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)!
Posted in 
Tags: 
I just wrote product review of SeaSonic 1250W. Not good!!!!!!!!!
Please go read and avoid my experience.
http://delsol7.wordpress.com/
I have in shipment 3 Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 cards. I have an ASrock MB970 Extreme 4 mobo. Does anyone have an opinion as to whether I would be able to run all 4 cards on the mobo if I install one card in a PCIe x1 slot with a adapter riser (i.e. x1 to x16 riser)? I have an EVGA 1000W Platinum 80 Plus PSU. I also have another HD 7950 mobo that I could use to build a second rig if I can get two more HD 7950 cards. Of course, I understand that the card prices are almost prohibitive for making any return on investment at $400 plus if the difficulty continues to climb as it has so far. I would welcome any comments on this.
Um.. 1000w seems bit pushing for 4 GPUs. I am using 1250W for 3 of R9 280X GPUs. Each GPU consumes less than 300W.
Thanks for the reply. I read your comment about the Seasonic 1250 that you had a problem with but I decided to order a 1250W PSU after your reply to my question about running 4 HD 7950’s on a ASRock 970 EX4. The only one I could find available was a Seasonic 1250 80 PLus Gold so I will give it a chance when I get all my parts together which with slow shipping will be after the 1st of the year.
I have that exact PSU. It is one of the best Power Supplies I’ve ever owned.
JonnyGuru is a great website to look to see if you are purchasing a high quality PSU.
I did have problems with the Antec HCG 900 watt PSU. I used Kill a Watt to check how many watts I was using and I was well below full load.
The Antec HCG would just shut off.
It’s running ok now but I still hear click noise even after the replacement. I contacted SeaSonic and this is what they recommended.
1. Update the BIOS of your MB
2. In the BIOS, ENABLE all energy savings modes, S4/S5, standby, etc.
3. In the BIOS, please disable Audio Always On, if it is available.
4. In VGA set up, disable VSync.
5. If you use AMD APU (Accelerated Processing Unit), then set the “pending current” to “constant current” of 1.2V.
I will try this over this weekend and see how it does. Hope these changes won’t affect the mining.
Hello.My friend is building professional high-end water cooled computers for mining and gaming.He built like 300 last year. From his rich experience i can say for all you guys:
Do not buy Seasonic or Corsair and others, seasonics for example are well know for strange sounds when you go above 80% effiency, corsairs are burning out.
It is based like on thousands of his customers for years.
Best on the market are platinum editions of EVGA or SUPERFLOWER,they have best components and effiency, very stable and no weird sounds.
Here are really good reviews,check this :
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=361
Mining needs best PSU,take care.
I NEED A LITTLE HELP
I HAVE ASROCK970EX4 MOBO
TRYING TO PUT 3 CARDS ON IT R9280X SAPPIHIRE DUALX
MOBO ONLY WILL RECONIZES 2 CARDS ANY HELP?
NOT SURE FRED!!!
I have the same board… only time I ever had a problem was once when I forgot to plug in the power into the card and another time when I had accidentally pulled out a riser from the MoBo.
Fred- Did you add all the cards to the mobo at the same time before booting up?
If not: “If you ever add or remove GPUs to your rig later, you’ll need to re-run this command: sudo aticonfig –adapter=all –initial”
Did you confirm that the cards were recognized in this step?
cd cgminer-3.7.2-x86_64-built
export DISPLAY=:0
export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1
./cgminer -n
When you leave CGminer type: cd .. with the two dots.
Hi,
Currently using the above setup as recommended. This is an excellent site. Slight issue as I only seems to have 2 8+8 pci cables from the PSU (Seasonic 860w platinum), and 2 of single 6+2 pin pci cables. I have 3 MSI 7950 twin frozr, two are the OC edition and one is the OC boost edition. I want to hook up the last GPU, and wonder whether it is possible to be using 2 x pci psu cables plugged from the GPU to the PSU?
On a slight note, I have a z87 asrock extreme 4 running on a celeron chip, for the time of my life can’t get the mobo to recognise the GPU when plugged in with pci-e riser cables. GPUs run fine when plugged directly into the unit, and am ordering another mobo so that I can run the 3 GPUs.
