Post your mining rig and anything you like to share from your experience!

[IrishTR]

I am running a ASRock 970 EXTREME4 with 4 7970 on it with no issues ever with the fourth card.  my power supply is 1250 seasonic gold.  could it be that your 850 watt power supply is just not enough for 4 6950's  http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2010/12/16/ati-radeon-hd-6950-review/10

Yea I only have that pushing the Mobo and 3 cards (which it runs solid), 4th card was connected to another 850 and which I also split 2cards and 2psu between it.  So 850 should be more than plenty for 2 GPUs because it reads like 730 at the killawatt when hooked up to 3 and the mobo.

The problem with the ASRock was it wouldnt even make it into windows with zero load on the GPUs, and when it did pass the windows logo, it would start to bluescreen with the damn ATI driver (which I tried 10 different ways of removing, reinstalling etc etc) The ASRock just hates me lol, if I rip the drivers out and install 1 card at a time works fine up to 3, minute the 4th goes in wamo (have plenty of links with others reporting same issue on that mobo apparently and then the other camp of no issues... Makes zero sense.  Also if I boot the ASRock up with zero drivers/software from AMD installed it works (goes into windows just fine, sees all 4 standard vga adapters), start installing drivers (manual or via AMD Setup) soon as it touches 4th installed card Black screen (monitor stays on though no power save mode).  And the computer loses all thoughts (as I can no longer ping/remote into by any means).

So next option I am going to check is the outlet the rig is plugged into perhaps its not got enough juice (should only need 1100 tops for the rig outta it, and its a new home new outlet that Im pretty sure is at least on a 20A breaker (own dedicated line no other taps off it as it was meant for a garage freezer but we got rid of it since we werent using it enough)

Again Cards reading all under 73degrees cooling doesnt seem to be the issue, what I did stumble on so far is I may need to check the VRM temps thru GPUZ as cgminer reports GPU temp not VRM, maybe just maybe my current dilemma is this card is dying due to overheating VRM that Im not normally seeing even though the GPU is fine (which is still odd because I have those aftermarket cooler and heatsinks all over these cards to prevent any of that) to include a Boxfan on high blowing any hot air off them.

Ahhh the tinkering fun, comes with the PITA of probably something simple I am overlooking... GRRR.

[IrishTR]

Since we're on the subject these were in stock, now out but price bouncing from 59.99 to 69.99  Excellent Mining Mobo!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157471

[IrishTR]

I swear I wanna punch AMD Drivers team in the face...  So after multiple times of install and de installation  it seems to be running all 4 at full speed on the MSI board, I'm afraid to try going back thru the ASRock mobo and pulling teeth with the drivers all over (bear in mind I did that before). Swear its never the same thing twice! Now for the 24hr test fingers crossed

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[IrishTR]

Well she's still holding strong full bore overnight no hiccups thank goodness because I was starting to go bonkers

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[sizzflair]

Sizzflair, so I picked up the MSI 970A-G46, still ready to punch kittens! Old Mobo is ASRock 970 EXTREME4.  Both these setups work fine with 3 cards.  The ASRock just would bring a grown man to tears trying to get 4 or 5 cards running, and I just dont get it I followed everyone elses instructions (albeit different GPUs) to a T and it just would not friggin play nice.

So enter the MSI mobo...  Same frickin story, can get 3 cards (any of the 4 so its not bad card, its not bad riser as Ive tried all the risers in every damn slot, every way possible it works with 3, but minute you add 4th Fd).

Its like baby steps though right now Im stuck on I actually get windows to load, it sees all 4 GPUs in Device Manager, GPUZ, MSI Afterburner, and CGMiner.  So Cool Im Like success.  Fire up miner configured to run all 4 with normal settings or my tweaked settings that works flawless with 3 cards.  And Sweet everything goin good... then within 1-10mins GPU1 starts slowing down, down, down to eventually read SICK and then DEAD.  Again it does not matter what card if I start rearranging them whatever GPU1 slot is in CGMiner dies, I'm hesitant to point problem to the mobo because this is mobo #2 and identical problem.  All cards work in 3 different systems in 1-3 varying configurations.  Power doesnt appear to be the issue as Ive tried varying configs with that as well to load balance utilization of the PSUs.  I swear it seems everything is pointing to the damn AMD drivers which I've removed, reinstalled to no frickin end used every version under the sun.

