270/270x UNDER $230 watch thread

Demand is cratering because scrypt mining profitability is cratering. Expect to see it crash further into the summer, just in time for the heat to exacerbate it :D
 
IEC said:
Demand is cratering because scrypt mining profitability is cratering. Expect to see it crash further into the summer, just in time for the heat to exacerbate it :D
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oh i donno as the miners decrease due to heat and turning off mining rigs due to heat difficulty will drop and profit will increase.
 
edge929 said:
Same Sapphire Dual-X 270 on TigerDirect for $190 free shipping (Shoprunner).

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8911158&CatId=7387
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very nice -- ordered one just to slowly add to my growning 270 farm. (4 total after this one)

Sad the limit is 1 per customer - really wanted two.

Cancelled my standing order for some of these at amazon.

Out the door was 205 after taxes (free 2 day shoprunner shipping) actually a better deal than amazon was giving me ($433 for 2)
 
Yeah I'm in the process of selling my 290s and swapping them out for 270s. The efficiency is actually very close but it requires use of Stilt's BIOS on the 290s and lowering the voltage on the 270s. In the end, the 270s squeak out ahead for twice the PCIe slots but you get much better temps and no blower fan noise to drive you crazy.
 
edge929 said:
Yeah I'm in the process of selling my 290s and swapping them out for 270s. The efficiency is actually very close but it requires use of Stilt's BIOS on the 290s and lowering the voltage on the 270s. In the end, the 270s squeak out ahead for twice the PCIe slots but you get much better temps and no blower fan noise to drive you crazy.
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I need to do some research on how to undervolt and still keep my hash rates -- I have them at stock voltage, slightly OC'd -- 430khash across the board at the moment, haven't had time to tinker.

Any good links on how to undervolt these puppies?
 
I followed this minus the booting to Linux part. http://www.cryptobadger.com/2013/10/undervolting-in-linux-via-modified-bios/

Basically boils down to....
  1. Backup card BIOS with ATIFlash or ATIWinFlash
  2. open BIOS in VBE7 editor
  3. go to power play tab and put in whatever value (I'd recommend doing several with different voltages so you dont have to keep going back and forth)
  4. Flash card with Atiflash or AtiWinflash to lowest voltage
  5. Test mining
  6. If crash go back to step 4 until it runs stable
 
very awesome -- thanks!

Just as an FYI -- i found one work around to getting two cards. Search on amazon -- you can get this same card fulfilled by tigerdirect, price is slightly higher (amazon has to make their cut somehow) $210 delivered to my house for the 2nd card.

I didn't order it yet because I don't want tiger direct's systems to see both GPU's coming to my house and then cancel all my orders.
 
One nice thing with the 270s (non-X) is that they're already at a 1.1XXV core voltage, so unless you want to spend time squeezing every bit of voltage out of them, they're already pretty much ready to go for about 1100-1150 core speed.
 
Yeah, I used vbe7 as well. Change the clocks and voltage, save it and flash it. If you want to OC to get the most hash, leave the stock BIOS on and just up the clocks to max stable. Note that some 270s come with a super-high 1.215v. 1.188v should be plenty for 1100 core. Cutting this down to 1.135v should save ~10-15W per card but stability might be impacted. From my experience, 470 hash is easily doable with 1100/1500 (if Elpida RAM) at 1.135v or possibly 1.15v.
 
IEC said:
Demand is cratering because scrypt mining profitability is cratering. Expect to see it crash further into the summer, just in time for the heat to exacerbate it :D
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It crashes that it may rise again.

At least these "crashes" have the benefit of weeding out the men from the boys. ;)
 
atp1916 said:
It crashes that it may rise again.

At least these "crashes" have the benefit of weeding out the men from the boys. ;)
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I was thinking the same thing. Bring on the summer heat to weed out the band-wagoners from the spike last November. Lower difficulty, hoard coins and then let the next big good news launch it back into the stratosphere so we can all go buy our Tesla's! :p

In other news, anybody check ebay lately? 290 prices are hitting record lows. 290X's going for $500 used, 290's not selling at $400 used.
 
I would dare say the bandwagon miners are most likely believing the media and its doom n gloom reporting enough to be having second thoughts about mining.

[H]old the line, gentlemen. The best times are yet to come.
 
atp1916 said:
I would dare say the bandwagon miners are most likely believing the media and its doom n gloom reporting enough to be having second thoughts about mining.

[H]old the line, gentlemen. The best times are yet to come.
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I would imagine a lot realized this isn't a get rich quick scheme. Ya you can make extra pocket money with it. But unless you go nutty and devote a room of your living space too it along with the initial cash to get started, getting rich isn't part of it.
 
^^ It may not be a get rich scheme type thing, but it pays the bills and then some!
 
IEC said:
Demand is cratering because scrypt mining profitability is cratering. Expect to see it crash further into the summer, just in time for the heat to exacerbate it :D
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I will just run around my house in boxers if I have to and I'll send the wife/kids to the inlaws on the hot days if I can't come up with a good way to keep my mining room cool enough
 
wow nice to know newegg got some more in stock, just bought another basic IceQ series card (I already have 3)

good easy little 270's to mine with, 100% trouble free. What's extra nice is shop runner 2day shipping, and zero tax. Quite literally 185 to my door, can't beat that price! Kinda kicking myself I bought that 270 from tiger direct earlier today for 205 shipped (already shipped, so oh well)

total mining power by monday will be

two 290's
one 280
two 7970s
five 270's
 
mkrohn said:
I will just run around my house in boxers if I have to and I'll send the wife/kids to the inlaws on the hot days if I can't come up with a good way to keep my mining room cool enough
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luckily I live alone in a 1600 sq foot house (yes I bought it, no mommy and daddy money here)

Mining rig in the guest room, mining rig in the living room, mining rig in the "2nd living room" as i call it, mining rig in my bedroom.

