Topic: My new mining rig - quad 7970 - Going for 3Gh/s - page 3. (Read 9702 times)

CGMiner has excellent OC controls. I'm no GUIMiner expert but maybe it's modifying your GPU's engine/memory while GUIMiner tries to do it's own thing? I don't mine with GUIMiner but AFAIK, it was built on CGMiner, which has it's own (excellent) OC controls. I know that some settings in CGMiner (GUIMiner?), when not set properly, can give higher-than-actual hash rates. Don't quote me but I think they're the "intensity" and "thread concurrency" settings. I'd be surprised if GUIMiner didn't have these settings built in.

If you want help setting up CGMiner, just download the compiled EXE from ckolivas (source code is on Github if you want to compile, otherwise, he hosts the latest version of CGMiner here: http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/)

Since we have the same video cards, you can probably just use my CGMiner config settings (took me ALOT of lurking to figure them out). Copy and past the following into CGMiner's "cgminer.conf" file:


You can't make intensity go above 13 on our cards.

You'll also want to create a .bat (batch, "bash") file with these contents:


Once you create that batch file, put it in the cgminer folder and run it from there. I didn't even install the OC utility on my rig, just installed the OS, GPU driver (AMD 12.8 with APP SDK 2.8 included, you need APP SDK), DirectX (may not be necessary), and CGMiner.
And Cablesaurus' lead time is ~7 days right? That's what I thought I read when I ordered. I'd be PO'd if I have to wait longer, not that I have the extra GPU's to plug into PCI 1x yet 

good discussions and sharing .. learning every bit 2 built my own machine

Thanks!

I think I'll give that a try, that's about the only thing I haven't tried yet that is. My plan was pushing air down the cards, and pulling it out the top. That's still how I have it set up at least.

I'm hoping I won't have power problems, cablesaurus has a wicked lead time and I couldn't find them anywhere else. I bought some off of ebay, but they are unpowered. I'm hoping they get here rather soon haha. The difficulty is just going to keep jumpin' on up while I'm playing at half power!

Something interesting happened though, I'm not exactly sure what but I think cgminer might have overridden my clock values from CCC. I saw this and just had to take a screenshot though  



This was the crash I had driving home from work. Makes a little more sense now, kinda...

Lemonys - I am glad to report that teamviewer does not have those issues!

I've had no success with Remote Desktop and LogMeIn when it comes to remote monitoring\configuring MSI Afterburner or Catalyst software.  Everything looks normal, except for those GUI windows.  I am guessing it is a video driver issue interacting with the remote logon programs (which makes sense to me).

Does TeamViewer solve these issues?

Thanks in advance.

Amazing thread, sorry for the long poast guise, just starting out on these forums and I enjoy typing 



Not quite but you have a grasp of the miner's dilemma. Difficulty will not increase at 2%/monthly since ASICs are hitting the scene. Explore alternative cryptocurrencies like PPCoin or Litecoin. Expect them to flood with former Bitcoin miners as ASICs continue to penetrate the market.




'Tis a miner's life! I just think about how lucky we got it compared to San Francisco 1849, they had to give up air conditioning and consider the idea of spooning with other men for warmth!




And this one: http://bitclockers.com/miningcalculator




Yes, it is true that although you have a 1200W PSU, you will not draw that amount all the time. Chances are you never will even reach that limit, even for only second. I have 2x7970s (Gigabyte non-GHz ed.) and they each draw about 150W @ 551KH/s mining LTC. Windows Task Manager monitoring reports zero CPU and disk usage. DDR3 RAM usage is 1Gb (out of 4). I'm using cgminer 3.0.0 and Win8 x64. I do only pay $0.07 for electricity so check your profitability, your electric costs are somewhat on the high end of the spectrum. Are you located rurally?



Your case is indeed enviable! I would just take out one pair of 120mm fans on either side to give the hot air a place to escape. I imagine you expected to push the hot air to the middle and then let the GPU fans push down. Like I mentioned above, I have 2x7970s and I just left the PC case open and pointed a desk fan at them, solved all my temperature problems (one was running at upper 80s and the other at upper 90s, not acceptable for 24/7 use). The desk fan uses just .05KWh so it's a cost I can certainly afford especially since I have no other way to cool my GPUs enough at 550KH/s!

I would also check and see if the power connectors on your mobo are strong enough (I suspect they are). I haven't read about anyone having PCI-e problems with your particular mobo, may be something worth investigating. You can always buy custom-made MOLEX-powered PCI-e risers from Cablesaurus: http://www.cablesaurus.com/.

Oh cool, thanks guys! I'll have to give teamviewer a shot. Trying to install logmein over RDC seems to have fried my miner, looks like I'm going to have to drive over to shut it off. Damn!

I suggest nobody else try that one lol!

Water does leave a bit of a burr, but nothing you can't file away real easily. I just use a burr knife on the nice rectangular parts and toss the little bits in a tumbler for 30 minutes or so. A lot of stuff is just electro-polished which breaks the burr really well, if that gives you any idea how small it is. I usually hold a weeks work and send it out as a lot, not too expensive at lot charges and makes some killer looking parts! Aluminum is a lot more forgiving and mostly ready to go off the table.

If you do get one make sure you put some thick plate at the bottom of your tank! Oh, and shoveling the spent crap out sucks. Words cannot describe, trust me!


