April 18th, 2013 
CryptoBadger 
One of my finished plastic-crate mining rigs.
So you’re interested in mining cryptocurrency, but you’re not sure where to start? No problem, this guide is all you need to set up your own headless litecoin mining rig—even if you have absolutely no experience with this sort of thing.
First, let’s get the obvious question out of the way: why litecoins? After all, bitcoins are worth more, right? The simple answer is that at the time of this writing, litecoins are currently the most profitable cryptocurrency to mine when you take into account how much each coin is worth, and the time required to mine one. Rest assured that if the situation changes, and another cryptocurrency suddenly surpasses litecoin as the best mining option, the rig outlined in the guide should have no problem switching over to a new coin.
This guide will be broken into several parts, each focusing on a different aspect of building your first mining rig. First, let’s take a look at what you’ll need in terms of hardware to put a respectable miner together.
Build your own Litecoin Mining Rig, part 1: Hardware
4/06/2017: This guide is roughly three years old. Please don’t attempt to buy any of the hardware recommended here—it’s quite obsolete! If you’re looking for information about modern GPU mining, please click here for my updated 2017 guide on mining Ethereum.
Here is the list of hardware that I recommend:
| Motherboard | ASRock 970 Extreme4 |
$98 |
| Processor | AMD Sempron 145 |
$38 |
| Memory | 4GB G.SKILL DDR3 SDRAM (2 x 2GB) |
$46 |
| Power Supply | Seasonic 860w Platinum PSU |
$199 |
| GPUs | 3 x MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 (Twin Frozr) |
$319 each |
| (optional) | 3 x PCI-E riser cable | $5 each |
| (for dummy plugs) | 68 ohm 1/2 watt resistors | $3 |
Update 11/26/2013: The Radeon 7950 video cards are sold out pretty much everywhere. They’re still the best option for mining if you can find them, but if you can’t, then the new Radeon R9 280X cards are likely your best option. They do consume a fair bit more power though, so you”ll want to upgrade your power supply as well (this 1250w Seasonic should support three 280X GPUs without problems). As for brands, I recommend these Sapphire, Gigabyte, and MSI 280X cards for now. I’ll be updating the rest of my guide at some point in the near future with optimal settings for the 280X, so stay tuned.
Update 12/01/2013: If you’re trying to put a rig together, you’ve probably noticed that the above video cards have become nearly impossible to find. I’ve received a few messages from folks that are having some good results using the R9 290 cards, although they’re a fair bit more expensive than the 280X. If you’re itching to build a rig ASAP and can’t find a 7950 or 280X, then you might consider the 290. It looks like all of the current 290 cards are using AMD’s reference cooling design at the moment, so brand probably doesn’t matter too much. Although given a choice, you usually can’t go wrong with Sapphire, Gigabyte, and MSI. Again, remember to pick up a fairly powerful PSU if you’re going to run 3 of these in a rig.
You will also need a USB stick (8GB or larger, this one is fine) if you’re using Linux as your OS, or a harddrive (a cheap SATA drive of any size will do) if you’re using Windows. I will cover setup on both Linux and Windows in the next sections of this guide, as well as the pros and cons of each.
The video cards may be difficult to find, as they’re popular and often sell out. You can substitute nearly any 7950-based GPU, but if you have a choice, go for the MSI or Sapphire cards. They’re not voltage-locked and will save you some electricity in the long run. I have the MSI card that I recommended in all of my rigs, but I’m told that this (and also this) Sapphire card is also a good choice.
The motherboard, CPU, and RAM are all relatively unimportant. The motherboard simply needs to have enough PCI-E slots to host your three GPUs (if the recommended board isn’t available, here is another, or if you can’t find either ASRock, this Gigabyte board is a good alternative). The CPU will essentially sit idle, as all of the actual mining is done by the GPUs. The Sempron 145 is an excellent choice here because it’s cheap and draws very little power (if the Sempron is unavailable, this one is also a fine choice). If you’re going with Linux, you can get away with even less than 4GB of RAM, but I’d stick to that as a realistic minimum on Windows.