I also just bought a 10K BTU portable AC unit for my bedroom, the AC works fine, but instead of cooling the whole house this summer, I'll just have this puppy in my room where I spend all my time. It only uses 900W and kicks out TONS of cold. Will be easier on the electric bill using this thing vs cooling the whole house for no reason.
 
^^ An attic fan and a few open windows would probably keep the rest of the house at least "reasonable" if your just plan on cooling that one room.
Even hot air feels relatively "cool" when moving at 40-50 MPH :)
 
collegeboy69us said:
luckily I live alone in a 1600 sq foot house (yes I bought it, no mommy and daddy money here)

Mining rig in the guest room, mining rig in the living room, mining rig in the "2nd living room" as i call it, mining rig in my bedroom.

I also just bought a 10K BTU portable AC unit for my bedroom, the AC works fine, but instead of cooling the whole house this summer, I'll just have this puppy in my room where I spend all my time. It only uses 900W and kicks out TONS of cold. Will be easier on the electric bill using this thing vs cooling the whole house for no reason.
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If it's an older house check your breakers. If your bedroom is only 15A you'll likely be pushing close to trip limit. Hopefully 20A+.
 
IEC said:
If it's an older house check your breakers. If your bedroom is only 15A you'll likely be pushing close to trip limit. Hopefully 20A+.
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Luckily I have the breakers thing covered -- it's an older house (1976) but the way it's been wired was pretty open and flexible.

I.e it's only a 2 bedroom, 1600 sq ft house, but has something like 20 separate breakers, multiple circuits in some rooms.

I need to go through the house and map which breaker controls what outlet, with my little clear label tape and everything :)

at the last place I lived -- there was a crappy GFI breaker that was super sensitive even with a 1000w load on it, it would pop sometimes.

Haven't had any breaker issues in my house yet :)
 
_r2h said:
Anyone using these with success?
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I've got 4 of the MSI 270 (non X) Gaming in a mining rig. They're solid except for the fans, same problem all the TwinFrozr units have...noisy like bearings are going bad after prolonged use, and the fan blades are hella fragile. But they crank out the hash, and with a RBE tweak they sip the power. Pound for pound they're doing better than my 290's with Stilt BIOS.

Also running 4 Sapphire Dual-X 270's in another rig. Better build quality, same performance, same price.

Avoided the 270X because the cheaper 270 can be clocked just as high, and only needs one PCI-e 6 pin connector.
 
I must say I've had awesome luck with my XFX HSFs. I have two that will make a bit of noise at 100% fan, but otherwise silent.

Thinking about picking up another round of 270s.
 
Croak said:
I've got 4 of the MSI 270 (non X) Gaming in a mining rig. They're solid except for the fans, same problem all the TwinFrozr units have...noisy like bearings are going bad after prolonged use, and the fan blades are hella fragile. But they crank out the hash, and with a RBE tweak they sip the power. Pound for pound they're doing better than my 290's with Stilt BIOS.

Also running 4 Sapphire Dual-X 270's in another rig. Better build quality, same performance, same price.

Avoided the 270X because the cheaper 270 can be clocked just as high, and only needs one PCI-e 6 pin connector.
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This is about my same exact experience. Seems to be little variance in the 270 Pitcairn chip.
 
oblox said:
Just ordered 5 more and they have a 6% coupon there. Expansion mode again with me finding a location with $0.06 kwh power. Will have to install a 220v subpanel again though.
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Yeah, so under $180 each. And with a cooler with two big ol' fans, to boot.
 
That 5 limit sucks though I usually build 7 card rigs for 270s. Good excuse to prevent me from building more!
 
holy jesus - I wish I would have waited on the two 270's i bought the past two days, one from newegg and one from tigerdirect. (both were still good deals)

the 6% is pretty big, I *REALLY* shouldn't be looking because after my orders come in I will be sitting on about 6.3Mhash @ 5.5cents per kwh.

I'd love to jump on about 3 of those MSI's but I also need to buy a nexus 5 and move to straight talk as my expensive ass verizon contract is finally coming to an end.

The only thing keeping me sane is knowing if I did buy another 3 or 4 270's I would have to also buy another motherboard and PSU as all my slots are filled across my rigs.
 
I'm at around 8.5 Mhash @ 10c/kwh. =P

Check out Aio (just renamed themselves Cricket I think). I'm with them, pretty happy. Uses ATT towers.
 
I've got an old dell mobo running in a crate running two 7950's with one slot left over, just bought one of those MSI 270's to use up the last slot, maybe someday i'll upgrade the board on that rig so i can do a full 5 or so cards, but it's good for now.
 
well turns out i'm not as strong as I thought.

Ordered 2 of the MSI 270's with the 6% promo going. After that, plus the 2% fatwallet, and 1% on my credit card, it was $172 each delivered to my door via 2 day air (free shoprunner). I have one 7970 down and out so a free slot opened up might as well stuff a cheap card in there.

Running out of motherboard slots -- hah gonna have to buy a new one and give the boot to the sissy ass microATX one that's part of my basket rig, (it was just a spare mobo I had laying around) only 2 pci-e slots!
 
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