Topic: Few questions about setting up a rig (Buying cards, placement of rig, etc) (Read 1047 times)

Damn, I feel very stupid now, I read that post wrong about ball point bearings.

Alright thanks for clearing that up. I will be hunting for good in-stock cards now, if anyone has anything good from Amazon or Newegg (preferrably amazon) feel free to link me

 You're confused - ball bearing fan is a GOOD thing for card longevity.


 Blower-style fan cards don't move as much air - but they usually move almost all of it OUT of the case, rather than blowing it mostly around IN the case like fan-type cards.
 Overall, a GOOD blower-style card will run as cool or even a bit cooler than most 2 fan and occasional 3 fan cards (HIS Ice-Q blower cards for example) while still being pretty quiet.

 Most reference-type blower-based cards use a small blower that's noisy and doesn't move a ton of air so THOSE tend to run a bit hotter, but the rest of your system will run a bit cooler.
 The temperature difference is usually only 1-2 degrees C though, which isn't enough to matter - but the additional noise level can be very noticeable.

 Blower type cards coexist a LOT better if they're in a crowded situation (non-riser rigs), as long as they don't have a backplate, because they're blowing the hot air out of the case rather than at each other.

Very well thanks.

So I have done more searching and I've concluded that I found MSI Armor 470s, but google search showed me that its a ball bearing fan, how bad is it? Should I avoid this card even though its pretty much only "good" card I've found in stock? And anyone has experience with those cards?

570 has a slightly better updated chip but overall the same.
In terms of mining, the 470 will be better because the 570 is plagued with driver issues right now.

I got a 6x 570 mining rig going but it took me forever (Countless hours) to get it working. Not worth the headache unless you know what you are doing.

Go with 470's if you can, or take a stab at 570's if you want a challenge at the cost of possibly losing a lot of mining time trying to figure it out.

There is no special miner buying stores (To the public) for GPU's. You just have to make due with whats available at the time and source it from different PC stores and websites.
Everything is pretty jacked up in price right now though. Unless you really want to deal with the challenge, I would just buy coins.

Calculating the costs/time/headaches/generated heat/downtime/constant monitoring of all my rigs and what they have generated versus just buying and holding coins, the latter would have been the better choice.

Mining down time costs a lot of money through lost profits.

EDIT: Also, the PROVANTAGE cards mentioned a few posts up are blower style (Single fan). The disadvantage of these cards are that they have a single fan so they are noisy and also don't push around as much fan as dual fan GPU's.
I have 2 480's that pump out a lot of heat and I will NEVER buy reference cards again. Maybe if you can get an optimal setup where there is an air conditioned room for intake and the exhaust hangs outside, but noise is also an issue.

Bumping this because I accidentally somehow locked the thread last time I posted, was on phone. 

Anyone got any tips concerning my last post?

Alright. But I need just 6 for now. Looking for ones in stock at amazon. What are differences between 470 and 570? is 570 better? So I can decide clearer. I heard theres problem running 6 570s? is this true?

these are in stock now I owned the 470 and 480 versions of them they were decent

http://www.provantage.com/

will sell in bulk at a discount.  out of stock for rx 470

the one below was decent as a rx 470 should be okay as a 570

http://www.provantage.com/visiontek-900961~7VSTV0QM.htm

   this was decent as a 480 may be okay as a 580
http://www.provantage.com/visiontek-900960~7VSTV0QL.htm

Thank you!

Well I have a new concern, I was about to decide on what exactly to buy in terms of GPU, but I realized most 470s are out of stock and all, and this made me think to get 570s instead? Are they better? Are they worth it? I tried looking at the separate thread for 570/580 But I could not get exact answers

I was thinking about ASUS ROG-STRIX-RX570 but then after little bit of googling I realised... its ball bearing right? which is bad as post above this one said?

Anyone has any recommendations for exact good models that have proper stock (amazon newegg etc)? Or any tips in general on finding ones in stock? or is it hard to get them right now?

Sorry for annoying questions. 

 1) Newegg. Amazon is probably also a good source, but I've been dealing with NewEgg for years with very few issues.

 2) IMO Sapphire, Gigabyte, EVGA. MSI has a generally good reputation but I've never used any of their cards. Ignore Powercolor, VERY poor reliability IME.
     The more critical part is "does the card use ball bearing fans" - if it does NOT, AVOID IT LIKE THE PLAGUE IT WILL DIE TOO FAST, no matter who the maker is.

 3) I doubt a manufacturer counts anything under MANY THOUSANDS as "bulk".
      Can't hurt to ask a DEALER about that though, I know NewEgg offers discounts on "multiple buys" on some items, though sometimes they limit number of an item sold to a single buyer.

 4) On shelves. They don't have to be fancy shelves.
     Setting a rig directly on metal is BAD if it's not in a case, you WILL short out the motherboard - you need some sort of insulating panel to mount it on.