I haven’t seen any comments concerning internet speed so I am wondering if it is an issue with running the mining rigs. I have Comcast cable internet with an in-house network. I plan to run my rig with a direct wired connection to my router but need put the rig in a location away from my router to deal with the noise and heat. There will be some loss of speed by a small amount every 50 ft. I could increase my internet service speed if needed. I currently am getting about 7.5 Mbps download but only about 1.3 Mbps upload. Any ideas?
You’re definitely fine at that internet speed. I run at 15MBPS on a wireless connection but I never get disconnected.
I do seem to have high quality parts though:
C1000A router.
TP-Link TL-WN722N (Hands down one of the best wireless adapters I’ve used. It’s cheap too!)
If you can I’d say use ethernet but if for some reason you have to use wireless it’s really not bad (it can vary though) depending on a variety of factors. But, there are half a dozen things you can do to tweak a wireless internet connection (reduce interference, change the router channel, use quality parts). However if you’re going to use parts from 20 years ago, then forget it!
-Computer Network Engineer.
Mining uses a tiny amount of bandwidth – you’ll be fine with pretty much any connection, as long as it is reliable.
Thanks for that information about the bandwidth with wifi. That will make things a lot more simple if I have to locate my rig in my garage because of the noise and temp. Of course in the summer I will have to move it back into the main part of the house because of the temp. My internet has been 100% reliable for past six or seven years but two times today my computer showed a brief disconnect for about 4-5 sec. but that could have been my router. I am home most all the time since so I can monitor it fairly close.
This is great!
Two questions:
1. Does it matter how much RAM the video card has? There’s a huge disparity between video cards with this processor. Some of them are very cheap, and some of them are very expensive. The one mentioned seems about mid range, so I’m curious. Is there a measurable difference between them?
2. So $1,400 is a pretty good price for a home made rig. What kind of hash rate does it produce with the above spec?
For about $1400, you are looking at 1.7MH or less due to price hike of PUS. And that is IF you can FIND any GPUs in $300 ranges.
The video memory is the important part. The more the better.
Hi CB,
I’m building an LTC rig with 4xRadeon R9 290x GPU’s and using either
a MSI Socket FM2/AMD A85X/DDR3/CrossFireX/SATA3 and USB 3.0/A&GbE/ATX Motherboard FM2-A85XA-G43
or the one you recommended ASRock MB-970EX4 Socket AM3+/ AMD 970/ AMD Quad CrossFireX& nVidia SLI/ SATA3&USB3.0/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard
I’m new at this can you tell me exactly how many and which powered riser cables to use with 4 gpu’s. Do I need 4 powered or two powered…
Thanks,
Brian
I have been able to secure 5 Sapphire HD7950 3GB cards and two ASRock MB970 EX4 motherboards. Now I paid a little more for the cards but got a great buy on the motherboards. Now I am wondering if I should set up two rigs with 3 GPUs on one and 2 GPUs on the other or just go for 4 GPUs on one mobo and sell the other card and mobo. I noticed today that the price of the available HD 7950 cards has come down since everyone began to use the 280’s and 290’s in addition to other different configurations. Actually the cost of those cards has gone above the price I paid for the HD 7950 cards. This is crazy business!! So If I go with two rigs I will have to purchase a second PSU. I have a Seaasonic 1250W 80 plus Goold to use for one rig which would support 4 HD 7950 cards with no problems. I guess it all comes down to economics and with the price of Litecoin falling the past few days it seems like an uphill battle. I am also wondering as is Brian if I should try to find powered risers for the x16 card slots as well as one for the x1 slot that I must use for the 4th card.
Doesnt the extreme have 3 pci16 and 2 pci 1x…. also of you undervolt you could probably get all 5 on there. Ss far as risers go I havent used the powered ones and havnt had a problem…. but dont hold me to that as only using 7850’s on pci 1x to 16x non powered.
Yes, the EX4 has 3 PCIe x16 and 2 x1 but with each card rated at 250W
even if I could undervolt it would require at least a 1500W PSU. I have read other comments that 4 is about the max. for this board set-up because of the increased power consumption it makes the electric bill go out the roof plus the added heat would require more cooling. AS for the powered risers I read a post on hear somewhere that someone fried some non powered risers and lost a few cards because he was not using powered risers. Another option is to add a EVGA power enhancer to the mobo but that uses the extra x1 slot. That is posted on here also I think in the Q&A section. Anyway thanks for the comment. I will work on the idea and post my results when I have it. Still waiting for some of the hardware. X-mas shipping has added days and in some cases a couple of weeks to delivery times.