The power supply is important, and you don’t want to skimp on it. The Seasonic that I’ve recommended is extremely solid and 93% efficient, which will help keep power consumption to a minimum. It’s also modular, which is really nice if you’re putting this together in a plastic crate like I recommend.
The PCI-E risers aren’t strictly necessary, as all 3 GPUs will fit on the motherboard without them. However, airflow will be extremely limited due to the close proximity of the cards, and I really don’t recommend setting them up that way long-term. The riser cables allow you to position the GPUs off of the motherboard in a more spaced-out fashion. I dropped the temperature of my GPUs by nearly 10 degrees Celcius by simply using risers to separate them. Availability and pricing on Amazon is constantly changing, so check eBay if you can’t find them.
Important: you may also need to create dummy plugs for each of your GPUs. Some operating systems will idle video cards that do not have an active monitor connection, which will obviously kill your mining performance. Dummy plugs “trick” your OS into thinking a monitor is connected, thus preventing attached GPUs from being idled. You just need a few resistors ($1-2 at Radio Shack if they’re not available at Amazon) and these instructions to create your own plugs.
So you’ve got nearly $1400 worth of hardware, but no place to put it, as I haven’t mentioned a case. I highly recommend against trying to cram 3 GPUs into a conventional PC case. A plastic crate or two works far better due to the tremendous heat that the video cards will give off. Added bonus: they’re cheap!
Here is what you’ll need to create a simple DIY plastic crate housing for your miner:
Plastic Crate (get 2 if you want a place for your PSU) |
$5 each |
| Plastic stand-offs | $4 |
| 6 x #4 3/8″ wood or metal screws | $1 |
| Brace to rest GPUs on (I used two of these) | $4 |
| a few cable ties (8″ or so) | $2 |
| power switch & LED (optional) | $6 |
You can get plastic crates in most home improvement stores if you don’t want to ship it from Amazon. I picked mine up at Lowe’s for under $5 each. You should be able to get everything else on the list at Lowe’s if you happen to have one near you, too. As far as tools go, you’ll need a drill and a knife capable of cutting into whatever plastic crate you buy.
Assembly Steps:
First, attach your CPU & heatsink/fan to your motherboard, and place your RAM into the memory slot(s). Then follow the general steps below to mount everything into your plastic crate.
Click the images for a close-up look at each step.
Place plastic standoffs on the bottom of your plastic crate, and rest your motherboard on top of them. Make sure that all of the essential ports are accessible (SATA, USB, keyboard, mouse, etc). Use your knife to cut away pieces of the crate if necessary so that all ports you plan to use are exposed. Then plug your riser cables into the PCI-E slots of your motherboard.
Place your brace (either the plastic guards that I recommended, or a cut yardstick, or whatever you have that works) so that it is sitting above the motherboard, high enough for your GPUs to rest on. Cut the brace so that an inch or two sticks out on either end of the crate.
Drill holes in your brace so that you can secure it with cable ties (see image). Do not simply rest the brace on the crate! An accidental bump can cause it to fall into the crate, along with ~$1000 worth of GPUs if you do that!
Connect each GPU to it’s corresponding riser cable, resting the bracket end on the lip of the crate and the other end on your brace.
Screw each GPU down into the lip of the crate. If you drill small pilot holes ahead of time (mark where to drill with a sharpie), this is much easier.
If you have a power switch and LED, mount them into one of the crate’s corners. I was pretty sloppy with mine, but it’s functional.
You’re done! Simply connect everything to your power supply and you should be ready to power your rig on for the first time. If you have a second crate, you can put your power supply in there (along with your harddrive if you’re using Windows), and stack it under your main crate to save some space.
In the next part of this guide, I’ll show you everything you need to do to start mining under Linux (and Windows will follow shortly after)!
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Thanks so much Crypto! I am getting some free juice for a little while but I will buy a gold or better. Thanks!!!
