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Topic: Building Cheap Miners : My "Secret" - page 34. (Read 60235 times)

full member
Activity: 139
Merit: 100
January 17, 2018, 04:47:50 PM
I just picked up a ton of old iron at auction.  Spent more than I wanted to, but I think I just became a mini hosting facility.  Wink  I took every single lot they had, now to make a trip to pick it up, hopefully tomorrow or Friday.

I started testing on a different server that is readily available.  I was basically able to strip it of a ton of unnecessary stuff that would alllow me to condense it's size if I removed important boards out, or repurpose the front of the case where the SAS drive housing was to housing the cards themselves.  Unfortunately, the 2 cards that were supposed to show up today from amazon are delayed until next week (hopefully by then!) so no testing today.  SMOS doesn't CPU mine, at least not out of the box so I'm getting a winimage ready.  But USB sticks so slow... lol

I have 9 1060s coming tomorrow so I'll hopefully I'll be able to test the G7 that is supposed to show up later today along with the other server I already have up and going.

Keep me posted!
jr. member
Activity: 176
Merit: 1
January 17, 2018, 04:23:04 PM
I just picked up a ton of old iron at auction.  Spent more than I wanted to, but I think I just became a mini hosting facility.  Wink  I took every single lot they had, now to make a trip to pick it up, hopefully tomorrow or Friday.

I started testing on a different server that is readily available.  I was basically able to strip it of a ton of unnecessary stuff that would alllow me to condense it's size if I removed important boards out, or repurpose the front of the case where the SAS drive housing was to housing the cards themselves.  Unfortunately, the 2 cards that were supposed to show up today from amazon are delayed until next week (hopefully by then!) so no testing today.  SMOS doesn't CPU mine, at least not out of the box so I'm getting a winimage ready.  But USB sticks so slow... lol

I have 9 1060s coming tomorrow so I'll hopefully I'll be able to test the G7 that is supposed to show up later today along with the other server I already have up and going.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 512
January 17, 2018, 04:22:35 PM
I suppose its my turn to contribute something.  If you are into Cryptonight mining, which it sounds like a few of you are, check out this Gigabyte mini-pc for $250: 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164036

You won't be adding any graphics cards (unless you are using eGPUS) but this thing will hash at 614 H/S.  You might be wondering how its possible to get that kind of performance out of a cpu with a 6 mb l3 cache.  The game changer is that this processor has an embedded Iris Pro GPU with a 128 MB L4 cache.  XMR-Stak recently included an optimization to take advantage of this cache space.  It should ROI itself in 2.5 months.  You have to provide your own ram and HD, but it does come with a wifi card so you could put this thing anywhere.

I snagged one for $249.99 just now from Newegg. Should be fun! =)
member
Activity: 434
Merit: 52
January 17, 2018, 04:06:51 PM
Bought a couple of the Iris Pro 6200's at Microcenter for $400 to play with today - not worth it at all. Even at $250, add another $100 for Ram and SSD, it's only getting 250 H/s so you're talking about 12 months for your return.

God I love returning crap.


"So what was wrong this time?"

"Nothing, I just want my money back"

"Ok"

Search around a bit. I got my 5575r (the i5 version) for around $275, a 4gb RAM stick for around $35, and a 32gb usb3 stick for $11. Working on it right now, so far it's zippy as hell and running smooth, about to do some miner install and testing...

EDIT TO ADD: your return enjoyment is exactly why I love Amazon; "Select reason for return: No Longer Needed". I love clicking that.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 512
January 17, 2018, 12:35:42 PM
I wouldn't say it is cheap with 3 1070's

It is useful to look at the date of the original post -- June 2017.

At that time the EVGA "B Stock" 1070s were $328 per card shipped... I picked up 9 pcs for $2,955.73 and they have done great (just had one with a DOA fan... EVGA took care of it).
newbie
Activity: 10
Merit: 0
January 17, 2018, 11:47:45 AM
I wouldn't say it is cheap with 3 1070's
newbie
Activity: 182
Merit: 0
January 17, 2018, 11:44:15 AM
On the other hand, you can buy this one and sell some RAM as well?

I's be surprised if an entry level server + 4 CPUs was cheaper than 500 €
full member
Activity: 139
Merit: 100
January 17, 2018, 11:32:20 AM
So, the conclusion of all the benchmarks I've read is: find an architecture that uses an AMD CPU Cheesy

Yes and no.  If you are talking about modern desktop processors, Ryzen wins out, the main reason being because it includes the SHA instruction set.  Probably the Epycs on the server side too, but they have barely released those to the market.  If you are interested in making a run at mining cryptonight the best bet is to find an old server on ebay with multiple xeon chips in it (The HP DL580 G7 was mentioned earlier in the thread).   The rub with the Ryzen chips are that the motherboards are expensive.

