Trials and Tribulations
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G’day All
I need some advice here, Just built my very first rig and am at a dead end.
You should know first off I am a complete newb and quite prone to PEBSAC (problem exist’s between screen and chair) but I do read and I wouldn’t be asking if there were easy unconsidered solutions for me I could of checked already.
I got a buy list off of a “friend” who has been really helpful but who is also only intermittently online and as such is often unavailable for comment when needed. He provided only a parts list and not any specific brand etc and a rough build guide so the rest was up to me.
So I got the gear put it all together and pushed power on, so far so good. AND THEN…
Mother board GA-990FXA-UD7
CPU AMD FX 8-Core Black Edition FX-8350
RAM Corsair Dominator Platinum CMD8GX3M2A1866C9 8GB
GPU’s 6X Gigabyte AMD Radeon R9 280X
PSU 2 X Thermaltake EVO Blue 2.0 850W (plus a third 750 available via bad ordering on my part)
Hdd seagate 1 tb (which was DOA and swapped out for a WD 500gb)
5 X 24 cm powered risers
5 X 15 CM powered risers
1x x16 to16 powered riserI had hells own problems to start with as this is all new to me and I spent about 18 hrs trying to sort things out with a dead hard drive loading win-doh’s suspecting I was the problem. Then the first GPU I used was dumping all over the place with stripes and squares leading me to think I just shouldn’t even try.
After much head scratching and stuffing around I managed to get 4x cards recognized, possibly could of done more but all of my received 24cm risers were dud’s and unable to be used (IE after getting GPU’s recognized, I tried swapping out the shorter risers that worked for the longer ones and none of them worked).
So I get one card up and running and mining all is great, Two cards up and running and mining and all is still good. I get ambitious then and throw in another two cards in a row without mining.
I get three cards up and all is running fine, four cards up and recognized and all is fine. Try mining with four and an instant crash. MMmm try mining with three and it will run for a few minutes (2-3) and then crash.I still have everything running off of the one 850wt PSU as I am waiting on one of those dual PSU adaptors, but I’m wondering if it is a case of power supply or Ram that is the issue here ?
This is all extremely new to me as the most I have ever done in the past was to swap out a hard drive in a desktop tower. All four cards were running fine before starting to mine, same with just the three with fan’s all running etc but as soon as mining started the whole system crashed.
Is my issue power supply or Ram or…um Me. The thermaltake 850’s state to be 4x GPU ready but is that based on just 4X GPU’s and not including Mobo and CPU as well?
Current hashrate is 0: 720 and 1: 748 on the two cards I have mining but with three running 0 is way behind by a couple of hundred before the system crashes. Typically 0:510 , 1:710, 2: 725 before all go’s Caput.
I’d really appreciate any advice you fine people might have. Please be gentle on the newb though huh, I thought it was pretty cool for a relative old fart like me just not setting fire to the house and not being electrocuted building this thing and I have done a heap of reading and searching before asking here, Mind you i only bought my first Cypto coin less than a month ago so Might not have my sources down pat yet.
Thanks in advance for any help you might offer.
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HOLY HELL!
do not use 4x 280X on a single 850W psu!
Yeah it definitively crash when you try to push close to 1200w +system on an 850w psu… -
What ATI Catalyst drivers you using?
And I’m assuming you’ve connected the two PSU’s together prior to loading her up with multiple cards?
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Mother of lord!!! please stop before you blow yourself up!!!
You have 8GB of RAM what version of Windoz are you using? because after 3GB of RAM 32-Bit Windoz can’t address it so you are wasting time and money, you need to be running 64-bit.
Next up, a pair of R9-280X are going to pull some where in the region of 650W at the wall, so given your current setup of only 1 PSU, 2 is about your limit, as the remaining 200W ish isn’t really enough for a 3rd card.
Have a read of this http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/atx_psu_startup/ as it will allow you to fire your second PSU without having to wait for the cable to turn up.
UM
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btw if you do not use the secondary psu cause your waiting for dual 24pin contact.
You don’t need to. just short circuit two of the pins.
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-power-up-an-ATX-Power-Supply-without-a-PC/Works the same, but it will be constant on and not controlled by your machine
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[quote]HOLY HELL!
do not use 4x 280X on a single 850W psu!
Yeah it definitively crash when you try to push close to 1200w +system on an 850w psu…Ummm [/quote]Ummm told ya I was a complete newb :'( I think I figured this part out for myself but if I hadn’t of read this first http://forum.feathercoin.com/index.php/topic,5317.0.html ,I probably would of felt free to ask my dumbass questions here! As it was I didn’t actually find any answers there at all just a bunch of to and fro comments that were of no help and made me think twice about asking here.
[quote]What ATI Catalyst drivers you using?
And I’m assuming you’ve connected the two PSU’s together prior to loading her up with multiple cards?[/quote]
I uploaded all relevant drivers after finally being able to load windows onto my new “working” hard drive.
