Best current setup for 6x 1080Ti (mining)

[Shmee]

Hey, so a buddy of mine wants to build a mining rig, and is interested in having me set it up. Nothing is set in stone as to exactly how many cards and if mining only or gaming as well, but he gave me a figure of around 6 1080Tis. :O

Now, I would like to know, what motherboard/CPU/RAM combo would be the best, assuming only mining? Any recommended risers to use? How about power supplies?

Any input is appreciated, as I generally I have only mined on the side with computers primary use as gaming, so about 2x card per system max.

 

[vailr]

See voskcoin on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=voskcoin
For now, a typical mining rig would include:
Z270 motherboard + cheap CPU
single 4 Gb stick of DDR4
an open-air system frame
Platinum rated PSU (preferably connected to a 240 volt power outlet, which is more efficient than U.S. standard 120 volt power)
Risers: check the youtube link for the recommended model of riser, although there are now specialized "riserless" mining motherboards that can accept up to 8x video cards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnKhG1mxq1c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz3N3exALpA
Riserless Biostar 8x GPU motherboard:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/401506413593
8x GPU frame:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/401523561126
Riserless 6x GPU motherboard (includes CPU) at Newegg:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6396PX2361
6x GPU frame:
https://www.ebay.com/i/302692472109
A bootable USB thumb drive or SATA SSD for running the mining software.

 

[fastamdman]

I will just throw it out there though that ROI times aka return on investment, will be really high. Bitcoin has fell off drastically in price and it hasn't really been able to reach the "sweet spot" now for several months. A lot of miners are selling hardware currently because it's not nearly as profitable as it used to be. You can still make money on it, but not nearly as much. For example, a single 1080ti right now is only making about 42 bucks a month. Call it 800 dollars per card, it's going to take 500 days or 16 1/2 months to make your return on investment back for just one card. Adding more cards can recoup the cost of 1 card quicker sure, but it won't change the ROI for the entire machine at all.

A few months ago you could pay off a 1080 or 1080TI in just 3 months. Now it's taking a year in a half. Honestly, if I were him, I would tell him to either do it on a much smaller scale, just 1 or two cards, or not at all.

There is a chance that bitcoin pricing could go back up though, if it does, then the game would be completely different. But as far as doing it currently, it's not nearly as profitable as it used to be and I would suggest against it personally.

 

[vailr]

One of the better "bang for buck" cryptomining cards is the GTX 1070Ti:
https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=08G-P4-5671-KR
Can produce about $2.50/day currently, which would be a ROI of about 6 months, plus or minus.
Note: not including cost of the electricity.

 

[fastamdman]

From my experience, and using this profitability calculator, you can see the 1070TI makes nowhere near 2.50 a day. 2.50 a day is more than the 1080 and 1080TI's are making. They are closer to 1.50 a day. Not sure where you are getting an extra dollar from. Proof is below.

https://www.nicehash.com/profitabil...24=497.92;a25=1.17;a27=1.98;a28=4.77;a30=0.65

This is actual data from people that are running 1070TI's with nicehash. Yes there are other programs that can pay you slightly more or less, but this is a great tool to get an average of how much you can make with current pricing.

 

[DaveSimmons]

16 months to break even? That's pushing your luck. I have no idea when the speculative bubble will pop, but I'd guess "within 16 months" would have pretty good odds.

If he gives that $8,000 to the nice folks at Vanguard they can set him up with an index fund or ETF that has a long-term risk of zero, as long as the world economy does not completely collapse into a Fallout future.

 

[Shmee]

I am honestly not a big fan of nicehash, I would prefer a cuda miner like EWBFs, mining equihash coins, which he could then trade/invest etc. 1080Ti is the best at that, I know mine does over 700 Sol/s. Also, it is in my interest to have him do something mining related, cause I get payed for my time

I may just recommend he build a 1080Ti SLI desktop and mine on the side with it, or at least when not gaming.

 

[Yuriman]

16 months to break even? That's pushing your luck. I have no idea when the speculative bubble will pop, but I'd guess "within 16 months" would have pretty good odds.

If he gives that $8,000 to the nice folks at Vanguard they can set him up with an index fund or ETF that has a long-term risk of zero, as long as the world economy does not completely collapse into a Fallout future.

I expect cryptocurrency to roughly follow the price of electricity vs difficulty to produce new coins, and frankly it's not too far from that now.

If $2.50 per day is the actual value of the coin produced, and you're burning 250w additional watts of power per card (plus mobo/cpu), an electricity cost of 12 cents per kwh (less than here) works out to around 75 cents of electricity per day. If you're mining with a single GPU and average out system power, it works out to just under a dollar in electricity per day, or an additional $300 per month on your electric bill and $1.50 profit, depending on utility costs in your area.

If bitcoin doesn't follow the cost to produce it up for whatever reason, you're stuck with depreciated hardware (as everyone else dumps cards) and probably multiple thousands of dollars of electricity bills by the time you've expected to break even.

My opinion, better to speculate on the coins than own the mining hardware. And that's saying something.