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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Actually, here is a dropbox link for the file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4nvbjpfl1nnpbjb/Rig%20case%20dimensions%20and%20assembly.pdf
Has anyone ever had very different results from identical GPU cards? I have a 2 card setup, Sapphire 280x, identical settings, identical voltages (stock), same overclock settings. One card does 720k, the other does 600k. Same temperatures, no idea why there’s such a wide difference?
Yes indeed. I am using XFX 280X OC Black Edition cards. Within each rig, cards are hashing approximately the same, but there is a difference of about 15-20 KH/s between rigs. The only hardware difference is the risers are from different suppliers. The only setup difference is that the first rig was setup with one card on the motherboard as I didn’t have any risers, whereas the second rig was set up with the three cards and risers in place, according to crypto badger’s guide. If I use identical settings, there is a difference of about 150KH/s between rigs, but I managed to tweak the settings of the second rig to bring it above 700KH/s/card at least.
Sorry, I got confused by your post, are you saying with risers there’s a difference of 150kh/s or without riser (direct on mobo) there’s the large difference? I can’t really try it on the mobo due to the case I’m using but I might be able to try a different riser to see if that’s the issue.
In mentioning risers or no risers, I was trying to see if there was any difference between the rigs which might explain the lower performance. So, the only difference between the first and second rigs was firstly in the setup of the first, which was done with one GPU then the others were added, and the fact that the risers used by them are from different suppliers.
However, since the addition of fourth GPUs to each rig (both with identical powered 1x to 16x risers) did not show a different hash rate to other GPUs on each respective rig, I actually suspect it is not the risers causing the difference. There must be something wrong with the setup, since all four GPUs on each rig give the same performance.
When I tried to install Xubuntu on the second rig, I had freezes on the Xubuntu logo with 13.10 and had to install 12.10 then use the sudo do-release-upgrade command to upgrade. During the final upgrade I did see a few lines saying that something was broken, but it otherwise seemed to install okay and I nevertheless get 710KH/s on the problematic rig. I suspect if I swapped the GPUs and/or risers around I would still get the same performance.
Given that the difference between rigs is only a matter of 60KH/s aggregate, I am content to let sleeping dogs lie and not to fiddle with it much more. One final option I suppose could be if I purchased the exact same USB used on the first rig and then cloned it and used it on the next rig (and then changed the username/password). I might try that a bit later.
Yes. I have one rig, 3 of the same cards, and the third card is always slower. I’ve just learned to live with it.
The one that is slower is because your screen that you are looking at consumes the equivalent of about 200kh/s play games and it goes lower in kh/s try using on-board screen card.
Thanks, but I have no onboard screen card. lol
Oh and also, the first card is never that much lower.. maybe 70 khs at the most and 10 khs at the least.
Could I use different models of cards, for example combining two 7970 and one 7950?
I’m also curious.
Yes, just as long as you are aware that the cards may require different settings and tweaking.
All my 7970’s work under these specific settings:
–scrypt -o firstpool:port# -u username.1 -p password1 –worksize 256 –intensity 13 -g 2 –thread-concurrency 8192 –failover-only -o backup_pool:port# -u username2 -p password2 –temp-target 80 –auto-fan –temp-cutoff 90
While my 7950’s work under these settings:
–scrypt -o firstpool:port# -u username.1 -p password1 -I 19 -w 256 –thread-concurrency 21712 -g 1 –gpu-powertune 20 –failover-only -o backup_pool:port# -u username.2 -p password2 –temp-target 80 –auto-fan –temp-cutoff 90
That was my windows configuration and it may differ in Linux.
I get about 750 kh/s out of my 7970 with this
–gpu-platform 0 -d 0 -w 256 -v 1 -I 13 -g 2 -l 1 –gpu-engine 1070 –gpu-memclock 1800 –gpu-fan 65 –thread-concurrency 8192
with lower or higher gpu or mem clock speeds i start dropping off temp never gets above 75-77c but my room temp is usually 68f or less all the time
I just mine when im not using my computer
yes and mixed brands too
I’m setting up my first rig with 3 x Sapphire Radeon HD 7950. Power supply requirements are 500W (or greater).
