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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Hey i was wondering if you can run 5 of these cards, also what motherboard would i need to use to do it? Planning on running 5
Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X for each rig
do you think a MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Socket 1150 Intel Z87 Chipset motherboard would run 5? i bought 9, x16 to x1 risers. thanks
if there are any better motherboards for running 5 of those cards please let me know, i may even want to run 6 if its possible.!
I think a MSI Z87-G45 has just 3 slots…
ASRock Extreme 4 has five PCI-E slots. The ove them are x16 and two are x1, but if you are also buying powered risers you can buy some that convert x1 to x16, with no loss as far as I am aware
*Two of them (sorry, I’m a terrible typer)
I am running two rigs each with four XFX 280X Black OC on an ASRock Extreme 4, with one of them in the 1x pcie slot with a powered riser. The 280X uses quite a bit more power than the 7950. I can only run three with one Seasonic Gold 1250W PSU, so I added a Platinum 860W and a splitter cable. 4 GPUs run fine. I have another rig attached to the same circuit (a different plug but the same circuit). Once, when a plug wasn’t in properly, one of my rigs was pulling 600+W just to power the 4th GPU and riser; add to that the 50W box fan and the lights started dimming and the rigs rebooting, although the circuit board fuse switch did not trip. Anyway, after I re-checked the connections and rebooted, the 4th GPU ran at the expected 290-310W (the other three cards and motherboard draw about 980W). But this incident demonstrated that the extra 300W being drawn was the limit of the system. Therefore, I cannot add a 5th GPU unless I run that rig out of a different circuit in the system. I think the plugs on the other side of my study do that, but it is worth considering the limits of your circuit. I have three phase power but only the roof-top aircon runs off that so each of my circuits are possibly max 2400W (10Amp, 240V).
The number of PCI-E slots is not the only limiting factor, evidently. Before I connect my 5th cards, I will seek the advice of an electrician. There is one on this forum so I will find his post and ask him too 🙂
Get some free litecoins from here. Not a lot in the beginning but it adds up pretty good.
http://ltc4you.com/?r=8166
Anyone managed to find decent crates like these here in the UK (without massive shipping costs)? The only ones I could find were collapsible and not very stable or well ventilated.
Alex I built a crate/box from wood it was easy. Just used some off cuts and a bit of hardboard for the base job done. The crates over here are no good – I couldnt find any suitable – They are more like storage boxes.
Thanks Phil – I’ll give that a go when I have the time.
Alex, If you want to expend a little more in effort and cash, a very good looking rig can be made with a large cutting board, a 24″ section of wire shelf, and four corner posts to support the self above the board. pvc or wooden dowels about 12 inches high would be ideal for the 4 posts. I built a very nice 3 gpu rig using a cutting board bought at Walmart that was just large enough to mount the mb and the psu, and hung the gpu’s on a kitchen organizer wire basket set upside down over the board. I pulled the plastic collars off some powder gun nails I had in the shop, they were perfect as spacers under the mb, I put #6 x 3/4″ screws through the mounting holes and the spacers into the cutting board. Good looking and maximum ventilation!
I’m France and found locally (what I think is) a variation on these collapsable ones from Amazon UK;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plastic-Folding-Storage-Crate-Stackable/dp/B005WUADKA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389856040&sr=8-1&keywords=plastic+crate
It’s perfect for my application – can get the Mobo and PSU in there, the sides are easy to cut away but the whole thing is very sturdy and can be moved around without issue
atm I’m running 2x 7950’s plugged directly into the mobo. When the riser cables turn up, GPU 0 will stay in the mobo and GPU’s 1 & 2 will be on the risers. Maybe I’ll just put GPU 2 on a riser as heat isn’t too much of a concern right now. I’m in the French Alps and the rigs in the garage 🙂
Here are some pics;
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TA1asOaNGJI/UteHfT3z_dI/AAAAAAAAPQ4/AZCEh74Ulm8/w1496-h1122-no/IMG_20140116_081405.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-c3CjAVF0CkQ/UteIGHMFx3I/AAAAAAAAPQk/gTShh8aq2wQ/w1496-h1122-no/IMG_20140116_081516.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FrBliOEltBY/UteH7P0M8NI/AAAAAAAAPQM/Gh1Y-6dq1B8/w1496-h1122-no/IMG_20140116_081626.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-hG3oHom3g9c/UteIAW4NjZI/AAAAAAAAPQY/IArvlVytPsU/w1496-h1122-no/IMG_20140116_081656.jpg
I’m using a £3 laundry basket from Wilkinsons
One can still find Mac versions of 7950 – can one use those or do they need different drivers that you can’t get under Linux/Windows?
