So that backplate can just be unscrewed and left off?
Canti - it's not about a lack of money, I could buy my own plane ticket to Detroit and back if I wanted to. But if I'm coming there so people can meet me and see in person, it's like I'm providing entertainment in real life instead of just on the forums. Would you ask Gabriel Iglesias or George Carlin (yes I know he's dead) to come perform at Expo Icrontic and tell them they have to pay their own way?
In preparation for setting up the mining computers, I mapped out the circuit breakers in the apartment today. I was very disappointed to find one 15 amp breaker feeding both bedrooms, while other 15 and 20 amp breakers went to only a few outlets that are rarely if ever used. What idiot wired this place? Do I have to tell everyone what they are doing wrong ?!?!?
So I'll have to run one or 2 extension cords into the empty room to be used for mining and run the PCs off that so nothing gets overloaded.
Maybe I'll make you all a special YouTube video when its up and running. Would you like that?
I got a Radeon 6770 in the mail today, along with the Gigabyte motherboard! JOY!!! I can start assembling things tonight!
But there have been a few issues with shipping. The mailman, on his last day of work on May 31, brought the power supply to my place, and then, for some reason, marked it "Forward", and took it back, and the post office tells me it has to go to Virginia and then be returned. Huh?
And the bone brain who sent me 3 6950's says they were sent out last tuesday from Washington state, USPS, without tracking numbers or delivery confirmation. I got today's mail, and they have not yet arrived.
He says he'll give a refund if they don't show, he's been cool about it so far, but there's no way I'll find 3 more 6950's for the price I paid. I hope I don't have to get Paypal in it to get a refund, I just wanna get the 3 6950!
It's been a rough couple days for my bitcoin / litecoin mining project. First, my stupid, worthless, good for nothing, idiot brother moved out a month ago, leaving me with paying all the bills, but that's not the bad part. When he moved, he forwarded his mail, and despite me getting other PC parts in the mail on days before and after May 31, on May 31 Mr. Moron the mailman decided to forward the 2 most expensive packages, the 3 6950's and the power supply, which went to some big post office in Virginia to be rerouted, and now may be delivered to either me or my idiot brother, we'll see where they end up. The seller of the 6950's had taken a photo of the insurance label and he sent it to me, and it had a tracking number, so at least I know they are somewhere on the way. I made a sign for the mailbox to explain to the mailman that my stuff still comes to the same address.
Then, the motherboard had a bad LAN subsystem, so I have to RMA it. Then, the 6770 gpu couldn't handle playing full screen video, so it's getting RMA'd too. The guy I bought them from on eBay was the same person for both items, and he already left me a positive feedback, so I'm not sure yet what I'll leave him. I wrote him a nice message, I'll have to see what his response is.
So so far, none of this has cost me more money, just more delays.
I did run the 6770 in my main PC for a few days, and it was cranking Bitcoins at 180 Mh/sec compared to the 72 Mh/sec my 4870 puts out. But in switching the drivers back and forth I somehow messed up the Bitcoin file and BitMinter, so now it's not opening, and my 60 GB SSD boot drive is almost full, so I have to swap in my 256 GB SSD and reload Windows 7 and everything.
Digital Currency. While some activity involving bitcoins is legal (ie: Purchases, "investments"), a lot more of it is Internet black market (ie: Illicit drug purchases without a paper trail).
The idiots at Gigabyte's RMA office were supposed to ship the motherboard to me with 3 day shipping, but they put it on regular ground speed, so I won't have it until thursday! MORONS!!!
Replacement motherboard arrived today! Same model and revision and everything, different serial number. I checked. Maybe tonight I can start on getting the mining pc put together!
Have you put together your spreadsheet of your total costs so far, how much you have been paying for electricity (vs how much you will be), and how much $ you've made from mining?
I just scored a 7970 on eBay for $177, shipping included. The seller said it had some sort of problem. I figure it this way - it doesn't have to make video. If it mines as is, fine. If not, that's what RMAs are for.
schwaip - how much have I spent so far? Too much. Let's see what I can remember:
850 watt single 12v rail Thermaltake PSU - $56 or so Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H rev. 1.1 motherboard $77 or so then RMA'd it so +$15 shipping 3 6950s - $420 1 6770 - $50 CPU - Celeron G530 with Intel cooler / fan - $42 A splitter to turn on 2 power supplies at once - $11 7970 - $177 6850 - $100 A broken 6850 $25 will be RMA'd if it doesnt work, haven't tried it yet. I already had RAM sticks and hard drives and monitor, mouse, keyboard laying around.