Will I be okay with a Seasonic 80+ platinum 860W for this rig? Or do I need to go for something heavier.
How do I generally calculate the required power supply need for a rig?
it will work….but rule of thumb…..go heavier…1350 ish
because say in about a year 1 card go bad you can then go to 7970
instead of 7950// or 280x….these cards run hotter
Christopher,
I have two rigs with 3 Sapphire HD 7950 cards each. When I first set up my first rig it was drawing 900W-950W at the wall before I adjusted the settings. I only have one Kill-A-Watt right now and the one rig that is plugged into it is pulling 750W-770W at the wall ( I just checked it a few minutes ago). So I would agree that in case you ever want to add a fourth card or you have to replace a card with a newer model you will need to have a PSU with a higher capacity. I have a Seasonic 1250W and a EVGA 1300W. I have not been able to undervolt the Sapphire cards below 1.131V (1131mv) so far without creating an unstable condition and causing the cards to go “sick” or shut down. Others have been successful using lower voltage settings with different script settings so you just have to get started and then experiment with different settings but you will be better off if you have a higher rated PSU to begin with.
I also have 3xSapphire HD7950s (Boost 3GB GDDR5) but can’t get above 520 kh/s per card. Others are telling me this is because there is not enough power (i’m using the 860W Seasonic). I’d be very interested is what settings you are using if you’d be willing to share. And do you think I need to upgrade the PSU?
This is what I have set on one rig that is pulling anywhere from 690W to 790W at the wall. It constantly jumps up and down for some reason but does not go above 800W. The PSU on that one is an EVGA Supernova 1300W 80Plus Gold. I think you can get by with the 860W PSU if you can keep the draw at the wall down around 800 or below.
Here are the settings I am using right now:
./cgminer –scrypt -I 20 -g 1 -w 256 –thread-concurrency 24000 –gpu-engine 1050 –gpu-memclock 1500 –gpu-powertune 20 –shaders 1792 –gpu-vddc 1.087 –temp-target 80 –auto-fan -o stratum+tcp://[YOUR MINING POOL INFO] -u [YOUR USERNAME] -p [YOUR PASSWORD] –failover-only -o stratum+tcp://[YOUE MINING POOL INFO] -u [YOUR USERNAME] -p [YOUR PASSWORD
I recently added the –gpu-powertune 20 and the –shaders 1792.
I’m not sure if that makes a big difference but the draw did come down some after I added them but I also played around with engine and memclock setting at the same time.
What are the rates showing after WU: on your cgminer screen? Also you can look at the figure on the top line at the far right end to see a total for all three cards. Mine is 1690.9/M as I type this.
Hey Edwardf, thanks for sharing your settings – I’ll plug them in and get right back to you. My WU is currently 1398.5/m with current settings.
Tried the new settings but it seemed to crash the system. When I ssh in and run ‘cgm’ I get the ‘no screen attached’ message. I assume this means CGMiner has fallen over. I have re-initiated CG Miner but no joy. I’ll try to make the adjustments incrementally – what doe the ‘-g 1’ and ‘shaders’ settings actually do/mean?
Mole,
As for the -g 1 and –shadders I do not have an intelligent answer. I am still trying to find out myself. I see those settings in many scripts, some without shadders, but the -g 1 or -g 2 is standard and has an effect on the cards in some way. I see some scripts with shadders set a “0” and some scripts without a shadders setting.
Maybe someone on here can clarify that informaition for us.
I am running currently only 2 7950s, waiting for the PCIe raisers to install the third, so not getting higher hash-numbers can’t be due to power consumption (with an 860W Seasonic)
Your command line
./cgminer –scrypt -I 20 -g 1 -w 256 –thread-concurrency 24000 –gpu-engine 1050 –gpu-memclock 1500 –gpu-powertune 20 –shaders 1792 –gpu-vddc 1.087 –temp-target 80 –auto-fan -o stratum+tcp://[YOUR MINING POOL INFO] -u [YOUR USERNAME] -p [YOUR PASSWORD] –failover-only -o stratum+tcp://[YOUE MINING POOL INFO] -u [YOUR USERNAME] -p [YOUR PASSWORD
is basically what I am using, the gpu-engine is a bit lower, but I don’t get over 560 for card 2, and not above 480 for card 1.
it must be something else….
