Hardware for a miners rig? (would have posted in hardare section but....)

[rhubear]

I had attempted to extend a video pc of mine that already has an Nvidia card in it to be my mining rig..... by putting a 6970 into it.   Didn't work, zero video output when booting PC!  Gotta confirm with Asus, MB manufacturer what is wrong, but I'm thinking probably that mixing AMD & NV cards is not going to work.

So that means I will have to build a seperate mining rig if I'm going to take mining seriously.   So far mining is very moreish!

Anyway, since I'm planning to get maybe 3 x 6970's for mining, it makes sense to get an AMD MB to go with that.   Looking at the higher spec MBs, I've looked at the Crosshair range.
But I know that I can run express16 cards off of any slots using extenders, so I CAN go for a lower spec MB, and fairly low spec CPU (quad maybe?).    I'm just wondering how much the overclocking capability of the newer MBs will help my overclocking efforts for mining??   Would the apparently very good overclocking of the extreme gaming MBs be of use to mining, or not enough bang for the buck?

I assume the 6970 has a double gpu, meaning that only 4 cards can be used in an OS that supports 8 gpus?  Am I correct that Linux (said to be a good mining OS) will only support 8 gpus?

I assume a 64bit OS is pointless for mining?

Just my thoughts getting my head straight for this pending project.   Any feedback appreciated.

[P4man]

A few things.
-You *can* mix amd and nvidia cards, at least on windows vista/7.
-64 bit OS does make some sense. For 3 GPUs , Im guessing a 32 bit will do, but for 4 or more, you definitely want a 64 bit OS.
-You dont want a quad core cpu. You basically dont need a cpu. Get a single core sempron or whatever is cheapest and lowest power.
-6970 is single GPU (one core). Its the 6990 thats dual.

Most important question; how much do you pay for electricity?

[rhubear]

A few things.
-You *can* mix amd and nvidia cards, at least on windows vista/7.

I can confirm that my MB (Asus M4N98TD EVO - http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4N98TD_EVO/) does only work with EITHER AMD or NV card installed.
In this case, doesn't depend on Windows.  The problem is in bootup as well.... the PC will boot, but zero video is output to the monitor - can't see it booting, can't see anything, but can hear Windows booting with its "loading tune".

I've tried making sure NV 560 is installed with driver etc first.  Then installed 6970 hardware.  Upon switching on (with DVI connector still in NV560 card), zero video.

If I uninstalled the 6970 from the board, NV560 springs into life again... behaves as I would expect.

Now I've tried taking out NV560, installing 6970, vwalla..... screen gets video output, works exactly as I would expect it to work.

OK, now this PC of mine is meant for CUDA video processing (which 6970 does not support of course), so will run this 6970 in this PC until I have built "miners rig" for it to go on.

-64 bit OS does make some sense. For 3 GPUs , Im guessing a 32 bit will do, but for 4 or more, you definitely want a 64 bit OS.
-You dont want a quad core cpu. You basically dont need a cpu. Get a single core sempron or whatever is cheapest and lowest power.
-6970 is single GPU (one core). Its the 6990 thats dual.

Most important question; how much do you pay for electricity?

OK thanks, I'll put 64bit Linux onto my mining rig.  Its been a long time since I've run Ubuntu Linux!  Will be interesting to do it again.  Used to be a fanatical Linux fan.
I'm guessing 64bit is needed for supporting more than 4G RAM?  Or is it useful also for the Hash processing?

I pay 12p/kwh (UK).  I want to start using alt energy sources as well to supplement mains.   I'm still not sure how cost effective this whole approach to mining is going to be..... in a way I hope that the value of Bitcoins goes up later!

 

[P4man]

OK thanks, I'll put 64bit Linux onto my mining rig.  Its been a long time since I've run Ubuntu Linux!  Will be interesting to do it again.  Used to be a fanatical Linux fan.
I'm guessing 64bit is needed for supporting more than 4G RAM?  Or is it useful also for the Hash processing? 

No need for more than 1GB. And rather than using ubuntu, consider LinuxCoin or BAMT;  pendrive distros specifically for mining.

I pay 12p/kwh (UK).

You will lose money at those prices.

in a way I hope that the value of Bitcoins goes up later!

Difficulty level will also go up.
With your electricity prices its not likely GPU mining will ever become profitable again for sustained periods. Id spend my money either on buying BTCs and hoping they go up; or look in to FGPAs. There is controversy if these guys are real or not; but we should know very soon and if they are not scammers, you will want to buy their product:
http://butterflylabs.com/

[worldinacoin]

Why not try Linuxcoin?  This will be easy to setup.