Cryptocoin Mining?

[blastingcap]

Any thoughts on litecoins? Would that be a good early investment to get into?

I thought those haven't been profitable in ages, so a mad rush of ex-BTC GPU miners going into Litecoins is likely to make it even worse by driving up the difficulty to obscene heights. The only way this would change is if demand for Litecoins goes way, way up.

Edit to add: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=114443.0

So Litecoin might be profitable if you have cheap enough electricity. But apparently it takes 38% more electricity to mine, and runs a lot hotter due to stressing core AND memory clocks. One guy said his card ran 15 degrees C hotter than when BTC mining, and that it is cheaper to mine for BTC and use the BTC to buy Litecoin.

 

[thilanliyan]

Sigh...don't know what to do.

Are you able to cancel preorders from BFL at all? If I can get a BFL single by sometime in December I would be happy, but if my order is going to take until next March or something, I would not bother.

So the guys here that have ordered from BFL, is there any way to cancel your order?

This is in the FAQ:
"Butterfly Labs, INC. is accepting pre-orders for ASIC based products, expected to begin shipping in late October or early November 2012. Your pre-order with payment confirms your place in line for delivery once we begin shipping. Payments made for pre-orders of ASIC based products now under development should be considered non-refundable until products begin shipping or 1 January 2013, whichever is earlier. "

What exactly does that mean? If my order is not shipped by January 1, 2013 I can get a refund?

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I would imagine it would be a little difficult. I remember that it took many, many tries before I could get someone on the phone to check on the status of my BFL FPGA Singles order 3 weeks after I had wired them the money.

 

[philipma1957]

Sigh...don't know what to do.

Are you able to cancel preorders from BFL at all? If I can get a BFL single by sometime in December I would be happy, but if my order is going to take until next March or something, I would not bother.

So the guys here that have ordered from BFL, is there any way to cancel your order?

This is in the FAQ:
"Butterfly Labs, INC. is accepting pre-orders for ASIC based products, expected to begin shipping in late October or early November 2012. Your pre-order with payment confirms your place in line for delivery once we begin shipping. Payments made for pre-orders of ASIC based products now under development should be considered non-refundable until products begin shipping or 1 January 2013, whichever is earlier. "

What exactly does that mean? If my order is not shipped by January 1, 2013 I can get a refund?

okay so your quote is jan 1 .

the quote I found changes shipping from oct to nov.

seems to me that this may go poof.



meanwhile orders started in july. Just think of this if you really had built the jalapeno's (ie butterfly labs) and added one a day since July 1 you would have more then 90 online. Just one earns about 1.3 bitcoins a day. So by now you are earning 100 coins a day. that is 1200 usd a day.

1 jalapeno sells for 170. as a builder maybe 100 to build so 90 x 100 is 9000 dollars to make them. Today you are earning 1200 a day.


my guess is they built them they work and they are slowing adding them to the network scoring big money. I also think they realize that a 2 or 3 or even 4 month delay will allow them to earn a lot of coins via mining.


Therefore:

THEY HAVE NO NEED TO DELIVER QUICKLY

Every delay lets them earn big money via mining.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Oh man. Just put the 7970s to work yesterday evening at 1125/400 sitting under my desk.

 

[RussianSensation]

How hot is she running? Stock cooler and 1125mhz won't be pretty!

 

[Despoiler]

How hot is she running? Stock cooler and 1125mhz won't be pretty!

Stock cooler can handle that. It's just loud. You do need to set the fan speed yourself. The stock map isn't aggressive enough.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

How hot is she running? Stock cooler and 1125mhz won't be pretty!

Fan is fixed at 55%, which isn't that loud surprisingly. Temps get up to 80C in cgminer with dynamic intensity. I think it really helps to have the VRAM downclocked.

Back of the case is like a dragon's a*s though (or would that be mouth?)

 

[MrK6]

Fan is fixed at 55%, which isn't that loud surprisingly. Temps get up to 80C in cgminer with dynamic intensity. I think it really helps to have the VRAM downclocked.

Back of the case is like a dragon's a*s though (or would that be mouth?)

You can still go further. I run my card at 200MHz VRAM and take the vRAM voltage down to 1.5V (from stock 1.6V). Below 200MHz I lose a few mhash/sec. You can also be much more aggressive with undervolting. My gaming stable clocks are 1125MHz @ 1.112V, but I mine at 1150MHz @ 1.093V. Mining is not as intensive as other tasks and you can get away with a lot more pushing your GPU to the brink of stability.

With these tweaks not only will you save on noise but you could probably shave at least another 20-30W off your system power usage. A great thing to put perspective on it is that if you live in the U.S., every 1W extra of power usage comes out to an extra ~$1.25/year cost in electricity (if you mine 24/7).

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Thanks for the tip, will definitely look into that!