That's $973 and I'm probably forgetting something. Holy bajeezus and staddaboochie! (I made that up during an intense Starcraft 2 1v1 ladder game about a year ago) Somebody stop me!
Electricity here is 5.39 cents per kilowatt and doesn't change with excessive usage, I checked. Cheap.
I figure it this way. Most of this stuff I got in package deals, the bad video cards are new enough to get RMA'd, and I would keep the motherboard to build my next gaming pc with, no matter how well the mining project goes. I'd keep the 7970 or crossfire 2 6950's.
So either the mining thing will produce, and I'll make some money. If it doesn't, I'll sell most of the stuff on eBay, and I think I can at least break even, aside from electricity cost.
I've never heard anyone talk much about costs for building F@H machines and you know there's no payback on that in terms of dollars. This deal COULD make a little cash, or it can be sold off in individual parts for about what I paid, or maybe better.
You can't compare this to folding. Folding is somewhat selfless for lack of a better term. You know it's going to cost more but you hope the end result justifies said cost. It's not about cash, or points, or WU certificates. It's about helping.
Coin mining is business oriented and should be treated as such. I'm not trying to rain on a parade but it's apples to tomatoes. Yes they are both fruit, but used in very different parts of cooking.
After hooking up the replacement motherboard, i was able to get it to boot up in Safe Mode with Networking, and installed the LAN and USB 3.0 drivers, and it works fine.
But when I restart it to let it do a normal Windows startup, it BSODs with "the system encountered an uncorrectable hardware error", and error code 0x00000124.
Frustration. I know if I return this to Gigabyte, they will keep sending crap boards that their "technicians" think they fixed but are useless. I could ask for a new board but I doubt I'll get it.
I tried various ram sticks in different slots, and it's running off the on board video, so there's the absolute minimum of things hooked up to it right now. Not even a CD drive. Only real variation from BIOS defaults is IDE mode instead of AHCI, I've never been able to get a pc to boot up in AHCI and work right.
If it matters, the board and parts are laid out on a wooden table, not in a metal PC case. Although I doubt that makes a difference.
I tried various ram sticks in different slots, and it's running off the on board video, so there's the absolute minimum of things hooked up to it right now. Not even a CD drive. Only real variation from BIOS defaults is IDE mode instead of AHCI, I've never been able to get a pc to boot up in AHCI and work right.
You need to make sure you're booting in the same mode (AHCI/IDE) as the previous board.
(also, is the replacement board exactly the same as the old one?)
I tried something else, I had loaded Windows on the original board with an 8800GT GPU installed, so I put the GPU back in and put the video plug on it. Then when I started it,the motherboard speaker let out a high pitched noise that never stopped until I turned the power off.
Put it back on the on board video and the noise went away but all other problems remain. I switched the SATA from IDE to AHCI in the BIOS, no luck so far.
Latest update. I set the BIOS to all defaults, then put the SATA mode on IDE, first boot from CD and second from hard drive. It repeatedly failed to reload / reinstall windows. I did try using different SATA ports too.
In safe mode with networking, the motherboard seems to work normally, I was able to copy the folder of gigabyte drivers to my flash drive with no trouble. And go on the internet. So that makes me think the ram and cpu and all that is fine.
It's just when you try to start the thing normally that it freaks out. So what isn't used in safe mode that is used in normal mode?
Looks like I'll be burning more cell phone minutes with Gigabyte support today. I'm going to try and get them to either send me a NEW motherboard, not one that they fixed, or refund the full $145 purchase price (that I paid $77 for on eBay). Sounds fair for my delays and aggravation.
I'm going to try and get them to either send me a NEW motherboard, not one that they fixed, or refund the full $145 purchase price (that I paid $77 for on eBay).
They will do neither one of these. 100% guarantee. You get what they send. Gigabyte will tell you that if you want a refund you'll have to deal with the seller. They will never give you a refund, especially not for the full price.
Comments
So I'll have to run one or 2 extension cords into the empty room to be used for mining and run the PCs off that so nothing gets overloaded.
Maybe I'll make you all a special YouTube video when its up and running. Would you like that?
But there have been a few issues with shipping. The mailman, on his last day of work on May 31, brought the power supply to my place, and then, for some reason, marked it "Forward", and took it back, and the post office tells me it has to go to Virginia and then be returned. Huh?
And the bone brain who sent me 3 6950's says they were sent out last tuesday from Washington state, USPS, without tracking numbers or delivery confirmation. I got today's mail, and they have not yet arrived.
