Quote from: SweaterJacket on December 28, 2016, 09:53:03 AM

I'm a bit late to the party, but I'm getting 250-255 h/s on Sapphire Nitro+ rx 480 OC 8gb cards totaling 1750 - 1785 h/s (stock bios). According to GPU-Z, each card draws an average of 115w (core), but shows intermittent spikes no greater than the maximum specified power consumption for the card (225w). Running Windows 10 on both rigs with crimson V. 16.11.5 (this is the most recent update, that I've found, that will recognize a bios mod).

GPU Settings:

Core clock = 1400
Mem clock = 2040
Voltage = +6 mV
Fan = 100%
Pow lim = +50%

.bash Settings
   _____
setx GPU_FORCE_64BIT_PTR 0 |
setx GPU_MAX_HEAP_SIZE 100 |-----------> The hashrate was more consistent once I added these variables. You don't have to use
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1 | them for 4gb cards or above.
SET GPU_SINGLE_ALLOC_PERCENT = 100 _____|
Stratum-Port: 3336
US-Server: zec-us1.dwarfpool.com
-i 8
-allpools 1

First Rig:

Motherboard: MSI z97 Gaming 5
CPU: Pentium Haswell 3258
PSU: EVGA Supernova P2 1200w Platinum (ran all 7 cards on this rig for a while, but could only run at -i 2 and no overclock)
SSD: 120gb (partitioned for Ubuntu (30gb) and Windows 10 (90gb))
Memory: 8gb DDR3 1600 (2 x 4gb (2x > 1x))
GPU: 4x Sapphire Nitro+ rx 480 OC 8gb (stock bios).
Risers: The green ones with the black usb cable??
Display: HDMI Headless Display Adapter (Only one is needed for the FIRST PCI-e slot recognized by the motherboard).
*Power button needed
**WIFI
***Remote access only

Second Rig:

Motherboard: Gigabyte ga-z97x Gaming 7
CPU: Pentium Haswell 3258
PSU: Rosewill Photon 1050w Gold Rated + SeaSonic SSR-650RM 650W Gold Rated (connected with dual PSU adapter)
SSD: 120gb (partitioned for Ubuntu (30gb) and Windows 10 (90gb))
Memory: 8gb DDR3 1600 (2 x 4gb (2x > 1x))
GPU: 3x Sapphire Nitro+ rx 480 OC 8gb (stock bios).
Risers: The black ones with the blue usb cable?? <------Better quality than the green ones. I recommend these.
Display: HDMI Headless Display Adapter (Only one is needed for the FIRST PCI-e slot recognized by the motherboard).
*Power and reset buttons are included ON this motherboard! Amazing.
**WIFI
***Remote access only

   I could do 8 cards on the MSI Gaming 5 (7x PCI-e + 1x M.2 ---> PCI-e adapter), but the rig lost some stability once I went over 6x GPUs, even with enough power. The Gigabyte ga-z97x Gaming 7 can house 7 cards (6x PCI-e + 1x M.2 ---> PCI-e adapter), but as I said before, stability seemed to become more of an issue with more than 6x GPUs. Each rig has been running for about a week without any resets or crashes. Just in case the miner or machine does crash, I have made some simple .bash scripts to restore all of my settings and programs upon reset. I have also used the Windows Event Log and Manager to reset in the event of a freeze crash. So all in all, I plan to have 6 cards per rig and I'll probably have to add another PSU to the first rig when I reach that point.

*DAS IMPORTANT*

   When it comes to power supplies, it is almost ALWAYS cheaper to buy 2x units and an adapter, than it is to shell out the money for even a 1200w PSU. My EVGA Supernova P2 1200w Platinum was about $220 (on sale), but I could have bought 2x 700w-850w PSUs + a convergence adapter for 2/3 the price. Also, Never purchase a PSU with a rating less than gold; it will save you both time and money in the long run.

*This is a great PSU reference guide. https://i.imgur.com/tgrbCnr.jpg

On a final note, I am aware that there are mods to allow for more than 4 GPUs on Windows 7 and more than 5 GPUs on Windows 8, but save yourself from a giant, time consuming pain in the d!

Cheers,
SweaterJacket

the rx480s have a design flaw where the power peaks for a split second above the pci-e specs and becomes very dangerous at 220 watts when OC to the max. I'm not an electric engineer but from what I've read on the net these spikes will eventually cause the motherboard to fail. ZCASH mining takes these spikes to the max. The same spikes are minimal on XMR. It is going to be interesting to read about mobo failures in the near future.