 

[smangular]

Stratum seams to help with nice low stales ~0.08% for me, but it seams like only Slush and BTC Guild have it.

For a backup servers Slush Score + PPS does not work well. How do you guys do it?
For some reason I get less BTC on short block rounds like 20min or less...

 

[wbynum]

Got my two Diamond 7970's in today. Surprisingly, at 1.175v on the vcore and 1000 mhz they overload my 850 watt PSU. This was the same PSU unit that ran three overclocked 5830's last summer without issue. It's a cheap OCZ PSU unit though, so who knows.

Afterburner seemed to think the default for the cards was 1.049v anyways, so I set it to that and the 1000 mhz core. Seems stable. Will find out if it runs overnight.

Also, for the life of me I can not get the memory to downclock. Afterburner would not work at all. Trixx would let me set the memory to 300 mhz, but immediately when starting up the miniers, GPU-Z showed the memory jumping to 1375 mhz. Same if I used the --gpu-memclock setting in cgminer. No effect. Any ideas?

 

[Accord99]

Also, for the life of me I can not get the memory to downclock. Afterburner would not work at all. Trixx would let me set the memory to 300 mhz, but immediately when starting up the miniers, GPU-Z showed the memory jumping to 1375 mhz. Same if I used the --gpu-memclock setting in cgminer. No effect. Any ideas?

By default, I found that the 7950/7970 won't allow memory speeds more than 150 MHz lower than the clock speed. Set it lower and it'll jump back up its normal memory clock speed.

To get it lower, I had to enable unofficial overclocking mode 2 in Afterburner:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=338906

 

[wbynum]

Yep. I tried mode 2. It zero'ed out the sliders in that case. Tried adding the two ATI DLL's and the sliders came back but still could not drag the memory slider below 685 mhz. Based on reading that thread and the dll thread it linked to, looks like you have to run an older version of Afterburner and perhaps older drivers. Who knows. Bed time now.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Got my two Diamond 7970's in today. Surprisingly, at 1.175v on the vcore and 1000 mhz they overload my 850 watt PSU. This was the same PSU unit that ran three overclocked 5830's last summer without issue. It's a cheap OCZ PSU unit though, so who knows.

Which OCZ PSU model is that? I've had a StealthXstream 600W gradually degrade over time, ie. it would run two 5830s just fine and a few months down the road, the OCP is triggered unless the load is reduced.

 

[MrTeal]

Got my two Diamond 7970's in today. Surprisingly, at 1.175v on the vcore and 1000 mhz they overload my 850 watt PSU. This was the same PSU unit that ran three overclocked 5830's last summer without issue. It's a cheap OCZ PSU unit though, so who knows.

Afterburner seemed to think the default for the cards was 1.049v anyways, so I set it to that and the 1000 mhz core. Seems stable. Will find out if it runs overnight.

Also, for the life of me I can not get the memory to downclock. Afterburner would not work at all. Trixx would let me set the memory to 300 mhz, but immediately when starting up the miniers, GPU-Z showed the memory jumping to 1375 mhz. Same if I used the --gpu-memclock setting in cgminer. No effect. Any ideas?

What's the model number? If it's something like the GameXStream 850W, there are four 12V rails rated for 20A each. One is for the CPU, one for the MB and molex/SATA and two for the PCIe connectors. It's possible you could be pulling 20A over the PCIe plugs and tripping the OCP without getting close to 850W in total.

Also, if you do have a four rail model, pay attention to which PCIe cables go to which cards. The 8pin connectors do draw more current than the 6pin ones, if you used two 8pins from one rail and two 6pins from another, you'd likely overload the one rail.

 

[philipma1957]

some simple advice underclock don't overclock. I have 4 xfx hd7970's on an evga p67 board with a 2500k cpu. I use a seasonic 1000 watt platinum psu. My afterburner settings are .950 volts with 920 mhz and 1.500 volts with 685 mhz memory. all 4 gpus are set to the same setting. each one pulls 520 to 535 hash rate total of about 2100 hash rate. fans are set at 50%. I have a kill-a- watt meter watts are 675 >

if I go to 1.050 and 1025 with 1.50 and 685 I get 625 hash times 4 = 2500 but watts go to 960-990

so my watt ratio at the underclock is 3 to 1 . after that number every watt gives me only 1 hash. that is 1 to 1. the 7970's watt hash is best around .9 to.95 volts and 850 to 925 mhz. ram is at 1.5 volts and 685 all on afterburner.


even if you get free power overclocking only pays off in the winter as the higher watts make more heat. which is a good thing on a oold night.

these numbers work for 1 hd7970 2 hd7970s 3 hd 7970s or 4 hd7970s.