Alex,
I have not been able to get the 7950 cards to hash above 600Kh/s for very long. They seem to settle down to around 575-590 Khs/s but the total hash rate on the pool I am mining on always shows a higher combined hash rate for the three cards. I do not understand this. I have tried many different script settings to lower rejections rates or temperature and/or increase hash rate but have not found the ideal settings yet. Each card seems to react differently even though they are all the same make and model, etc. I do not know what the shadders setting does so I removed it, lowered the engine to 1050, lowered the memory clock to 1250, and lowered the intensity to 18. With higher clocking and intensity I get too many rejections which defeats the purpose of having a high hash rate. It is a delicate balance and I think each system gives different results even with the same mobo and cards. When I try to undervolt the cards below 1.131v they go “sick” or the rig shuts down altogether.
thanks.
I noticed that my Win7 visual wasn’t set up for performance but for best appearance. This made quite a difference (I just wrote a separate entry under section 3, windows install). not over 600, but at least 560ish for both cards now. though a slightly lower thread-concurrency in my case, else a crash happens.
Well, I am running Xubuntu on my mining rigs so there will be a difference in our settings I think. Best to follow someone who is using windows. However, the end results should be about the same.
I have read elsewhere that the hashrate on mining pools is not accurate and is often up to 15 percent off in both directions. The CG Miner value is the one to go by (although Work Units is actually a more relevant stat).
Thanks for all the input. I’m now getting a stable 590 kH/s which seems to be pretty good based on your experiences. I still have a lingering feeling that the rig may be a tad under-powered – I don’t seem to be able to undervolt (although oddly CG Miner shows they are using different voltages – any thoughts on this welcome). I know now that the blue button on the top switches bios – does this have any impact for you? It appears to boost the hashtate for me.
Incidentally i find 1025 the best GPU Engine speed. To answer my own question the shaders value is redundant if you have Thread Concurrency set.
I also have 3xSapphire HD7950s (Boost 3GB GDDR5) but can’t get above 520 kh/s per card. Others are telling me this is because there is not enough power (i’m using the 860W Seasonic). I’d be very interested in what settings you are using if you’d be willing to share. And do you think I need to upgrade the PSU?
Mole,
I forgot to tell you that I have tried to under volt the cards to lower the temps and increase the hash rate but so far 1.131V (1131mv) is the lowest I could go with those settings. Otherwise the rig would shut down or a card would go “sick” after about an hour.
.
My voltage is 1.094 V according to CG Miner and the rig seems stable
Thanks for the feedback guys!
PCI-E riser cable : I can’t find them anywhere online for a reasonable price. Can anyone suggest where I can get them please.
I GOT PCI RISERS 1 X 16 RUNNING 4 CARDS ON ASROCK 970EX 4 MOBO
YOU REALLY DONT NEED POWERED RISERS….GOT MINE AT TOMS HARDWARE
LAST WEEK 5.25 EACH….26.45 WITH SHIPPING
Thanks. Let me check that option.
I’ve been mining since August, having accumulated 15 MSI 7950 Twin Frozr’s and 4 MSI R280x.
Things are stable, for the most part.
One issue I run into is the GPU fans. I’ve had 1 7950 and 1 R280x replaced already due to fan failure. (The 7950 can survive with one fan out, but the R280x can’t)
Several of the cards are now in various phases of fan failure.
Is this just an issue with MSI cards, or do other manufacturers have similar issues?
Anybody have any experience with this? What can be done to remedy this? Is RMA the only option?
Cheers!
The fans have on the bottem a little sticker that covers a oil port. Go get some 3 in 1 oil and add a few drps. Spin fan around and it should start spinning easier. If its totally locked up though fan will probably need replacement… I kinda just cut and spliced wires on one of mine as I coulndt figure out how to get plastic cover off. Works is all I care about
Singer Sewing machine oil is on the way! 😀
Will perform open fan surgery as soon as it shows up!
Cheers!
There are no little oil port on the MSI fans. You can, however, remove the fan from the motor, which exposes the necessary areas to lubricate.
On a related issue… Anybody know where I can get replacement fans?
