Crypto currency mining

[ainarssems]

I have also been working towards frame that could potentially hold 13 video cards and 4 PSU's. I had to change couple of things along the way and it's not what I first evisioned but should work. As far as I unerstand there is 6 AMDS GPU limit in Windows drivers but I have seen somebody running 6 AMD and 7 nVidia GPU's on 1 motherboard. Linux should support up to 32 but custom settings like clock, voltage only work for first 10 so would need to flash BIOS to get right settings for all GPUs.

[ainarssems]

Another thing is that while I considered returning 1080Ti's, I have now decided to keep them. For a moment they were actually earning more than 4x RX480 and after tweaking settings a bit and changing PSU they are lower on power as well. I was going to make a frame for them and PSU and connect them to my HP Microserver. Unfortunately one of hard drives have decided to give up on that so I need to change that first. it's not an emergency as I am running RAID 1+0 so I can have any 2 drives out of 4 fail

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

I have also been working towards frame that could potentially hold 13 video cards and 4 PSU's. I had to change couple of things along the way and it's not what I first evisioned but should work. As far as I unerstand there is 6 AMDS GPU limit in Windows drivers but I have seen somebody running 6 AMD and 7 nVidia GPU's on 1 motherboard. Linux should support up to 32 but custom settings like clock, voltage only work for first 10 so would need to flash BIOS to get right settings for all GPUs.

Looking good

Have you made that frame from scratch or did you buy it?

It can certainly be a challenge getting larger rigs to run stably but it's somehow more rewarding to see them running if you do. Good luck!

I suspect you've probably seen most of them already, but there's quite a few Youtube videos of 13 GPU miners built using that motherboard. It does seem that Linux is the best option for such a large rig:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beCjF9taFdU

I'm currently working on a much smaller rig; just 5 cards. I'm using extruded aluminium and aiming for compactness and simplicity this time. I've got it down to 500mm (high) x370mm x370mm, though I could probably go a little smaller. I'm looking to standardise a compact, stackable and robust design that I can easily make more of to use as room heaters this winter. I'll post some photos when it's finished.

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

Another thing is that while I considered returning 1080Ti's, I have now decided to keep them. For a moment they were actually earning more than 4x RX480 and after tweaking settings a bit and changing PSU they are lower on power as well.

I much prefer them to the RX480 now. The Nvidias aren't as good value for money as the AMD cards but they just seem to have much less issues. The GPU management/tweaking software is generally less buggy, plus it lets you make adjustments without having a monitor attached, unlike the AMDs for which you need a monitor or 'dummy load' connected just to make adjustments. The 5-card rig I'm presently working on has 4 1080Ti cards in it and an RX480, though I'm probably going to replace the 480 with MJ's 980Ti when it arrives

[ainarssems]

Yes, making it from scratch. The extrusions I linked before; while the profiles were OK price wise the fixings were too expensive. I was probably looking at £200 for the full frame so decided to use what I had already and add some of the similar stuff.

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

It is a lot but I cannot ignore potential returns. it's not going to be what it could potentially be at the moment but still should be pretty decent. $13k + VAT would be a bit too much for me to risk. But I would be interested to share the cost, risk and returns if somebody else joined in. 50/50 is probably a bit out of my comfort zone as well but if there was possibility to split it 3 ways I would probably go for it.

A joint purchase is a good idea; I'm definitely tempted. No doubt the early birds will catch most of the worms but I think it may be less risky to wait a little while until there's been some feedback on these units. Plus I think I'd prefer to wait until the L3+ (and a half) I bought is/are configured and earning before taking a further risk on one of these.

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

Yes, making it from scratch. The extrusions I linked before; while the profiles were OK price wise the fixings were too expensive. I was probably looking at £200 for the full frame so decided to use what I had already and add some of the similar stuff.

The extrusion fixings can be a little expensive. I bought some expensive fixings from UK stockists initially and even experimented with some cheap brackets, which worked fairly well, but I've since managed to source some (slightly inferior but perfectly adequate) fixings from China. I need to add up the parts and work out what the frame is costing in total but I think I've got it well under £100 now (for a 4/5 card rig). A larger/wider rig wouldn't require many more fixings so wouldn't cost much more than that.

[moltuae]

This is the total of my own personal mining efforts now by the way (my customer's operation is more than 4 times this size).

The SHA256 is my Antminer S9. The rest comprises of 4 x 1080Ti cards and a mix of 3 different RX 480 cards (including 1 lowly 4G model).

I'm hoping this figure will be more than double when I get the L3+ miners online.

[mattylondon]

Is that income subject to capital gains tax, same as with any other regular investment?

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by mattylondon

Is that income subject to capital gains tax, same as with any other regular investment?

As far as I understand it, presently only if/when you convert it to 'old money' (ie fiat: GBP, USD, etc):

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...yptocurrencies

http://sterlingcoin.org/uk-tax-rulings/

It would be near impossible to track and tax most cryptocurrency earnings directly.


I just keep a record of what I spend buying/mining cryptocurrencies and anything I earn selling them. The latter of which is very little presently to be honest because I prefer to hold and accumulate cryptocurrencies as a long-term investment.