Ethereum GPU mining?

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IntelUser2000

Elite Member
Oct 14, 2003
8,686
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I stopped at 3.9 million. Host writes to Optane Memory was going up REAL fast. I mean like 1GB per minute! That was with the cache at 4096. Yes, it did seem to slow down later. Plus this is my main and takes a lot of everything to run it. Last time I remember it took a lot of host writes too. Probably writes 6-8 month worth of usage in the first hour haha.
 

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
11,848
2,051
126
Silly me, I thought ALL NVME and SATA drives would fit into any M.2 slot. Apparently some M.2 slots will only take NVME drives?

Makes my question earlier about which drive to get moot, as the NanoPC-T4 I will be using for the node only has a PCIe M.2 slot. Ended up ordering an Adata SX8200 NVME 480GB drive.
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,582
10,785
136
Host writes to Optane Memory was going up REAL fast. I mean like 1GB per minute! That was with the cache at 4096.

Yeah that sounds about right. Probably just need a higher cache value. Admittedly I haven't tried anything like that recently.

Maybe in March/April when I (hopefully) upgrade to Matisse, I'll put a cheap 1-4TB spinner on my old system and try to commit as much RAM as I can to --cache to see if I can get it to sync in a realistic timeframe.
 

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,447
262
126
Silly me, I thought ALL NVME and SATA drives would fit into any M.2 slot. Apparently some M.2 slots will only take NVME drives?

Makes my question earlier about which drive to get moot, as the NanoPC-T4 I will be using for the node only has a PCIe M.2 slot. Ended up ordering an Adata SX8200 NVME 480GB drive.
Most PCIe M.2 slots will accept SATA M.2 drives, but it is not guaranteed. A SATA M.2 slot will never accept an NVMe M.2 drive though.

EDIT:

Typically the discrepancy is with the keying of the drive. There are NVMe drives that are keyed M + B for compatibility, but sometimes an NVMe M.2 slot on the motherboard will only work with strictly M-keyed drives:

https://rog.asus.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/M.2-keying-lsi.jpg
 
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thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
11,848
2,051
126
Most PCIe M.2 slots will accept SATA M.2 drives, but it is not guaranteed. A SATA M.2 slot will never accept an NVMe M.2 drive though.

EDIT:

Typically the discrepancy is with the keying of the drive. There are NVMe drives that are keyed M + B for compatibility, but sometimes an NVMe M.2 slot on the motherboard will only work with strictly M-keyed drives:

https://rog.asus.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/M.2-keying-lsi.jpg
So if this is what is listed (M-key M.2 slot) then it can only take a NVME drive (look at the 2nd image)?
NT4_en_03.jpg
 

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,447
262
126
So if this is what is listed (M-key M.2 slot) then it can only take a NVME drive (look at the 2nd image)?
NT4_en_03.jpg
Don't think you can tell by just looking at the port physically. Ultimately what it depends on is whether or not the motherboard will share one of the SATA lanes to that port or not. Typically if you put a SATA M.2 drive into an M.2 slot, it uses one of the available SATA ports available on the motherboard.

Your best bet is to check the manual, it will have diagrams of what is disabled when inserting an M.2 drive (if anything) and what is supported. For example, my motherboard manual indicates the following for my 3 M.2 ports:

- 2 x M.2 connectors (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SATA and PCIe x4/x2 SSD support) (M2M_32G, M2A_32G)
- 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 PCIe x4/x2 SSD support) (M2P_32G)

So one of my 3 ports will not support SATA either, but my other 2 will.

EDIT:

NVMe = PCIe in case it needs to be stated.
 

IntelUser2000

Elite Member
Oct 14, 2003
8,686
3,785
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Well, the second picture says NVMe x4.

Too bad they made it confusing. At least with old SATA there was one standard.
 

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
11,848
2,051
126
Well, the second picture says NVMe x4.

Too bad they made it confusing. At least with old SATA there was one standard.
Yeah exactly, now I know. I didn't know that M.2 could could be SATA or NVME only, I thought they were interchangeable.
Anyway, I'll be returning the 860EVO SATA M.2 SSD I bought. I've ordered a Adata SX8200 NVME drive instead.
 

Feld

Senior member
Aug 6, 2015
287
95
101
Is running a Parity node pretty much the same as a geth node? Or is a geth node a "real" node. I don't know much about Parity.
It's a different implementation for the same result. It's a full node, but it's coded in Rust rather than Go and tends to be more efficient.
 

