Topic: Building a Miner Resources - page 2. (Read 3445 times)

Here my ideal miner: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/72382452/rig2.jpg

cards: 3 x 7970 (Ideally I'd like to have 4 with a PCI raiser, but that will mean to make it "messy" and I like things clean)
Price: $350-400 per card

MoBo: MSI 890FXA-GD70 AM3+ AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard (About $140 but is discontinued)

RAM: Whatever you can get (I have a 4 GB DIMM that was laying around)

CPU: Sempron 145 ($40)

Case: Any cheap case will do (I bought a Corsair T600 because I plan on keeping it for a future build once GPU is deprecated)

PSU: XFX ProSeries P1-1250-BEFX 1250W ATX12V V2.2 & ESP12V V2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply (This is a beast and I won't take anything less on bitcoin rigs, but it's $250)

Hard Drive: any cheap piece of crap you want to use will work. I have that rig running on a 2.5" 60GB drive you can even use a USB is you run Linux. This rig runs Windows 7 but my other rigs run Ubuntu on a flash drive.

CD-ROM/DVD-ROM: Not needed

FANS: I bought an extra 120mm fan to provide extra cooling, but not really needed where I live (my rigs are in a 3 season porch and I live in Minnesota... gets pretty cold in the winter and I am more concerned about keeping my rigs cool than heating a room.

The MoBo has 4 PCI-Express slots but I use 3 only. my Sapphire, although great card, blocks the other PCI-Express and I use another PCI for the WiFi (Yes, my rigs are WiFi enabled and they work just fine)

With that rig I get the standard 2050MHash/s for a 3 card setup and I pull about 800W off the wall according to kill-a-watt at $0.06 Kw/h good deal!

So, in conclusion:

PSU: $250, Mobo: $150, Case: $50, Memory: $20, GPUs: 3x$350, CPU: $40 + extras (CD-ROM, HDD, etc)

$1560 + extras = ~$1700 for a 2000 MHash/s rig at current difficulty: 0.15 BTC per day: 4.5 BTC or U$S320/month - power

Is it worth it?
Definitely NOT today.
Buy 1700 worth of bitcoin and watch your money grow!

My twenty cents

Thanks for the reply, BBQKorv! Actually I am looking at a combination of the two or at the least resources concerning both aspects. I plan to look at the cost of building as much power into this rig as possible and I want to look at parts that are new or used. The budget is not really set in a sense of a limit which ever way I decide to go will tell me how much I'm gonna have to spend. These rigs have plenty of uses other than mining so its not that big an issue. My primary questions concern the best way of looking at the CPU, MOBO, PSU to run Quad-Cards. I am going to be looking for the best cards I can get on the used market and how those prices compare to new. I guess the most important thing to know first is a list what GPUs are best for mining, you stated 7970 and 7990, is that the top of the mark? Those should be availiable on the used market as well as new I would think. If you or anyone else wants to list from top to bottom the top ten cards from AMD/Intel then I could see which of those I could procure for the best buck. After finding the four+ cards I want I would then look at finding the best MOBO and CPU that works with those cards etc. Does this make sense? I am not trying to be difficult I guess I just shop these things differently than most people. If I am understanding these mining rigs the GPUs are most important then the CPU/MOBO, and RAM last so that is the way I wanna approach this build if possible. Get the best cards I can for the best price possible then add in the other components based on those cards. Is this doable?

Thanks again for the comments and any help you can provide!

George

We have to start with your budged first. If you'r looking to put together an low-end rig from used parts then the list is totally different from a brandnew rig full of 7970s or 7990s 

My first post out of the Newbie Section!

After hours of reading and research I am planning to build a computer for mining (most likely LiteCoins). The ideas of the ASICs sounds great but I do not have the confidence in the current offerings to get on yet so I am going to build a Quad-Card rig and want a resource on the ideal cards, RAM, CPU, PSU etc. In all likelihood I will test this with BTC but use it primarily for LTC, alot of that decision will have to do with the ASIC proliferation rate at the time this rig is completed. Any responses to the necessary equipment I should consider are appreciated as well as links to resources for these components as well.

NOTE: Electricity usage is not a concern for me, it is included in my rent so that does not factor into any profit/cost figures. Additionally, this is not as much about making money as it is securing a source for alt-currencies and supporting the development of such.

George