The last thing I have tried is the Dummy plugs but what bothers me is everyone says no longer needed, and all using damn near identical systems without it!  ARRRRG  That and I wanna punt this friggin milk crate as its a PITA to keep removing/reinstalling everything into it.

Sizzflair not to steal your style/ideas could you provide me a link to that rack your using?  I think I wanna order it and cleanup my system!  If this continues to be an endless moneypit with troubleshooting Im bout ready to just sell the hardware off and either hold/sell coins too...

Wits end I tell ya!

Hey Irish!

Sorry for the late reply.  I haven't been active for the past 2 weeks since I was out of town and had some friends come visit over the long weekends.

This is the rack I'm using: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004BDP69M/ref=oh_details_o05_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.   It's fully adjustable so my shelves are really low to the ground as you see in my picture.  I used a saw to cut off some of the shelf so I could feed the pcie risers.

As for having issues starting up windows, does it freeze or take forever during the "please wait"?  If so, it may be a driver problem.  Make sure you have the latest driver for your motherboard and all the updates completed on windows.  I had this issue for the longest time and all the updates fixed it eventually.

As for having the 4th gpu die randomly, it may just be an instability due to the motherboard.  What I did to tackle this issue was to have 3 gpus running on risers and 1 gpu connected directly to the pci-e 16x lane.  I don't know why, but this made my rig much more stable and I've been running it at least a week or two+ until one gpu dies on my 2nd rig.  Something's wrong with that GPU since it's the only one that dies over and over and occasionally throws "amd driver has crashed" message when navigating windows.  I may try to RMA it or see if it needs a new bios flash fixes it.

I'll be gone for a whole month of february through early march.... hopefully I can have a stable rig running for that whole month while I'm gone.  I gotta try to get cgwatcher to work so it will automatically reboot/rerun cgminer if one of the rig or gpu crashes randomly.  I keep getting these -4 errors when I run cgminer through cgwatcher on the same settings...

[IrishTR]

Ya I am caulking it up to AMD drivers just being PITAs I went thru complete removal reinstall so many times wasn't funny but she is running solid past day so far all cards are on risers I have all USB style risers that I mentioned before.  Still have ribbon cable ones too which all work fine as well so no hardware issues at this time thankfully.  Thanks for the link to the rack I'll be picking on up if you get a chance sometime grab a photo of where you did your cuts (overview shot) thanks again!

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[sizzflair]

Ya I am caulking it up to AMD drivers just being PITAs I went thru complete removal reinstall so many times wasn't funny but she is running solid past day so far all cards are on risers I have all USB style risers that I mentioned before.  Still have ribbon cable ones too which all work fine as well so no hardware issues at this time thankfully.  Thanks for the link to the rack I'll be picking on up if you get a chance sometime grab a photo of where you did your cuts (overview shot) thanks again!

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Sure thing.  I cut 4 lines that go across the shelf.  It's pretty thin so you should be able to cut it no problem with a dremel or a saw.





This is a rig that my co-worker sent me after he set it up finally.  270xs running on linux!

[CircuitSix]

Haha, that is awesome, are those Legos?

[IrishTR]

Ya check out them Lego big blocks haha nice

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[IrishTR]

Hey Sizzflair,

Can you post your cgminer settings for your 290s?  Buddy of mine just got some Sapphire Tri-X R9 290s and we're goin thru setting them up, been using the wiki ones getting huge varying results just wanted to compare to someone who responds to questions

[sizzflair]

Hey,

I would but I'm stuck in a desert until 2nd week of March. Pretty much im at 20 intensity amd stock clocks/memory. Fan at 75. I don't remember the other values on top of my head but I posted my settings somewhere on litecoin forums.

[IrishTR]

Ok I'll try searching for it main one I was curious was the thread count in particular.  Well enjoy the desert hopefully its warm there cuz its freezing here!

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[RichG]

My mining rig is my desktop.

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[bullgates]

Hey,

I would but I'm stuck in a desert until 2nd week of March. Pretty much im at 20 intensity amd stock clocks/memory. Fan at 75. I don't remember the other values on top of my head but I posted my settings somewhere on litecoin forums.

Great setup..I see you are gone for sometime to come but I was wondering if you could explain or possibly post a picture of how you secured your video cards to the shelf.  Also, did you place your motherboard directly on the shelving or is there something between the board and shelf.


Any input is greatly appreciated.


Thanks.

[dustint]

here is a link to the motherboard trays that i use for my computers  it looks like they are out of stock though right now.                                                   

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=37&products_id=28976