Topic: Litecoin build for noobs: 3x 7950s (1.8 MH/s) in a $10 crate case - page 10. (Read 79069 times)

NOOB QUESTION OF THE DAY........





(Wait for it)



(A)    What would happen if  I buy all the parts at microcenter and have them put it together for me?

(I have never built a computer before, I am a mac user, haven't owned a PC in about 8 years)



(B)    Would the main problem be overheating?

(C)    Could I remedy that (overheating) by installing a really good fan/cooling system?

why do you need 8 gb of ram? cgminer barely uses 50 MB when mining (scrypt) on 2 cards.

Awesome guide, really appreciate the info and tips you have here and other posts. 

One question...  Has anyone seen the PCI extension cables anywhere other than from sellers in China?  I am thinking of building one or two of these rigs but not sure I want to wait 15-28 days shipping...  Quick search on Amazon and a few other places not showing anything similar price or faster shipping to the US. 

I can smell the plastic from here... lol.
thanks for the write up.  I'm out of date on the latest - quick boost back - thanks.

Time to cut out some windows with an old soldering iron!

Yeah you are right, the box is really bad for cooling, I couldn't run the 4 cards at max intensity, they would only stably work at intensity 13 on cgminer.

I want to build one of these just so I can start it with a screwdriver!!!!!

I LOVE that!

I hope there are sparks - harmless and just for effect.

Heh. Seems like we are in exactly the same spot. Scroll up a few posts and you'll see..it's like you copy pasted my words

Thanks a bunch for this guide mate, It's really helped. And I got the rig up and running pretty smoothly as well.

There's just 2 of the 3 cards in the mobo right now though - I'm still waiting for those PCIe extenders (harder to find than I thought...) but the rig's kicking out a solid 1.2Mh/s and the third card is in my other PC for the moment kicking out an extra ~500 Kh/s. Thought I'd better get them all up and running somehow before the difficulty starts going proper nuts...

I tried putting all 3 cards in the same mobo, but the proximity caused one of the cards to heat up to 85C (with 100% fan override) and was still climbing fast... needless to say I got a bit scared and took it out.

pics to come when it's all complete, and expect a tip tacotime once I mine a few Liteys!!!

 

Well that green plastic box has a ...certain charme... I seriously doubt it's open enough to provide 4 7950's with enough cool air. What temperatures do you get after half an hour ?

As I  understand it, one should aim to keep the temperature under 80 degrees c. Above 90 you are really starting to do damage.

My prototype runs up to 74c, and that's with only 2 7950's and no case at all.

I had a thought for something like that durring the winter. Leave it out side, but upside down so it could have access to fresh air without being covered (the bottom would be open). I ended up using a small unheated glasshouse instead, but it seemed like a cool idea at the time.

Thanks for the post, I liked the idea and thought it's a fun project, so here's My poorly constructed plastic container rig, 4x 7950, 1200W cooler master PSU, 8GB system ram

First, I'd like to share a tip. Just a little something to make life easier for noobs like us.

- If you can't get MSI Afterburner to unlock everything ( that happens for some people, even if you follow all the steps ), download Sapphire TriXX. It doesn't need any unlocking it all, just install it and you're good to go. I have Sapphire 7950's, but it will probably work for other cards too.

Now for an update on how my rig is coming along : Well, it works. Not much to look at yet because I don't have risers yet, so right now it's just a mobo on plastic with 2 7950's connected. Once I find a crate and get my risers I'll post a picture. I had a big headache with the motherboard seemingly not detecting multiple GPU's, and was about to disassemble everything and get a new mobo, when I noticed one of the powercables wasn't connected. That was a big relief and , yes, more then a little bit emberassing. I don't mind sharing that though. Always remember, it's rule number one in hardware troubleshooting. Check all cables caaaaaaarefully. 

My current hurdle is to make the system run with stability. Right now, the card that is NOT hooked up to the screen has no problems. It keeps chugging along at a modest 558 khash/sec. The primary GPU, however, has problems.

-I get visual  artifacts on screen, ( probably due to the settings GUIminer scripts send to the GPU )
- Windows reports a problem with the gpu driver
- Catalyst reports a disabled driver
- after a while the haashrate drops to around 270khash/sec, a little while longer, 7khash/sec ( but Afterburner reports 0 activity on the card. I guess at that point the GPU is asleep and is simply dreaming of mining litecoins hahah

Can anyone help me with thse problems ?

TacoTime, as promised, I've sent my first ever mined litecoin to the adres in GUIminer-script. Thanks for all the info and programming you provide !

First-   THANKS!!!

Second-   could I substitute 7970 for just a little bit more $$$ and get faster Mhash/s ?

(asking because in checking the chart the 7970 gets very high Mhash/s.... am I missing something? Is it that the 7970 create more heat and need a fan also or something like that? sorry I 'm a noob)

Contact MSI in their forum, they should all allow voltage control through afterburner.

If you had to buy a case, what case would you get?

Also, do you mind sharing the config and what program you are using to mine?

Any chance you could provide a bit more detail about how you put your trays together?

What do you mean guaranteed voltage control? I have three of these right now, and even though you can move the slider up and down in Afterburner, GPUZ doesn't read any change in voltage. Actually, now that I've looked, neither does the graph in Afterburner.

What kh/s are you getting from those, exactly?  I see on the hardware comparison page that they vary a bit and I'm trying to forecast if it's worth it to upgrade from my 6870s.
How about wattage?
How about temps?

Have you run them in an enclosed case before?  I'm kind of stuck running GPUs in a case in a room where the sound and temperature are a concern.  I'm running two 6870s at intensity 17 & 18, at about 73C and 79C now inside of a case.

Thanks!

hi taco, is possible to use 7970 cards in this setup? does it make some difference in hashing power?
and other question, what if i put those gpus to motherboard directly without cables? would it be a big heating for mobo?