Thanks for creating this website! You have pulled together a lot of the latest information in one location, which is very helpful.
Given your experience and research in alt coin mining, I am curious to know what you expectations are for the future?
Understanding that mining difficulty increases over time and there is a lot of variance in alt coin exchange rates, do you think there is still good money to be made? Or do you think that the diminishing returns mean it is not worth it for new miners?
What tips or advice can you give to new miners?
Thanks in advance,
Nick
Can you tell me exactly how much money will this setup make after 1 month?
Is it worth taking a fast loan for this?
???????
Taking out a loan to buy a mining rig is a lot like taking out a loan to go gamble. Say bitcoins crash… or mining becomes unprofitable.. your mining rig will be useless and you will owe money.
This setup will net about $300-$350 based on current difficulty levels and value of LTC to USD.
BTW, unlike taking a loan to gamble is not an accurate analogy… if it all goes poorly, you can always sell off the gear and get money back… the beauty of GPU mining. Gamers will still want those cards!
I’m new to mining,and totally out of my league but willing to learn, I find it very interesting, lookin to mine litecoin, stumble on this site what would be a daily average return? am I looking at about $1500 as an initial setup cost? everything going right what is the average cost on electricity (just to get an idea) any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Phil,
I saw your comment saying this rig will make you about $300 – $350 per month. (28th Jan 2014)
Is this factoring in everything eg power consumption and cost of exchanging them to dollars each month?
Also was this based on mining Litecons?
If not has someone got the power consumption figures to plug into a calculator?
Has anyone got a wallet address they are using for one rig only for people to get an idea what they are generating like Badger shows use on http://www.cryptobadger.com/2013/05/guide-bitcoin-wallet-security/
Very excited about building this rig, but need to prove to the misses its a worth while investment.
Cheers
PS thanks CryptoBadger your website is very helpful and made the whole crypto network make alot more sense to a noob.
GO TO WEMINELTC.COM
THERE IS A MINING CALCULATER THERE
PUT IN TOTAL KH’S
IT WILL TELL U DAY WEEK MONTH YEAR
REMEMBER…….IT IS BASED ON TODAY’S DIFFICULTY….
…..BUT THE DIFF FACTOR DROPPED THIS WEEK,TOO
That being said.. I am in a way taking this gamble..
Yeah but as of right now how much is this setup raking in per month?
[…] that these drivers are for Radeon 7xxx series GPUs (like the 7950 that I recommend in part 1 of this guide). If you’re using another GPU, you’ll need to go to the AMD site and get appropriate […]
[…] setting for both of these entries to your desired voltage level. If you have a Radeon 7950 GPU (like I recommend), then 1081 (for 1081 mV) is a good value for […]
Hey whats up guys.
So bit of a newb to mining here… (mainly since my forte is in fabricating composites and cars but anyway) i have an old ass mobo, an ASUS P5N-SLI that we used to design most of our stuff on and well its pretty much obsolete at this point, it has 2 16x 1.1 ports and 3 1x ports. was wondering if i could use this board (yeah im cheap) to build a mining rig.
I had a similar board (P5N-E SLI PLUS, i think) and yes you can mine on it. It’s important you have a good psu, though. Had a 750W PSU that could barely run a couple of 7970’s.
Even though it’s an SLI (nVidia based) you can run 2 ATI cards (or more) on it (as long you don’t try to link them together)
yeah i wont link them, imma try to use all 5 slots and run the other 4 cards on their own dedicated PSU’s
DO NOT buy those usb 3.0 risers. I put them on my 4 GPU rigs to add a 5th card to each and they appear to have fried the motherboards. I have to pick up two mobos tomorrow.
Steaming mad. Furious.
I’ll lose about 2.5 LTC in lost mining time sorting this out.
I bought an Asrock 990fx Extreme3 since the 970 Extreme4 was sold out everywhere. After about a week of mining, it had a short of some sort right next to USB 8_9 connector which had nothing connected to it. Board fried. RMAed it and waiting to hear back. In the meantime I was able to get my hands on the 970 Extreme4 and after one night of working I saw that the rig was off. Tried to power it up and nothing happen. Tested the power supply and it seems to be functioning just fine, but when connected to the motherboard, it won’t even spin up. No lights, nothing. I still need to inspect and troubleshoot it, but damn…..I don’t have time for this BS!