Any updates on the gigabyte r9 280x problems? I just bought a few and am wondering what i’m going to encounter…
Delsol17 is your rig up and running yet?
I began running the rig for last a few hours. I am currently running 700 or so with 1 GPU. I gotta wait for 2 more risers to come.. sigh….
will this setup work without powered pcie riser cables? i dont wanna fry my mobo
It will work without risers but you will need full A/C to cool the GPUs! Riser is for spacing out GPUs apart for better air flow. You won’t fry your mobo but GPU. keke
I have a stable 700Kh/s without risers.
Out of 3 cards, the highest temp is the middle card at 78C. Risers are in the mail. I recommend getting them as it unlocks higher hash potential and less chance of overheating. Also I don’t like the way they are seated on the mobo. Not very sturdy.
Hello Please help me,
I bought 3 pieces SAPPHIRE R9 290
how to make dummy plugs in DVI-D /this is not possible because the card earns only a digital signal/ ???
or how do I start the computer normally and works 24/7 without monitor with 3 x SAPPHIRE R9 290
Please help me
You make the plugs with the vga dvi adapter
Are you sure?, because the DVI-D is a digital signal and dummy plug used in analog signal – VGA, ie if you do this it will not work because this method is for analog signal
some of them with 2 or 3 R9 290 let express an opinion on how it is done so that the system works 24/7 without monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168149992017
That plugs into the dvi slot. The resistors go into the vga end… all it does it fool it itnto thinking there is a monitor attached
not open the link
see this – http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DVI-D-25-PIN-MALE-TO-VGA-15-PIN-FEMALE-CONVERTER-VIDEO-ADAPTER-HIGH-QUALITY-UK-/131019919353?pt=UK_Computing_Sound_Vision_Video_Cables_Adapters&hash=item1e81654ff9
“Bottom seller writes – “This adapter will only work with graphic cards that are analog compatible””
SAPPHIRE R9 290 is
1 x HDMI (with 3D)
1 x DisplayPort 1.2
2 x Dual-Link DVI-D
…. SAPPHIRE R9 290 is NO ANALOG SIGNAL????
how to do computer work without a monitor with 3 video card SAPPHIRE R9 290
Works on my 7950’s that have same plugs as the 290
He already explains that very clearly in the guide.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/377258-33-cant-monitor-work-adapter
Found this…. I think u are screwed or need to use windows
Dvi-I has both analog and digital vs dvi-d that is m8ssing pin for analog state.
Oh, And I was wrong, you were right.
is anyone here using R9 280X? just wondering if someone have the best settings figured out that you can share..
the ones i ordered was from
http://www.powercolor.com/global/products_layer_2.asp?SeriesID=84
my order will only arrive in january.
Thanks
is anyone here using R9 280X? just wondering if someone have the best settings figured out that you can share..
the ones i ordered was from
http://www.powercolor.com/global/products_layer_2.asp?SeriesID=84
i will have 2 R9 280x.. do i still need dummy plugs?
my order will only arrive in january.
Thanks
I have the Gigabyte rev1 on Xubuntu and I did end up needing dummy plugs. I knew this because without them, they would get severely underclocked.
Without risers the highest I can get right now is 700 Kh/s:
Intensity 13
Core 1030
Mem 1500
Thread concurrency 8192
Autofan 0-85
Threads 2
And make sure you use cgminer 3.7.2, otherwise they can only hit about 570 Kh/s. I found this out the hard way and it took about 2 days to realize it and another day to upgrade – keeping in mind the newer versions of xubuntu are required for 3.7.2. And that the newest versions of Xubuntu.iso don’t fit on a CD.
