Hello again...
It's been some time since I got round to updating my mining adventures blog... Mainly due to some major changes in life such as a new position and job which has taken up a lot of time. During this busy period I have also managed to continue expanding on my mining "operation" with the introduction of a few new rigs. As with the majority of people, I had some components on preorder from Amazon since JUNE... Long story short, they were finally dispatched and arrived around November which got me back into building and I took some pictures documenting it along the way! This is my third rig using the custom frame which I build and weld together from steel square sections (some action snaps of this process can be seen here) and I am glad to say that it has turned out pretty nice!
This rig was initially intended for mining ethereum, however as time has gone on, I have focused my mining efforts elsewhere on Zen Cash which uses Equihash. Unfortunately, AMD cards aren't as good as NVidia when it comes to this type of mining, but the parts had been on order for a long time and I definitely want to get my use out of them!
Parts list:
- CPU: Intel Core i3 4150 3.50GHz Dual Core
- RAM: 4GB HyperX Fury DDR3, 1866Mhz
- Mobo: ASRock H81 Pro BTC - Rev 2.0
- PSU: 2x EVGA 750W (NEX750B and 750GQ)
- Disk: 64gb DREVO SSD
- PCIE Risers: Powered 1x to 16x
- GPU: 4GB Gigabyte Radeon RX 570's
- Frame: Homemade, custom-built (40x40mm SHS Steelwork painted black)
Here you can see all of the components arrived and frame built ready for assembly.
The finished article. I was quite pleased with how it turned out. In some of my older rigs I have mounted both PSUs on a single side, but the symmetry of this actually made it much easier for routing power and other cables throughout the rig.
Another view. Please excuse the messy garage!
Picture of setup in the shed at the moment. Features the 1060 rig I built in my previous log along with my first ever experiment with mining in a tower PC on the right which is also sporting 3x GTX 1060's.
When mounting the motherboard I used rubber grommits in order to raise it off the metal frame to prevent any shorting which may occur off any solders protruding out from the PCB. Also, as always, I have tried to do my best with zip ties and cable management, but when it comes to mining rigs, it is super difficult to get everything looking neat and tidy... especially when you hit snags with cards not being identified and other issues where you want to rule out any hardware faults and all the tidy cablework ends up being cut open and messed around!
Other than that, the build and software install all went pretty smoothly, one of the most painless rigs I have built!
These cards get around 255 sol/s using claymore for Zen, compared with the 275-280 sol/s of the 1060's next to it. They are also more power hungry, so definitely not the most efficient rig in the world, however I am investing all my hashing power into Zen at the moment, and have been since it launched therefore something's gotta give (even if it's the leccy! haha!)
I hope you enjoyed this quick insight into my latest build and be sure to stay tuned for an overview of my full mining setup!
As always, if you have any questions or feedback or would like me to expand on anything above do let me know, I'm always eager to chat!
Cheers!
A.