Edit: Whooo! It finally restarted 

Teamviewer works finde you can set up a account to use it with one login. But then use a secured Password

I use Team Viewer 8 to manage all my rigs.

Thanks for the answer, I figured that was too nice for plasma. I also own a custom S/S business, with 99% of my clients/jobs being food industry so it's almost all S/S with a bit of aluminum in my shop. Does water produce burr free cuts? Or does it still need a bit of love after being cut? Going to have to look into getting a 5x10 table soon.

Take care!

Does anyone know if you can start mining using logmein? I haven't used it since I set up a VPN server at work, but it looks like Remote Desktop Connection does funny thing to video drivers that logmein might not.

I'm not sure why I'm asking, I'll just go install the client and try it out lol

Reading this makes me really wish I didnt sell my HD5970 and buy a HD7970 but not actually mine with either card!  At the time, the value of BTC was low I guess and the cost of electricity high. But still.

Chi11ed - Unfortunately water cooling isn't so simple with these cards as they deviate from the reference design. I've yet to find a full cover water block that fits this card! Of course I could always make a few, but I can't make radiators or pumps. If I can't keep these cool with air, I'll be moving to water

Prelude - It's actually a waterjet table, though it did have a plasma cutter riding alongside for quite a while (the box to the left of the waterjet head.) Plasma cutting is a messy affair, and getting decent cuts in stainless comes with a pretty steep learning curve. To cut stainless without oxidizing the edge really bad you need a special mix of gas, I believe it's called H35, or 35% hydrogen remainder argon. Very hard to find and expensive! Nitrogen will leave a terrible black burr that's hard as a rock, no file will touch it  

This case was made from 16 gauge 304 stainless sheet, a scrap piece I had around from some previous job. Most the stuff I do is for the food industry, so it's all stainless for me.

Miningdude - Thanks! I did try running them without the fan hoop in the way, with a 24" box fan to circulate air across everything and they still got quite hot unfortunately. Of course removing the fan hoop also means I can't spread the cards apart with the cool little flexible wire ties, so that might work if I put a little more time into it. But, with free electricity I'm not too worried

Wolfgod - Power supplies do work that way to a point, if you are loading the power supply a good bit under it's rated capacity it will not work as efficiently. You may be able to guess at your power draw, but the best way would be something like a kill-o-watt or inline power meter.

Miningdude - Here in Kansas and in an industrial park power runs about 8.5 cents a kilowatt! Luckily I don't even have to pay that  

Buuuut, this thing is running in my office and it got HOT today! With the three hot cards choked down to 500mhz I still was only able to keep my mining going for about 6 hours. It literally decided to quit 6 minutes before I got home from work and I can't get Cgminer to start over RDC  

My riser cables aren't marked as shipped yet either! I paid good money for US shipped cables! WTF!!

Thank you to everyone else for the nice comments on my case!

30 cents a kilowatt!? You might be better off selling the rig and buying/holding bitcoins. You are at a severe disadvantage when compared to folks such as myself who pay 10 cents a kilowatt. And at an even more severe disadvantage against the ASIC's that are starting to ship and can run on very little power. As far as figuring out how much power you use, get a kilowatt unit from amazon and plug in your power strip to it at the wall. Then multiply the watts shown on the display by 0.003 to find your daily electrical cost.

I have 2 computers with 2x 7970 in each.. I have a 1000W power supply an dthe other computer has 1200 W power supply, Can someone help me how much my electricity gonna cost? .30 per/kilowatt ... Is that true that 2 cards my not use the whole power from the computer so lets say 1200W power supply is only draining 600W?

Wow! Someone is taking this mining thing seriously with the work in that case. So many fans though. I wonder if a bigger more 'open air' type case wouldn't provide better airflow with lower power requirements (unless you're lucky enough to have free electricity).

Beatifull, i love it when people put effort into things, i have this suspicion that better looking rigs give better hashrates

Thanks for posting your build, really appreciate the work you put into making that case! Is that a Plasma CNC table you used? Or water? I'm thinking those cuts look too clean to be Plasma. I've been thinking of purchasing a CNC Plasma table for some stainless work I do.. What material did you build your case with?

Thanks again!

Really awesome looking setup! Nice work!

haha, adding a good bit to the price, but you could go water cooling. Gautenteed then to not have heat issues. I can say that i did that on one of my older rigs with 2 x 5970's and it worked like a charm. Wish i didnt sell that setup >_<

fan-tastic  lol

I've tried what you are suggesting, although I only used masking tape. Unfortunately that made the whole system overheat much quicker. My original plan was to cut acrylic sheets to fit and fill those large end holes, but after seeing how bad the masking tape holed things up I decided to leave it open. It's a bummer, because I was going to use cardboard to cut a template that matched the motherboard almost identically. Would of looked cool!

My new idea for cooling is going to use a bit of ducting though, cut out on the laser cutter. I don't see how I could ever keep these things cool without somehow isolating the intake and outlets. I'm still trying to figure out the best material to use, in case anyone has any suggestions

I remember using some sort of very thin congregated plastic on a 3d printer I built a while back, almost like those plastic signs you see on street corners everywhere. I'm thinking that stuff would work rather well.

Thanks for the comments guys!