I have been doing some research about mining recently. I also mined with my Gtx 1070 for few days. Yesterday, I have ordered 2 1080 TI’s. I want to ask, is it possible to mine without pcie risers? If I get a motherboard with 2x PCIe x16 slot, am I able to do it or do I still need the risers? I might buy risers as well but they will take long time to arrive in my country.
I am also looking for best zcash wallet. Sorry for this question but i made lots of research and still couldnt find a great one. People dont recommend mining on an exchange wallet. I was using Jaxx but some people also dont recommend it. People had issues with it and lots of fees i believe. Sadly all my zec is there at the moment (0,08~ ) The beginners guide I have followed recommended Jaxx thats why.
I don’t have access to google playstore and I don’t want to invest in ledger nano at the moment. What is the safest one? Maybe zcash4win ?
Thank you, will ask further questions here if I have any.
Zcash4Win is your best bet then. Which 1080 Ti did you get? some 1080Ti’s are huge and cover 2 slots or more. I would recommend risers so that heat from the GPU isn’t too much on the motherboard.
Thank you @Blue and @CitricAcid for your help. I ordered Evga FTW3 I know it is “little bit” huge… Risers will take minimum of 30 days probably or more, and some people selling them for like $20 each in my country. I dont want to give that much money instead buy it cheap and wait some. I am happy that they will work without risers.
I will try zcash4win asap. Should I send all my zec to there and store it there? And is zcash4win what people calls cold storage?
No cold storage is a PC meant for that purpose. Off, In safe place, only turned on to send or receive coins. Some would insist on an air gap as well.
I am biased, so take this with a grain of salt. I would never use a Windows PC for currency strorage, they are just too vunrable to security breeches. And Linux is FREE, secure, and way better at mining that windows. Just my opinion.
I am building my rig in few days, all parts arrived instead of GPUs. I am hoping that they will also arrive in 2-3 days. I have few questions if you can answer.
First of all, I can install linux on my mining rig. I don’t want to pay for windows on mining rig and don’t want to use pirated windows as well. If there is no problems with drivers and etc, I can use it. Also I believe there are tools like teamviewer for linux as well, right? I want to control it over my own pc.
But what about the wallet? So, I had an old laptop with ubuntu installed on it. Should I install my wallet on that? I do not normally use it. I can make it a cold storage. Do we need to download the whole block chain to make it a cold storage? Also, I am bit paranoiac. If something happens on that laptop (cold storage), will all my cash go away? Can we have a backup? Is it really safe to use it this way? Installing the wallet on a different computer instead of my daily pc?
Also other people, do you all agree with linux based rigs and wallets on linux? I am looking for your answers, thank you whoever helps me.
Old laptop sounds perfect for a cold storage wallet. However, ultimately you are responsible for the security of your coins. So if the HD failed on that PC or you spilled coffee on it you could loose your coins. So you aways need to have a current backup of your wallet. If you use the zcashd wallet (that is what I use), it is a full node so yes the whole block chain is technically there. This is typically not an issue and just takes some time to do the initial setup. I have looked at other Zcash wallets but not found anything I like better than zcashd yet.
As far as Linux is concerned, if you are familiar with it, it is far more powerful than Windows, but not easier to use. For example: I don’t usually log into my rigs, or use team-viewer (but yes it works great with Linux), unless I am testing some new code. My rigs are fully automated, headless, and restart themselves when their is an issue. They send me a message if there is a problem they cant deal with on their own (like restarting too often, a high GPU temp, a failed fan, etc etc). Babysitting rigs is fairly impractical once you have more than a few.
To be honest that took me quite some time to write the code to get to that level of automation (and I am still adding new features), but I use Linux as my primary OS on just about everything. If your not familiar with Linux it can be a real pain since there are usually half a dozen different ways to do something.
Hello again, let me update you about my situation and i have a new question as well.
First, thank you both for recommending me wallets. Since I do not have access to a hardware wallet in my country at the moment, and not having that amount of coins at the moment, I have picked the Zcash wallet for linux. I have freshly installed ubuntu in the laptop that I do not use normally, and installed the wallet there. Blockchain is synced 100% and it seems to work well without any problems right now.
Another thing is about PCIe slots on mobo and risers. I had bought MSI Z270-A Pro mobo because it had 2 16x PCIe slots and risers was going to take some time to arrive. All my equipments arrived except risers. But sadly I noticed that it was impossible to use GPUs without risers. Those two 16x slots were two close to each other and long GPU was also nearly blocking some parts of motherboard when used on 2nd 16x slot. So if anyone thinks about using GPUs on the motherboard, consider the space between slots as well. It is not possible with only having the slots.
Here comes my question. Today my PCIe risers have arrived. They arrived much faster than expected and I am very excited. The thing is I have read those power adapters are fire hazardous. And people do not suggest using them, and I think I read that maybe some gpus can be used but it isn’t recommended with 1080TIs. So should I use those cables that came out of my Corsair HX1200 box? Here are the photos of the cable, I am not sure about the names.
I ordered Evga FTW3 I know it is “little bit” huge… 
Risers will take minimum of 30 days probably or more, and some people selling them for like $20 each in my country. I dont want to give that much money instead buy it cheap and wait some. I am happy that they will work without risers. 