Am I missing something? Is mining really that hard on the mobos or are the Asrock boards just crap?
The ASRock 970EX4 has both a RESET button and a CLEAR CMOS button. I have had a similar problem tow or three times and I read in the owners manual how to clear the cmos. Disconnect the main power supply and the 12v power supply from the mobo, wait 15 seconds, press the clear cmos button to the left of the USB 2 ports, hold for 5 seconds. Reconnect the power cords and turn on the PSU. If this does not work, check all the connections at the PSU. I had one get loose that supplied the power risers to my cards and it produced the same results as you described. No power to anything until I replaced the cable and reset the mobo.
Well, I did some trouble shooting and after unplugging the GPUs everything would start up normally. Added on card back in the first slot and when I turned it on, nothing. Then I moved it to the second slot and then I started it, sparks flew from the card accompanied by a nice burning smell. I quickly turned it off. I debated whether or not to try another card in the first slot, and I caved in and did it. It worked just fine. Added the second card and everything was working well. Bad card, problem solved, right? WRONG! The machine shut itself off sometime in the night again and again would not turn on. Removed the GPUs again and it starts. I am afraid to even test the card that was plugged into the first slot. I hope I am not frying my cards with a faulty motherboard PCIe slot, if that is indeed what the problem is……
Can some one confirm typical hash rates of saphire HD 7950 cards?
I can purchase 3 models of Sapphire 7950 cards from local store.
1.Vapor-X
2.Dual-X 100352-2L
3.Dual-X 11196-19-20G
Find part numbers from Images, one dual-x has small white band on right top curvature, and all 3 crds have 2 fans.
I want to know hash rates of each card, ability to under volt to reduce power consumption and cooling requirements.
Experts please help me selecting best card out of these 3.
Thanks in advance
Based on the database information I could find I only saw a few references:
The Dual-X 100352-2L was the best performing at 670 khash/sec undervolted at 1.09 V.
11196-19-20G 650 khash/sec at 1.169 V (Stock voltage?)
The two Vapor X listed got between 600-620 khash undervolted at 1.081 V.
They all have aftermarket coolers so you should be good to go as far as that concern.
I can only base this off what is being referenced though. The latter may get just as good of a hashrate as the first card because they appear to be very similar cards.
Where are you located geographically? if I may ask?
@Vitalia
Thanks for the response.I am from India, and able to get below cards from local stores.
Here are the images of Vapor-X and both Dual-X cards i can buy.
1.Sapphire Vapor-X http://imgur.com/mD308xg
2 Dual-X 100352-2L http://imgur.com/vlAPKAi
3.Dual-X 11196-19-20G http://imgur.com/rHCsV1e
Looking for feedback from any more users used above cards.
Please correct me model numbers of the above cards and help me to choose best of 3 cards(Imgage based)for best hashrates,customization ans stability.
Thanks in advnce.
The Vapor-X is pretty good. I use those and they are extremely stable.
What hashrate vapor-x generate and config, wattage please.
MY R9 280X VAPORX GETS 742 KH CGMINER 3.7.2 72CELISUS
I WLOULD GO WITH VAPORX
MORE STABLE…..RAN FOR 30 DAYS WITH 1 ONLY HARDWARE ERROR
Sapphire 7950 Vapor-X and Dual-X(11196-19-20G) costs $25 extra than Dual-X(100352-2L)
Still 7950 Vapor-X best? What would be the typical hashrates of these three 7950 cards?
Any wattage info at max load?
Thanks
I HAVE 9 RIGS RUNNING…..THREE CARDS EACH SAPPHIRE ,,,R9 280X
1250 PSU
CARDS RUN 90 PERCENT…..BUT VERY VERY STABLE
745 KH TEMPS 74C
745 KH 73C
742 KH 78C
KILOWATT AT THE WALL 988…UNDER CLOCKED
BT, I’ve run the Sapphire Dual-X 11196-19-20G version with 2 3-gpu rigs. My scrypt setting in “mine_litecoins.sh” is
./cgminer –scrypt -I 20 –thread-concurrency 21712 –gpu-engine 1100 –gpu-memclock 1500 –gpu-powertune 20 –no-submit-stale -o stratum+tcp://digitalcoinpool.org:3333 -u (workername) -pw x –failover-only -o stratum+tcp://global.wemineltc.com:3334 -u (workername) -pw x
At these settings I get at top of the hashing cycle for each card around 660 kh/s. (the hashing will cycle up and down as your gpu’s are mining). This is producing an average around 1.932 Mh/s per rig.
