Topic: New GPU Miner with a few general questions. (Read 468 times)

1. CPU and HDD have no affect on mining so the cheapest you can get the better. As far as RAM goes the opinions here are divided (from what I could conclude): some claim to have minimal amount of RAM (2GB) with 4+ GPUs and they mine just fine while others claim that you need approximately a 1:1 ratio between your GPUs RAM and the systems RAM, which is right, I don't know, I am still waiting on my hardware to arrive, so when it does, I'll know for certain (note: if you want more than 2GB of RAM to work you'll need windows x64 for which you'll need a CPU that supports that).

2. The PCI-E connection type doesn't matter for the mining itself, what matter is that x16 ones are built for power to go through them to help power up the GPU while the x1 isn't. So when you're using x1 PCI-E with your GPU you'll need a x1 to x16 powered riser so that you can provide enough power for your GPU.

Take what I wrote with a grain of salt, as I am no expert in the matter and still learning.

TL:DR
To make things simple what I need to know is:

The bare requirements to build a GPU mining rig. What would be good to get that would be best for future upgrades aka more GPUs.

How do GPU extenders function? Like if I need to make a 16x plug into a 1x will it limit the GPU?

Thanks.

I am pretty sure this thread gets a lot of posts like this. However at the moment I am at work and can't really search around for each individual question I have so I figured I would batch them together in this post. I'll try to make them crystal clear and if the question I ask needs more info just let me know and I'll clarify it.

I am familiar with ASICs and I am currently mining Bitcoins with a fair bit of hardware. I dabbled in GPU mining for a bit a few years ago. All my questions are generally related to parts and requirements for a rig to work efficiently.

1. Are there any specific CPU, HDD or RAM requirements for a machine. I do understand that this might be reliant on how many GPUs I want to run. All I want to know is what I would need that would give me enough to run a miner with 1 to 4 gpus. I want to buy my parts to start out small and be able to add more GPUs off them.

2. Does 1x,8x 16x matter for the GPU? Like extenders and what not, I'm not quite certain how they work or what I would need to get. The extenders with the molex connecters on them... are those for plugging a molex to 6PCI into? Like if i get a mobo with 2 1x, 1 8x and 1 16x would I be able to plug 4 16x into that and have them run 100%?

I'm asking these questions because I followed a specific guide and the rig he built seemed a little overkill for running what he had. I really appreciate any help.