Mining advice/suggestions

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Silentbob343

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Recently started mining and by recently I mean last night.

Most of my rigs are ITX so all are single GPU setups; 2x270x, and a 380. Currently mining monero with claymore and getting 420-450H/s on the 270xs and 455-550H/s on the 380. I am using nicehash for CPU mining on two of the three, nothing crazy, but looks to be on track to get me another $2-$3 a day. All three setups are on Windows 10.

In addition to the above I have a media server running ubuntu that I would like to leverage. I thought about using it for SIA seeing as I have 11TB free, but I've read some horror stories.

Questions:
  1. Should I stick with monero or should I move to zcash? Looking at some of the calculators zcash has a higher profit margin.
  2. The media server motherboard can support multiple GPUs and would like to take advantage of it, but I read that hash rates are reduced a fair amount under linux compared to windows 10. Is this true and/or coin/miner dependent?
  3. If I do use the server to mine should I look at NVIDIA or AMD GPUs to do so?
  4. I have a line a on a VEGA 64 for $550 and I've read they can hash well, but can be a PITA to get setup. Is that still case?
Thanks for taking the time to read.
 
imo. Zcash. yes i belive to be true that linux provides slower hahes by 1 - 1.5 M/H
 
A single Vega isn't too hard to get set up, but you'll probably have to run it on Win 10 with block chain drivers to get the most out of it. So if you're not planning to do any gaming on it it's fine. You're gonna leave a lot of hashes on the table without block chain drivers. Also Vega is really only worth it for cryptonight based coins so keep that in mind as well.
 
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Stick with NVidia models.

I know AMD RX's are popular, but damnit if they don't take magnitudes more time and effort to get installed, dialed in, and running.

My Nvidia boxes just go. Top speed, virtually no tweaking required, and great uptime.
 
atp1916 said:
Stick with NVidia models.

I know AMD RX's are popular, but damnit if they don't take magnitudes more time and effort to get installed, dialed in, and running.

My Nvidia boxes just go. Top speed, virtually no tweaking required, and great uptime.
Click to expand...
Ha, I've heard that sentiment echoed a few times, that's what had me hesitant on the Vega. Is mining with NVIDIA viable under linux?
 
Silentbob343 I would snap that Vega up in a heartbeat with that kind of price. With Cast miner, you're cranking out 2k Hs on that thing, which is equivalent to at least 2 RX580s.

NVidia mining in Linux is most certainly viable. I'd go so far as to say that it's even more at home than in a Windows environment.

CCMiner loves your average *nix environment. DSTM / EWBF as well.
 
to echo others here.. Nvidia mining on NIX can be done with ease. Ubuntu 16.x is the main stream. they also have pre-built ISO's for those who do not want to build from the ground up. A google search of Mining OS will get you started.
 
I've set up a few rigs for friends running nvoc. Seems to work great, especially the recent community release.
 
Thanks for the info guys.

I'll see if I can snag the Vega for a single gpu setup and look at Nvidia gpus for the server.
 
There is NO reason for LINUX to have lower hashrates vs Windows - in fact they tend to be the SAME to a hair of advantage to LINUX due to it's lower driver overhead.
The only significant difference is that LINUX doesn't have undervolt control (which can be worked around for the MOST part with power control) and the tools for fan/clock control are quite a bit more primitive than Afterburner.

Most of my current rigs are Nvidia on LINUX - used to be Folding@Home rigs but I'm shifting them over time into riser-based mining-specific rigs (currently EBWF for ZEC) so they're not "optimal" mining rigs but I already HAVE the motherboards/RAM/CPUs/HDs and sugh....

They're also running XUbuntu 14.04 - though 16.04 should work just as well, I just haven't seen any reason to switch in an NVidia environment yet.

Vega is another story - AMD is aware of their driver issues with OpenCL under LINUX NOT WORKING AT ALL for Vega, but no fix yet.
If you want to mine Monero on Vega, you pretty much have to go Windows 10 (or possibly 8/8.1) as the high hashrate for Vega require Large Page support and the versions of the AMD drivers that offer Large Page support FLAT OUT DON'T WORK AT ALL on WIndows 7 (despite AMD claims to the contrary).
You CAN mine with other drivers that don't offer that support, but then you lose 35-40% or so of the hashrate - at which point Vega gets a LOT less competative on a hash/$ basis.
 
QuintLeo said:
There is NO reason for LINUX to have lower hashrates vs Windows - in fact they tend to be the SAME to a hair of advantage to LINUX due to it's lower driver overhead.
The only significant difference is that LINUX doesn't have undervolt control (which can be worked around for the MOST part with power control) and the tools for fan/clock control are quite a bit more primitive than Afterburner.

Most of my current rigs are Nvidia on LINUX - used to be Folding@Home rigs but I'm shifting them over time into riser-based mining-specific rigs (currently EBWF for ZEC) so they're not "optimal" mining rigs but I already HAVE the motherboards/RAM/CPUs/HDs and sugh....

They're also running XUbuntu 14.04 - though 16.04 should work just as well, I just haven't seen any reason to switch in an NVidia environment yet.

Vega is another story - AMD is aware of their driver issues with OpenCL under LINUX NOT WORKING AT ALL for Vega, but no fix yet.
If you want to mine Monero on Vega, you pretty much have to go Windows 10 (or possibly 8/8.1) as the high hashrate for Vega require Large Page support and the versions of the AMD drivers that offer Large Page support FLAT OUT DON'T WORK AT ALL on WIndows 7 (despite AMD claims to the contrary).
You CAN mine with other drivers that don't offer that support, but then you lose 35-40% or so of the hashrate - at which point Vega gets a LOT less competative on a hash/$ basis.
Click to expand...

from my OWN xp... I had 1060's 3gb running 18-19M/h on windows and with the same settings on linux (driver version as well) I was getting 15-17.
 
One thing I've noticed about running cards in Linux is they tend to default to P2, meaning, what you put in for core / memory may need to be higher than what you'd set in W10, because the base clocks are lower. One of the rigs I built had the same issue as Orddie on the 1060's... It took setting them to 1400 memory to get back to ~23m/hash.
 
quiktake said:
get 1070s or 1080ti. much easier to maimtain than my AMD 580
Click to expand...

Truth. I spend 90% of my rig maintenance time fighting stability issues with my 8 x RX580 rig, while my 1080Ti rigs just hum along. All rigs on identical base hardware.

AMD has been a nightmare, not sure why I expected better. I would still buy more 580s for the right price, and in fairness there are certain makes/models/memory that are better than others - and which you kinda have to find out for yourself, but jesus christ.
 
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I'm mining on Ubuntu w/ 6x GTX 1060's. It works well, super stable, and I can get up to 22 - 23 MH/s on ETH. Electricity ended up being expensive, so I power limited to 70W, but still getting around 18 - 19 MH/s.

Only thing about Linux, is it was a little harder to overclock and set GPU settings, which only worked in a console window and it took some scripting and research to get it working, but I figured it out.
 
Missed out on the Vega. Looking at either 1080s or 1070Tis. The 1070Tis go for $470 new, but I am trying to find used 1080s in the <$450 range.
 
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