pio

Let's see if I can keep up here with my upgrade paths. I'm only going to mention "modern upgrades" that I've gone through. Played with many many others, but usually past their prime time. AMD K6 -> AMD K7 -> AMD K7 Athlon XP -> Pentium 4 (I kept lighting the Athlons on fire) -> Socket 939 Manny x2 -> Socket 939 Opteron -> Athlon II quad -> 2500k -> 2600k (I killed 2, so had 3 total) -> 3770k for a month -> Current Ryzen 3600 rig (and now this "museum" collection) Joined forum discussions with the Manny x2 (where I really started learning), joined EXHW with the 3770k if I recall correctly. Everything before the 939 setup was just me goofing off with what the local PC shop sold me. Saw jumpers that increased clocks, voltages, RAM speeds, etc....so I played with them. I saw BIOS options referring to those same jumper settings and even more, so I played with them. Had every rig from the K6 upwards overclocked (hence the Athlon XP fires). Basically what I'm getting at, is that I really want to upgrade my 3600 again lol. The only, ONLY reason I jumped into the 3600 was because my 3770k delid went terribly (too much liquid metal). As such, I was out of options since that was one of my only rigs at the time (that + my "server"). Was originally just wanting a 1600AF or 2600, but the 3600 somehow was cheaper at the time of purchase. My 3770k was more than fine for my uses at the time, so didn't see the need. Kinda screwed me on getting an x470 board like I wanted, but whatever. My board will take a 5900x or whatever the top end is now. It's not like real overclocking is even really a thing anyway, and the VRM's on this board are sufficient for PBO. Meh. I fell for shiny too, its okay. I'm making up for it now buy buying thousands in junk.

I forgot about the HAF line up! Love to hate them, with their haf way attempted cable management, and haf butted looks. All that mesh only allowing haf the airflow. Loved the jokes one could make about those cases. Seriously, they were pretty good cases, yeah I'll definitely keep an eye out for one. Could replace one of these cheapie DIYPC cases I picked up. I'm pretty sure I was still on a Socket 939 Opteron 165 when the 1100T came out. I didn't upgrade till Sandy Bridge, and even then it was into an unlockable Athlon II quad lol. Quickly dropped that for a 2500k though once I saw the performance difference. ------------------------------------------------------ Looks like I got the Thuban stable though. It's passed 16 hours and 30 minutes so far of P95 blended. Unfortunately it didn't like memory speed much past 800MHz, so I stayed at 200MHz FSB. Tried 833MHz on the RAM, no go on stability. Tried every little trick I could think of to up the FSB, and every time it'd crash sometime into testing. Same clock speeds on everything EXCEPT the FSB and RAM speeds.....its stable. So yeah, the IMC on this Thuban isn't good for much past 800MHz. I kind of expected that. Screenshots and benches will be coming shortly. Willing to take recommendations, I'll probably run the benches on it tomorrow night. If I don't hear anything, I'll probably run similar style to the FX and Phenom since this one's kind of right in the middle.

Update Tuesday reeking havoc yet again in my house. All 24/7 rigs are currently offline doing stupid updates so they don't bug me again for another month. As such, my team folding rig is currently offline for about 30 minutes or so. Just figured I'd let the team know.

So apparently BIOS F3 for the 990FX-UD3 ver4.0 doesn't work with Thubans very well. Makes sense, probably a mostly FX BIOS or something. Flashed it back to F2, and overclocking is working again. Stay tuned to see how much I torture this 1100T. Preliminary results aren't looking "great", but decent at least now that I have a functioning board. Seems like 4.1GHz is right about the sweet spot with this chip. Throwing that out there, but not giving away what the CPU-NB is at, FSB, or the RAM. Just because I don't want to jinx myself and it not be stable.

Looking good damric! Question, would it be better if I pulled the RX 580 (on the next down day), and swapped it out for a 290x or a 7970 or something else? I'm seeing a lot of people using older cards on this, maybe my 580 isn't the best card for the job? I won't use my 5700, but any of my other cards are on the table to use.

