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srothman

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So whilst I know finding any sort of proper hardware is dang near impossible at the moment, I've started looking at getting together a shopping list for a small rig of my own, to build up as and when I get some money back from the existing mining operations I have.

Currently, I'm running 2 x 1050ti and 1 x HD7850 off of my home PC. It's working well, and with the little investment I've had to do (roughly about 1000 bucks in bartered goods) to get the NVidia cards, it's proving worth the effort.

What I have in mind is to get a replacement mobo and CPU for my home PC, and use my existing board and CPU for my mining rig. Turns out my I can slap 5 cards onto my existing mobo, so would rather keep this for mining, and buy a replacement workstation board and CPU.

I'll have to replace the PSU, and this is where I need some advice. Considering I will (want to) ultimately run 5 cards, likely the two 1050ti's and then a 1080 I have on the way, and then either two more 1080s or RX480s if they ever become available again, what size PSU should I spec it at? 1000w+?

I'll buy 4GB replacement RAM for the miner too, and a 500GB-ish drive. Is there benefit in considering an SSD, or not really worth the extra $$$?
 
Disclaimer: I'm also new in the mining game, so my comments are mostly based on reading and early experience.

Board: Just because it has 5 slots doesn't mean it will drive 5 cards. Do some googling to see if others have had success. There were a issues when the new chipsets and boards came out. Some are fixed with BIOS updates and settings.

PSU: You want Gold or Platinum due to efficiency and quality. Power is going to be an ongoing cost so you need to be smart about it. You also want something reliable. 6 cards doing nothing due to a cheap PSU adds up quickly. Most suggestions I've seen say 1000w for 5-6 cards and check the draw at the wall with a watt meter. You can also combine 2 smaller PSUs with an add2psu device or a simple paper-clip jumper.

4GB RAM should be fine, as is a bottom end Celeron (just needs to drive the OS). I went with a 120GB SSD because it's "cheap" enough and the convenience of quick installs of the initial OS, drivers and apps along with updates and boot times was worth it for me. If your board supports it you can also go with a M.2 SSD which is one less thing dangling off the board.
 
A 850W PSU can run most rigs with decent settings. Meaning you don't just let it run but find the sweet spot between power usage and performance. If you need more for a 5th or 6th card you can add a cheap 400W. In that case I'll go for a 650W to drive the 3rd to 6th cards instead. Also consider underclocking your CPU.

500GB hard drives are becoming hard to find. No you don't really need an SSD and they have little use when your mining is over while 1TB drives can function as storage. The only instance I've heard it helping is when downloading the blockchain, but we are talking people with 1Gb links here and not dsl.

The main problem with motherboards is running cards with a riser in 1x mode. Some work and some just don't while others have to be set from automatic 16x mode to 1x mode. If all else fails you can just plug them directly into the 16x slots.
 
so i am busy building my rig, and been looking around for a powerful power supply....
now i am thinking maybe i should get 1 power supply now and another one later...
can someone recomand a good power supply?
 
OK so im taking the plunge and going to conservatively (depending on your definition of the word) invest in Cryto.

What is your opinion on the following parts, note I have already a Intel 6th Gen i3 6100, DDR4Ram and an SSD. My current board (only has 3 slots) is not sufficient and so too my 500W PSU is not sufficient for a 6 GPU rig.

What are your thoughts on these items?

Mboard

5x GPU's

Im choosing the mini because Im hoping that the board can accomodate all 5 without the need for risers, please correct me if im wrong

and this PSU

Now i realise I will be investing R16K into these items to make a mere R2800 per month, and assuming worst case scenario that I draw the full 850W from the PSU (unlikely) ilbe spending R850 in electricity. Roughly R2K per month ie 8months to recoup outlay.

Is there a more profitable way to spend R16K than this method?
 
Last edited:
stretty said:
Mboard

5x GPU's

Im choosing the mini because Im hoping that the board can accomodate all 5 without the need for risers, please correct me if im wrong
Click to expand...
That board only has 2 16x slots so you'll still need to use risers for the other 3 plus the card is a 2 slot design so the first 16x slot will cover the one 1x slot.
 
Swa said:
That board only has 2 16x slots so you'll still need to use risers for the other 3 plus the card is a 2 slot design so the first 16x slot will cover the one 1x slot.
Click to expand...