Admin, for the mobo I got: Asus m5a78l-m lx v2, and it has on-board graphics. So do I need to disable it??
Usually, when you put PCI-E card, onboard card automatically disables. However, for some boards, you have to manually disable them.
http://delsol7.wordpress.com/
*continued…
for my 3 GPU rig (though currently it has only one GPU attached)??
So, I’m almost there. I built my first computer rig ever. I have four Sapphire r9 290x cards fired up and ready to go.
PROBLEM IS – I INSTALLED WINDOWS AND THE SCREEN LOOKS ALL SCRAMBLED. Even the bios screen was a little scrambled at first, but looked better w/the fourth start. Windows looks 8 bit, but worse and when you move the mouse, it just erases the screen.
I’m sure it might be due to the drivers needing to be installed for the cards or even the drivers for the mobo…but I can’t load the drivers since I can’t see the screen.
I’m doing it via the hdmi off of card/pcie #1. I tried using the dvi connection on the card w/a diff monitor, but there was no signal at all. I am forced to use an hdmi and a tv/monitor. I have enough power [1500w], a great cpu (amd3), 12gb ram (three 4gm cards], and a good mobo (gigabyte 990fx ud5). Everything is new and I wore a bracelet the entire time to ensure no static shocks.
Any thoughts?
Remove power to all cards but 1 (the 1st on a x16 slot). Hook it to the standard monitor. Try again and post your results. If it still looks like crap, switch to a different card and see if it improves.
Hi!
How much Khash I would get from 3 x Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7950 and if I add 2 x Sapphire AMD Radeon R7 240 GPUs??? and will it would be enough to run 5 GPU on Windows OS in this case or should I switch to linux OS??
I have PSU LEPA G Series 1600.
Banging my head…
2 rigs… 4 cards… one mobo is the one above, the 970fx extreme4. The other is the 990fx extreme4. Guess which one is being difficult.
The 990 had all unpowered risers (3 x16, 1 x-1-x16) with no issues.
The 970 *refuses* to recognize the 3rd GPU on the x16 riser, so there it sits directly attached to the mobo. I’ve tried:
–swapping risers
–converting an x-16 to a powered riser
–converting the x1-x16 to a powered riser
–swapping location of powered risers
–swapping after conversions… NO LUCK!!!
I’m using the atiflash usb to see, at the bios level, how many cards are sensed with the same result… as long as I have the 3rd x16 slot directly attached to the mobo, 4 GPUs are seen.
Suggestions?
BTW, plenty of power on both rigs… exact same cards as well. Literally the the only difference is the mobo.
-Followup-
Switched mobo with another (I bought 2 970fx extreme4s last time I went to the ‘puter store). Exact. Same. Problem. Just ordered 4 x1-x16 powered risers of Amazon. Hoping I can get it to recognize two cards on x1 risers and two on x16 risers.
Gah!
Hello Phil,
I had a similar problem with my second rig I just put together Sunday using ASRock 970EX4 with Sapphire HD7950 cards. I put it together with two cards while waiting for the third card to arrive. I had a problem with the initial set up for some reason and ended downloading AMD drivers from AMD but the rig was mining ok Sunday night and Monday. When the third card arrived I installed but the mobo but it was not recognized. I did everything I could think of and went online to every help forum I could find but finally gave up and decided to re-install Xubuntu on a USB drive and start all over. At the very beginning of the setup the third card was not recognized and I was about to go crazy when I decided to check the riser on the third card and discovered that it was not fully inserted into the slot on the mobo even though it was running from the power riser molex connection. Rebooted and continued the setup and the card is now recognized. I lost nearly two days of mining over a simple mistake. Probably not the same problem for you since you have switched risers,etc.
