Topic: Building a mining computer - page 2. (Read 3269 times)

I'm kind of undecided between the gigabyte and saphire vapor x.

Thanks, you are right, I made my calculations with the 7970's I can hash up to 1400Mh/s if oc, with the whole system price of $1100 gives me 1.29Mh/s/$ spent. With the 7950's I can hash up to 1200Mh/s oc, with a price of about $930 for the whole system it gives me  1.27Mh/s/$ spent. So it's not a big difference it saves about $200 dollar, and I added a case with 3 fans.

I'd still recommend dropping down to 7950s. When price is such an issue they are more efficient per $ per hash. The only reason people do go 7970s is because density is a factor.

Be wary of going such a cheap case in that you will probably have to buy 2 or so 120mms fans.

thanks for the advice, what do you think about this one? it looks pretty good, some what more expensive but I get $40 instant savings plus $25 off mail rebate. I'm going to buy this one first before the the deal ends 5/1, then when I have enough money I'll buy the rest of the gear.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171067

The brand. Find a high quality, single-rail PSU. You might spend $60 instead of $30, but it's worth it in the long run.

My brother buys cheap PSUs, and he's on his 5th one in 4 years. I bought a CoolerMaster 1000W and a Seasonic 650W, and never had any issues.

Check out this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139040

Brand.  CoolMax uses the utmost lowest quality components in their PSUs.

I'd recommend checking out Corsair, XFX, Seasonic, Antec, Rosewill.

Thanks, are you saying this because of the brand or the wattage?

There is no way in hell that CoolMax PSU will power either of those 7970's.  It's junk.

Crossfire cables do come with the video card but are unnecessary for mining.

I wonder if the crossfire adapter comes with the graphics card.

This is my update to the list using pcpartpicker.com I might have to ask a friend to invest with me.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/thehulkk/saved/1wd1

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 270 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($53.97 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G46 ATX  AM3+ Motherboard  ($77.88 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($32.97 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 80GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($29.99 @ Compuvest)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)  ($411.64 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)  ($411.64 @ Amazon)
Wireless Network Adapter: Encore ENUWI-1XN42 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($9.98 @ Outlet PC)
Case: NZXT Gamma Classic (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: CoolMax 700W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply  ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1098.05

Thanks for the advice, I'll update my list.

lol I'm hoping to get my investment back so I had to empty my savings.

Dont bother with an aftermarket heatsink, you're spending $34 to cool a $55 CPU -_- just use the stock, this cpu won't be mine loading at more than 7W.
Get rid of the AS5, more waste.
Cheaper hard drive unless you already have it
Cheaper wireless, must be one
If you're going 1 GPU then you can drop down to literally 450W PSU
Optical drive, why? I don't even have one [plugged in] on my main tower.

Consider swapping down to 2x7950s, 1000MH rather than 600 and more price efficient.


There is a difference between having money in hand and owning that money. For example if you were -$1m in the whole and I gave you a $2m loan, you'd have $1m to hand but still owe $2m.

A lot of money for a "broke college student"!!

With ASIC's coming online soon, you will never get your investment back.

Thanks to everyone that has helped me. I decided to go with the radeon 7950 cards instead of the 7970.  It saves me $200 and with a difference of  0.02Mh/s/$ lower. I made my calculations with the 7970's I can hash up to 1400Mh/s if oc, with the whole system price of $1100 gives me 1.29Mh/s/$ spent. With the 7950's I can hash up to 1200Mh/s oc, with a price of about $930 for the whole system it gives me  1.27Mh/s/$ spent. So it's not a big difference it saves about $200 dollar.  I will use ubuntu 12.04 LTS on a 16 GB thumb drive I already own.

I changed my mind, I will use milk crates, it looks pretty easy to do after reading some guides. Also swiched from msi 970 mobo, to asrock 970 and switched saphire vapor x to xfx.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/thehulkk/saved/1wd1

CPU: AMD Sempron 145 2.8GHz Single-Core Processor  ($35.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 ATX  AM3+ Motherboard  ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Signature 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($28.87 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)  ($263.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)  ($263.98 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: Encore ENUWI-1XN42 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($9.98 @ Outlet PC)
Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 720W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply  ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $752.77