Mining rig advice

Mining
1

Hey everyone,
Looking to start mining zec and I currently have the specs below:

i5 3570k

ASRock Z77 Pro3 (not too sure if this would be able to support 2 GPUs as I am only seeing 1x PCI express 3.0 and 1 pci express 2.0 and I don’t have much info if that would make a difference in mining performance.

Corsair 8GB of ram

I am currently looking to invest in a video card to start mining and I am seeing a deal for 2x GTX 980 4g twinfrozr going for about $190 each which I could possibly have it down to 180 each.

I do also have another pc which is my main one with a 980 ti but I’d rather not use it for mining as it would risk killing the GPU since it is my main gaming pc :3.

As of now the cost of power would be about .09 ~ .12 kWh and I am seeing calculations that it would be profitable.
Also note that the PSU isn’t in there as what I get for a GPU will dictate what I get.

Thanks for reading :slight_smile:

2

You can easily use that board with 3 cards if you just buy 1 usb3.0 PCIE 1x to 16x riser like this:

PCI-E 1X TO 16X USB3.0 RISER VERSION.006 MOLEX

it would probably be better to get something like a pair of 1070 if you wanted to spend that much on a GPU, or a three 1060 3g or 6g cards to fill up the board. any mix of those would do also

980s are going to use much more watt/hash compared to the pascal cards

3

Any recommendations on what brand to get in terms of gpu?

The 980 kind of fell through since the guy only had once left but he did drop the price down to 175 which isn’t too bad.

Most of the 1070s I’m seeing are going for about 300 or so and I am willing to mostly put out about ~$400.

4

you can do a nvidia 1050ti or 1060 will keep you in the 175 price range.

if you can get a new 1070 for 300.00 you should get it since they are 375+ here in the states.

5

well i always buy gigabyte, but im not sure which is the best brand. id like ot hear what others think

6

Sapphire RX480s are all that I’ve bought recently, but in the UK they are virtually impossible to find (if anyone knows of a place, let me know) - and even Sapphire RX580s seem to have initial supply problems - either more demand than stock, or not being made fast enough by Sapphire.

7

Yeah I was looking around an majority of them are going for about 300+ the closest one I found to 300 was about 310~315 but a lot of people are saying to wait for vega and see how that goes but I haven’t even looked into vega as much.

I do see a few people trying to sell a RX480 4gb for about 150~ not sure if that is a good price as I havent been really looking and comparing prices and know which card does well.

8

vega is going to be very hard to get at launch, said it could just be a “paper launch”

9

I think the 500 series actually has a pretty limited supply, 570 4g is sold out everywhere in china, its near impossible to get, every seller i try, and i have checked 100’s, dont have any. My sapphire supplier is sold out and only has 570 8g, 580’s