Edwardf,
Thanks for the reply. Yes, not the same problem (I really wish it was). I’ve researched the 970fx extreme4 all over the place… literally hours of research and I have not seen any resolution except to have everything on powered risers. One thing I haven’t checked is to verify the BIOS is the most recent version. I’ll have to check that tomorrow. I *really* like the 990fx extreme4 but can’t find it anywhere who doesn’t want to scalp you an extra $100. Guess I’ll have to call micro center every day they receive shipments. 🙁
Incidentally, does anyone live in Orange County, CA? Of all their stores, that’s the only one that has the 990 in stock.
I HAVE 990 IT ONLY “SEES” 3 CARDS (1 RIG)
HAVE (2ND RIG) 970 EX 4 “SEES 4”
HAVE 3RD RIG 070EX 4 ONLY “SEES 2” CARDS I’M SO FRUSTRUATED
How do you have the cards set up for each board? e.g. risers? powered risers? x1? x16?
Shag, This may help; try “sudo aticonfig -f –adapter=all –initial”.
Putting the “force” (-f) command in the command line seems to help. Hope this works, good luck!
Shag, to clarify, the blog here doesn’t clearly show the dashes before the words. put one dash in front of the “f”, and two (as shown in the guide) in front of “adapter=all” and “initial”.
The 990 had all unpowered risers (3 x16, 1 x-1-x16) with no issues.
What is the PSU you are using on that one? I am thinking to add 4th card to my rigs but I do not know if the 1200i Corsair will handle 4 cards well. I have not undervolted the cards yet but if you have done that please tell me what voltage you use and what is the GPUs model.
I will be using Sapphire R9 280x Vapor-X OC cards. Both rigs I have now are running perfect with 3 cards 740 hashes per second on all cards. I do not know if this will not drop when I add second card though.
Has anyone ever encountered a situation where the hash rates reported from cgminer looks normal (hashing 2 cards * 725kh/s = 1.45kh/s according to cgminer) with no hw errors and no rejects, but the pool stats are reporting just half? I understand pool stats fluctuate quite a bit, but I’ve never hit higher than 800kh/s on my pool stats for the past hour? Using coinotron which is usually pretty accurate.
Pool hashrate is pretty worthless.
One reason is Vardiff.
Considering you mine at 1800 khash…
If I submit in 1 minute 10 shares above 500 difficulty my hashrate could show 3000 khash a second.
On the other hand if I submit in 1 minute only 1 share above 500 difficulty my hashrate could show 500 khash.
cgminer is the most accurate measurement of hashrate via the 5 second average.
In addition you should calculate in other factors:
Your actual hashrate = Mining Hashrate minus rejected shares minus Stale shares minus (Anything else like pool disconnects,Latency and HW errors)
Have you ever played around with the 1x to 16x PCI-e risers for mining? if you were using all powered risers would you be able to theoretically have 5 GPU’s running instead of 3? I’ve got several older GPU’s that I’m trying to find an economical way to continue to use for mining. I realize that running that many GPU’s I’d likely have a very large PSU or two PSU’s with one dedicated to running the cards. I was also surprised that the riser cables are now $15 and up since mining has become so popular.
Thanks,
Peter
Peter, the 1x 16 risers work fine for mining. They can even be used in any of the pci-e slots. Some risers have caused problems, but it seems to be the quality of manufacture that is the issue there, so if you have some good risers, they’ll work OK.
All powered risers will enable you to run five gpu’s on xubuntu, however I have heard that windows does not work with five, don’t know if that is true or not. Here’s a link on making your non-powered risers into powered ones.
http://forum.feathercoin.com/index.php?topic=2193.0
Good luck!
Thanks for the info. I may try getting a couple of the 1x to 16X risers and adding another GPU or two to my mining setup instead of spending the money on a new motherboard this time around. From what I’ve read there are a lot of these on the market now and most of them are horribly put together. Does anyone have any experience with these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HB1T54S/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1AQJTRN2131MJ
I don’t mind the wait if they actually work.
