Quote from: din djarin on April 08, 2022, 08:43:01 PM

Hello Friends,

Be advised this is a longer post, I am very curious and as you can see for yourself in a few moments, very serious about mining. I want to learn more, I want to follow through with this. So if you don't have anything productive to say, please do not waste your time with this post.
Now, I’m new to this so if there is anything at all that my ignorance is not allowing me to see, please shine some light on it.

For the past 3 months, I have been trying to research and investigate crypto mining and I feel comfortable enough to attempt to build my very own rig.
After many long hours, I finally want to begin thinking about purchasing a few key components. However, I ran into a few problems and I am hoping I can find some solution here.

Key Aspects of my build
1) I want to build a rig that is modular so that I can expand when I am financially available
2) I want to begin with two 3060ti GPUs

Problem 1
Power Supply

- How do you calculate the number of watts needed for your GPUs? In my case, I want to power two GPUs that require a total of 400 watts. So then do I buy a 500w power supply to cover my needs running at 80% efficiency.
- When do want to add more GPUs? Would it be correct to assume that I need to purchase another 500w power supply to support another two 2060ti GPUs
And if I have understood this correctly, should I just buy a 1000w power supply in the first place?
- Question; Should I only trust 80 Plus certified power supplies or can I cheap out for a Chinese model.

Problem 2
Motherboards

- I did have a hard time understanding motherboards. So instead of asking, I am just going to tell you what I know.
- There are five types of PCI slots x1, x4, x6, x8, and x16
- There are different transfer data rates. 2.0, 3.0, 4.0. The higher the better. My question with this topic is, does it actually matter purchasing a 3.0 vs a 4.0. I understand that there is a speed difference, but more so I am asking if there is a noticeable difference.
- Risers and splitters give you the option to have your GPUs connected elsewhere on your rig
- Those are the main parts that I understood, now some questions that I have
- Question; how do you find or calculate the maximum amount of GPUs that a given motherboard is capable of running efficiently?
- Question; is it best to buy a motherboard that has a set number of PCI-e slots and only use what is available? Or can I buy a motherboard that has, say 4 PCI-e slots, and use four splitters giving a total of 16 PCI-e slots that are available to use efficiently.

Problem 3
Hardware

Now that I am here I might as well triple check the hardware that I need in order to have a fully operating Mining Rig using NiceHash
- Some sort of frame
- Motherboard
- CPU that fits the motherboard
- CPU cooling fan? (optional? Or is it highly recommended)
- Nvidia GPU(s)
- Powersupply
- Risers
- Splitters (if this route is available)
- M.2 (i have no idea what this is or how many I need) (is this an SSD)
- RAM (also do know how much I need, will 2x 8GB, 16GB total be enough? They perform better if they are from the same manufacturer or can use different manufacturers)
- Storage (I’ve read I don't need a lot, so I'm guessing 500GB. Is it worthwhile to purchase a 1TB)

For those who stuck around until the very end, thank you, I truly appreciate it. For those willing to hand out guidance, I will be eternally grateful and in your debt.

It doesn´t matter what pcie slot it is - you only need x1 slots, all other are compatible.
PCIe gen doesn´t matter - all over PCIe 2.0 is enough.
You Power efficiency calculation is wrong. If you need 400w and your PSU has a efficiency of 80% than your rigs pulls 500w. But if you use the total power of the 500w - it takes 625w from the wall. The wattage on the psu´s are the max internal power - the power from the wall is higher because of the efficiency.

Storage - depends on your OS. For linux you only need a 8GB USB Stick, Windows the cheapest SSD drive between 128gb - 256gb
RAM - 8GB is enough. You only need 1 Modul. Dual channel has no effect for mining.

Quote from: din djarin on April 08, 2022, 08:43:01 PM

- Question; how do you find or calculate the maximum amount of GPUs that a given motherboard is capable of running efficiently?

= What? You buy the motherboard you need. Only you know how much GPU´s you want in 1 rig - a mainboard run always with same power draw, doesn´t matter how much gpu´s you install. So best is to add many gpu´s as possible to 1 mainboard.

No one calculate how much power a gpu draw, everyone test it by itself with a wattmeter. Online you can find all information how much power the gpu need.
You should buy the power supply you need. Not to big and not to small. The GPU´s must use up to max 70% of the power from you PSU.

M.2 are an interface. Some M.2 sockets are connected via PCIe, so you can add an m.2 to pcie adapter, to add more GPU´s, and some M.2 are only connected via Sata. But my opinion - read about it - if you don´t know what this is - i would not recommend to start with mining.
It doesn´t matter what pcie slot it is - you only need x1 slots, all other are compatible.

If you want - learn the basics of a personal computer.

You must start learning more basics about normal computers. Build one and read. All what you ask you can find online. When you don´t know so much, it would be hard to troubleshooting in the future. I mean you don´t know what m.2 is, a long existing interface.
I don't mean that in a bad way, this is just to protect you from nasty surprises.