Cheapest PC/motherboard with lots of PCI-e slots

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  p1 ama on 10/12/2013 - 16:04

  +1

  Are you thinking of mining coins?

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  zacros on 10/12/2013 - 16:08

  Had this sent to me by a friend - http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H81%20Pro%20BTC/
  No idea if it would suit though.. :)

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  _Bruce_ on 10/12/2013 - 16:15

  You may not need 16 lanes, but you still need a 16 lane slot to fit the GPUs in. I also expect that these GPUs won't even work without at least 4 lanes as 4/8/16 lanes are standard configurations for a 16 lane slot.

  High end gamer boards allow 4/4/8 lane splits (3 cards), but even these are expensive, more than this is not practical.

  Generally speaking if you are looking at very large calculations you are much better off with ASICs, they will crunch way more numbers with far less heat and power. You could also try to buy some old (pre other-OS lock) PS3s.

  Edit: According tot he product above you can run GPUs on 1 lane with a break out cable. I'd still be careful to make sure you get GPUs that actually work and consider your mounting and cooling arangement… and then not do it at all.

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  scrimshaw on 10/12/2013 - 18:03

  Generally speaking if you are looking at very large calculations you are much better off with ASICs, they will crunch way more numbers with far less heat and power. You could also try to buy some old (pre other-OS lock) PS3s.

  I agree. ASICs are very hard to beat — they use much less power than regular PC setups and are far better for mining than GPU's. A high end rig setup with multiple GPU's will in the long run, lose to a similarly priced ASIC setup because of the higher power consumption.
  http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/1/3941768/new-chips-mine-bitc…

  The problem though is that everybody is joining the gold rush with the same shovels meaning that even ASICs will become fairly unprofitable as more people and businesses (like ASICminer) invest in specialized mining equipment.

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  peterpeterpumpkin on 10/12/2013 - 20:28

  I haven‘t researched the price feasibility myself but have you looked into Amazon‘s cloud computing (which now offer CUDA processing etc). If your calculations are ongoing it might be cheaper to build your own system of course. Eg http://aws.amazon.com/hpc-applications/

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  [Deactivated] on 10/12/2013 - 20:42

  Ouch, isn't power expensive in Australia?

  I don't fold anymore due to the prohibitive costs.

  Joe if you are mining, you won't even breakeven as the difficulty rises and the price bubble bursts. There is a website about an Australian who was mining for months and didn't even breakeven.

  Might as well wait for a price crash, buy up and wait rather than waiting to mine coins and having to upgrade your power box if the amperage is too low, buying new equipment that might fry, and so on.

  If you trade, you can sell your coins immediately at the top of the bubble. If you are mining, it will take a long time to generate enough coins, by which time people may have lost interest.

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    p1 ama on 10/12/2013 - 21:15

    It's significantly good in the summer for people with solar panels.

    At the moment, it is still profitable to mine scrypt based currencies because they're not affected by the "ASIC arms race" and basically because mining farms haven't gotten onto them yet. But remember that the more you're running, the higher efficiency it will be.

    Pretty much, at the moment, buy equipment before it bursts, mine whilst you can and then just sell your graphics cards and get out once you're not making any more money - you still make quite a fair bit. Tbh, it's not worth it unless you're interested in hardware and enjoy doing that sort of stuff as a hobby.

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      _Bruce_ on 11/12/2013 - 07:40

      It's significantly good in the summer for people with solar panels.

      Until you are paying for the AC to keep the house cool with all the hot GPUs.

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        p1 ama on 11/12/2013 - 08:57

        All folding requires is power, you can set everything up remotely over a wireless connection, so just chuck it in the garage or something if it's that bad, or just put it in an enclosed room.