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DeathAndTaxes

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Gerald Davis

Quote from: P4man on December 20, 2011, 05:49:20 AM

FYI, that only applies to gaming. For bitcoin mining, the effect is even far far less. Bandwidth is a complete non issue for mining.

Aint that the truth. The perfect mining MB would be 6 (or at least 4) PCIe 16x (physical) slots spaced 3 slots apart which are only PCIe 1x electrical with a built in Atom/VIA/APU CPU and 2 DIMM slots. It would need ethernet, USB and nothing else. The sad thing is such a MB would never be built but it could cost next to nothing.

Get an extended rack mount case (they make them w/ up to 18 expansion slots) and you could rack up 6 single GPU cards or 4 dual GPU cards in a case with plenty of airflow. Meh it will never be built though.

P4man

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Activity: 518

Merit: 500

Quote from: ?? on ??

I don't want anyone thinking I did not do my homework first.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_5870_PCI-Express_Scaling/
This shows that reduced bandwidth does not affect it much.

FYI, that only applies to gaming. For bitcoin mining, the effect is even far far less. Bandwidth is a complete non issue for mining.

Anyway, if you can get those cards for $12 and you have cheap/free electricity (P4 idle power consumption is high) it might be worth a shot. Yes you will need a new PSU, but you'd need that anyhow. Or you can create a frankenstein dual PSU solution if you have another spare PSU lying around with an adequate 12v rail.

Unacceptable

legendary

Activity: 2212

Merit: 1001

Quote from: Transisto on December 19, 2011, 02:14:54 AM

Quote from: worldinacoin on December 19, 2011, 01:27:30 AM

Quote from: Transisto on December 18, 2011, 10:04:09 PM

Quote from: ?? on ??

...How would it not be worth it if it worked and was free?

That PCI-PCIE you're refering to is more than 30$ shipped,
I've seen used board with cpu and 2-3 pci-e 1x for less than that.

brand new am3-ddr3 with four pcie for ~50$ ...

What's the board's name? Will sure like to get one.

quick search =
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138324
Four slot @ 39.99 (mir) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135272

Search for yourself ! many am3 board for ~ 60$ everywhere, no doubt they get at 45$ on special.

I know about cheap mobos Roll Eyes

Thanks ssateneth for the link,I completely forgot about those,god I'm derrrr sometimes Cheesy

Yeah wattage draw may be a big problem,think I'll wait for FPGA prices to drop instead.

Transisto

donator

Activity: 1731

Merit: 1008

Quote from: ?? on ??

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135272: $40 with rebate is the motherboard I am looking at for a system to put my old gpu's in. I could build an equal priced intel system but the motherboard is inferior.

Points taken. The clincher was the psu. I didn't even think of that. Its an old 250W... would not work.

Whatever you learned today, next time do some research before posting.

sadpandatech

hero member

Activity: 504

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^^ Not to mention, if you are planning to use the same PSU that is as old as that hardware, it is likely not capable of powering much itself..

Newer mobo, ram, cpu for ~$30 here; https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/computer-parts-random-stuffsapphire-hd-5830mobos-cpus-ram-junk-53893

DeathAndTaxes

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Activity: 1218

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Gerald Davis

Quote from: ?? on ??

Quote from: P4man on December 18, 2011, 07:37:20 AM

YOu can. There are PCI boards that have a PCI-e connector (and controller). It should work in theory, but Im not sure it will in practice and even less if its worth the money compared to a cheap PCI-E board with some old cpu.

Quote from: P4man on December 18, 2011, 07:37:20 AM

I have tried, it is really not worth the money with mobos so cheap nowadays.

It is really old. From when the pentium 4's just came out. 10 years+ I think. How would it not be worth it if it worked and was free?
I think I will at least try it just to see the results. The computer is worthless practically

Because it is isn't free.

PCI -> PCIe converters run $30 to $50 ea. So to power say 3 GPU is $90 to $150. You can buy a new MB, CPU, RAM for less than that. Worse your P4 has horrible power consumption even when in idle so that wasted electricity adds up month after month. Lastly GPU pull significant wattage from PCIe slot. Far more than PCI was designed for. At best you may have system instabilities, at worst you destroy the GPU. If you wanted to save a couple bucks I would buy a MB used before I messed around w/ ancient PCI computers.