Hi. Does anyone know whether Sapphire HD7950’s (11196-19-20G) are voltage-locked?
Thanks
I think you can find the answer to your question about Sapphire HD7950 voltage regulation in the very first comment by Grytobadger concerning Undervolting in Lenux, and a follow up about Win undervolting. Go to the top of this page and click on “Guides”. That will take you to a list of subjects and I believe the first one discusses this subject.
Indeed. But I know there is more than one version of this cards so wondered if maybe this particular one (11196-19-20G) would have any issues. I’m presuming not but always better to double check 🙂
It is a good idea to double check and I would be interested in knowing if you find out that there is a difference. I have several AMD HD7950 cards and there are different numbers but all begin with 11196-xx-xxX. I have
11196-16-20G and 11196-19-20G. I have seen AMD HD7950 cards with several different Mfg. part no. and the difference seems to be the type of output connectors like DVI_I, DVI-D, HDMI, etc. but my understanding is that they are all the same as far as clocking and voltage regulation. The changes are i the other models; HD7970, HD7990, etc.
Cheers. That’s what I presumed. Bit of long lead time on these ones but got them for a good price €200 each ($270) brand new with 2yr warranty…but not arriving til end Jan. Oh well, hope we’re back up around $30 by then 😉
Thanks for the advice
That is a great price. Here in USA they are going for $350 to $400 used on eBay & Amazon. Are you in the UK? Would you care to give up your source of those that you got for $270 USD?
Used ones are going on eBay UK for $400-$500 but I sourced these ones from Amazon France. I got them for €202 each then they went up to €220 now they’re back down to €206 but like I say with lead time of 4-6 weeks. Crazy times…
If it were me, I would see what I could pull out of China directly. Most of the chips for video cards are made in that part of the world; and we do have tools like Alibaba and Tradekey to facilitate a direct line to those suppliers.
The caveat being that electronics, especially PC’s and peripherals historically haven’t had much markup in the US or Europe, so you might not save enough money to make it worth it.
If you’re lucky though, you can probably cut the wait time. When I order things from China, the wait time is usually about three to five days from the day they ship.
that card is $100 more on Alibaba.com 😉
Yes, that is true. My wife is Chinese and we still have a house in China.
Her cousin is a computer tech over there and we buy computer equip. here and take it to China because it is cheaper here. Many things made in China for sale to USA and Europe are not sold in China at the same price, always, more. Not true for other household goods like furniture, etc. which is very cheap there for local consumption. Smart phones in China are several hundred more than in the USA.
Thanks for the guide, just about to buy parts for my first rig.
Is it worth buying a faster CPU (same power rating) and use both CPU and GPU mining on the same rig?
[…] you missed the hardware portion of our guide, make sure to check it out first. Otherwise, read […]
I have read comments about problems some people are having with overheating using regular 16X to 16X risers with 3 or more cards. There are some recommendations for using powered risers so I am undecided which way to go. I am using 4 Sapphire AMD HD7950 3GB cards on a ASRock MB-970EX4 mobo. I have ordered non-powered risers for the x16 slots and a powered riser for the x1 slot. I would appreciate input from others who have experience with setup using non-powered and/or powered risers. Just located a source for powered risers but not sure when I could receive them since the demand is very high. BTW, the prices for Sapphire HD 7950 cards are falling on eBAy; down to under $300.
Edwaedf, I’m running 3 sapphire 7950’s on the ext4 mb. my settings are intensity 20 powertune 20 engine 1100 memory 1500 for all 3. At these settings the cards produce up to 660 kh/s each and average 1900+. All three are on risers and two are powered. At the above settings, heat dissipation is the major problem, and I believe is the source of most if not all HW errors.
My cards are running “HW 0” at typical temps of 65,71,73 due to open window to outside temps of 50 degrees down to 25 degrees at this time. I built a manifold out of 1/2′ foam exterior house sheathing (lowes, home depot, cut and use duct tape for assembly) to fit up to the window and direct the air to the box fan fitted into end of manifold directing the air over the cards.
