiently and securely as possible. Will the coins still be sent to me from the mining pool as long as they have my address?

Also, I have two seasonic 750watt psus, will this cause issues or should I just buy a bigger psu, 1500 watt per se. I've never used dual psu's in a build before, so I was wondering if this might cause me issues or if it's as simple as just connecting one psu to mobo and two cards and then another psu to the other two cards.

Thanks for your help, would you suggest BAMT over linuxcoin?

[DeathAndTaxes]

This is just a dedicated rig for sure. I only want to use it to mine as efficiently and securely as possible. Will the coins still be sent to me from the mining pool as long as they have my address?

Also, I have two seasonic 750watt psus, will this cause issues or should I just buy a bigger psu, 1500 watt per se. I've never used dual psu's in a build before, so I was wondering if this might cause me issues or if it's as simple as just connecting one psu to mobo and two cards and then another psu to the other two cards.

Thanks for your help, would you suggest BAMT over linuxcoin?

For some reason (maybe my hardware) I could never get BAMT to work.  BAMT also doesn't support cgminer which IMHO is the best miner hands down (especially for headless dedicated rigs).

A mining pool can send coins to any wallet.  You could even give them your exchange deposit address and they will deposit it directly into your exchange account.   No need for a wallet on each rigs.

My rigs are dumb and powerful.  3x5970 running linux coin.  Startup script launches cgminer and loads configuration file.  All of it running from a usb key.  Once I got it running good on one rig I simply copied the usb key 5 times and loaded into on all the rigs (changing things like miner worker account in config file).  The rig does nothing except run cgminer 24/7.  If I need to make a change I simply edit the config file and restart cgminer.  If a rig crashes I power cycle it and it restarts mining automatically.  

As far as powersupply.  Two 750 should be more than enough for 4x5970s if you are using usb key and low end CPU.  The one which isn't connected to motherboard will need to have the "green wire" jumpered so it stays on.

[jjshabadoo]

Well since I've messed with linuxcoin I'm going to stick with it and see what I can do. I just modified an old case because I'd like this rig to be in a case so I can mess with it more easily and it has to be transported eventually to its final resting place. I gutted an old case entirely so it will be bare and get great flow.

I just finished that so now I'm going to assemble the rig and see if I can get this beast working. I forgot about jumping the other PSU, but I'm going to just work on getting two 5970's going with the single seasonic 750w.

Thanks for the tips for turning off the other stuff in the bios to save wattage. I also have a wattage meter, so I'll post some results when I'm done.

Back to work.

[jjshabadoo]

I can't run the bitcoin client without cpu usage going to 100% on linuxcoin 0.2.1b

[likuidxd]

Sorry I didn't get here sooner! Please, dear god, tell me you didn't do your idea as stated in the first post yet.
DO NOT plug in your 24 pin ATX power with one PSU and your 8 Pin CPU power with another! you will fry your mainboard!
The best way to do this is to run a 16 gauge wire from your secondary PSU to your primary connecting the power switch cables (takes some time and a bit of know how). Or, you can simply cross the power on to the ground on the 20 or 24 pin ATX power connector to enable it as an always on or switchable PSU.
Power on cable is green, ground is black
If you do it in the manner you suggested you will fry the mainboard and probably blow your PSU and GPU's. Could burn your house down to the foundation as well, who knows.

Make yourself something like this
http://www.mountainmods.com/bitspower-24-pin-atx-always-on-connector-p-520.html
Or just insert some spare 16g wire into the green pin and black pin.
If you're not concerned about modding it you can do this as well
http://www.expresshosting.net/howto/atx-powersupply-modification-auto-turnon.html

Oh, and also...
2x 750W PSU's is plenty to run 4 5970's and an x2 board