I am pretty sure this thread gets a lot of posts like this. However at the moment I am at work and can't really search around for each individual question I have so I figured I would batch them together in this post. I'll try to make them crystal clear and if the question I ask needs more info just let me know and I'll clarify it.

I am familiar with ASICs and I am currently mining Bitcoins with a fair bit of hardware. I dabbled in GPU mining for a bit a few years ago. All my questions are generally related to parts and requirements for a rig to work efficiently.

1. Are there any specific CPU, HDD or RAM requirements for a machine. I do understand that this might be reliant on how many GPUs I want to run. All I want to know is what I would need that would give me enough to run a miner with 1 to 4 gpus. I want to buy my parts to start out small and be able to add more GPUs off them.

2. Does 1x,8x 16x matter for the GPU? Like extenders and what not, I'm not quite certain how they work or what I would need to get. The extenders with the molex connecters on them... are those for plugging a molex to 6PCI into? Like if i get a mobo with 2 1x, 1 8x and 1 16x would I be able to plug 4 16x into that and have them run 100%?

I'm asking these questions because I followed a specific guide and the rig he built seemed a little overkill for running what he had. I really appreciate any help.