My HP DL580 G7 with 4 x E7-8837 does about 1600H/s on cryptonight.
525 € shipped
...which means I'll have to dig a lot of information about them. Like do these things come with their power supplys?

Usually 2 or 4 PSU's (1200W) included. That one u linked, has 2. I guess you could find a cheaper server and then only upgrade cpu's. No need for large amounts of RAM or HDDs.
newbie
Activity: 182
Merit: 0
January 17, 2018, 11:18:11 AM
So, the conclusion of all the benchmarks I've read is: find an architecture that uses an AMD CPU Cheesy

Yes and no.  If you are talking about modern desktop processors, Ryzen wins out, the main reason being because it includes the SHA instruction set.  Probably the Epycs on the server side too, but they have barely released those to the market.  If you are interested in making a run at mining cryptonight the best bet is to find an old server on ebay with multiple xeon chips in it (The HP DL580 G7 was mentioned earlier in the thread).   The rub with the Ryzen chips are that the motherboards are expensive.

My HP DL580 G7 with 4 x E7-8837 does about 1600H/s on cryptonight.
525 € shipped
...which means I'll have to dig a lot of information about them. Like do these things come with their power supplys?
full member
Activity: 139
Merit: 100
January 17, 2018, 10:59:22 AM
So, the conclusion of all the benchmarks I've read is: find an architecture that uses an AMD CPU Cheesy

Yes and no.  If you are talking about modern desktop processors, Ryzen wins out, the main reason being because it includes the SHA instruction set.  Probably the Epycs on the server side too, but they have barely released those to the market.  If you are interested in making a run at mining cryptonight the best bet is to find an old server on ebay with multiple xeon chips in it (The HP DL580 G7 was mentioned earlier in the thread).   The rub with the Ryzen chips are that the motherboards are expensive.

My HP DL580 G7 with 4 x E7-8837 does about 1600H/s on cryptonight.
full member
Activity: 1179
Merit: 131
January 17, 2018, 10:49:36 AM
So, the conclusion of all the benchmarks I've read is: find an architecture that uses an AMD CPU Cheesy

Yes and no.  If you are talking about modern desktop processors, Ryzen wins out, the main reason being because it includes the SHA instruction set.  Probably the Epycs on the server side too, but they have barely released those to the market.  If you are interested in making a run at mining cryptonight the best bet is to find an old server on ebay with multiple xeon chips in it (The HP DL580 G7 was mentioned earlier in the thread).   The rub with the Ryzen chips are that the motherboards are expensive.
newbie
Activity: 182
Merit: 0
January 17, 2018, 08:59:54 AM
So, the conclusion of all the benchmarks I've read is: find an architecture that uses an AMD CPU Cheesy
jr. member
Activity: 176
Merit: 1
January 17, 2018, 08:34:03 AM
Ran all night stable -- I'm going to call it a success.

Excellent news, I have 3 on the way.  Smiley

I will admit this ongoing bloodbath was a nice way to temper my expectations, but it's still not stopping me from trying to take 8 lots at auction of server grade hardware.   Grin

To the guy asking about the G7's, I'll know something tonight.  My first one arrives today.  I also have another server that might work for budget builds.  Once I test, I'll advise.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 512
January 17, 2018, 08:23:44 AM
Been on vacation since Dec 22nd.

No issues related to the Z400s at all.

I did have one system go down due to either a bad GPU or PSU -- which I will troubleshoot when I get home. The Z400 will produce a beep code if something is bad (so I have yet to see any failure of PSU, GPU, or Riser cause a cascade and take out any other hardware) -- I simply had one of my employees shut that one system down and unplug it in the meantime.

Cannot complain about these things at all... ROCK SOLID.

Ordered 12 more for the 5th rack that I'll start later this month =)

nice info, hope you had a good vacay. 
Have you tried using pci extenders on the z400 to expand to say 6 or 8 cards?

Thanks! I actually had another trip right after the vacation trip (business this time) -- Z400s solid again!

I have not yet tried the PCI-E expansion cards... but I did buy two of them to experiment with.

If I can get more than four cards running I will advise in this thread.

I was able to get 5x 1060s running.

I tried the first x16 slot and it did NOT want to work... so I moved the splitter to the 1st x1 slot and it DID work. Seems stable... gonna let it run all night to be sure.

