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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Hi there,
Having a real hard time finding any of the GPU suggestions you have made; would there be a problem running this rig with MSI Radeon HD 7990’s?
http://uk.msi.com/product/vga/R7990-6GD5.html
Thanks for an awesome post!
Seems like 7990s are one of the best…
Look at https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison and try out those tunes, seems you can get 1100+ on that cards !
How much are you paying a 7990 ?
I’ve seen them online for ~£330
Its a real pain though, buying 3 of these will require a PSU minimum 1500w… Not even sure that exists!
Yeah, but there is also a nice guide on how to undervolt the gpu http://www.cryptobadger.com/2013/10/undervolting-in-linux-via-modified-bios/ even in linux… maybe you could save some watt from each card. Or at last, use 2 PSUs … I’ve seen 750w PSUs (bronze, modular) at almost half of the price of the one suggested in this guide, so using 2x750w would even be able to supply 1500w with a few bucks more
The 7990 is a dual gpu card though. So two of those is like running 4 7970s!
I heard you can supply power to the cards seperately.
Would a Seasonic 1250w support 4 280X GPUs?
Am I the only one seeing that all 7950’s, 7970’s, 7990’s and even the R9 280x are pretty much sold out everywhere?! Not to mention the difficulty level has soared since Nov 4th. Looks like the value of LTC has pushed mining to a whole new level. Anyone know where I can buy any cards from?!
Hey I see you are having problems finding 7950’s. I may have some Powercolor radeon 7950’s or some MSI 7950’s ocBE’s available to me in a few weeks. I am not going to need them all so I can sell them to you. Contatact me at moneyloanlend@yahoo.com
Thanks, how many, cards and what time frame? I’m located in Canada.
Try Ebay… prices are inflated over store prices though. I read the R9 290 (not x model) is a really good card for power efficency (kh/watt), however they are super pickey to get running good. People have reported the card alone uses around 250w @ ~800 kh or so. Specs page says 750w power supply min, so for 3x or 4x you will need a pretty massive power supply i bet. Cooling is the other problem with them, but undervolting them seems to work well (1.2 vs 1.25)
I bought asus r9 290 as 280 still not arrived my motherboard 945gct HM
http://goo.gl/Plgp0u windows amd installer stuck in mid way……haven’t tried with ubuntu …should I upgrade my motherboard or I can mine with linux setup ………..please help me……
This is a great guide… however, there is only one thing I am not sure of, could you help me out with it: Can I place the motherboard directly on the plastic crate or there should a distance between them somehow?
Thanks in advance.
Can I add more than three GPU’s to this Motherboard?
Check this out Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5.
It has 5 PCI-e Slots at 2×16,1×8,2×4 speeds. In mining 16x doe not matter. Saw it on amazon at $180.
Hi,
Is the amd catalyst driver installation commands the same for r9 280x. Also, do you think 1000w Corsair Gold is enough for 3 r9 280x?
Thanks for all your help, great guide
Stock r9 280x=250W
3 x R9 280X = 750W
rest mb+hdd+ram use 2.5 to 3.5W each.
Cpu 45W-65W(Amd sempron or Amd Athlon ii X2)
I think it will be just enough. To overclock and be safe you should go for 1250W. Anybody confirm my calculation.
What size PSU would you recommend for four 280X cards? I was playing around with a few power requirement calculators, but was just wondering if anyone has any experience or recommendations with this set up.
Lookup http://www.reviewstudio.net/868-amd-radeon-r9-270x-crossfirex-and-r9-280x-4-way-crossfirex-review
Thanks for the link! That setup was using a 1200 W PSU and looks like 4 280X’s worked ok. Would this be ok for 24/7 usage though?
That review was based of gaming probably using i7 which consumes about 250W at full load. Also using probably cpu cooling, O.C RAMs. For 4x280x ming you can disable some features on BIOS. And try to undervolt your card and find a sweet spot so that you can get maximum hashrates at low power consumption.
With three Radeon R9 280X cards can i use 3 x PCI-E riser cable ?
Or i need powered PCE-E risers ?
Thanks for the guide
Does anyone know the hashrate of an r9 270x???
About 350-400KH/s
Wow really? I’d have expected more like 500KH/s because R9 280X’s can get around 700-720Kh/s
Hello
why R9 280x Asus did not specify it as a good model.Da if this card has a problem? Since I can get this card. The exact name of the card is ASUS
Radeon R9 280x 3GB GDDR5 R9280X-DC2-3GD5
in circulation as there are 3 cards
Sapphire ATI R9 280x Vapor-X OC 3GB
Asus R9280X-DC2T-3GD5
AMD Radeon R9 280x XFX 3GB/DDR5
What do you think is the best of these cards for mining
What about Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950, 3GB DDR5 (384 Bit), HDMI, DVI, 2xminiDP?