Well wait no longer. The only thing really not "done" is I need to buy it a different wifi card. Didn't realize Intel 7260's no longer worked in Windows 10. Could be a compatibility issue with the board, but whatever. My AX200 cards work in it, so I'll just buy it a different wifi card this week. The overclock isn't working (BIOS settings don't actually change clock rates via multiplier), so its at stock. But whatever, this one wasn't super important to me anyway. The FX and Phenom original both hold more sentimental value to me than this one anyway. I present: PIITAx6 (for lack of a better name): Specs: Phenom II 1100T @ 4.10GHz 4x4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3-1600 @ 1600, 8-9-8-24-2T (NB @ 3000MHz) Gigabyte 990FX-UD3 ver4.0 Gigabyte HD7970 Windforce ver2.1 @ stock eVGA 600BQ PSU 512GB Crucial BX200 SSD 4TB HGST 7200RPM HDD Coolermaster 240mm AIO with Arctic P12's Rosewill blue LED case fans DIYPC cheapo case Wireless N150 cheapie card (ordering an Intel 8260 on payday, 7260 didn't work in it) Unfortunately period correct cases are harder and harder to find, especially 2005-2012 ish era cases. They're just gone. Chose this case because I had it already for a prior build, I liked the fans that I bought for the FX rig but wanted blue, so it all worked out. Love the honey comb look on the front panel. I chose to go with a 990FX board instead of the 890FX because, well....my 890FX died and this one was cheaper lol. Otherwise, this is nearly exactly as I pictured for a Phenom II rig. I do have a Xonar DG I can toss in there, but since I really don't care too terribly much about THIS rig, figured I'd save that one for later. Just wish I knew what I was doing wrong in the BIOS for the overclock settings to work. It's fully ready to play around on now. Windows 10 is on it right now, been stress testing over 24 hours to ensure stability at 4.1GHz. Wifi connection is "meh", but it'll work till payday.

Okay so a couple of updates...... 1) My main rig was finally updated to a modern GPU (huge thank you to the forum member that gave me a great deal!). 5700XT is installed with my Ryzen 3600 rig, and working fantastically! Eventually this card will be paired with the Ryzen 2600 when retired, but for now its the best GPU in the house so main rig it goes. 2) Thuban rig is now complete ish. Wifi card doesn't work in it, but the PCIe and PCI slots appear to work so I don't think its the board this time lol. CPU also refuses to overclock, which is odd being its an 1100T in a 990FX motherboard. Got to be a setting in BIOS, or maybe my BIOS revision or something causing issues. Not sure on that yet. But it is 100% working. I'm about done messing with it, so this one I MIGHT just go ahead and leave stock clocks. Pictures and full update post on that rig coming soon ish once I sort out those 2 small problems, assuming I do.

Well I mean ETH for now until its actually dead. Nicehash in the downtime, and it seems that Raven is profitable still (just not as much as ETH still right now at this moment). I figured there's always a coin out there. Power isn't too expensive here at 10c/kwh. Figured why not again, and on top of it all I get to play with the gear which is the exciting part. I mean what are all the bigger mining setups going to do with all of their cards? I doubt they're going to just quit, they'd move to a different coin. Or at least that's what I'd do if I had that much invested like some of the bigger farms I've seen pictures of. I just figured since I had crypto, I could try to spend what little I had to make some more like I did 4 years ago. That was all. I'm still seeing huge buy orders of GPU's on ebay, so somebody is still buying mass amounts of GPU's at a time. I doubt they're all scalpers lol. I could try to learn day trading crypto, but that just gives me a headache lol. I'd rather just accumulate some, trade them for the coin I want to hold, and just sit on it for a few more years (at most). I know its sketchy to do, and by no means am I advising anybody to do it. I got in "late" last time too (and the time before that). But I'm playing the long game (or really trying to lol), and just sitting on it isn't going to do it. I didn't accumulate enough even if BTC hits $1m I couldn't put a good downpayment on a home. I dunno, like I've said......just me putting my ideas out there I guess. I mean even if I get the same amount of crypto back that I put out to build it in ~1 year, the value of that crypto would still have gone up in that year (guessing anyway). And after that point it'd be profit. The goal isn't to make more cash in hand today. Its to accumulate more coins that I'm speculating will still be worth more in the future, so I'll have a decent bit to help out with something big like a house down payment or a lambo (lol). See, and I did actually fire up Nicehash on my 3 spare RX 580's now that I upgraded my main rig. They're making almost $4 / day, like $3.89 or something. I mean its not much, but I imagine 5 or 6 5700XT's would do more than that by a large amount.

Soooooo I'm seeing RX 5700XT's on the local facebook marketplace for like $500. That's peanuts compared to the $1100 ish they seem to go for (buy it now) on ebay. I think next time my crypto portfolio is up where I want it to be, I'm cashing out and building a mining rig or two. Got my eyes on a couple local GPU's to buy to get it started, but nothing crazy till my portfolio is a little better again. Scored one hell of a deal on my current 5700XT, but its a reference card.....yeah not mining on that anyway. I know, I know, its not "smart". Same thing was said 4 years ago when I bought 24 RX 580's, and those made their money back and then some (and then I lost it all lol). I only have 4 cards left at the moment, and 580's are doing poorly on mining now. But shoot, $500 5700XT's, those should at least see ROI by the one year mark or so (possibly as soon as 2-3 months). I'm happy enough with that if that means I'm gaining profit after that point. Afterall, anything past $2500 is "the house's money" for me at this point since that's all I put in originally.