Ran all night stable -- I'm going to call it a success.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 512
January 17, 2018, 07:36:21 AM
@sundownz - if you don't mind could you get a better picture of which slot you have the splitter in? I have some rigs there I woold like to try one of my splitters out on. Thanks

It is simply the top PCI-E slot closest to the CPU.

Hi and thanks for an inspiring thread! Correct me if i am wrong, but didn't u have a DL580 G7 as well?

Ii just got myself a DL580 G7 to use as a platform for my new gpu mining rig, but i cant get more than 1 gpu (rx570) to work simultaneously, i guess there is a software bios setting for this? Any ideas? Im using SMOS, 1 card works great. I started a separate thread about it here : https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.28215548 . Would be awesome to have 12 cards working. Thanks!

Yes I do have one but I haven't yet put more than one GPU in it -- once I do I will share back in here =)
full member
Activity: 139
Merit: 100
January 17, 2018, 07:32:41 AM
@sundownz - if you don't mind could you get a better picture of which slot you have the splitter in? I have some rigs there I woold like to try one of my splitters out on. Thanks

It is simply the top PCI-E slot closest to the CPU.

Hi and thanks for an inspiring thread! Correct me if i am wrong, but didn't u have a DL580 G7 as well?

Ii just got myself a DL580 G7 to use as a platform for my new gpu mining rig, but i cant get more than 1 gpu (rx570) to work simultaneously, i guess there is a software bios setting for this? Any ideas? Im using SMOS, 1 card works great. I started a separate thread about it here : https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.28215548 . Would be awesome to have 12 cards working. Thanks!
full member
Activity: 284
Merit: 102
January 17, 2018, 07:28:25 AM
@sundownz - if you don't mind could you get a better picture of which slot you have the splitter in? I have some rigs there I woold like to try one of my splitters out on. Thanks

It is simply the top PCI-E slot closest to the CPU.

Thanks - I have a few 1 to 4 PCIE splitters that I had never tried.  Might give them a shot.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 512
January 17, 2018, 07:20:14 AM
@sundownz - if you don't mind could you get a better picture of which slot you have the splitter in? I have some rigs there I woold like to try one of my splitters out on. Thanks

It is simply the top PCI-E slot closest to the CPU.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 512
January 17, 2018, 07:18:50 AM
I should also add... I was overall slightly faster with 4 of 6 CPU cores mining vs. 5 or 6 of 6 cores.

The XMR-STAK "all in one" miner seems to want 2 cores to manage itself.

This is for Cryptonite mining for ITNS... I am going to do 100% on ITNS for at least a few months as I want to acquire a few million coins & I have already paid down my hardware so *current* earnings aren't a huge concern.

I need to recoup, so Zcash it is for me for now (unless there is a better alternative) as I bring boxes online.  However CPUs will be dedicated to ITNS.  One of the things I've been figuring out is that in the beginning I need to go for max profit but once I start paying down the equipment, I need to start diversifying a bit in what I'm mining, "just in case".  Including in that would be power upgrades to increase density (240V PDU), tuning boxes for best cost / performance ratio, software optimization in choice of pools/algos, etc.

I feel like a DSMer, I'm trying to go for most bang for least budget.  Hopefully I can fake it until I make it.  Cheesy

Have you found that the all in one miner outperforms the older individual exes?

If I look at "right now" doing ZPOOL on NVidia cards and ITNS on AMD cards & CPUs is still the best on a per day basis... but I want to stockpile ITNS as I am confident it can do ~25 cents or more this year -- which would make my "actual" income way higher since I plan to hold until at least that point. My original target on it was to see 10 cents by March... but we already saw it hit that right before the big "blood bath" in all of crypto two months "early."

As far as the new "all in one" miner -- it performs at least as good as two separate miners but is WAY easier to use / setup. On my NVidia machines it seems to be the fastest one I have tried... on my AMD machines it's about the same as doing SGMiner/XMRig.
full member
Activity: 1179
Merit: 131
January 17, 2018, 12:46:25 AM
Bought a couple of the Iris Pro 6200's at Microcenter for $400 to play with today - not worth it at all. Even at $250, add another $100 for Ram and SSD, it's only getting 250 H/s so you're talking about 12 months for your return.

God I love returning crap.


"So what was wrong this time?"

"Nothing, I just want my money back"

"Ok"

I'm mining at 613 mh/s on mine.  post your cpu.txt config file.  You have something set up incorrectly.  If you took the defaults then that is the reason for the low hashrate.
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