Topic: Need help choosing a miner rig (Read 647 times)

I moved this to hardware, since i'm allowed to post there now.

Hello, I'm back again.  I've decided to build my own mining rig, and for about $800 I included everything I needed with the best graphics card for mining radeon 7970.  I would like some constructive criticism on how can I improve this build for better mining. This is  right in my  budget, but I could expend up to $900.

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 270 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($54.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 12g Thermal Paste  ($21.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G46 ATX  AM3+ Motherboard  ($73.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($32.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card  ($413.98 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN722N 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX Mid Tower Case  ($52.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Raidmax 630W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply  ($62.13 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer  ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $781.01

So it's the first one, I hope I can give him a good offer.

Why not the other way round, I haven't checked, but I would guess the first listed has a more recent motherboard if it's paired with a 7 series Radeon.

K.

6850    301.4      1.67    -          2.4    PCI-E 2.0 x16    guiminer / poclbm    -v -f 2 -w 128 clock @ 985 mem @ 890
7950    605    -    -    -    1150    1792    2.6 (10.0.898.1)    PCI-E 3.0 x16    DiabloMiner    GPU: 1150MHz, Memory: 1375MHz; -v 1 -w 256

Thinking about it I can buy the second option since both 6850 will mine as fast as the the 7950, then later replace  or add more graphics cards, what do you think?

I think I'm getting more for the money in terms of harware on the second option, but my goal is to make more bitcoins, so I guess I go for the first option.

The used market is also good for cards. You can sometimes verify that a card will do a certain hash rate. I've seen a 7950 or two that wont get more than 300kh/s.

I had a good idea that the radeon 7950 was better than the two 6850 combined even if they were overclocled.  Thanks for your input.

yup check the wiki. there are various rigs there that seem to be tried and tested.

Radeon 7950's are a good choice for the hashrate to dollar value.   You can pick them up for around $300 in some places and get over 600 hashrate

BigVern

Check here https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

The first one with the single card should give you better performance.

K.

Anyone?

Hello, I'm fairly new mining, I've been mining for about a week with my laptop that does 24Mh/s, and it feels that it's going no where so I found this two gaming rigs on Craigslist that looks very promising for mining, I hope someone with moreknowledge on hardware can give me better advice, I feel like the first one can do better for mining but I could be wrong. Thanks ahead of time.
1-
Custom Gaming Computer - $940 OBO

CPU: AMD Phenom II 955 x4 @ 4GHz stock voltage tested stable in prime95 water cooled
GPU: XFX 7950 Double Dissipation with lifetime warranty
DRAM: Two 8GB Crucial Ballistix Elite Rated for 1866 at 9-9-9-27 1.5v currently tested stable in prime95 at 1600 7-7-7-21
Storage: Sandisk 64GB SSD 490MB/s read
Main board: MSI GD-65 890FX with two full 16x PCI Express 2.0 Slots
PSU: XFX Pro 550w 80 plus efficiency
Case: Black Antec Lanboy Air
Disk: Lite-On DVD burner 24x read

2-800
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI H67A-G43 (B3) ATX  LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  
Storage: Seagate Momentus XT 500GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Recon3D PCIe 24-bit 96 KHz Sound Card
Case: Rosewill RANGER ATX Mid Tower Case
Case Fan: Cooler Master SickleFlow 69.7 CFM 120mm  Fan
Case Fan: Cooler Master SickleFlow 69.7 CFM 120mm  Fan
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
Optical Drive: LG BH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full (32/64-bit)  
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Trigger Wired Gaming Keyboard