Crypto currency mining

[MikkiJayne]

That solar powered rig is very cool indeed

[MikkiJayne]

It won't recognise the GTX960 either

[moltuae]

That certainly is a hefty looking laptop!


The GTX960 looks to be supported. Try updating the drivers.

[MikkiJayne]

Seems like this stuff just wants a random pile of junk rather than a complete working machine

This works fine apparently:



Currently running at $1.52 a day.

[moltuae]

Looking good. The pile of junk appearance is very in-keeping with the mining ethos.

Now you just need a few more cards, dangling from risers, to increase that daily rate.

I've just ordered a couple of 1080 Ti cards today at an eye-watering £650 each. They should make close to £10 per day between them however.

[MikkiJayne]

Is there much performance impact from running an x1 to x16 riser? I've got 1x1 and 1x16 on this board so I could at least get another 960 on it. The Xeon board has 2x16 and 2x8 though so I could get four on that if I can persuade it to work. It might have just needed a clean OS install. Not sure there's much point powering a pair of Xeons though since the Core2 Quad on this machine is just idling.

[Delboy]

Can I ask why you went with that choice of card, looking at the calculator would say otherwise or am i missing a key factor?

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by Delboy

Can I ask why you went with that choice of card, looking at the calculator would say otherwise or am i missing a key factor?

I think ROI is an important factor but it's not the only thing to consider. A quick ROI would be top priority if the cards effectively became worthless after the ROI period, making it the point at which you broke even. However, graphics cards tend to hold their value very well, often selling used for the same price as new, which is especially true for high-end cards. So taking depreciation into account, a more expensive model may in fact represent a quicker ROI than a cheaper, less-desirable model.

Another thing to consider is that, once the card has paid for itself, it continues to make money at the same rate. So a card costing 3 times as much that only mines at twice the rate might seem like a bad choice but remember that it should continue to mine at twice the rate long after the ROI.

Having said all that, a lot of the time we just buy the card(s) that seem to be working well for everyone else. You can waste days crunching the numbers, comparing resale value, ROI, power consumption, hash-rates, etc etc. Sometimes it's better to just check what's in stock and buy (after a little research just to see if that GPU is relatively efficient and reliable for mining).

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

Is there much performance impact from running an x1 to x16 riser? I've got 1x1 and 1x16 on this board so I could at least get another 960 on it. The Xeon board has 2x16 and 2x8 though so I could get four on that if I can persuade it to work. It might have just needed a clean OS install. Not sure there's much point powering a pair of Xeons though since the Core2 Quad on this machine is just idling.

For mining purposes there's no difference between x1 and x16. Mining only requires a single PCIe lane. As I understand it, there's relatively little data travelling to/from the card when mining; the card spends far more time doing the work than it does receiving work or returning hash solutions.

Depending on which Xeon CPUs you have there, you can probably mine with those too. You won't make a lot from them but they'll probably cover their electricity costs (just). Unlike GPU mining though, other applications may suffer reduced performance while CPU mining.

I often run NiceHash when I'm setting up new servers for customers as a kind of soak-test. It gives the CPUs, fans and PSUs a good workout and confirms everything is stable before I start installing and configuring everything. I have a HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 on my bench right now. Here's a NiceHash screenshot of its workout a couple of weeks ago:



I calculated the electricity usage to be a little over £1 per day, so I was making a small profit.

[ainarssems]

This is what I am getting wiht 2x RX 480 stock BIOS, VRAM 2100 on one card, 2200 on other card. GPU frequency -15%, power -20% in Wattman on both cards. Power consumption 390-400W for the whole PC from socket.