That's what I thought, thank you! Yup, still got mine going, was just making sure I wasn't wasting the power for the team if we weren't going still.

Oh I wasn't planning on just using my 580's. I was going to keep my eyes peeled on fleabay for some 5700's or 6700's to use, approximately 10-12 of them, inflated pricing on GPU's right now or not. Yes, I'm over-estimating since I'm using "today's" pricing, knowing full well the value is inflated right now. I figured since I'm spending crypto to buy the gear, I just need to earn that same amount of crypto back, regardless of the value of it. If I understand it correctly, I'd have the crypto back in 6-8 months, and after that it'd be profit. Well.....that was the goal anyway lol.

Sweet, upgraded PSU for the team folding rig it is! So, we're still folding for our teams right? Just making sure, I thought this was an every month thing.

Well, assuming roughly $5 per card at 6 cards per $5000 or so. $15k would net somewhere around $2500 ish per month? I was planning on going to about $10k invested, and with TODAY'S pricing + my current RX 580's, I'd be getting roughly $70 per day which is $2100 per month (assuming I can score enough cards). Of course I'd assume that current pricing won't continue. I'd also assume that it's not going to completely half from where it is now (that'd be BTC at $25k). So even in a predicted "worst case" it'd still be making $1050 per month ish. With 12 cards running, there's no way my power will be anywhere near that much, so it'd still be profit. Kinda depends on the cards I can find available to do it though, I'm trying not to use any of my daily use cards for fear of losing one lol. To be honest, I'm kind of more interested in just playing with the hardware again, refreshing my skills (had a 24 card 580 farm in 2017), and just seeing if I can do it and stick to it. I've been doing my retro rigs, but those aren't actually doing anything for me other than they're fun to build. At least this, I could potentially be earning passive income to further the farm "investment". Heck, at this point its all "the house's money" really, as I paid off my investment long time ago with the 24 card setup. It's just a big step for me to even think about dropping $5,000 on a rig with a paycheck to paycheck type situation. But I know the formula works if I can sit on the coins long enough from experience and watching this stuff for the last 12 years. I think I might go ahead and do it though. It's been awhile since I took a risk, and the last two times it's really paid off decently had I not derped afterwards. Maybe this will put me into property ownership sooner.

What's your guys' thoughts on building mining rigs this late in the game? I'm debating on cashing out the little bit of crypto I have (all interest at this point), and building a couple 5700XT rigs or 6700XT rigs. I fired up my couple of RX 580's this weekend, and was pleasantly surprised that they still pull a profit. I figure a ton of higher end cards would do even better. The idea would be to keep working on it till its a sustainable "business" for me. I have access to cheap power and 100a of 220v. My only holdup is the PoS thing coming up with ETH, I know that's going to put a hamper on ETH mining. I dunno, I'm just tired of sitting here living paycheck to paycheck every month and barely putting food on the table. -_- I'm never going to have my own property and house at this rate and that's what I long for the most. Obviously, I'm not asking for "personal advice", but moreso just a collective "what's your thoughts on my plan that I'm probably going to attempt and fail at anyway?" lol. If I play my cards right, its not going to affect me at all financially other than I'll lose upwards of half of my holdings.

Yes, this is true....... But I'm still folding, and you're dusting.

I've still got mine rolling, never even stopped it. Dust and re-TIM, what's that?

Once I iron out all the problems I'll post benches in the build log thread, no worries. So far, I've only got 2 functional retro systems so still got a ways to go. Glad the rest of the parts have all tested to be good so far though. I should hopefully have them all done by end of the year at this pace.

That's right, you better apologize.....

I've got an ATI Radeon 9800XT with a Thermaltake jet engine type cooler strapped to it. It's going to be paired with a T-Bird 1.1GHz Athlon, 512MB of PC133 SD RAM, and several turbine sounding 80mm fans in that Chieftec Dragon case. The case is beige though, so it might go with the other Socket A rig instead which is in a black case. I have a manual fan controller on a PCI bracket I can tame the 9800XT down with if need be. Either way, it'll be getting featured soon in my build log. Have a couple unexpected bumps get in the way first. But that's for my build log thread. Update ish on this actual thread and its problem: Stress testing the 1100T at 4 gigglehurts, 1.45v, no problems so far 30 minutes in. With all 4 sticks of the RAM intended for use with it (at 1333 but whatever). It wouldn't even boot at 4GHz in the 890FX board, heck it barely wanted to run at stock 3.3GHz. So yeah, most definitely the motherboard. 1100T and 4x4GB of RAM kit is fine. EDIT: One hour stable at 4GHz with all 4 sticks of RAM from the 890FX board. Yeah, the board was toast. Calling it a night and "done" now. Ordering a new AM3 board.