 5) PS don't tend to catch on fire, and any reputable PS will be in a metal case that will catch whatever sparks might happen in a short situation and the capacitor pieces when a cap shorts out and detonates.
     Server PS don't tend to be "unbranded", just because you've never heard of the brand. Delta of fan making fame also makes a LOT of very good "OEM" server power supplies, for example.
     I personally stick with Seasonic X-series for the most part, but EVGA has a good reputation on their G2/P2/T2 units.
     Avoid Seasonic "Prime" and EVGA "G3/P3/T3" power supplies - for the sake of "quiet" they moved to a junk sleeve-bearing fan that WILL die far too quickly, stick with ball-bearing fan designs that LAST.
     "Hydro" "Rifle" "Fluid Dynamic" and other such terms are just fancy marketing names for fancy sleeve-bearing designs that DIE when the lubricant runs out - and that lube usually runs out far too soon.
     I've got TONS of ball-bearing fans that have lasted more than a decade with NO issues (and a Rotron metal-frame fan that exceeds *30* years old) and just keep spinning and blowing air reliably.
     I've NEVER had a sleeve-bearing fan that lasted 5 (and all of those in ROOM AIR box-type fans where the bearings are lightly loaded low RPM), and it's rare for them to last more than 1 year without losing the lube and dying.

 6) any 220 volt outlet should be able to easily handle a 1200 watt load - that's only 6 amps or so.
     I haven't seen a PS for decades that didn't accept 220 volts in, and not care about the frequency between 50 and 60 hertz - worse case it MIGHT have a slide switch for 110 to 220.
     1200 watt PS should easily handle a 6 card RX 480 rig, much less a 6 card 470 rig.

 7) You won't get 6 GPUs into a standard PC case. GPUs now are pretty much all "double-slot" width and most standard PC cases only have 7 slots widths available.
     Some have 8 but those tend to get a bit expen$ive, and anything OVER 8 gets VERY expen$ive.


 8 GB cards are always 8000 Mhs memory, from what I've seen - 4 GB cards are pretty much always 6600 Mhs or 7000 Mhs memory, this matters quite a bit to ETH/ETC hashrate but not a lot to most other mining.

When it comes to the rx470 i have used all brands and the best is the msi gamingx 4g hynix or samsung , don't buy those cheap gigabytes they are building the cards with closed housing and poor cooling and thats most stupid i have ever seen

8gig cards are much more likely to be hynix/samsung and get good hashrates. 8gig cards are generally worth their additional cost IMO. It's not unfathomable that profitable algos in the near future perform much better with 8gigs, and the ZEC offshoot ZERO has shown that this is likely. 4gig generally perform as well as 8gig for ethash but you have a higher chance to get elpida/micron memory and be stuck with ~3MH/s less. XFX and Asus are both respectable and I wouldn't say one necessarily gets hotter over the other

Thank you very much zij.

I have one more question, about GPU models/manufacturers, whats generally difference between 4GB and 8GB? does it make difference in mining? is it worth extra money to get 8GB ones? Also, anyone has experience with XFX? is it good? (470) or is asus better? I've heard asus gets more hot, is this true?

Thanks again.

Thank YOU ZIJ

Amazon sometimes have good offers, but you can also try NewEgg.com or a similar supplier in your country.

I've had good experience with Sapphire's RX470/RX480s, but MSI RX480s seems good too.

Manufacturers won't deal with you but you can try distributors in your country.

You can buy racks from GPUShack or similar - or build your own.  It doesn't need to look nice, but to be practical.  I would stay away resting it on a metalic panel incase you create a short.

With PSUs, you tend to get what you pay for.  EVGA are good in my experience and not had any problems with them.  There is a possibility of anything catching fire, but keep the fan unblocked and it should be okay.

Just plug the rig into the wall and that will be fine.  In the UK, you can have 13 amps in a standard plug which will is enough to power 3 rigs without blowing anything.  You can get 3 rigs of 6x RX480 cards each working off 13amps..

An open air case is better in my experience rather than a standard PC case.

Hello, so I am planning to set up a 6x GPU (I have RX 470 planned) rig. I am going to get more in future, so few questions have been bothering me.

1) Where do you all buy cards from? Amazon/Ebay? how big of stock do they have usually? Because often they are out of stock, what are the reliable alternatives? Used vs New? there's 20$-30$ difference or so, I guess buying new is better in my case? (Once again, RX 470)

2) Which ones are most reliable models/manufacturers for mining?

3) If I'd like to buy it in a bulk (maybe 50, maybe 100, maybe more) what can I do? Is it possible to contact manufacturers directly? or they don't do that?

Now, about actually placing the rig

4) Where do you all place rig on, the floor? is there any stands or server racks everyone uses? I am getting 1 rig first, is it just safe to leave it on some kind of metallic panel or even just bare floor?

5) I am getting proper desktop PSU from good brands (for example thermaltake, EVGA, etc) is it still risky like unbranded server PSUs to catch fire in any way? Of course all kinds of electronics can catch fire but how do I prevent any dangers? Is it still quite risky?

6) Where do I power my rig (well obviously I'll need specialized enviroment when I get many rigs) in regular office setting, I mean 1 rig for now, can 220v EU plugs take 1200W power supply without any specific equipment and tweaking? And isnt 1200W enough for 6 RX 470s?

7) Should I build some kind of custom frame that people build or should I just leave GPUs in the standard PC case? I am getting one of those 6 PCI MBs.

Thank you very much for reading, I may have few other questions later.