Caution, these rigs are running in a room with an open window and a fan, to an Oklahoma winter with temps at present of -1 to 8 Celcius. My gpu’s are running 59, 64, and 69 right now on one of the rigs.
As the ambient temperature of the room rises, they will have to lower in one or more settings of engine, memory, powertune. Typically powertune first, to perhaps “10”, or even “3”. You should aim to keep the gpu below 80, and every degree lower will add to the life of the gpu.
Good luck to you
@ezpacer Thanks for sharing config.
I am from India where ambient temperature is higher than yours.
What changes i need to do to bring down temps?
Can you undervolt these cards? If so how you do in windows or linux rig?
BT – the only way I could get the temp down on one of my 7950’s was to lower the Intensity setting.
I have my 2x 7950’s set to 1.169V – this seems to be the lowest I can get them while still getting a good hashrate (570-580Kh/s for the card on the riser cable)
One silly question:
For ASROCK 970 Extreme-4 mother board, how many connections are made from PSU? I see one 24 pin, 1 8 pin. Do I need to make both the connections or just the 24 pin connection.
(When I plug in 24 pin connection, the board seems to power up, but not with the 8 pin (12V). What is the purpose of this 8 pin? Does this also needs to be connected? Can’t find an answer for this anywhere.
Swiper,
You said:
(When I plug in 24 pin connection, the board seems to power up, but not with the 8 pin (12V). What is the purpose of this 8 pin? Does this also needs to be connected? Can’t find an answer for this anywhere.
Yes, you need both. Read page 32 in ASRock 970Extreme4 Quick Installation Guide (the blue book) if you have it.
(When I plug in 24 pin connection, the board seems to power up, but not with the 8 pin (12V). What is the purpose of this 8 pin? Does this also needs to be connected? Can’t find an answer for this anywhere.)
What exactly do you mean by that? Did you try it with only the 8-pin, or do you mean it would work when both of them were plugged in?
In any case, the 8 pin is for the CPU. I am surprised it started up without it.
BOTH CONNECTIONS
Thank You all. It is up and running with one 7950 card now. Searching for two more cards.
@ SHAGTIME
I have one Sapphire R9 X280 Vapor-X, but can not get it over 590Kh/s
What is your secret?
My build : ./cgminer –scrypt -I 13 -g 1 -w 256 –thread-concurrency 8192 –gpu-engine 1170 –gpu-memclock 1500 –gpu-powertune 5 –shaders 2048 –gpu-vddc 1.2 –temp-target 80 –auto-fan
Same Hardware setup as this guide..
first of all, you would want to have power-tune set to 20. that has to do with gaining a safer and smoother overclocking setting with regards to voltage variations.
Then –
I think you could start by removinh either “shader” or “thread-conc” setting. you don’t need both.
If you use shader only with your settings, you will see that the miner sets the thread-conc automatically (as you can see in the created file scryptXXXXXXXXtc0000_XXXX.bin the XXs will change depending on your card. the “0000” is the thread-conc which the miner finds on its own. you could then go the opposite way, I think as explained elsehwere and here, remove shaders, and use the TC setting and work yourself up to higher numbers.
also, don’t get fooled by the miner values, if you change something and run for a while, you should reset the statistics just in case.
If you use -g 1 the thread concurrency and intensity should be higher:
-g 1 –thread-concurrency 21712 -i 19 or 20
Or you could try:
-g 2 –thread-concurrency 8192 -i 13
Also take out the –shaders.
And lastly you can try no shaders & no thread concurrency as already mentioned.
Hi all. Which you guys think is better: 2x R9-280X or 3x 7950? Thanks
about 1800+ khash on the 3 7950’s.