I will probably have to decrease the settings as summer approaches because the cards go above 80 C. at typical room temp. I think 4 cards and even 5 can be run on this mb, but powered risers are essential, due to discussions I’ve read concerning the power draws through all the slots. I’ve read that the power available is not even the same for all the slots. Good Luck!
ezpacer, thanks for the reply and the information. I have set up 3 HD7950 on the 970EX4 so far but still not mining yet. I am waiting for the risers and am working on get everything ready to go. Just got all the hardware together two days ago. I will try 4 cards after I get the risers and maybe will have to get powered risers if I can find them. I have one 1x to 16x powered riser on order now. I can put my rig in my garage where it is 40 F or below until summer, then will have to use other cooling methods. I noticed that I misspelled my own name in the original post, 🙂 I may have some questions for you once I am up and running since we have the same hardware.
Edward,
EZPacer was a tremendous help to me when I was getting started. I have made tremendous progress since he offered his assistance. Just so you know, I, too am considering placing my rig in a protected area of the garage. At this time of year (near Austin), the cat will be pleased. 🙂
Edward,
Powered risers? You can turn your non-powered ones into powered risers following this guide. Also some good discussion of the issues requiring powered risers. http://forum.feathercoin.com/index.php?topic=2193.0. good Luck!
Good knowledge ezpacer… Thanks for you input.
I’m having a problem with my new set up, my components are exactly as badger recommends: 3 HD7950 on the 970EX4, corsair AX860i platinum power supply, however as the cards get into their stride after about 5 minutes the power supply cuts out – red light for safety.
Has anyone encountered this problem – do I need to undervolt the mobo – seems strange that just three GPUs are drawing a full 850 watts.
Any advice welcome please?
ezpacer: Yesterday I converted three 16x to 16x risers using the instructions from the thread you told me about. Thanks again. This morning I connected everything back together using the risers and all seems to be working ok. One thing that I don’t understand is that one of my Sapphire HD 7950’s always runs hotter than the other two no matter if they are directly mounted on the mobo or on risers. This must just be a characteristic of the one card. The fan speeds are about the same at 1600 to 1700 RPM. Hash rates are fairly even at 580-600 and the WU: 495 to 568 with the coolest card showing the highest WU. The HW: has never gone above 0 no matter what I have done to the settings or the card locations.
Right now I’m running at 1050 and 1250..thinking about uping it to 1100 and 1500 like you mentioned in one of your posts. I do recall you said that the temps were hard to control at those settings.
Do you think Xubuntu is still one of the best flavors of Linux to use? Do you have any opinions about BAMT which is supposedly a “ready to go” OS?
Anyone having compatibility issues?
I dont think the MSI R9 280x are compatible with the
ASROCK MB suggested?
Is it possibel to use an intel MB and compatible processor since it is sitting idle or does it need to be AMD?
Im sure you can really use any (current) MB and chip you like. I assume the reason extreme4 is a good motherboard is that it has modern features like multiple crossfire support, allows disabling many features to conserve power, supports auto power on and most importantly (at least when i bought it ~$120AUD) is the cheapest solution when combined with CPU. The problem now is that due to the demand its hard to get the Motherboard at a cheap price and the CPU is also hard to get.
I have access to a bunch of core duo motherboards with CPU and RAM I gave one to a mate to hash temporarily and it worked fine. The only issue is lack of auto-power on, but the hashing performance was fine on a coreduo 8600 chip i think it was. It was only running 1 GPU. So you should be fine running any Motherboard setup. Its just harder to find a well priced intel solution because the CPU’s and board are usually more pricey
Thanks Rob,
Just FYI if anyone is having issues.
It seems the ASRock 970 extreme has gen 2.0 PCI slots where the MSI R9 280x Gpus are using gen 3.0
All pcie 16x have same power … 3.0 is just a bigger pipe which we dont care about
They Fit No Problem And Power Up But I Have Tried 3 Different Cards And All Give A D6 Error On The MB. Cards Work In Other Mbs And Other Gpus Work In Mb. Only Thing I Can Attribute It To Is 2Nd And 3Rd Generation Difference Of The Pcie Slots
Check bios settings… andbitbcould just be a bad mobo
That just caught me out on a job (not mining related) – older NIC wouldn’t fit new motherboard…try and steer clear of the inside of computers these days so didn’t know they’d changed the slot.
I’m presuming 7950’s are the older type that will fit the ASRock 970 board
I’m having the same issue with the MSI R9 280x getting a D6 error on the suggested AsRock Mobo. Anyone ever figure out how to fix it?
Yea they are not compatible PCIE 2.0 slot on the MB PCIE 3.0 on the GPU
not compatible on just that AsRock model mobo or all PCIe 2.0 mobos?
Graphics cards have always been able to dumb down. That is weird… have you tried mobo support.