All the cards I load are now being recognized and all operate normally unless I start to mine.[quote]assuming you’ve connected the two PSU’s together[/quote] No, I haven’t [quote]Posted by: southerncross
« on: Today at 02:00:39 pm »I still have everything running off of the one 850wt PSU as I am waiting on one of those dual PSU adaptors, but I’m wondering if it is a case of power supply or Ram that is the issue here ?[/quote]I am like the newb from hell M8, I don’t really have a clue as to what I am doing. I’ve managed to build the system and get the cards recognized and even mine for a short while on my max amount of cards but I was unaware of having to join PSU’s together and everything that is involved with it. I am now aware that this is probably my main issue and hopefully with help from people like yourself who responded to my thread I will get things sorted. Meanwhile I am just chuffed being able to mine with two cards compared to three weeks ago when I was a Crypto virgin full stop.
Thanks for responding people.
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[quote name=“uncle_muddy” post=“57933” timestamp=“1391870776”]
Mother of lord!!! please stop before you blow yourself up!!!You have 8GB of RAM what version of Windoz are you using? because after 3GB of RAM 32-Bit Windoz can’t address it so you are wasting time and money, you need to be running 64-bit.
Next up, a pair of R9-280X are going to pull some where in the region of 650W at the wall, so given your current setup of only 1 PSU, 2 is about your limit, as the remaining 200W ish isn’t really enough for a 3rd card.
Have a read of this http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/atx_psu_startup/ as it will allow you to fire your second PSU without having to wait for the cable to turn up.
UM
[/quote]LOL ;D I might dumb Uncle M but I’m not terminally stupid…yet, I stopped after only a couple of attempt’s and came here to ask . I’m running Win-doh’s 8.1.
Thanks very much for the tutorial link on shorting the mobo connection. I have seen it elsewhere, but have people here used it safely and successfully ? I am more than happy to ease myself into mining crypto’s if such a practice is a health hazard.Thanks for the reply’s so far people, It would seem that my issues are solely based on my power supply’s more than anything else I have nominated so far right ?
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ATI Catalyst 13.11 beta 5 drivers are stable for mining…
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[quote name=“southerncross” post=“57941” timestamp=“1391872745”]
LOL ;D I might dumb Uncle M but I’m not terminally stupid…yet,
[/quote]
No offence intended mate.In response to the question regarding the PSU mod, then yes done without any problem on several occasions. Computer PSU’s are great for many things as they have a quite a lot of power and produce good clean power :) so use them for plenty of other projects during the testing phase before sourcing the correct PSU.
UM
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[quote name=“uncle_muddy” post=“57951” timestamp=“1391875542”]
[quote author=southerncross link=topic=7490.msg57941#msg57941 date=1391872745]
LOL ;D I might dumb Uncle M but I’m not terminally stupid…yet,
[/quote]
No offence intended mate.In response to the question regarding the PSU mod, then yes done without any problem on several occasions. Computer PSU’s are great for many things as they have a quite a lot of power and produce good clean power :) so use them for plenty of other projects during the testing phase before sourcing the correct PSU.
UM
[/quote]Hey no no no. No offence taken at all M8. I just meant I was aware enough not to push things with regards to the system blowing up in my face and having a complete meltdown and stopped before it happened is all. I am well aware of my limitations with regards to technology and really appreciate the knowledge found here and the reply’s to my post such as yours as well.
I’ve had a massive learning curve in the past couple of week’s and am thinking I may have got my ambitions seriously messed up with my ability in trying to build a six gpu system first up :-[Yeah I got all the gear etc but when it actually comes to making it all work without burning the house down…well that’s another matter.
I’m pretty handy on a rudimentary level, I can butcher a steer down to steak’s and build nearly anything you might want to live in, fix your car etc but I’m pushing 50 and grew up in rural Australia, trying to get my head around this tech and learning as I go via the internet and also only just getting the grasp of crypto’s is pushing my basic know how to the max.I’ll get there though sooner or later with a little help.
Thank’s everyone for the reply’s.
SX -
ill be in front of the computer tonight,
if you want some live help from Skype, send me an pm=) -
:) Thank’s very much for the tip’s guy’s, got it all sorted with the second PSU and have had it running stable for well over a good 12 hr’s now with five cards, I think the sixth is dodgy as it just wont be recognised.
I’m averaging a constant 745-750 K/hs on three cards and 680 on another but there is one which seems stuck on 550. All the same make and all run on the same configuration ?
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[quote name=“southerncross” post=“58079” timestamp=“1391960559”]
:) Thank’s very much for the tip’s guy’s, got it all sorted with the second PSU and have had it running stable for well over a good 12 hr’s now with five cards, I think the sixth is dodgy as it just wont be recognised.I’m averaging a constant 745-750 K/hs on three cards and 680 on another but there is one which seems stuck on 550. All the same make and all run on the same configuration ?
[/quote]I’ve got a motherboard like that. I figured out that there must be “lanes” within a motherboard for PCIe handling. For example, I have 4x cards per rig, sometimes lowering gpu engine on one card speeds up hashing on another card. Almost like the total throughput of my mobo is capped and if I go too hard on the settings a particular pair of cards throttles or stalls.
Sometimes cards 1 and 3 are linked, other times cards 2 and 3 are linked. Then again, I’ve got other motherboards where hashrate just sits there on max all day every day with similar settings.
On your card that’s at 500, I wouldn’t be surprised if lowering the gpu engine on another card speeds it up.
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Thanks Ignition I’ll give it a go. :)