about .950 volts to 925 mhz and 1.500 volts to 685 mhz 50% fan and +1 or +2 for the power setting. of course a second setting is for when you game as these numbers are not to good to game with. these numbers will give you about 185- 200 watts for 525 hash with 1 hd790. you don't get the 3 to 1 on the first hd7970 due to all the other equipment that runs with your hd7970. adding the second thrid or fourth hd7970 raise your ratio since you only add a gpu no extra ram hdd dvd cpu. If you underclock more you can get a 3.33 to 1 ratio .850 volts and 775mhz will do it but the hash rate goes to 450 or so. I stick with .950 volts and 920 mhz when just mining.

also with mutiple gpus not crossfired and not synched you can have one set for gaming when you game and not set to mine. I sometime have 1 set at .975v 925 mhz 1.550v 1200 mhz to game watch blu ray while the others are set low to mine. if i do this the one with the high settings is the one with the hdmi connection to my tv. this works if the gpus are not crossfire linked
.this setup earns close to .8 coins a day 24 coins a month at 12 a coin about 288 before power.
power is about 17 cents a k watt but cold weather is coming and this helps my heating bill. I net close to 200 a month with bit coins at 12 bucks. I need to net 200 for the next 3 months to have made this worthwhile. but even if it drops off to 100 a month I will be okay.

so far the asics are getting delays my fingers are crossed.

 

[wbynum]

What's the model number? If it's something like the GameXStream 850W, there are four 12V rails rated for 20A each. One is for the CPU, one for the MB and molex/SATA and two for the PCIe connectors. It's possible you could be pulling 20A over the PCIe plugs and tripping the OCP without getting close to 850W in total.

Also, if you do have a four rail model, pay attention to which PCIe cables go to which cards. The 8pin connectors do draw more current than the 6pin ones, if you used two 8pins from one rail and two 6pins from another, you'd likely overload the one rail.

I think this is probably the issue. Overloading one of the rails. I do have the 4 rail, 20 amps per rail, model. PSU has probably degraded over time. Might have to pick me up a single rail, quality unit at some point. Not so much for bitcoins, but for gaming where it is fun to overclock to the max, whether needed or not.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I think this is probably the issue. Overloading one of the rails. I do have the 4 rail, 20 amps per rail, model. PSU has probably degraded over time. Might have to pick me up a single rail, quality unit at some point. Not so much for bitcoins, but for gaming where it is fun to overclock to the max, whether needed or not.

Multi-rail models are fine. You just have to dig into detailed reviews (eg. JonnyGuru, HardwareSecrets) to see whether there is an OCP limiting the amount of current in each rail (true multi-rail) or if there is only a "master" OCP limiting the total amount of current

 

[Zargon]

Stratum seams to help with nice low stales ~0.08% for me, but it seams like only Slush and BTC Guild have it.

For a backup servers Slush Score + PPS does not work well. How do you guys do it?
For some reason I get less BTC on short block rounds like 20min or less...

i switched over to the stratum at btcguild and I get alot less stales for sure

 

[Elfear]

Yep. I tried mode 2. It zero'ed out the sliders in that case. Tried adding the two ATI DLL's and the sliders came back but still could not drag the memory slider below 685 mhz. Based on reading that thread and the dll thread it linked to, looks like you have to run an older version of Afterburner and perhaps older drivers. Who knows. Bed time now.

Try deleting the three VCN_ files in the Profiles folder in the main AB folder. Restart AB and when it asks you to restart your computer to detect clocks, click "No". Adjust clocks, go into your Settings tab, switch to your other card, go back out, and should be able to adjust the memory clocks down further. Rinse and repeat to keep extending the clockrange down for each card.

 

[Despoiler]

i switched over to the stratum at btcguild and I get alot less stales for sure

You could mine on a place that pays for your stales like ABCPool.co

 

[RussianSensation]

Try deleting the three VCN_ files in the Profiles folder in the main AB folder. Restart AB and when it asks you to restart your computer to detect clocks, click "No". Adjust clocks, go into your Settings tab, switch to your other card, go back out, and should be able to adjust the memory clocks down further. Rinse and repeat to keep extending the clockrange down for each card.

I tried doing that and it still didn't work. Maybe lowering memory clocks works with older versions of MSI AB?

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

You could mine on a place that pays for your stales like ABCPool.co

+1. It's the pool I switched to after ArsBitcoin collapsed. Been mining there for a year now w/o issues and it almost never goes down.

I tried doing that and it still didn't work. Maybe lowering memory clocks works with older versions of MSI AB?

Worked fine here with AB 2.2.1 and Cat 12.3 on Win7x64.

Set OCconfig to 2 (make sure to do this with admin permissions!)
Initially set the mem to ~680 (the lowest it would go).
Shut down AB and deleted the VEN_ files.
Restarted AB, hit do not reboot, lowered to the next lowest value (~400).
Repeat until I hit 300.

 

[Zargon]

You could mine on a place that pays for your stales like ABCPool.co

I have essentially zero now that I'm on the stratum so I'm not worried