The headaches are worth it though.
hello! I have a problem using this PSU Seasonic SS-1050W 80Plus Gold Active PFC SS-1050XM 1050XM, instead of 850w? ‘m using and enjoying only 3 cards
Hello, what PSU do you recommend for 4 x R9 290 sapphire edition? Thank you
I just built my first rig according to your suggestions:
ASRock 970
3x R9 280x Sapphire (didnt get any other card) on 6+2 Power plugs
Sempron 145
3 X16/X16 Risers without Molex
3 Dummy plugs
HDD
4 GB Kingston Ram
PSU 1050W (the system takes around 930W total)
I installed everything, Win7, miner, remote access, no overclock stuff yet.
the rig ran approx 1h with 1.6Mh/s, then crashed, Mobo Error “03”… cards were around 70-80°C, fastest fan 3300RPM.
It started again then, but crashed again, same error and now it wont boot: error 99 (Problem related to PCI-E devices). The cards are running, but its not booting and theres no Signal on the monitor.
I tried everything, remove one card, two cards, tried every slot with 1 card and different cards, tried another RAM slot, but the error is always there.
Anyone got a clue?
Isn’t it that R9 280X would require 1250W PSU?
I dont know… it draws 930W from the wall, with around 90% efficiency of the PSU, its below 850W
i’ve got essentially the same setup. you should be fine with that psu.
Personally, I went with 2x750watt psu for my 4x r9 280x sapphire setup (dualxs)
i observed:
base system, no gpu: 60-80 watts
2 gpus, no undervolting: 570 watts
4 gpus, no undervolting with 30Watts in fans: 1170 watts
4 gpus, undervolting wit 30 watts in fans: 1090 watts.
based on my observations, 2 cards are somewhere in the 500 to 570 watt range. which means 1 card is in the 250-280ish watt range.
with 3 cards at worse case, let’s just say 840 watts + about 80 watts for your system and we’re pretty close to your observed 930 @ the wall. Your PSU is rated for 1050 Watts. The efficiency simply means to use 1050 watts, it will actually pull 1166 watts at 90% efficiency (as opposed to even more watts in gold/silver/bronze psus)
some suggestions:
80deg seems a bit hot for these cards, maybe get better cooling solution (bigger fan?)
have you determined that all of your risers are valid? take a card that works and test it with all of your risers. try all risers with all cards, maybe it’s an annoying gremlin when you combine a certain card with a certain riser
just b/c the card fans are running desnt mean things are ok. they are simply being powered. try removing all but 1 card and see if that gets you your monitor back and the once it all works with one card (mining, stable etc), add the other 2 back in
have you tried pulling the cmos battery and letting the mobo “reset” and trying again? The asrock also has a cmos reset button you can press and hold if you dont want to yank the battery.
I tried all that yet. Ill check the raisers again
Ok I got it running again – phew!
I dont know what it caused, I unplugged everything and rebuilt the rig. But now I have issues with cgminer, I got V3.7.2 and the rig freezes in short time after starting. ~1-5 min.
conf: timeout /t 30
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
cgminer.exe -o stratum… –scrypt -u … -p … -I 13 -g 2 -w 256 –thread-concurrency 8192 –gpu-powertune 20
V3.8.4 didnt work…
Hi,
Thanks for the excellent guide.
I will have the following hardware configuration:
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme4
Processor: AMD Sempron 145
GPUs: (3 or 4) AMD 5850
FOr PSU, do you think i should use the one you recommended or a cheaper version, Chieftec Nitro 88+ SPS-850C 850W ?
Ref: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151111
/Thanks
Just curious, what are the plastic standoffs used for other than just elevating the MB off the bottom of the crate just a bit. I would think you could just secure the MB on the bottom crate?
You do not understand me
RADEON R9 290 no analog signal, there is only a digital signal and dummy plugs with resistors not happen
Please help how to do RADEON R9 290 with dummy plugs or is there some other solution to this problem.
Please help!
Hello
If you are using windows then i think that you can chance power-settings to not idle you card, but not 100% sure.
Yeah, and in order to clarify your points
1) You simply plug your monitor to GPU No1 (16x PCI-E slot) as per normal. to config Bios, install windows, drivers, cgminer etc until ~ step 10 of the windows guide.