IntelUser2000

Elite Member
Oct 14, 2003
8,686
3,785
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thilanliyan: Pretty much what Feld has said. I downloaded Parity.exe first, but I decided to use the UI instead.

It seems if you want a node, you need a dedicated computer. It still slows down the system enough that I can't do much else on the computer. With Parity UI I can watch youtube videos and surf the web, I wouldn't try to run any games on it.

Did anyone try running a geth/parity node and run a claymore/phoenix miner at the same time? That's kind of being compensated for setting up a node.
 

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
11,848
2,051
126
It's a different implementation for the same result. It's a full node, but it's coded in Rust rather than Go and tends to be more efficient.
Parity has had some serious bugs though right?
I've been using geth exclusively, but the space requirements are getting higher and higher.
 

Feld

Senior member
Aug 6, 2015
287
95
101
Parity has had some serious bugs though right?
I've been using geth exclusively, but the space requirements are getting higher and higher.
The big one was a bug with the multisig wallet they made, which caused a handful of ICOs using it to have their ETH permanently locked. They deprecated it and don't make wallets anymore. Any bugs in the node implementation have been relatively minor and in line with the kinds of bugs geth has also had. The existence of Parity is what kept the network running a couple of years ago following the Dao hack when a bug in geth allowed all the geth nodes to be DDOS attacked.
 

Feld

Senior member
Aug 6, 2015
287
95
101
Okay, so contribution to the network is the same between the 2?
Yes, contribution is the same. There are more geth nodes than Parity nodes running, but it's good to have multiple types running in case a bug crops up in one of them. In fact, it's probably better for the network to run a new Parity node since there are already many more geth nodes running.
 

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
11,848
2,051
126
Yes, contribution is the same. There are more geth nodes than Parity nodes running, but it's good to have multiple types running in case a bug crops up in one of them. In fact, it's probably better for the network to run a new Parity node since there are already many more geth nodes running.
Thanks for all the info. I'll do a Parity node then, and save some SSD space as a bonus.
 
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IntelUser2000

Elite Member
Oct 14, 2003
8,686
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The parity team doesn't support it anymore, but developers continue to develop the Parity UI or something? If you just want to use the node without the wallet feature I think you'd be fine.

If you are going to use the simpler Parity.exe application, then there's some settings you need to be aware of.

Here's a guideline for how much space it'll take: https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/...k-space-requirements-for-a-pruned-parity-node

It's from last year, so it'll be smaller, but certainly its lot less than Geth. I hope Geth improves to a usable state eventually. I don't want to buy a 1TB SSD and also worry about exhausting write cycles for it.
 

Charlie22911

Senior member
Mar 19, 2005
614
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Seems they still havent improved the disk IO issues. I have up trying to run a node, I'm just not willing to sacrifice an SSD to the crypto-gods.
 

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
11,848
2,051
126
Got my Parity node running on a Friendlyarm NanoPC-T4. It is running EthArmbian OS. I had to modify the NanoPC as the CPU, SD card slot, and the SSD were running waaaay too hot while running the node. I put extra heatsinks on the CPU, SD card slot, and the SSD, then cut out holes on the acrylic for 60mm fans. I modified (spliced) 2 Fractal R3 60mm fans to run off the USB 3.0 port (these fans start and run at 5v).

Total power draw is ~10w with fans while running the node. It's not the prettiest with the mods but it works lol.

20181015_223505.jpg
20181015_223429.jpg
20181015_223417.jpg
20181015_223357.jpg
20181015_223338.jpg
 
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Elfear

Diamond Member
May 30, 2004
7,096
640
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Got my Parity node running on a Friendlyarm NanoPC-T4. It is running EthArmbian OS. I had to modify the NanoPC as the CPU, SD card slot, and the SSD were running waaaay too hot while running the node. I put extra heatsinks on the CPU, SD card slot, and the SSD, then cut out holes on the acrylic for 60mm fans. I modified (spliced) 2 Fractal R3 60mm fans to run off the USB 3.0 port (these fans start and run at 5v).

Total power draw is ~10w with fans while running the node. It's not the prettiest with the mods but it works lol.

20181015_223505.jpg
20181015_223429.jpg
20181015_223417.jpg
20181015_223357.jpg
20181015_223338.jpg

Love it! Your ghetto mod is the bomb and looks very effective.
 

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
11,848
2,051
126
^Thanks Elfear!

Oh and in case anyone was wondering, the EthArmbian OS has both geth and parity installed as services, and you can choose which one to run.
I chose Parity to take it a bit easier on the SSD, and also since there are so many geth nodes already.