Project: Royal Mine

[wndsr]

Nice setup you have!. Where did you buy the PCI-E 1X to 16X Risers from?. they are crazy expensive £20-£30.

I am mining litecoin at the monent on 2 old 6970, getting 450khs each.

That's not too bad. I take it you have seen the Litecoin Hardware guide?

I got my 1x > 16x riser from here and paid for the express delivery. It came from China via DHL Tracked and only took two days, pretty impressive. I'm going to buy some more from them I think, just a shame they don't do 16x > 16x ones.

Ha, that's why mine is in the garage. Nice build, I like the face you hacksawed a case in two.

Bet your garage is nice and warm - my cellar certainly is. We've not needed to have the radiators on in the living room due to all the heat rising.

 

[wndsr]

That's good then.

Hoping that the 280's don't pump out as much heat as the 7990 and 290's.

 

[wndsr]

I want to be able to toast my bread on it soon

 

[wndsr]

I know, it'll be awesome.

 

[wndsr]

Nicely done, many Doges for you!

Makes me sad that my 780 Ti's only churn out 530kh/s and AMD cards for half the price will do almost double that.
So very tempted to pick up a few of the R9 280x's that are on sale at the moment and get a rig going full time.

I'll be doing it - just need the sale of 7990 to hurry up so I can use the proceeds of that to fund three of them!

Even in the worst case scenario you are left with a few good quality cards that can be sold on whilst they're still pretty new and some other bits of kit that you can flog for a few quid. Keep all your 'non-core' stuff (as I've named it) to a minimum to reduce costs. Cheap CPU memory, HDD and motherboard.

I was sceptical going into this, but now I'm on the journey I do honestly believe it's worthwhile.

I swear this mining thing was invented by hardware vendors... It nearly seems like a good idea...

Would be extremely funny if it turned out AMD were the biggest holders of Bitcoins

 

[wndsr]

I cannot see any link to the riser seller, maybe because I'm on the mobile. I am going to get my old 6870 up and running I just need a cheap motherboard to hold all 4.

Sorry Dave, I'm a noob and forgot to link it. Bit of an update here... I bought 5 more riser cables today from eBay (link) but my original purchase was from Amazon (link). The one from Amazon seems great for what it is - will update on the eBay ones when they arrive.

 

[wndsr]

Thanks, I purchased 3 non powered ones I hope they still work. They only cost less then £10 so not a big loss if they don't.

!calcgbp 4500
<poolBitch>: At current difficulty of 2,849.546, your expected LTC earnings are: 1.59 [23.71GBP] per day, 11.12 [165.81GBP] per week, and 47.65 [710.5GBP] per Month. GBP Values Based Off Current LTC Value of $24.44003

Nice I want 4.5 also.

They should work without power but just be careful as I've heard the non-powered ones can burn out as the motherboard isn't supplying them enough power. Apparently the motherboard supplies about 75W of power in PCIx16 but PCIx1 doesn't do that.

That's mining LTC alone too - remember there are other currencies that could potentially be more profitable in the short term

 

[wndsr]

Can I ask how you are getting 4.5 MHz?

290's do around 800-850 max "ish" x 3
7900 - 1500 Max "ish" probably less

That total at max 4 MHz

Course, it's all averages so is definitely hit and miss from time to time.

My 290's do around 880 average and each core on the 7990 is doing around 770. My rig is off at the moment as we're sorting the cellar out and making a proper 'mining area' but when it's back on I'll get the exact config I am using.

Also worth mentioning that my current setup has been allowed to churn and burn without me giving much thought to heat. The rig does get really hot (the 7990 was running about 95-100 all night) so a lot of people would sacrifice the extra hash because of the heat.

 

[wndsr]

Oh - and I have just bought 3 x R9 280's that I plan to push to over 750kH/s each.

 

[wndsr]

CPU has absolutely no impact on mining at all. It's not like gaming where the CPU compliments the GPU - the CPU simply allows the computer to be turned on.

I advise get the cheapest HDD, CPU and Memory, a standard Motherboard that will give you as many ports as you need (six in my case) and the best PSU you can afford.

 

[wndsr]

Thanks wndsr! Might use a similar build to yours, since you've pretty much nailed it

A lot of people say I'm crazy getting into this now, but I'd rather take the chance with the possibility of making money from it (and I think it's a very strong possibility too).

Maybe start off with just a few cards then expand depending on how you feel. I'm well known for testing the water with both feet

That rig is madness mate. Are you getting rid of the 7990 and using the same mobo/CPU for those 3 x 280s? Is it even possible?

Aye that's right - the 7990 sale has funded the 280X's. They'll all be on risers and the board shouldn't have a problem recognising six cards providing they're all connected properly and the risers are powered.

Only one way to find out though I reckon

 

[wndsr]

Time for a quick update.

The past day or two hasn't been very good as I have been struggling to get my PCI risers to work properly with my motherboard. I did however buy 3 more GPU's - R9 280 by MSI so I will get them fitted shortly.

After extensive testing I have concluded that my botherboard is not designed to have all PCI ports running at the same time, so lanes become disabled if a component is occupying another one on the board.

I've bought myself a new motherboard specifically designed for Mining so I shouldn't be having any more problems. I still think the primary GPU needs to be on a full length (PCIx16) riser for it to work so I have bought one of them.

I now also have a wooden frame to lift the cards on top of the case.

Father Wndsr helped with this one as I'm awful at DIY type stuff.







I've also put an old desk up in the cellar so the mine has it's own little area now, rather than it balancing on the top of a book shelf.

Temperatures now are phenomenally better too. No card has yet gone over 70 degrees and they've been running full load for over 12 hours now. Very impressed with them.

Will update some more tomorrow and remember to take more photos

 

[wndsr]

Just wait until I've got all six cards in tomorrow, then it will look pretty damn awesome!

I have indeed yeah. Wasn't "planned" this way though - basically by mining a coin and flogging it on eBay haha.