2) Your right, windows power settings need to be altered to stop “sleep” mode this is very important. Cryptobadger’s windows guide clearly states this in step 5.
3) Until roughly step 10, there is no need for dummy plugs. They are only required when actually mining.
4) If you are struggling with dummy plugs just get your machine running with ONE GPU. Unplug all other gpu’s plug your monitor into just that one GPU as a normal PC and get your entire setup running with that. once you have everything working and you require remote access THEN you can add all GPU’s + dummy plugs
Lol. read the guide again, if you still don’t understand i suggest you return the gear you don’t seem to understand enough to get this working. Time is money, the more time you spend messing around and learning how to build a machine, the more the difficulties increase and money you lose.
I will explain very quickly what you need to do
1) The guide shows (http://www.cryptobadger.com/2013/04/build-a-litecoin-mining-rig-windows/) (read both linux and windows guides thoroughly!) that up until step 10 you do not need to use dummy plugs. Up until removing the monitor to run remotely you should have a monitor plugged into the main card in the main PCI port(DVI plug or hdmi). This is PC building 101.
2) You need to build dummy plugs (http://www.overclock.net/t/384733/the-30-second-dummy-plug). You need 3 resistors per DVI-to-Analogue plug. If you quickly googled (for yourself!) you’d see that DVI is commonly DVI-I, which is dual link DVI. Hence it can output analogue AND DVI.
You don’t seem to understand that you need your monitor plugged into the mining PC UNTIL you are ready to remotely mine. At this point you connect remotely either via SSH for linux or Tight VNC for windows. at this point there is no monitor connected directly to the machine and you need dummy plugs inserted to ALL cards to trick the OS into thinking there is a monitor plugged in, otherwise it will power down the card.
Again, after all this if you don’t understand then i suggest you sell or return your gear.
Looks like you are correct in saying there is only DVI-D connectors – Is this the card you got?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202060
If so, the dummy connector/3 75ohm resistor will not work due to no receptacles on DVI-D connector
DVI-I connectors have 4 holes around the ‘slot’ in bottom of DVI connector, whereas DVI-D do not have this. Here is image of DVI-I vs DVI-D and some basic info. Maybe the guys spouting off at you for not understanding should do a little research themselves before shooting you down.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/monitor3.htm
Pretty sure that no R9-290’s have DVI-I so the dummy plug will not work. That is verified in this thread…
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1917011/vga-analog-dvi-hdmi-digital.html#.
There should be some way around this….just need to research until solution is found…
wow interesting stuff. well i was one of those spouting off so I apologise Silence.
It seems true, you card only has DVI-D no DVI-I. You can also tell by the fact that the connector is dark blue/grey in colour instead of White. My 280X’s have both a white DVI-I plug and dark blue DVI-D. As Rwoodin says it also misses the pins around the flat connector on one side.
As to solving the problem? check this blog, this guy is using your 290X’s and states in the comments (search page for “dummy”) that you don’t actually need dummy plugs when running cgiminer directly but this cant be right? maybe its different for pure DVI-D cards though? http://holynerdvana.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/litecoin-mining-rig-4x-r9-290-edition.html
Hi. I ordered 3 x Gigabyte RADEON R9 290 4GB (GV-R929D5-4GD-B), what kind of motherboard and CPU do you suggest? Go with Intel or AMD?
1200W PSU good for this setup?
Thanks.
I’m having a nightmare with these deliveries half of them haven’t turned up! I got myself an Asus 1kw psu only to find out it has only 4 8-pin pciex plugs ffs. And my 3 his 7970 ice x2 cards need 6 altogether!
Doing this at the wrong time of year tbo.
Thanks for the writeup. It would have been nice to also include a power button/switch on your shopping list for hardware noobs. I now have $5000 worth of useless mining hardware ready to go and NO POWER SWITCHES…Amazon prime overnight here I come.
If you read his guide properly you will see it is optional but it is all there.