Ah dammit, i read in the noob thread that it doesnt matter if the slot is 16x or 1x, that the card will work regardless (ie no need for risers) thanks for picking up the dual slot size, id only be able to fit 3 in. dammit. Whats the best board for no riser setup? i dont want to have all that bulk around.
 
stretty said:
Ah dammit, i read in the noob thread that it doesnt matter if the slot is 16x or 1x, that the card will work regardless (ie no need for risers) thanks for picking up the dual slot size, id only be able to fit 3 in. dammit. Whats the best board for no riser setup? i dont want to have all that bulk around.
Click to expand...
I don't know who wrote that. A 16x card will fit in a 1x slot if it's an open slot but there are few specialised motherboards like that and since most cards are dual slot few configurations can run without risers.
 
stretty said:
OK so im taking the plunge and going to conservatively (depending on your definition of the word) invest in Cryto.

What is your opinion on the following parts, note I have already a Intel 6th Gen i3 6100, DDR4Ram and an SSD. My current board (only has 3 slots) is not sufficient and so too my 500W PSU is not sufficient for a 6 GPU rig.

What are your thoughts on these items?

Mboard

5x GPU's

Im choosing the mini because Im hoping that the board can accomodate all 5 without the need for risers, please correct me if im wrong

and this PSU

Now i realise I will be investing R16K into these items to make a mere R2800 per month, and assuming worst case scenario that I draw the full 850W from the PSU (unlikely) ilbe spending R850 in electricity. Roughly R2K per month ie 8months to recoup outlay.

Is there a more profitable way to spend R16K than this method?
Click to expand...

You will be investing in cards that will soon be unable to hash properly (or at speed) to be able to make the money back in your investment. I suggest doing some more research.

As for the PSU, you can run 2x750w to the same motherboard, you just need a device like Add2PSU to power on both at the same time. For 5 cards you'd need the power
 
stretty said:
OK so im taking the plunge and going to conservatively (depending on your definition of the word) invest in Cryto.

What is your opinion on the following parts, note I have already a Intel 6th Gen i3 6100, DDR4Ram and an SSD. My current board (only has 3 slots) is not sufficient and so too my 500W PSU is not sufficient for a 6 GPU rig.

What are your thoughts on these items?

Mboard

5x GPU's

Im choosing the mini because Im hoping that the board can accomodate all 5 without the need for risers, please correct me if im wrong

and this PSU

Now i realise I will be investing R16K into these items to make a mere R2800 per month, and assuming worst case scenario that I draw the full 850W from the PSU (unlikely) ilbe spending R850 in electricity. Roughly R2K per month ie 8months to recoup outlay.

Is there a more profitable way to spend R16K than this method?
Click to expand...

Lemme stop you right there.

Good, now go and buy the coins and enter crypto.

Stay out of the mining
 
Thor187 said:
Lemme stop you right there.

Good, now go and buy the coins and enter crypto.

Stay out of the mining
Click to expand...
Says the guy who just recently asked about over 100 cards...
 
Swa said:
Says the guy who just recently asked about over 100 cards...
Click to expand...
At that level mining is profitable, and he already has a massive MASSIVE investment in mining, it makes sense.

For someone wanting to drop a couple a of grand, I would also suggest rather buying and trading for a profit.

Turning a profit at the moment with anything than a "serious" right is going to take forever, and likely not worth it.

As for the trading, I made $60 off of a $15 investment on Poloniex in the space of a couple of hours. It can be done. Econ 101... buy low, sell high(er), rinse and repeat.
 
srothman said:
At that level mining is profitable, and he already has a massive MASSIVE investment in mining, it makes sense.

For someone wanting to drop a couple a of grand, I would also suggest rather buying and trading for a profit.

Turning a profit at the moment with anything than a "serious" right is going to take forever, and likely not worth it.

As for the trading, I made $60 off of a $15 investment on Poloniex in the space of a couple of hours. It can be done. Econ 101... buy low, sell high(er), rinse and repeat.
Click to expand...
Well atm everyone is just looking at Ethereum but they're forgetting there are a lot of other currencies out there. Some are dirt cheap and can be mined easily but will rise in value.
 
Swa said:
Well atm everyone is just looking at Ethereum but they're forgetting there are a lot of other currencies out there. Some are dirt cheap and can be mined easily but will rise in value.
Click to expand...
Will is an opinion there's no guarantee it will rise.

That said, if you got money to burn then yes there is a lot of potential with other coins, but unlikely to pay off vs buying them straight up.
 
Last edited:
Thor187 said:
Will is an opinion there's no guarantee it will rise.

That said, if you got money to burn then yes there is a lot of potential with other coins, but unlikely to pay off vs buying them straight up.
Click to expand...
The potential is you still have the hardware so you haven't put in much of an investment as opposed to when buying them.
 
bar1 said:
so i am busy building my rig, and been looking around for a powerful power supply....
now i am thinking maybe i should get 1 power supply now and another one later...
can someone recomand a good power supply?
Click to expand...

I am still looking for a PSU....any good deals out there?
 
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