Hi guys
I ordered a new mining set, because my HD5850 wasn’t powerful enough, and I got my motherboard an cpu already. I tested my HD5850 on the a Asrock 990 Extreme, with AMD Sempron 125 and 4gb of RAM, installed Windows 8, same CGminer version, same drivers, same SDK, was using the same .bat file, but, with my i7 setup with Win7, I got 380khash/s, and now it’s only ~320.
How does it come? Does the CPU have impact on the miningspeed? They told me that it doesn’t, but…
SEMPRON….145 NOT 125?
Hmmm, my i7 have 8gb 1333mhz ram, my other ‘only’ 4gb 1333mhz, that 4gb should be my issue?
And yes, it’s the Extreme 4.
2 X 2 GB TOTAL 4 IS FINE
So, 2x2GB is better then 1x4gb for mining?
The CPU is not a factor. Check the main and memory clocks as well as the intensity… Same as your Win7 numbers?
Where did you get the 990? Is it the extreme4? If so, can you get your hands on more?
SEMPRON145 NOT 125?
So I bought all the pieces for this setup. But my milk crates have a problem, or rather a couple of them. First, the edges where I would screw down the GPUs have a little wall (so it’s a ‘L’ shape facing out.. ya dig?), so I can’t screw them directly to the edge of the crate. Also, when resting the brace on the crate, the bracket of the GPU is not level with any edges. Here is the model I’m using:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121803&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-
Any suggestions??
Just cut or drill into the ‘L’ shaped part enough to get the card in
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-whpoPwf-9Q4/UteIZaTka-I/AAAAAAAAPSY/K-QURnhCRT8/w1496-h1122-no/IMG_20140116_081516.jpg
Take a look at my design. No need for screwing down the graphics cards to the crate.
http://delsol7.wordpress.com/
You know, if you’re going to show someone something you did, it is helpful to link to the exact post you want them to see. That way they don’t have to scroll and scroll to figure it out on their own.
I have a question, thanks to cryptobadger I was able to get 3x r9 290 linux rig up and running. I have two cards plugged into the motherboard and the third connected through a 1->16 riser cable. A forth card just arrived and I am currently waiting on more riser cables. What I don’t understand is the caution about frying the motherboard with more than three cards. Power cables are running straight from my PSU to each card, so I am not drawing any significant power through the motherboard, is that right? the one riser cable I am currently using has a molex but I didn’t bother to use it as I am powering the cards from cables right from the PSU. Am in danger of frying my motherboard when I hook up the fourth card? Or if I have power cables from the PSU to each card am I fine? Thx and Many Kudos and Thanks to CyptoBadger for this guide, couldn’t have done it without it.
From what I’ve read your cards draw power from the PCI-e slot AND the PCI-e power cables from your PSU. So while your cards are getting additional power from the power cable plugged in the side of them they still draw some power from the motherboard and when running several cards you can have too much power running through the motherboard. I’m sure someone with actual hands on experience can confirm/deny this is the case.
Thanks for the detailed response. I found a crate like that on Amazon, which I’m currently using, but it seemed a little flimsy to me…
Just checking, I’m a bit of a noob wwhen it comes to electronics, will these resistors be fine for a rig in the UK? we have 240v mains supply, in the US isn’t it 110v? I’m not going to burn my house down am I?
You think there’s gonna be 240v coming out of the DVI connections on your GPU’s!!??
The input power to the PSU doesn’t impact the amount of power the PSU supplies. Also the monitors are not powered through the video cable so the input voltage from the wall won’t have any affect on the type of resistor used in the dummy plug.
So I have 3 7950s now and a Corsair 860W PSU. Not sure if I am doing this right – there are only 2 cables with the PSU that have 2×6 pin connections for the GFXs (which require(?) 2 x 6 pin).
Otherwise I have only 6+2 pin cables that came with the PSU.
Does that mean I have to buy extra cables???
PS: also having troubles getting Linux onto a USB 🙁
considering windows pretty soon 🙁
Alex,
Use the 6 + 2 cables and leave the 2 pin connector loose..no problem, it is designed to be used either way.