If you have the asus extreme 4 it HAS a power button on the motherboard. If you didn’t a simple google would have revealed to you that you only need to connect a paper clip, screwdriver or any piece of metal between the two power button pins on the motherboard to turn it on. You can also bend the pins toward each other to connect them. You are simply closing the circuit. Its a simple thing you should know if your spending $5K on an investment which involves building PC equipment…??
Thanks for implying I haven’t tried, but I’ve googled my butt off all afternoon and nada on the magic trick to get this to boot. Need thr corect search string I suppose. I’m new to PC level hardware but have been a sysadmin and built thousands of enterprise grade servers in my career. I guess I figured I’ve built enough servers slapping together a few desktop parts should be a cinch. Adapting to the learning curve, I’ll get it.
Anyway, I went with the Gigabyte 970A-D3P mobo. I’m still missing the details. So, because I’m apparently retarded what
Make sure the cpu is set right. Then try different ram or even slot.
I spent 2 hours on a build then pulled off the cpu cooler and cpu was still stuck ti it… reset it righr and boom fired up
Also that mobo is a pain with the iommu… I talked about the probl3ms I had in the linux setup… am on phone so hard to look it up for ya. Basixally setup with one card and iomu in bios turned on… then enter a strinf in grub to do iommu=soft and reboot turn off iommu in bios andthen set up all cards and usb ports work.
Hope this helps
The guide actually lists a power switch (and power LED) as optional components in the crate-building section. Not necessary, but some people like to have them.
If you don’t have a switch, and your motherboard doesn’t have a switch built onto it, check my FAQ for an easy power-on trick.
Sorry for the terse tone in prior posts. I’m a TAAAD frustrated dealing with 3 sick, crazy kids, trying to troubleshoot this miner mess, and deal with other responsibilities.
I did get it to boot though.
Great news 🙂 What did you do to get started? The power trick badger linked?
Now time to configure everything and curse while those 3 sick, crazy kids are attacking you and your trying to get that last 50 odd Kh/s out of your cards haha
Badger explains that the 7950’s are the best option when considering cost, power consumption and hash rate. The best option is not always the fastest option.
Oops, replied to wrong post
You say in an updated text that the 7950’s are still the best to mine litecoins. However, I found on this website https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison
that the hashrate for 7950, R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC is 640KH/s and the best on their website is 7990, HD7990-6GD5 with 1518KH/s.
Could you explain your choice of the 7950’s after their comparative lower hashrate.
Please pardon my ignorance if the answer is blatantly evident, I am new to all this.
Any information providing light on this matter would be very helpful.
Thanks.
Badger explains that the 7950′s are the best option when considering cost, power consumption and hash rate. The best option is not always the fastest option.
Badger posted the URL moments after I made my last success post. I touched a flathead screwdriver across the pins marked “+PW-” on the mobo F_PANEL connector. IT’S ALIIIIIIIIIVE! 🙂 BIOS is at least set now to auto power on.
i want use from 4 GPU :
SAPPHIRE R9 290 4GB GDDR5 BATTLEFIELD 4 EDITION
how much watt need for PSU ?
1350 WATT OR 1600 WATT ?
thanks for your reply
https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison
Check this out. I’d put rather more than less power… I dont think its good for the PSU when running on 100% all time
i think 300 watt for every card is enough .
then PSU with 1350 watt is good choice . what do you think ?
thinking of getting 2 of r9 290 –
is that ok with asrock extreme 3 board because i cant find an extreme 4
As long as the board supports 2 GPUs at once, any board is fine.
I’ve been hearing that people are having problems keeping R9 290’s from idling..
Apparently the dummy plugs that you show a tutorial for don’t do the trick since the new cards are DVI-D or something along the lines of that.
Any ideas on a solution?
Thanks for your time!
About how long would it take to turn a profit mining Litecoins with a $1400 setup like this? Is it more of a hobby at this point or is there still money to be made. I will have to pay for my electricity.
You decide for yourself.
The difficulty DOUBLED in the past 10days.