I’ve had 2 ASUS R9 280x and one got
799 khash while the only one got
715 khash.
But I’m guessing the average khash rate on an r9 is between 710 and 750.
Budget wise, if I go with 7950’s, I can get 3 maybe even 4. With 280X’s, I can only get 2. As for PSU, will a 1000W be able to power 4 7950’s? Thanks for feedback.
YOU CANNOT GET 4 GPU …..NEED AT LEAST 1250-1350WATT FOR 7950 CARDS
280X BURN 340 WATT EACH
DEPENDS….SAPPHIRE VAPOR X RUNS COOL AND HASK 730 TO 760 EACH
BUT BURN 310WATTS (SO 2 CARDS 1475 KH)
7950 GET 620 TO 670 BURN 260 WATT (AND 3 CARDS 1880 TO 1920)
Has anyone experimented with using a box fan.
I’m interested in:
-Best position?
-The extra cost per month.
-AND How many degrees the GPU temperature decreased?
Thanks…
Hey I use a box fan. I don’t know what the extra cost per month is. I have it positioned to blow perpendicular to the cards so that it’s constantly blowing air between the cards. It works great. My temps never go past 77, and they normally average 75 or lower.
Thanks James for the comment. What are the original temps before the box fan?
Well to be honest I had the box fan running from the beginning. However, a couple times after I’ve had everything off for one reason for another, I’ve turned the machine back on and had it mining for a while, and the temps were still only around 76.
I keep that fan running 24/7 most of the time. I’ve had it for less than a month and it sounds like it’s already going to fall apart. LOL
Oops. I meant to say that I’ll turn the machine back on and forget to turn the fan back on (or back up after having it on a lower setting), and the temps still stay around 76 or so. The R9 280x from Asus has excellent temp control and cooling.
As I have written already here, I have been having problems with my rig. I was starting to think my PSU was causing the problems, so I contacted Seasonic support. My build is with the same components as Cryptobadger, except I have Sapphire HD 7950 Dual-X GPUs. Even though, I did not mention it, the rep assumed I was doing mining and told me that I would need a 1000W power supply if I wanted to run only 2 7950s! He also stated that I should use a separate cable for each 6-pin plug on the GPU. That would mean with 3 cards, I would need 6 cables. The Seasonic 860 only HAS 6 spots on the 12V rail, and you need on of them for the CPU plug. Now I am wondering if all my problems have been cause by an underpowered setup. The only thing I can’t figure out is why not everyone is having these problems. When I actually had all three running, it was pulling 800W at the wall with the cgminer settings suggested here and no undervolting. That shouldn’t be causing a problem, right? I was using the cables that have one plug on the PSU end and 2 on the GPU end. Could this kill a GPU? I have now had one give off sparks (still works), one that must have a short because the PSU will not even turn on when it is attached, and one that spins the fans at 100% and will not output to a display and is not recognized. Thoughts?
Hmm.. looks like most everything you need for $1,350:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-65-MH-s-Litecoin-Dogecoin-Mining-Kit-3-XFX-7950-ASRock-CPU-Risers-HDD-/221371823154
hmm..no PSU, RAM, no Crate, inferior cards. Not sure of the prices over the pond but add those bits and you’re looking at over $1,600. I built mine with 3x Sapphire 7950’s – total build cost about €1,000 ($1,360)
Hi all
WARNING! Check your graphics cards!
I recently had to remove my asus r9 280x cards because they were not working and the fans were running fast even when not mining.
Anyway, when I removed one of the cards I noticed the bottom of the circuit boards was wet and it had also leaked onto my motherboard!
I can only assume it is soldering flux as it was sticky but really I have no idea. I will post some pictures I took on my mobile phone and hopefully someone can shed some light on this.
The cards are only a month old and run about 74c.
Phil.
Yeah I would really like to see those cause I have the same cards. Are you using risers?
Hi,
being a newbie I have what is probably a pretty basic question.
I am setting up a rig with 3 sapphire 7950 dual X gpus. Each has two 6 pin connectors that sapphire says to connect to two separate 75 watt lines.
So that should be a total of (6) 8 pin connectors on my Seasonic 860 psu.
