Topic: 10 - 15k in mining equipment (Read 5178 times)

You are probably using an older version of poclbm that doesn't have BFI_INT support. I also have the cards overclocked to the highest I could get on stock voltage. (930-1020MHz)

You can either update to the latest poclbm or try Phoenix: (developed by CFSworks and myself)
Phoenix Miner

I'm running a single 5870 right now (on poclbm not overclocked) and I'm only getting 290mhash out of it.  Jedi95 can you or someone please tell me how to get it up to the speeds listed at this site?

That's a lot harder to do since wattage can't be obtained from internal sensors like temperature can. It's also meaningless for me since I don't pay for electricity.

Nice, maybe add wattage used too to calculate electricity costs.

Nice monitoring page, it's much better than the one I threw together!  Are you planning on open-sourcing it?

The quad 5870 setup stats can be viewed here: (host alpha)
Multiminer cluster status

I think the wiki page is outdated, since there has been a large speed increase lately thanks to BFI_INT enabled miners.

Wow, nice setup jedi!  You must've had a heck of a deal on those 5780's to get four of them, and a complete build, under $1070.  Also, you're getting more MH/s than any of the listings on the wiki... is the wiki just horribly outdated?  Anyone want to update it?

It's possible to fit 4x 6990 in that motherboard, but cooling those cards is another matter entirely. Without something like PCI-E extenders there is no way that 375W cards are going to be able to function with highly restricted airflow.

Or no case at all. Mrb has blogged about 4 5970s on one board, with some "interesting" cooling... I assume that anything a 5970 (or four) can do, a 6990 can do as well.

Yes it should, and that's the route I'm going as well. However, you're going to need some kind of custom case setup for 4x 6990's in one system due to the power requirements.

Wow!  Thanks for the great info everyone!

Does anyone know if this motherboard:


would be capable of supporting 4x 6990's down the road should I want to upgrade?

Thanks!

jedi95, 1.88 ratio Mhash/Watt ... not bad. Lower the cpu's voltage and freq for an attemp to reach >1.9 

This setup worked great for me in terms of both Mhash/$ and Mhash/watt:

GPUs: 4x reference design 5870s.
These can be found used for about $200, but the downside is finding them with an intact warranty is difficult. If you prefer having a warranty you can substitute 4x 2GB 6950s and unlock them to 6970s. With recent mining developments (BFI_INT) the 69xx cards are more attractive than before. At $270 you can buy 4 of these for less than 2 6990s. Cheap 5850s are also an option, but most of the ones you can buy new don't use the reference cooler and as a result you can run into heat problems with a quad GPU setup. If you want to go the 2x5850 route you can substitute the motherboard and PSU for cheaper ones.


CPU: Cheapest AMD Sempron you can find - $39
You can go cheaper if you don't mind buying a used motherboard, but sadly AM2 4xPCI-E motherboards are extremely hard to find with an intact warranty.


RAM: Any cheap 1GB stick, you don't need more than that for a dedicated miner - $13
Memory bandwidth on the host machine makes no difference for GPU mining.


Motherboard: MSI 790FX GD70, but any 4xPCI-E AMD that allows 4 dual-slot GPUs to fit works - $185
Some alternatives are the newer MSI 890FX GD70 (more expensive, easier to find) and the much older MSI K9A2 Platinum. (very hard to find)


PSU: Corsair TX950 - $150
This is just personal preference, but in my experience using cheap, low-quality PSUs for 100% load 24/7 applications is a bad idea. Obviously this is up to individual user to decide, but make sure that the PSU can support 8x PCI-E 6-pin connections. (using the molex -> PCI-E adapters is fine)


HDD: Cheapest you can find, alternatively you can use a USB stick or boot from LAN.
I'm not going to go into specifics here since there are many alternatives to buying a new HDD for each node. Just keep in mid that you don't need much HDD space for a dedicated miner.


I was able to build my quad 5870 setup for $1070 and it produces 1.7 Ghash/sec while consuming about 900W from the wall. Overheating and noise are not a problem, I can run the cards at 65% fan and get temps in the mid 70s. However I had an extra HDD and RAM on-hand already, so expect to pay more this.

indeed it costs a bit more than the original post wanted but damn it's cool

on topic I would get 2 of these
http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/142547/MOTHERBOARD_AMD_SOCKET_AM3/MSI/890FXA-GD70.asp
and put 2 5870 in each (just under $15k) using mining profits to expand to full capacity eventually swapping out 6990's   

Best ... I'll say compromise, is the 3 GPU on one mobo + decent low TDP dual-core cpu + max 1GB DDR2. 3 x 5870 or one 5970 + one 5870 will consume below 600W for 1Ghash/s speed. Nuff said

Lol, clicking on the "Buy" link doesn't even show anything with that particular product number.  I'd bet it's much cheaper to just build four separate computers though.

http://www.cyclone.com/products/expansion_systems/600-2710.php 

Mmmm, yeah, you certainly have to take local costs into account.  My particular analysis and conclusion that 5850's are the best bang for your buck are dependent on online shops, mostly available only in the US.

Oh sorry, i didn't knew that 5970 is twice as expensive in your country.

Earlier post, I mentioned that the 5850's are NEARLY as efficient as the most efficient cards in terms of MH/s to wattage used.  I won't bother withh showing the calculations here, because I'm lazy, but it was within 10% efficiency of the top cards.  Basically, unless you're paying like $1/kwh for electricity, it doesn't matter.