Mining 7970 with linuxcoin bounty [20 btc]

[jjiimm_64]

I am stuck using windoz until I can get linuxcoin to load drivers for the 79xx series cards.  

I know a little about the linux operating system, enough to get myself in trouble.

I could figure this out but do not have the time.

offering a 7 btc bounty for the first step by step instructions to make a 7970 run on linuxcoin linuxcoin-v0.2-final.iso.

you can leave out the steps for installing cgminer.


edit:  50 bucks is not enough??? how about 75.  bounty raised to 15btc

edit:  bounty upped to 20 btcs

[jjiimm_64]

moved it up to 7 BTC

[Davyd05]

free bump at the least, you should troll or just pm an existing member who has posted about running similar setups in the various 79xx mining threads, who knows lots of nice people willing to help you out.

I'd assume you're issue is porting the new drivers for the 79xx series cards, I also heard it took a while for a stable driver to appear, but yeah troll the threads, it doesn't hurt to try as long as you ain't over volting lol

[cuz0882]

Is there even a reason to mine with linux?

[jjiimm_64]

Is there even a reason to mine with linux?

Yes, 
1. easy headless rigs.   with windoz you loose temp control
2. operating system on a usb
3. new operating system up in 3 minutes.  nothing to mining in 4 minutes
4. ssh access to the rigs.

do I need to go on?

[m3sSh3aD]

Is there even a reason to mine with linux?

Yes, 
1. easy headless rigs.   with windoz you loose temp control
2. operating system on a usb
3. new operating system up in 3 minutes.  nothing to mining in 4 minutes
4. ssh access to the rigs.

do I need to go on?

It's Free

Windowz SUCKS

Better/friendlier support

The list goes on

[Inaba]

Why would someone mine with Windows on a dedicated rig?  I can understand it if it's your desktop, but it's absolutely ludicrous to mine a dedicated rig with Windows.  

Hey Jim... if you want to send me a 7xxx card, I will get it working for you.

Or.. you could use my Natty guide and install the latest AMD drivers and it will probably work.

[jjiimm_64]

Why would someone mine with Windows on a dedicated rig?  I can understand it if it's your desktop, but it's absolutely ludicrous to mine a dedicated rig with Windows.  

Hey Jim... if you want to send me a 7xxx card, I will get it working for you.

Or.. you could use my Natty guide and install the latest AMD drivers and it will probably work.

do you mean this post?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7514.msg110331#msg110331

which does not address the 7 series cards

[Inaba]

No, the other one.  Dunno what the link is off hand, but it's the new version of the guide.

[jjiimm_64]

No, the other one.  Dunno what the link is off hand, but it's the new version of the guide.

reading the other post, it sounds like an entire operating system...  i just need the 7x drivers on linuxcoin, not trying to change everything.

[yochdog]

Why would someone mine with Windows on a dedicated rig?  I can understand it if it's your desktop, but it's absolutely ludicrous to mine a dedicated rig with Windows.  

I assume you are referring to the license cost?  Assuming you had access to unlimited licenses, any other reason why this would be ludicrous? 

[Inaba]

Yes.  Windows is unstable.  Resource hungry. Gaining remote access to your mining rigs is a major pain in the ass under windows vs Linux.  Lacks updates in a timely fashion (see the recent poclbm problems).

Mining is about money (for most people), why throw extra resources at a problem (mining for $$) when you don't have to?  Why complicate things by using a heavyweight OS to accomplish a specific task that can be handled with half the resources and 10x the speed?

[yochdog]

Yes.  Windows is unstable.  Resource hungry. Gaining remote access to your mining rigs is a major pain in the ass under windows vs Linux.  Lacks updates in a timely fashion (see the recent poclbm problems).

Mining is about money (for most people), why throw extra resources at a problem (mining for $$) when you don't have to?  Why complicate things by using a heavyweight OS to accomplish a specific task that can be handled with half the resources and 10x the speed?

Maybe I am stupid for using windows on all of my 25 miners......but I have had great luck keeping them all stable.  Most will mine for weeks on end with no issues whatsoever. 

