Hi everyone,
This thread started out with me trying to ask for help building my own mining rig, since mining is a highly specialized deal. I was not able to find off-the-shelf PC that is cost-efficient (I did find
some) and neither did the
wiki page help much.
Reasons I felt being some of them weren't within my budget or that in the age of GPU-Mining, CPU/RAM Power and other apparels are of less importance, the cost of these could go into more
GPU power or simply lessen the burden of the investment by having a lower return of investment.
I also found
a few other similar threads that eventually help me decide on what I'll be building in a few days from now. Many thanks to grndzero and many others who have been nothing but a great help to such a DIY-PC newbie like me to actually putting together one by myself.
I've found myself thinking of building more rigs with a focus of balancing cost-effective with future upgrade option and thus will continue to keep this tread alive with my findings and possibly discussions with many experts from this forum. I also intend to consolidate the different guides/treads/builds that are around into this one tread so that it'll be a lot easier for everyone who'd need this info.
Hopefully this tread will be of help to new people like myself in this massively confusing and technical world and also serve as an updated guide between the same fast-paced PC world and Bitcoin Mining world.
This is not yet complete but I intend for it to. Let me know what you think about it and give me suggestions and feedbacks. I gotta go get some sleep now and do some other stuff.
1. Before you start
You have to ask youself where is your balance for this machine, is this a
- Dedicated Mining Rig
- Mining/Gaming Rig
- Entry/Trial Mining Rig
Head over to
here and see some of the rigs that people are showing off and discussing to have a better idea of what I meant by balance.
2. Budget
After you've decided, you'll want to have a rough gauge of the amount of budget you'd want to throw into building this rig. The general guide is that don't spend over $1 per Mhash/s for your rig or it might not even be profitable enough to cover it's own cost in future [subjective] ($0.75/(Mhash/s) for best but hard to achieve)
3. Picking out the stuff
After budgeting you can have a general idea of how much Mhash/s will you be generating from this rig, with that we can start off with the Graphics Card (GPU) which is the core of generating Bitcoins, there isn't really much to say here as the Hardware Comparison Chart shows all the hashing rates for most of the modern cards.
The rest of the components are discussed but subject to availability in your local store, I agree to the general consensus of not accepting backorders as the difficulty adjustments recently are going all over the place and it is becoming very difficult to grasp the situation and make any predictions. The calculations that you've made would be best carried out as soon as possible.
- 3.1 Graphics Card
-
Hardware Comparison Chart -
5830 @ 320 Mhash/s -
5850 @ 340 Mhash/s -
Best GPU for price - 3.2 Motherboard
- 3.3 Processor
- 3.4 PSU
-
Best PSU to buy? - 3.5 Other Stuff
- RAM
- HDD
- OS
- Windows
- Mac
- Linux
-
LinuxCoin -
Ubuntu 11.04 Natty 64bit Headless Bitcoin mining with ATI 11.5 binary driver -
Ubuntu Natty Narwhal 11.04 Mining Guide / HOWTO - MISC
4. Build Treadsbuilding a mining rig with $1800Building a 4x GPU setup. Need some adviceWhat I Learned from Building 3x5850 Rigs; May 2011Building first time under $1000 rigBest bang for the buck? Whole rigBest Coin/Buck rig V24x Radeon HD 6990Problem running 4x 5830, please help!5. References & OthersWindows Sidebar Gadget Supports (Deepbit/Slush/Eligius/BTCMine/BTCGuild)FOR SALE: PCIe 1x & 16x Extender Cables, Mining Chassis & GPU Dummy PlugsPCI-e 1x Extender not work in 16x connectorAuto Run Miners, Run Miners in Background/as Service?run your miners invisibly with different arg when pc idle and pc used (Download)run your miners invisibly only when pc idle (Download here)How To Open 6 Terminals, Set GPU Clocks, And Start POCLBM On Ubuntu Startup???Whitepixel breaks 28.6 billion password/secSapphire ATI Radeon HD5850 Xtreme 1 GB ReviewP.S If you found my post helpful, feel free to send me a tip | 13kHaYGkF9W5xNjF2Ck5hTgVR9MNjr8c3U |
P.P.S I realized I've quickly transited from a rig-building consolidation to looking more like a simple newbies guide so I've started
this tread instead so I may continue updating here with my rig-building stuff.
EDIT: I've been pretty busy learning more stuff and updating the Beginner's Thread and have been lacking in this thread. However, I've added many links here regarding builds as I try to optimize my build and future builds.
Original PostHi everyone,
I'm in this weird position and need some help.
Where I stand,
1. I'm in need of a new desktop (mine's 'bout 9 years old), albeit not desperately
2. I intend to build a least 1 mining rig
3. I don't have that much cash to burn
4. Worried about Bitcoin's collapse (thus breaking even)
So I this is what I think, I get a basic comp jam some GPU hashing power in there and get it mining (2.). If (4.) were to ever happen I'll rip the GPU out and build my 'new' desktop (1.), while the basic comp will be fitted with some basic GPU and be given away to my relative. In my mind this essentially utilize whatever 'cash' I have to play around with (3.)
Let me know if this makes sense to you and share some perspective
![Smiley](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
However, right now I'm presented with the problem of acquiring the mining rig, I've usually just bought desktops off the shelf and is not technically inclined to build my own desktop (which I know is cheaper [3.]). Seems like mining is highly specialized and there isn't much choice of readily available systems out there
I've read that GPU is the main focus on OpenCL mining and the subsidiary problems would be supplying it with power, cooling and the motherboard. What is less of a concern are the processor, RAM, OS and HDD.
So I came across a 2x5970 (Used) for $810 (good deal?) and would probably go for it. But I don't have any idea what other components to purchase for. Can you guys please help me make the most of my money, I'm not sure of how to complete the rig other than the GPU (From the comparison chart).
1. GPU - 2x5970 ($810)
2. Power Supply - Seasonic X-850 ?? 80+ Gold PSU ??
3. Mobo -
![Huh](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/huh.gif)
2xPCIe16x ?2.0/2.1/3??? This I totally have no idea
4. Processor - Sempron 140 ??
5. RAM - 1 GB ?? DDR2 or DDR3 ??
6. OS - I read there are readily scripted ubuntu/linux distro for mining. Please point me to the right thread plz
7. HDD - I also read that I may be able to just run (6.) off a USB stick/ext. HDD (Which I own) Plz clarify and point me to the right thread
8. Casing - I don't wish to go for good cooling casing, I might just leave the case open with my huge-ass fan on it
The stuff I have up here are from reading the forum. Please advice on the build and really, where can I get the stuff. Thanks in advance
![Smiley](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
If I bought some brand new gpu's, could I build a mining rig with some old computer parts.