P4man

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Activity: 518

Merit: 500

And does it work with a high power videocard? Id be quite concerned about that, as its not actively powered. PCI-E cards can theoretically pull 75W from the motherboard (in practice it seems to be ~30W), I wonder if that adapter or the PCI bus for that matter, can handle that.

ssateneth

legendary

Activity: 1344

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I bought a PCI slot to PCI-E slot adapter about a week back from ebay (some guys in china), looked up the chip it uses and it uses this. http://www.plxtech.com/8112 and here is what I bought http://www.ebay.com/itm/150619756121?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 the bridge chip sits on the reverse side. It accepts up to 16x width cards, but operates at 1x speed under pci-e 1.1 specs. In reality, its about 0.5x speed 1 way since PCI bus is limited to 133MB/sec total bandwidth, no seperate lanes for upload and download. PCI-E 1x 1.1 is 250MB/sec for download and 250MB/sec for upload.

Transisto

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Activity: 1731

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Quote from: worldinacoin on December 19, 2011, 01:27:30 AM

Quote from: Transisto on December 18, 2011, 10:04:09 PM

Quote from: ?? on ??

...How would it not be worth it if it worked and was free?

That PCI-PCIE you're refering to is more than 30$ shipped,
I've seen used board with cpu and 2-3 pci-e 1x for less than that.

brand new am3-ddr3 with four pcie for ~50$ ...

What's the board's name? Will sure like to get one.

quick search =
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138324
Four slot @ 39.99 (mir) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135272

Search for yourself ! many am3 board for ~ 60$ everywhere, no doubt they get at 45$ on special.

worldinacoin

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Activity: 756

Merit: 500

Quote from: Transisto on December 18, 2011, 10:04:09 PM

Quote from: ?? on ??

...How would it not be worth it if it worked and was free?

That PCI-PCIE you're refering to is more than 30$ shipped,
I've seen used board with cpu and 2-3 pci-e 1x for less than that.

brand new am3-ddr3 with four pcie for ~50$ ...

What's the board's name? Will sure like to get one.

Unacceptable

legendary

Activity: 2212

Merit: 1001

Quote from: Transisto on December 18, 2011, 10:04:09 PM

Quote from: ?? on ??

...How would it not be worth it if it worked and was free?

That PCI-PCIE you're refering to is more than 30$ shipped,
I've seen used board with cpu and 2-3 pci-e 1x for less than that.

brand new am3-ddr3 with four pcie for ~50$ ...

You got a link??? No idea they made such a thing.

I have 7 old PC's layin around,10+ years old,maybe I'll get em mining with some cheap cards from ebay Wink

Transisto

donator

Activity: 1731

Merit: 1008

Quote from: ?? on ??

...How would it not be worth it if it worked and was free?

That PCI-PCIE you're refering to is more than 30$ shipped,
I've seen used board with cpu and 2-3 pci-e 1x for less than that.

brand new am3-ddr3 with four pcie for ~50$ ...

P4man

hero member

Activity: 518

Merit: 500

Quote from: ?? on ??

It is really old. From when the pentium 4's just came out. 10 years+ I think. How would it not be worth it if it worked and was free?
I think I will at least try it just to see the results. The computer is worthless practically

Dont know what the PCI/PCI-e controller costs, but it wont be free. You can probably buy a PCI-e motherboard combo on ebay for about the same. I just got a Athlon64 board + cpu for 20 euro and it has 2 PCI-E slots.

Moreover, I wouldnt be entirely sure the thing would actually work.

worldinacoin

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Activity: 756

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I have tried, it is really not worth the money with mobos so cheap nowadays.

P4man

hero member

Activity: 518

Merit: 500

YOu can. There are PCI boards that have a PCI-e connector (and controller). It should work in theory, but Im not sure it will in practice and even less if its worth the money compared to a cheap PCI-E board with some old cpu.

Unacceptable

legendary

Activity: 2212

Merit: 1001

Nope,it can't be done.If your PC didn't come with them on the mobo,you can't "add" them in any way.

You can look for a new mobo that has PCI express (x4 or x8 even) that may,very unlikely,use that CPU.

jjames888

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