As for Xubuntu on a USB flash drive; it is easier if you are able to burn the ISO image from the download to a CD or DVD using Windows for the download and making the CD image file. Connect a CD/DVD drive to your new rig, make sure you have a new formated FAT32 USB plugged into a USB port, set up the Bios on the mobo to boot from the CD/DVD drive first. When Xuuntu loads and ask to TRY or Install, select install and let it do it’s job. As in the instructions be sure to check Auto Run near the end of the install instructions ( I forgot this on one install and had to manually start Xubuntu each time the mining rig shut down and needed to restart).
I recommend you use Xubuntu 12-10 and DO NOT choose the updates or upgrade to 13.4 or whatever is offered as it caused me lot of problems and I had to start all over two times. I found that if I followed the instructions in CrytoBadger word for word, letter for letter, eveything worked out as it should. If I missed one small step, it did not work.
re. “PS: also having troubles getting Linux onto a USB 🙁
considering windows pretty soon 🙁 ”
If you’re using a Windows machine to create the bootable USB drive use this; http://www.linuxliveusb.com/
If you’re using a Mac then use this; http://penguintosh.com/tag/linux-usb-creator/
I think you will need more power for running 3 of those cards. I say at least 1000W.
http://delsol7.wordpress.com/
can i use a 64GB memory stick as my hardrive and install windows 7 ?
Hi,
Could I also use HD7990-6GD5 (http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/HD79906GD5/#overview) or do I need another motherboard because of the PCI Express 3.0?
Regards,
Olivier
It will work on PCI-E 2.0.
Thx, Vitalia, for your answer!
I’m planning to buy “SAPPHIRE R9 290 BF4 Edition (21227-00-50G)”. Would this be a good choice? There are several editions/brands for the R9 290. Are they all the same with same cgminer settings en performance?
What can I get out of it? I saw on http://rumorscity.com/2013/12/03/litecoin-gpu-mining-with-amd-r9-290-and-r9-290x-sweet-spot-for-1000khashsec/ you can reach 900MH/s with R9 290 but I don’t know if it’s also applicable to the BF4 edition.
Thx for helping!
Greets,
Olivier
Did you put the motherboard just resting anywhere on the plastic risers or do they have to be spaced underneath the holes in the board? There seems to be only enough room on the cross sections to stick the risers. If they can go anywhere, have you had any issues with heat. I guess my concern is them getting to hot and melting. Maybe I’m just worrying too much about it?
Thank you so much for the article! I can’t wait to get mining!
Hi Chris,
You can just space them evenly around the bottom of the crate, all symmetrical-like. lol It doesn’t really matter exactly where. It’s extremely unlikely that they will melt.
I made little changed to badger’s design. Take a look.
http://delsol7.wordpress.com/
The site is back up and running again for free LTC. It was down for last a few weeks. http://ltc4you.com/?r=8166
Could I use three 7970 instead of 7950?
Yeah, you can use whatever you want. lol
YES…..BUT ………….AT THE WALL EXPECT 987 WATTS
YES BUT THIS 987 IS WITH THREE CARDS
4 CARDS…..GO WITH MINIAMUM….1300WATT
Hi,
Thank you very much for this great guide.
I am trying to build one with your inspiration, however i am little confused on selecting GPU.
Luckily i find 7950s in my area. But i need to select proper variant from the available 3 cards.
Please kindly let me know typical hash powers of the following cards.
1. Sapphire AMD/ATI HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 With Boost 3 GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1713&psn=&lid=1&leg=0
2.SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB GDDR5
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1439&psn=&lid=1&leg=0
3. Asus HD7950-DC2-3GD5-V2 which shows 660 kh/s on ltc gpu comarision page.
Are there two variants in Sapphire 7950 Dual-x GPUs?
What would be the required PSU rating for these 4x 7950 s with Asrock 970 Extreme mobo with Sepmron 140 and either a 8 GB flash drive or a 250 GB sata. Can i use 1000 wat Gold rated PSU for this or a 1250 watt one?