I have a LEPA 1600 and 6 Sapphire 7950, etc. Going to start out with 4 first. however the attached GPU power cables that came with it are 6+2 pin, and the +2 pin has a little “L” on the clip that will NOT go into the second 6 pin connector on the card.
Question:
Is one 6 pin MALE connector from the PSU into one 6 pin FEMALE on the GPU enough?
Also if I buy powered Riser cables will this help ?
DD, both the power connections are needed. You can connect with one power cable from the PSU to each GPU by using a splitter available on Amazon which conncts to the cable and forks into two 6 pin connectors for the GPU.
Hi,
Sorry to ask this again. The litecoin rig I’m building is on Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 Rev 3.0 MB and I will be using a Lepa 1600w psu with 3 Sapphire r9 290x gpu’s( upgrading later to 4) Do I need powered risers for this MB/GPU configuration?
Thanks,
Brian
Brian, my opinion is yes, powered risers are the right way to go
I have a power/cable wattage question: If I’m running 3 Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 GPU’s, what power supply would I need, and would I need powered riser cables?
I’ve read conflicting stories – – – some people say that R9 290’s have less voltage needs than 7950’s, and other posts I’ve read say to buy 1250watt PSU’s. Presently I have an 860watt Seasonic, (80-plus Platinum) which works fine with 3 7950’s. One of my motherboard slots is 1 PCE-1X, which leads me to believe that a powered riser is important in this case.
Can someone set the record straight? These are regular R9 290’s that haven’t been “unlocked” to 290x’s.
Hi Rob,
I have 3×290 in a fairly power efficient setup, and when mining around 800khash per card at stock voltage it’s pulling 990w at the wall for the system.
I bought a 1300w EVGA power supply and I think that’s about right. I certainly wouldn’t want to go lower than 1200w as not only are you pushing the PSU pretty hard, but when the PSU is near max usage, it drops a little efficiency too.
HTH
The 290s use more tjan 7950 by over 100 watt. They are running 300 ish each
Well my setup was going OK until I started mining.
./cgminer –scrypt -I 19 –thread-concurrency 21712 -o stratum+tcp://coinotron.com:3334 -u Vi -p x
When my script runs I am only getting 800 khash off 3 7950’s. My system is “freezing” it’s hard to move around when it’s mining. Do you think I need to play with the settings more?
I would decrease intensity to 13 and tc to 8192. Try these values and see what happens. I am currently using 3 of 7950 and each pulling about 500+.
More detailed result can be seen at my blog.
http://delsol7.wordpress.com/
I tried your settings but that didn’t work.
I’m getting some strange errors. When I set intensity lower it automatically is downclocking my memory and gpu core clock.
If intensity is too high then It’s powering off my 3rd GPU. The Khash is in the 300-400 khash.
I’m using CGminer 3.0
Vitalia, My experience with cgminer 3.7.2 has been good. Are your temps going over 80? I’ve had issues with cards going “sick” simply due to power draw or temp issues. I gave some info/specs on my rig to Edwaedf above in this column that may be helpful to you (his Dec 20 post).
Hi,
First of all, thanks for this great mining guide.
I have a question about the power supply you are using. This one from Sea Sonic is quite expansive. There are some cheaper one for example the AeroCool Strike-X Series 800W ATX 2.3 for a little more than 100$.
With 3 x HD 7950, wich needs around 3 x 250 W, could be a 800W enough ?! Or is there a possibilty that they need more power? What else is important with the power suppy? They need the right connection? Means at least 3 x 8/6 pins PCIe connection but 6 pins PCIe connection is also okay, right?
Greets
I have SeaSonic 1250 and CoolMax 1200. Both are fine to use as long as their efficiency are Gold or above level. I have 3 of 280X and 3 of 7950. I would say be generous with amount of watt on the system. If overload occurs and something goes wrong with PSU, you could fry up all GPUs at the same time.
Anyone running XFX 7950?
I am only getting 530s on each card. Could anyone share their cgminer settings?
I hate the XFX 7950s. I have two and they run hot, requiring high fan speeds.
I was only getting 530’s too, with the engine clock at 1050, men clock at 1250,
V at 1.125, -g 2 , –thread-concurency 8192 , and -I 13.
Then I got it up to around 566-576 by using:
-g 1 –thread-concurrency 22400 -I 20
also had to set –temp-target 79 and –gpu-fan 0-100
Runs between 76 and 79 with an external desk fan blowing on them.