There are a couple that have issues, but even then it is only once a week or so.

I am lucky enough to have access to as many licenses as I need, so the cost was a non issue. 

[bulanula]

I am lucky enough to have access to as many licenses as I need, so the cost was a non issue.

How ?

Thanks !

[Inaba]

Those machines require more hardware than a Linux install, so you paid more than you needed to.  A mining rig for me, without GPUs costs just under $130 w/o PSU.  How much does your Windows rig cost?

[yochdog]

Those machines require more hardware than a Linux install, so you paid more than you needed to.  A mining rig for me, without GPUs costs just under $130 w/o PSU.  How much does your Windows rig cost?

This was the beauty of it.....I was able to purchase Dell T3400 workstations, including license for an average of $110 a pop.  Was able to get around 18 of them. 

Each have 2 PCI slots, and a 550W PSU.  When I was using 5850's, everything was in place for "drop and go" mining. 

Now that I have moved to 5970's and 7970's, I am upgrading the PSU's, but still a killer way to get the infrastructure in place. 

[Inaba]

Err.. not really.  I'm not trying to crap on your setup, but your MH density is atrocious.  You are probably spending 3x - 4x as much on power as you need to, unless you get power for free? Even if you get power for free, and I know this is kind of hypocritical given the nature of bitcoin, but you are being environmentally irresponsible as well.  This is something I consider when building a rig - I know I'm being environmentally irresponsible mining in the first place, but if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it the cleanest I can.  2 cards per machine is not good.  You should be running 6 - 8 GPUs per motherboard/PSU to maximize your profit and minimize power consumtion, otherwise you are just wasting vast amounts of power powering the other components that are functionally useless to mining. 

So for that same $110 a pop, you could have purchased a 5 or 6 PCIe motherboard, cpu and ram.  Threw on a 1200w PSU and mined 6 or 7 GPUs... replacing basically 3 - 4 of the machines you have now, saving a net $100 or so in the process.  (Figuring $200 for a PSU, which may be a bit undervalued, at worst, it would be break even at $300 for a PSU).

[yochdog]

So for that same $110 a pop, you could have purchased a 5 or 6 PCIe motherboard, cpu and ram.  Threw on a 1200w PSU and mined 6 or 7 GPUs... replacing basically 3 - 4 of the machines you have now, saving a net $100 or so in the process.  (Figuring $200 for a PSU, which may be a bit undervalued, at worst, it would be break even at $300 for a PSU).

Please show me the way.  Would love to find GOOD hardware that cheap. 

My power is hydro-electric, so I really don't care how much I use......it has minimal impact on the environment (in terms of usage). 

Crap away my man.....always looking to improve operations. 

[yochdog]

 You are probably spending 3x - 4x as much on power as you need to, unless you get power for free?

Wanted to follow up on this as well.  

I run over 20,000 MH/s......I really doubt the extra CPU's, RAM, and HD (mostly SSD) are using 200-300% as much power as the GPU's.

I would venture I am maybe using 20% more than I need to versus an IDEAL setup, but most certainly not 300-400% more.  I hope that was a typo.  

[Inaba]

$54 Motherboard with rebate - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138303
$40 CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888
$10  RAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820576001
$16 USB Stick - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220504

A whopping $120 bucks for 4 slot mining rig (6 if you use PCI - PCIe adapters), giving you the ability to run up to 8 GPUs, though I would recommend 2 5970's and 2 5870's, maybe 3 5970's and 1 5870 depending on your PSU.

Throw in a rebated OCZ 1200w PSU for $225 and you got yourself a pretty rockin' system.  If you wanted to spend a few bucks more, you can find a 5 pcie mobo and either beef up your PSU a bit (if you can find a 1400w) or use two PSU's and power 3x 5970's and 2x 5870's.

As for additional power usage, you are using up 3x - 4x required power per machine, so it's 300%  - 400% of the required power for 6 - 8 GPUs respectively.  

I have a couple mobo's I run 6 cards on, though since Linux has an 8 GPU limit, most of them are 5870's.  Windows has a 4 GPU limit if I recall, or did they finally fix that glaring deficiency?