The motherboard however ASRock 970 extreme 4 has a second 12v atx that has to be connected to one of the six pci slots so I am short one.
I have cabling from seasonic that connects one 8 pin to two 6 plus 2 connectors so one cable could go to both connectors on one gpu. Can I do that? Or will I only be able to pull the 75 watt max from that one connector. Or will I get the full 150 watts and fry the line?
Also could I get by not connecting the second 12V ATX connnector on the mb if I can’t do the procedure above? The pictures look like the splitter cable was used.
Alan,
Seasonic cables have names on them telling what they are used for. The PCIe cables with split 6/2 pin connectors are for your GPU and you need two for each 7950 card. My seasonic has one cable that has two 6pin/2pin connectors and a 12 pin plug for the PSU connection. So, the ones that have 8 plug ins on the PSU end and 6+2 on the other end are for your GPU.
Yes, you must use the 12v ATX cable labeled CPU to connect to the mobo 12v ATX connector which is shown on the diagram as #1 on page 2 of the ASRock 970Ex4 manual that comes with the mobo. You should have cables for 4 GPU connections in all in addition to the 12v CPU cable I described above. If this is not clear, let me know and I will be more specific.
Alan, The above reply is from me. I forgot to put my name in it..so it says anonymous. I went to check my seasonic connections on one rig and I see that all of my GPU cables have a 12 pin plug on one end and two 6/2 split cables on the other end. So, the 6 pin plugs go into the GPU’s 6 pin plugs on top (the 2 pin is not used;leave it loose). My seasonic has four of those cables. They plug into the sockets on the PSU labeled PCI-E.
Ane remember you must use the 12v CPU cable for the 12v ATX connector on the 970 EX4 mobo.
Hi Edward,
It looks like I have to get a larger PSU (eg. like your 1250 W) The connectors I got were all 8 pin at the power supply with two 6+2’s on the other side. I just noticed Altcoinmoneybags has the same setup I do and used the 8 pin to 6+2s and had one of them short out. I’m guessing that your 12 pin pulled out from two 75 watt plugs at the power supply so it was basically pulling from two plugs. There aren’t enough on the 860 so I’m one short. Well I guess I can keep the 860 for another rig.
Does this sound like it makes sense? Thanks a lot for your help.
Alan,
My Seasonic is 1250W and has enough cables to connect 4 GPU. The 860W is the one used in CryptoBadger’s guide for 3 HD 7950 cards but I have one rig with 3 Sapphire HD 7950 cards which was drawing over 900 watts at the wall in the beginning. I have not been able to undervolt these cards lower than 1.131v or they will go “sick” or go off completely. With four of the same cards on a second rig it is pulling just over 1000 watts at the wall. It is set up with a EVGA 1350w PSU but would work ok with a 1250W. And yes, all of the Seasonic GPU cables plug into a 12 pin plug on the PSU and use the 6 pin part of the other end for the GPU connections. The extra 2 pin plug on that end is not used for these cards.
Hi Alan,
As you saw, I am having some problems with my setup. However, I am not sure that if my GPU is shorted, but it does seem like it. When that particular GPU is plugged in, the machine is dead. No lights, won’t turn on, nothing. If it is not attached, everything starts up fine. The problem is that I have no idea why this happened. A second card is running at 100% fan and is not recognized and will not output to display. The third card actually sparked once when I flipped the power switch, but it seems to still work fine. So basically, I am down to one card and I still don’t know what has caused all this mess. I suspected the PSU, but in my correspondence with Seasonic (who are very responsive by the way) he told me that I would need a 1000W supply to run only 2 cards and that those cards should have two cables! The problem with this for me is that Cryptobadger and certainly others here have been running 3 cards on this 860W PSU seemingly without problems. I don’t get it. I will RMA the card that doesn’t start and try to flash the BIOS of the one that runs at 100%. I just don’t have time for all this at the moment.
tl;dr version:
I have no idea if my GPU shorted, and if so, what caused it.
Hi again,
Perhaps you need powered risers:
http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoinmining/comments/1dvit7/the_powered_riser_problem_is_there_a_hardware/
I ended up buying an EVGA power boost because I couldn’t find the risers
anywhere.
http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=100-MB-PB01-BR