Mining Build!

[Flyguygamer]

Okay, so the 280x is the best mining card for the price?

i think so.

[tek inpektor]

i think so.

I don't know what these numbers mean... but here's a graph.

 

https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison

[Flyguygamer]

I don't know what these numbers mean... but here's a graph.

 

https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison

The kH/s is the number to look at. The higher the number the faster you get coins. For kH/s per dollar the 280x is best.

[tek inpektor]

The kH/s is the number to look at. The higher the number the faster you get coins. For kH/s per dollar the 280x is best.

Okay.

[Mentalguy]

Okay.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2zPEY

[tek inpektor]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2zPEY

So you can't bottleneck a mining system with a low-end cpu?

[tek inpektor]

The kH/s is the number to look at. The higher the number the faster you get coins. For kH/s per dollar the 280x is best.

Wouldn't the 7000 series be better? They use a lot less power.

[Flyguygamer]

So you can't bottleneck a mining system with a low-end cpu?

For mining, bottlenecks aren't an issue. You can use risers that go from 1x to 16x and lose no mining power. Bandwidth and bottlenecks don't matter. 

[tek inpektor]

For mining, bottlenecks aren't an issue. You can use risers that go from 1x to 16x and lose no mining power. Bandwidth and bottlenecks don't matter. 

Okay.

[RuecanOnRails]

Try using this calculator http://bitcoinwisdom.com/litecoin/calculator

Don't forget to estimate out the incremental difficulty. You can find past difficulties at the bottom of this page http://bitcoinwisdom.com/litecoin/difficulty Try throwing a 4% in there and see what you're end results are.

 

You might be better off spending the money to buy the coins directly versus buying hardware to mine them.

[tek inpektor]

For mining, bottlenecks aren't an issue. You can use risers that go from 1x to 16x and lose no mining power. Bandwidth and bottlenecks don't matter. 

If I clock the cards lower would that effect the mining speed? Wouldn't that use less power also?

[Flyguygamer]

If I clock the cards lower would that effect the mining speed? Wouldn't that use less power also?

That will affect the speed. Just leave them at stock.

[RuecanOnRails]

If I clock the cards lower would that effect the mining speed? Wouldn't that use less power also?

 

Underclocking and undervolting will make it cheaper to run... But it may come at the cost of hashrates. A balance is needed to achieve a high hashrate when mining; Setting the max overclock is rarely the answer. Because you don't need it running at full on max, it does allow a little room to make some power savings without affecting the hashrate.

 

A quick example would be one of my 7970 which comes with a voltage of 1.256, can reach max hashrate and be downvolted to 1.075 while completely stable. This can vary from card to card and can be heavily based on luck/silicon lottery. Some will have locked voltages, or won't be able to under volt without crashing. It can be luck of the draw in finding a high performing GPU.

 

 

I recently made a post about finding the balanced core/mem clocks here if you would like to read it. http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/101021-overclocking-supposed-to-help-mining-right/

[tek inpektor]

That will affect the speed. Just leave them at stock.

So what software do you recommend?

[Flyguygamer]

So what software do you recommend?

cgminer 3.5

[tek inpektor]

cgminer 3.5

I've heard guiminer-scrypt is good. How do they compare.

[Flyguygamer]

I've heard guiminer-scrypt is good. How do they compare.

I am not sure but the Mining hardware comparison says that cgminer 3.5 is the best for that 280x.

[algoat]

I've heard guiminer-scrypt is good. How do they compare.

GUIminer is just a GUI built on top of cgminer.  After you've run the program, have a look in the GUIminer directory.  You'll actually see that the batch files it creates are just cgminer batch files.