As expected, I have the 1100T installed in my 990FX Sabertooth now. I got tired of waiting for payday and just dealt with the AIO. It's running stable enough to install Windows, reboot several times during the process, and there's audio. All PCI and PCIe devices are working too. Stress testing a simple 3.8GHz, 1.40v on it now. Seems a LOT more stable than it was in the 890FX. I couldn't even get 3.6GHz to run for 5 minutes, and I'm 15 minutes in at the above clocks. Looks like I'm after another new motherboard. -_- There's a combo on ebay I'm eying right now, Asus M4A89TD Pro/USB motherboard with a 1090T. Bidding on it is cheap right now, half of what I paid just for this 1100T. Crossing my fingers.....if not, maybe I'll just buy another Sabertooth lol. Definitely was the motherboard, it wouldn't have gotten even this far in the old one. Haven't tried the RAM out yet, but I'll swap that out after a few hours just to make sure. This same RAM kit was rock solid at DDR3-2200 with my Ivy Bridge rig I had before, so it should be perfectly fine still.

I'm neither for or against it. What two people decide to do in a transaction should be between those 2 people. I can always just login to my paypal and send somebody some cash with their email address. I can always do the same with crypto from coinbase or any other exchange or wallet. I do use crypto, I do use paypal, I'll happily trade stuff for stuff. In my opinion, the KISS method would make the most sense. Keep It Simple Stupid. My 2 cents anyway. I feel like the more you push for site integration, the less its going to feel like a trade between members and more like a purchase from ebay or somewhere else. Using things like a trader rating system, absolutely I can get behind that. Gotta know the person you're trading with isn't a scammer. But integration of payment systems into the site? I feel like that opens up the site to too many problems.

There's limits on how much you can put into that every year though too. There's lots of rules with IRA's, definitely not for everyone. Roth is definitely the way to go though unless you're making big big cash now. Traditional makes sense if you have a great job, as you'd be in a lower tax bracket when you retire.....so you'd pay less taxes on the income when you're 60. I'm a broke son of a gun, so I'm using crypto. Sold my car for $2000 early 2020, now I have $15k. Nevermind what I made off mining (and lost). I'm in it because its volatile, I'm counting on those large dips and gains because its about the only way I'll see any real growth on a fixed income that I have now. My only regret is I wish I had more in there, really counting on it to make my dream of home ownership happen. I don't have any tips for anybody though. Other than I guess, don't get scammed like I did lol. I fell for that Elon Musk bitcoin scam that was going around social media last year. -_- Been off social media ever since that happened lol.

Progress of course has been slow since I'm basically waiting for payday. I was actually able to test out my newest Radeon 9800XT this evening. Thing sounds like a jet taking off! But it works!!!! So both of my Socket A systems work in full so far. I have two Corsair RM550x PSU's ready to go for them, brand new. They have ample 5v rails, so should suffice fine. The older Socket A rig is waiting on the case to get repaired, and the newer Socket A rig is just waiting for PCI cards, drives, and pretty PSU cables. With any luck, on / around payday, I should be able to get the Thuban rig testing and figure out what's wrong with it. I should also be able to hopefully get the case repaired. My main rig is also getting an upgrade on payday, so the projects are going to have to wait about a month to payoff those couple things since all are pretty expensive. Just a small text update, I haven't forgotten about my projects. Just waiting till I can order more junk to do what I need to do with them lol. I need to order a soldering station too for the 939 rig, but that might get pushed back another month since that's another $160. Hoping to have some updates again in about 2 weeks time or so. The cool thing today though was that Radeon 9800XT works! I'm very happy about that. So far I have the following list of GPU's on hand: ATI Radeon 9800XT 256MB ATI Radeon X600 (not a part of my plan) ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB AGP ATI Radeon HD2900XT 1GB ATI Radeon HD3870 1GB AMD ATI Radeon HD4890 1GB AMD ATI Radeon HD5870 1GB AMD ATI Radeon HD6970 2GB AMD ATI Radeon HD7970 3GB AMD Radeon R9 290x 4GB AMD Radeon RX580 8GB (x4 / bought years ago / used as filler cards) Soon to come - AMD Radeon RX5700XT Not counted: GeForce 4 MX400 GeForce GT310 GeForce 8800GTS G92 GeForce GTS 250 G92 (x2) So the only card I'll be missing is the newest top tier RX6900XT. Won't be getting one of those for a few years, so....I'm pretty happy with this collection! Best thing is, every single one of those listed cards works!!!