Oh. thanks i will try these values.
I know… XFX run quite noisy. Now the rig is in garage and it sounds like hair dryer on all day long. lol
So i had a small question.
If i put 3x Sapphire R9 280X 3GB GDDR5 OC DUAL-X on a mobo. How much would that enerate? Also 700 hash? I made a list (im dutch) with components. And i get around 1150,-. (i got some RAM) How long do you think it will take to make a profit. Without the energy cost.
AMD Sempron 145 Boxed
Processors
€ 29,10
ASRock 970 Extreme4
ASRock 970 Extreme4
Moederborden
€ 76,-
Sapphire R9 280X 3GB GDDR5 OC DUAL-X
Videokaarten
each € 261,99 total € 785,97
Kingston DataTraveler Mini 3.0 32GB Blauw
Usb-sticks
€ 19,36
Seasonic X-1250 80+ Gold
PSU
€ 234,58
Totaal € 1.145,01
Since 7950 is no where to be found, will 7870 be a good substitute for 7950?
I am running 4 7850’s getting 350 kilo hash each. 7870 are supposed to get a bit closer to 400s though. If you get Em cheap enough they are great but your footprint will be larger.
I checked on the litecoin.info that people reporting to have 1000 Khash/s with 7950, dose this mean that 7850(with your number close to 400) is only half the power as 7950?
There are used Sapphire HD7950 GPU’s for sale on eBay and Amazon. I just purchased five since Dec. 12th. They were all used very little and seem to working fine. The prices have actually come down since I bought these.
I have one extra that I will probably put on eBay or Amazon next week.
Can you mix n match the cards, either different brands of the same chip or completely different chips?
It’s perfectly fine to mix brands of cards. I use a MSI 7950 with 2 XFX 7950’s under the same settings.
I’ve also used an Asus 7850 with a PowerColor 7970.
Be aware that you may need to use comma separated value for cgminer in certain instances.
For example:
If GPU0 is a Powercolor 7970.
& GPU1 is a MSI 7950.
cgminer would be something like:
–scrypt -o host -u username -p password –worksize 256 –intensity 13,19 -g 2,1 –thread-concurrency 8192,21712
Sometimes different chips can be a problem and this usually occurs when
mixing cards in the lower series with cards in the higher series.
It’s possible that:
Card A runs best with 12.8 drivers.
Card B runs best with 13.2 drivers.
Card A runs best with cgminer version 3.1.1
Card B runs best with cgminer 3.4.3
Your best bet is this to use cards that:
A. Are from the same series 5XXX, 6XXX, 7XXX.
b. Same brand cards using the same chips.
C. Different brand cards using the same chips.
Great, thanks for the info!
what advantage does the HD 7950 have over the r9 290
The advantages of a 7950 over an R9.
-Less heat.
-Less noise.
-A 7950 costs about $300 and which will mine on average 600 khash/sec. An R9 290x on Newegg is $629.99 which will mine an average of 900 khash/sec.
To break it down:
The 7950 is more cost effective at 0.50 cents per khash.
The R9 290x is less cost effective at $1.42 per khash.
You can get an aftermarket design of the 7950 and I think at the moment only a reference design is available for the R9 290x. An Aftermarket design usually means better GPU temps and VRAM temps, which may help the card last longer.
It’s also fairly easy to overclock the 7950 without a major increase in temperature.
And finally, it will consume less power.
thanks 🙂
but this guy said its for efficient to use the r9?
http://rumorscity.com/2013/12/03/litecoin-gpu-mining-with-amd-r9-290-and-r9-290x-sweet-spot-for-1000khashsec/
Your comparing a 7950 to a R9 290X? A far better comparison would be to compare to a R9 280X. I got my Sapphire R9 290X Vapor-X cards for ~$370AUD they run fairly quietly and at ~ 70C getting me 745-750Kh/s.
Forgot to mention 280x’s can easily be undervolted. once undervolted will reduce ~70Watt at the wall each card.
I am getting 120 µLTC every hour from LTC4YOU.com with 100 referrals. Not bad.
Try out.
http://ltc4you.com/?r=8166
hello guys
i have a rig with 4 GPU R290 … and i have a onboard graphic on mainboard too .
for mining can i connect monitor to onboard graphic connector or must connect to graphic card on PCI-EXPRESS Slot ?
thanks for reply