Thanks a lot for your time and efforts.
i was getting a purple screen also and i worked out that it was to do with temperature keep an eye on it, that might be what it is…. hope this helps
hi guys, i have been having huge problems getting this to work.
first i was trying ubuntu – i could get two cards recognized out of 4. when i added a third i would get a purple screen and frrezes?
after spending 4 days trying to fix it i gave up. i then saw this tutorial…
so i install xubuntu 13.10 and follow the guide to the letter… again two cards no problem, i add a third and the fun starts again.
first i got it to boot with three… i was happy but the screen was a little stretched, with a picture of a mouse in the middle and majority of the icons missing? was weird. but i thought i can live with that… i try to add the 4th and everything crashes. i am so stuck with this, i have had no mining done for 5 days now, and my mrs is stressing at me… please help. i have tried everything i can find on google – i have installed and reinstalled about 8 times now different OS. i just dont know what to do
my set-up
sempron 145
4x r280x
4 gb ram – have also tried 8
gigabyte 990fx-ud3 board
risers mixed and moved around to find the issues
2x 750 psu linked using an adapter
if you need any more info please let me know
follow up to my comment – now doing a fresh install of ubuntu.
would my screen have anything to do with it? sounds daft, but it is an older lcd, using a dvi vga adapter, as i have no hdmi etc… just a thought…
I too had multiple problems with Xubuntu. It just didn’t work for me.
However this worked for me:
https://www.ltcrabbit.com/index.php?page=os
I highly recommend BAMT. Everything is preconfigured (drivers, AMD SDK and cgminer).
It’s built to just work from the get go with very little “tweaking”.
For me all I had to do was to put in the pool info and adjust the GPU Clock and Memory Clock.
I also installed teamviewer because I had to access the computer from another state: (If you want to do that, read below)
From the terminal make sure your in the Desktop directory.
Then type:
sudo wget http://www.teamviewer.com/download/teamviewer_linux.deb
Then type:
sudo dpkg -i teamviewer_linux.deb
After you’ve installed teamviewer run it from the menu and setup unattented access.
After that click options and make sure “Start Teamviewer with Windows” is checked.
Copy down the ID, reboot and test to see if the remote access works.
BAMT is only for litecoin mining, not for other altcoins, right?
I think you ud3 motherboard can only handle 2 video cards. Ud7 can handle 4 video cards. But I could be wrong.
HAD THE EXACT PROBLEM SAME MOBO……..USING WINDOWS 7
CGMINER 3.7.2…… IT RUNS 3 CARDS ONLY…..
THE SAPPHIRE 280X 3 CARDS R KILO HASHING 792 AVG. EACH
2.6MH
What’s the hash rate for the Radeon HD7970 PCIe 3GB GDDR5?
I think it was mentioned elsewhere, but dummy plugs are unnecessary using Xubuntu 13.10 and cgminer 3.7.2. I had made up eight of the things then when I transferred my rigs from milk crates to a custom aluminium frame, I forgot to replace the plugs. When I fired them up they were both hashing 710-730 per card (XFX 280X OC Black) just fine.
Staffnsnake,
Very interesting comment about the dummy plugs. I wonder if it works with
7950 cards? I can only get about 590-630 out of each card on my two rig setup but at the pool it shows an average combined hash rate which is usually higher than the total I am showing on cgm. I guess I could remove the dummy plugs and give try it. Also I added powertune -20 to my script but do not see any difference in hash rate or temp. I am still using xubuntu 12-10 without upgrades and CGminer 3.7.2 Maybe I should try xubuntu 3.04 which is offered each time I go into putty.
I am curious about the custom aluminum frame you mentioned. Did you build it or buy it. I have seen several photos online of some light weight aluminum frames/enclosures and thought about building one myself to get away from these plastic crates.
I meant to say Xubuntu 13-10. 134.04 is offered as an upgrade when I sign into a putty session.
I got mine from eBay in Melbourne (search scrypt mining case). If you’re in North America, Google spotswood mining atx cases. His are cheaper and a bit better than mine but he has a 5 week waiting list.
Ok, thanks. I just looked at local Home Depot and can get aluminum angle at a reasonable price so may just build my own. Have the tools.
I found one on eBay USA with current bid of $19.99 USD plus $15 shipping but it will go higher before it’s over. Will put on watch list.
send me an email to michaelayling at gmail dot com and I can send you a pdf of the exact dimensions and construction instructions for mine. No screws, just right angle plugs to bang it all together with the heel of your boot. You will just need to be exact with the lengths you cut. It’s 25mm square aluminium tubing.