He says he'll give a refund if they don't show, he's been cool about it so far, but there's no way I'll find 3 more 6950's for the price I paid. I hope I don't have to get Paypal in it to get a refund, I just wanna get the 3 6950!
Then, the motherboard had a bad LAN subsystem, so I have to RMA it. Then, the 6770 gpu couldn't handle playing full screen video, so it's getting RMA'd too. The guy I bought them from on eBay was the same person for both items, and he already left me a positive feedback, so I'm not sure yet what I'll leave him. I wrote him a nice message, I'll have to see what his response is.
So so far, none of this has cost me more money, just more delays.
I did run the 6770 in my main PC for a few days, and it was cranking Bitcoins at 180 Mh/sec compared to the 72 Mh/sec my 4870 puts out. But in switching the drivers back and forth I somehow messed up the Bitcoin file and BitMinter, so now it's not opening, and my 60 GB SSD boot drive is almost full, so I have to swap in my 256 GB SSD and reload Windows 7 and everything.
Am I real enough yet?
In other news, Kate Upton turned 21 yesterday.
Seems like a prudent step to take.
schwaip - how much have I spent so far? Too much. Let's see what I can remember:
850 watt single 12v rail Thermaltake PSU - $56 or so
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H rev. 1.1 motherboard $77 or so then RMA'd it so +$15 shipping
3 6950s - $420
1 6770 - $50
CPU - Celeron G530 with Intel cooler / fan - $42
A splitter to turn on 2 power supplies at once - $11
7970 - $177
6850 - $100
A broken 6850 $25 will be RMA'd if it doesnt work, haven't tried it yet.
I already had RAM sticks and hard drives and monitor, mouse, keyboard laying around.
That's $973 and I'm probably forgetting something. Holy bajeezus and staddaboochie! (I made that up during an intense Starcraft 2 1v1 ladder game about a year ago) Somebody stop me!
Electricity here is 5.39 cents per kilowatt and doesn't change with excessive usage, I checked. Cheap.
I figure it this way. Most of this stuff I got in package deals, the bad video cards are new enough to get RMA'd, and I would keep the motherboard to build my next gaming pc with, no matter how well the mining project goes. I'd keep the 7970 or crossfire 2 6950's.
So either the mining thing will produce, and I'll make some money. If it doesn't, I'll sell most of the stuff on eBay, and I think I can at least break even, aside from electricity cost.
I've never heard anyone talk much about costs for building F@H machines and you know there's no payback on that in terms of dollars. This deal COULD make a little cash, or it can be sold off in individual parts for about what I paid, or maybe better.
Coin mining is business oriented and should be treated as such. I'm not trying to rain on a parade but it's apples to tomatoes. Yes they are both fruit, but used in very different parts of cooking.
After hooking up the replacement motherboard, i was able to get it to boot up in Safe Mode with Networking, and installed the LAN and USB 3.0 drivers, and it works fine.
But when I restart it to let it do a normal Windows startup, it BSODs with "the system encountered an uncorrectable hardware error", and error code 0x00000124.
Frustration. I know if I return this to Gigabyte, they will keep sending crap boards that their "technicians" think they fixed but are useless. I could ask for a new board but I doubt I'll get it.
I tried various ram sticks in different slots, and it's running off the on board video, so there's the absolute minimum of things hooked up to it right now. Not even a CD drive. Only real variation from BIOS defaults is IDE mode instead of AHCI, I've never been able to get a pc to boot up in AHCI and work right.
If it matters, the board and parts are laid out on a wooden table, not in a metal PC case. Although I doubt that makes a difference.
(also, is the replacement board exactly the same as the old one?)
I tried something else, I had loaded Windows on the original board with an 8800GT GPU installed, so I put the GPU back in and put the video plug on it. Then when I started it,the motherboard speaker let out a high pitched noise that never stopped until I turned the power off.
Put it back on the on board video and the noise went away but all other problems remain. I switched the SATA from IDE to AHCI in the BIOS, no luck so far.
In safe mode with networking, the motherboard seems to work normally, I was able to copy the folder of gigabyte drivers to my flash drive with no trouble. And go on the internet. So that makes me think the ram and cpu and all that is fine.
It's just when you try to start the thing normally that it freaks out. So what isn't used in safe mode that is used in normal mode?
Looks like I'll be burning more cell phone minutes with Gigabyte support today. I'm going to try and get them to either send me a NEW motherboard, not one that they fixed, or refund the full $145 purchase price (that I paid $77 for on eBay). Sounds fair for my delays and aggravation.
Also, you should be using AHCI for the SSD.
Anyone got a good MSI K9A2 Platinum 4 GPU motherboard laying around?