China banned all crypto currency.
Afterwards, BTC fell from 1000 to 600. LTC fell from 35 to 20. They both returned to same value within 48hrs, but right now they fell down to 800 and 30.
The difficulty will only go up. The value is all over the place.
If/when US/EU follows China’s lead, all the effort will be wasted.
It’s funny with the sudden increase in difficulty, AMD’s stock price also went up. lol.
That’s all good info but little of it helps me. What I was looking for is more along the lines of a $1400 machine like this one will pull ___ amount of Litecoins a day. Then I could look at about how many days it would take to break even at the current numbers. And then weigh the risk based on how long it would take and the industry changing.
That’s exactly the point, there is no direct answer to your question. There are simply too many variables in the equation. The difficulty will continue to rise, but there is no way to predict how quickly because several factors contribute to the difficulty level, not the least of which is how many people are mining and at what rate. As bigger faster miners join the fold, the faster smaller machines loose their profitability. Then there is how much you pay for electricity since rates are different all over the world and finally there is the price fluctuation of the currency itself which moves all over the place based on supply, demand, psychology, economic and geo-political influence, etc. the one thing I can say, it’ll get more difficult to make money as time goes on.
At least you ask questions regarding ROI instead of blindly building the rig like others.
I also considered LTC mining. What most mining calculators fail to factor in is the difficulty increasing every 3.5days. If you use the basic ones and look at the annual profit column, all you’ll see is 1-5 thousand dollars profit. But that’s using the CURRENT difficulty. With all the hype surrounding any altcoins, the difficulties will increase at an extremely fast rate. It’ll carry on until all the back orders for 280x have been cleared. That might be February. Even using a more modest difficulty increase of 10% (15% is more conservative imo), the difficulty by then makes it unprofitable.
People are banking on the USD/LTC increasing as difficulty increases, that’s like banking on Yahoo/FB stocks to be as high as Google’s. It may or may not happen. I personally dont see LTC going past $50 as the average person wont risk their money that way.
If you can get a rig running RIGHT NOW, mine until spring, sell the 280x/7950, you MIGHT make some profit. If you have to order the card, wait until whenever it arrives…ionno.
Try this calc: http://bitcoinwisdom.com/litecoin/calculator
You can set the difficulty.
Altcoins might be a backup plan, but personally, I dont see how that’s gonna work when we already have BTC (SHA) and LTC (Scrypt). I dont see the market would support that…unless there’s a ‘bronze’ to the gold and silver?
Difficulty set to change in a little over an hour. Estimate of next difficulty is 2,921 or an 8.41% increase. I’d be happy with that right now! Enough of the 20% jumps already!
http://bitcoinwisdom.com/litecoin/difficulty
That’s what I mean by back orders being cleared. All 280x are sold out worldwide. There really wont be any significant bump in hashrates, meaning no big jumps in difficulty for a short while. Once the manufacturer gets the cards out to all that ordered it, the difficulty is gonna go up to those 20% jumps again. Personally, I’m expecting 22k difficulty in 1Q 2014….which makes thing unprofitable if one doesnt have a rig up and running right now.
Does anyone know if you can use the risers without the graphics card latch at one side?
Thx.
Sure you can. I busted one of my pci-e slot latches off. The riser or card still fits in the slot.
Can I use the PSU Seasonic SS-1050W 80Plus instead of Seasonic 860W?
You can use any PSU as long as it supports all the power that rig requires.
Can someone help?
I have ASRock Extreme4 with 3 of R9 280X GPUs.
I connected 2 GPUs and it’s running fine. When I connected 3rd one, only 2 would be detected and 3rd one’s fan won’t even spin. I have Seasonic 1250W PSU so I don’t think power is problem.
Any thoughts?
If the fans are not spunninf its not getting power. Try differnt plugs ir wven try swapping power plugs with second card to check power…. or thw card could just be dead
I tried swapping with other 16x sockets and different combination of GPUs. All is fine when there are 2 but not 3.