I'm thinking of building a mining/gaming PC with 2 GPUs and was thinking which setup would be best to cover the majority of algorithms (non-SHA-256 related)/altcoins with decent speeds.
1. Have you guys tried to mix nvidia (e.g. GTX 1060 6gb) & amd (e.g. RX 470 4gb ) on the same motherboard? Does this help in covering more algorithms with better speeds?
2. Any idea on the power consumption of the whole system? I've seen posts about these cards under volted @ 110 - 150w, so would 4-500w/h be a good approximation of the wall consumption for the whole system?
3. Would investing in a good CPU also be a good idea? If so what do you recommend?
P.S. I'm more interested in treating this as an investment (mining coins and keeping them/exchanging for others not selling them asap).
If you want a decent gaming PC, you'd better have a clear vision of what you're expecting, since that will place constraints on at least one of your cards, your CPU choice, and other components.
1. You can mix AMD and Nvidia GPUs fairly easily on Windows. Most Linux distributions tend to make mixing them much more of a headache, but it is possible.
2. This depends on the exact components selected. Also note that the typical unit for power is watts (joules per second), not w/h.
3. This depends on your goals for the rig as a gaming system. For most users, an i3 or i5 will suffice. Alternatively, you could go with an AMD-based build. (Pay close attention to the chipset if you are thinking about expanding the rig.)
Note that this rig might not pay for itself. Making a mining rig also work effectively for gaming (depending on user expectations for gaming performance) usually requires additional RAM, storage, a more expensive CPU, etc.
This rig only has 2 GPUs, one of which will be mining part-time. You'd be tasking 2 cards with the burden of paying back not only their initial cost, but also that of the rest of the rig. (This is one reason why rigs with more GPUs are favored, as mining with more GPUs and/or more powerful GPUs makes better use of the overhead cost associated with purchasing and powering the rig base {motherboard/CPU/RAM/etc.}, which does not directly contribute to revenue.)
Of course, you might end up with a nicely "discounted" gaming rig.