APU for mining rig

[notaniel101]

Basically what I am looking at is building a proper mining rig, not some cards in my gaming pc. What I want to build it basically a milk crate miner with 4x 7950 when they come back in stock.

 

I was wondering if it would be possible to run an APU for windows/linux/ubuntu to run off of so that all of the cards could run at int 19 or 20, since that would make it very hard to actually even use windows to stop cg miner.

[helping]

I don't see why not

[Hans Christian | Teri]

The 7950's are not gonna come back in stock, sorry to break it to you. Also run Linux and control it via SSH.

[notaniel101]

The 7950's are not gonna come back in stock, sorry to break it to you. Also run Linux and control it via SSH.

You sure, cause that would be a shame, I was hoping to pick up two more so I would have a total of 4.

It makes sense because of the new r9/7 series being out. Guess I'll have to pick up one of those with an aftermarket cooler

[Hans Christian | Teri]

You sure, cause that would be a shame, I was hoping to pick up two more so I would have a total of 4.

It makes sense because of the new r9/7 series being out. Guess I'll have to pick up one of those with an aftermarket cooler

 

Yep, they're done for. R9 280X's is where it's at at the moment. You should be able to manage 730'ish kh/s per GPU but they do draw more power.

[notaniel101]

Yep, they're done for. R9 280X's is where it's at at the moment. You should be able to manage 730'ish kh/s per GPU but they do draw more power.

so something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127759&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

 

and do you happen to know how much one of these/3 or 4 would draw so I'd know about how big of a psu to get

[Hans Christian | Teri]

so something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127759&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

 

and do you happen to know how much one of these/3 or 4 would draw so I'd know about how big of a psu to get

 

Yep, the MSI cards are some of the best for the purpose. Personally I will be doing a build with 3 of those, a Sempron and a 1050W Seasonic 80Plus Gold PSU. I expect them to draw less than 300W per card leaving at least 150 watt which will be more than plenty for the rest of the system.

[RuecanOnRails]

If you have all the cards running in a single CGminer, you can easily regain control of your computer by pressing "Q" to stop and shut down CGminer.

 

Another option is if remote connect using logmein, splashtop, teamviewer, etc there is nearly no delay when moving the mouse around making it easy to operate the computer.

 

 

To estimate power, it's best to buy a watt meter, but you can roughly estimate 230 watts per GPU. A quality 1000 watt can power 4 GPU's. with little else running on the computer.

[algoat]

I use an apu for my main mining rig.  It does help a lot when you need to do other tasks on the computer, you just have to make sure you set it as the primary video source in the bios.   You won't be able to find any new 7950s with a reasonable price tag nowadays, but you could probably get the same hash rate with less total power using 3 X R9 290s for a little more than the 4 X 7950s.

[notaniel101]

I use an apu for my main mining rig.  It does help a lot when you need to do other tasks on the computer, you just have to make sure you set it as the primary video source in the bios.   You won't be able to find any new 7950s with a reasonable price tag nowadays, but you could probably get the same hash rate with less total power using 3 X R9 290s for a little more than the 4 X 7950s.

Thanks, out of curiosity, what apu/mbo are you using since all the ones I seem to fins are micro atx or don't have enough pci-e slot.

 

If you have all the cards running in a single CGminer, you can easily regain control of your computer by pressing "Q" to stop and shut down CGminer.

 

Another option is if remote connect using logmein, splashtop, teamviewer, etc there is nearly no delay when moving the mouse around making it easy to operate the computer.

 

 

To estimate power, it's best to buy a watt meter, but you can roughly estimate 230 watts per GPU. A quality 1000 watt can power 4 GPU's. with little else running on the computer.

 

I have a ups that has a built in watt meter and my 2 7950's run around 700 watts, do the new cards just run with that much less power?

[algoat]

Thanks, out of curiosity, what apu/mbo are you using since all the ones I seem to fins are micro atx or don't have enough pci-e slot.

 

My main mining rig has 3 pcie slots, I use the Asus F2A55-M.  I don't need any more than that because I would probably blow the fuse.  I do prefer micro atx, because they fit more easily in the milk crate.  The Asus F2A85-M Pro (matx) has 4 pcie slots.

[RuecanOnRails]

Thanks, out of curiosity, what apu/mbo are you using since all the ones I seem to fins are micro atx or don't have enough pci-e slot.

 

 

I have a ups that has a built in watt meter and my 2 7950's run around 700 watts, do the new cards just run with that much less power?

 

That seems rather high, have you tried undervolting the cards? How is the PSU efficiency? It may be wasting a lot of power where the amount pulled from the wall does not equal what the computer is using. I have 3 GPU's on my main, overclocked cpu, 6 HDD's, SSD, disc drive, and several server fans fans. While mining I get about 750watts pulled from the wall.

 

 

My main mining rig has 3 pcie slots, I use the Asus F2A55-M.  I don't need any more than that because I would probably blow the fuse.  I do prefer micro atx, because they fit more easily in the milk crate.  The Asus F2A85-M Pro (matx) has 4 pcie slots.

 

Even if a motherboard has multiple pcie slots, you still need to read the manual to find out if any of those pcie slots get auto disabled when other slots are used. Just because a motherboard has multiple ports and slots, they're not designed to have them all used at once, but rather to give you the choice and freedom over your set up.

[notaniel101]

That seems rather high, have you tried undervolting the cards? How is the PSU efficiency? It may be wasting a lot of power where the amount pulled from the wall does not equal what the computer is using. I have 3 GPU's on my main, overclocked cpu, 6 HDD's, SSD, disc drive, and several server fans fans. While mining I get about 750watts pulled from the wall.

 

 

 

Even if a motherboard has multiple pcie slots, you still need to read the manual to find out if any of those pcie slots get auto disabled when other slots are used. Just because a motherboard has multiple ports and slots, they're not designed to have them all used at once, but rather to give you the choice and freedom over your set up.

I have not tried under volting yet, but i;m fairly certain that it is no the psu since I have a 1000w Platinum.

 

For under volting would that be as simple as moving the slider for power limit % in msi afterburner to the left?

And for finding is the mobo auto disables the pcie slots, I downloaded the manual for the MSI FM2-A85XA-G43 and I am not sure where to look in the manual

 

edit: I under volted both cards by 10%, but still had to keep 1 card over volted through bios switch to continue getting 600 Khash. With the fan that is also running off the meter/ups off it draws around 650w

[FlakeyBanana]

A good tip would be to use usb flash drives as the OS ( use a Ubuntu live thingy)