My configuration is
MObo- ASRock 960GC-GS FX Motherboard
processor – AMD Athlon II X2 270 Processor
ram- G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3 4 GB (1 x 4 GB) PC RAM (F3-12800CL9S-4GBXL)
Graphics card – Asus r9 290
PSu – Seasonic 860 w platinum
as I already Spend my savings on Graphics card and Psu I little sort in budget so the previous configuration will be working specially the mobo???
and how much Graphics card I can put on the mobo ???
and what about the GPU??
Please respond…..it would be a great help……ASAP……….
Hi Aryan looks like your mobo has only one pciex16 slot.
my config:
amd sempron Rs1900
ram 2gb ddr3 Rs1500(1333Mhz)
PSU @550-800W depends on no. of GPU
Graphics card go (2xHD7850) or (2xr9 280x)
mobo 970 (with two pcie slots Rs 6000) (3pcie slot mobo costs Rs9000)(4pcie Rs 12000)(5pcie Rs16000)
both 7850 and 280x give more hashrate/$ than others.
thanks for reply
I need a Mobo with onboard graphics for general surfing,Music ,video etc
As I Have Already Sepnt major in Graphics Card So I can’t spent on another Until I start Mining, My previous Pc is not detecting r9 290 which is a great disaster , so I have only left 10k to spent on mobo processor and ram
and it should be look like a decent PC can’t put it on milk crate so pretty much out of option
My Final thought is like that
MOBO : Intel DZ75ML-45K Motherboard (Blue) http://bit.ly/1eLdvK6 Rs :4868
Processor : Intel 2.9 GHz LGA1155 G2020 Processor http://bit.ly/1bcwf5g Rs: 3800
Ram: G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3 4 GB (1 x 4 GB) PC RAM (F3-10666CL9S-4GBXL) http://bit.ly/1ivvkm0 Rs:3100
HDD : Previous
Graphics Card : ASus r9 290 Rs:33600 (Already Spent)
PSU : SEasonic 860 XP2 Rs:15260 (Alrady Spent)
So Please review the rig ………….
Thanks for this awesome site.
I’d like to build a rig but I’d have to use wifi to mine.
Can you recommend a motherboard?
Easiest solution if it has to be wifi is to add a usb wifi adapter to one of the USB ports.
What about this mobo?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007G51UWY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?tag=dosk-20
And does anyone know if it would work with Linux? Can’t seem to find too much info, I don’t think many people mine over wifi haha.
This is the only 7095 card i found, would this one be ok?:
Club 3D Radeon HD 7950 ’13Series OC CoolStream
Thanks for the great tutorial!!
Cheers:)
Does anyone know anything or have experience with GIGABYTE R9 280x? As it turned out the mining?
Hi,
My mboard has 1 x PCI Express Graphics slot (@ x4 mode)
can I use r9 280x with this mboard and with 500W power supply?
much to expect that pci-e 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0 is on board?
thanks a lot
An R9 280X can use up to about ~253W. It comes with a 750W PSU recommendation, which of course assumes your computer has a fair amount of regular components attached.
This guide claims the Seasonic 860W is maxed out at times. A HD7950 uses ~202W. So substracting 3 GPUs from the 860W leaves ~254W for the guide’s non-GFX hardware. That’s more than what is left of your 500W after accounting for the GPU.
You’d have to look at the rest of your hardware to see if 500W could be sufficient.
Thanks
And is it(r9 280x) compatible with this board?
http://www.asrock.com/mb/VIA/4CoreDual-VSTA/
Or its slower than the recommended ASR 970E4?
Hi
I’m in the process of building my first mining rig and just wanted to ask a couple of questions. I have purchased the exact items from your spec except for the GPU’s. I will be using X3 MSI r7970 lightning be.
Question 1. Is this card a good option for mining and what can I expect the power consumption to be like?
Question 2. I have bought unpowered PCI risers. Will these be suitable? I do not want to be burning out MOBO’s or GPU’s
Question 3. I also bought the Seasonic 860w Platinum PSU (as suggested) Will this be suitable to run the rig as lots of people seem to go for a 1200w?
Thanks for any help given.
When it comes to the motherboard, does it matter if the PCI port is 16x, 8x, or 4x?
No. the recommended mobo above runs on 8x,8x,4x but give equal hashrate.
parts are getting harder and harder to find but I found this motherboard instead of the one listed.. because they are all out of stock on the one cryptobadger has listed. and you can have 4 instead of 3 PCI express x16 cards.. 😀
http://www.outletpc.com/hf3177-msi-990fxa-gd80v2-amd-990fx-amd-motherboard.html
Where are the crossfire x chips between the cards? Is it possible without them
How many kilo hashes per second will this rig do, running linux?
I have a question. Will this PSU — Seasonic X-1250 Gold (SS-1250XM) 1250 — go with 4 cards ?