Ok Dan,
So I’ve been mining for 3-4 months now and I’ve loved every minute of it, only problem is I want to build MORE!!! A few months back I stumbled across the AMD EPYC CPU line and some light bulbs went off, and then a few weeks later you had mentioned the EPYC 7 series chips and how they could potentially do 5x the Ryzen 9… Now since this is only my second build, I’m still unsure about memory needs, and power supply size… Also, I’ve come across a few dual cpu motherboards that are rather intriguing, when thinking about scalability. If one of the EPYC CPU’s can do 4-5x what the ryzen3900 does, can the dual motherboard run at 8-10x the ryzen??
Can you share which CPUs you were thinking of more specifically? Without much research to me it still looked a bit too expensive, even when you count that you would buy less of other components. Currently to me AMD Ryzen 9 5950X looks like a great replacement for Ryzen 3900x
Well that’s the thing. I’m learning along the way, so I was hoping for a little guidance from Dan, regarding exactly which cpu he was talking about in hangout 5 (I believe) when he said this one cpu could do what 5 ryzens could do, and the price point he referenced was $2kish.
I asked in the hangout yesterday, and he said to share this on the forum, so we can all benefit from this building experience…
When I look into all of the models that seemed that much stronger, some of them are 5-6-7k, so I’m a little lost as far as where to start with comparing performance between options, and how to find the happy medium. My goal is to build the strongest single cpu unit feasible, and if possible a double cpu rig, while still keeping ROI within one year.
I found one build using a ASRock Romed8-2T with an EPYC 7742.
My ignorance prevents me from knowing how to calculate memory/power supply needs, so that is where I’m stuck moving forward…
Also found a Supermicro MBD-H11DSi-NT-o Dual AMD EPYC motherboard that looks exciting!! It’s just really hard for me to find reliable compatibility specs on a lot of this stuff, so I hope someone can connect the dots for me.
Most likely Dan hasn’t had time to build the miner with the stronger cpu. Posting your request on the Forum is always a good idea because others may have, and this being a strong and decent community I think that if they have, they’ll be happy to work with you!
Did you happen to notice this tweet from Ivana?
Lot happening right now!
With TWM v2 on the way, they’re taking steps to take this thing mainstream!! And that’s with the mobile app still in development. There’s just so much to do.
I did see that. I follow all the safex twitter pages I’m aware of, and sooooo excited with the way things are coming together on all fronts. I’m just trying to further the discussion, and get the thing built and share results with everyone! I have the time, just need a little guidance so I don’t run into unnecessary build hiccups due to my poor understanding in the realm of part selection- until I build a few more. I’ve toyed around on old computers and laptops enough in the past few months, that it just makes more sense to go for a beast build now
I was mostly checking results on https://monerobenchmarks.info/ and on RandomX Benchmark - XMRig. For second link take into account that there are results with 2 CPUs as well, so when you click on specific results you will see more details.
I’d like to eventually get around to building one myself! I’ve found @aussiesloth to be very helpful, in addition to @dandabek and others. I think it’s great you’re so motivated, much in the same way @THINKER is in learning about the Safex Blockchain API !
There are folks on the @officialdabek Twitter site who also have built miners and are loving it. Safex Discord had separate rooms for all kinds of specialized discussions. I wonder if this might be something to think about for the newly proposed Safex Website that @Ivana is working on? A sort of chat page where folks can post questions or leave responses? Something like this could increase additional traffic to the Safex Website.
Best of luck @zaza !
Keep pursuing, you’ll get it done
@zaza I’ve got some time this evening, and I am going ahead to try to piece together the EPYC, or at least some beefy AMD CPU with more than 20 cores.
The key is that you need 256 KB of L2 cache and 2 MB of L3 cache per 1 mining thread
The 3900x is such an improvement and a powerhouse because it comes with 64mb of L3 cache, meaning you can use it’s whole 24 threads, unlike many of the (now older) Intel CPUs.
Yesterday I bought a 5950x I’ll have that running tomorrow and mining, I will be sure to post my stats… it has 16 cores, 32 threads. Costs $700, and has also 64mb of L3 cache, so just enough to engage the entire CPU.
As for the EPYC, let me dig in, and find out and give it a go!
Thanks so much for taking the time to explain some of the cpu functionality to me in simple terms @dandabek I’m starting to grasp what to look for now!
Really excited to see what the EPYC’s can do.
I’ll hold off on any further questions until you share your findings
Cheers✌️
Also, recalling my dialogue from the hangout… I was sparked by browsing around ebay, where you can find tons of used CPUs so it’s possible to get a 3970x threadripper for $1000 less than its new price. There are some risks there that it’s a dud but you can find the ones listed as “in working condition” I’m going to check those out too, doesn’t necessarily have to be an EPYC. The threadrippers are just as dandy, and if I can get a 32 core threadripper for $2000 instead of $3200 then it can replace around 2.75 3900x’s which is a lot of space saved, and more condensed mining output.
Sweet, thanks for clarifying the pricing in the discussion, Dan- that was one of the main things confusing me! That being said, I spent all night digging into the resources everyone shared here, and am starting to get a grasp on cpu/motherboard compatibility, and hash rate comparisons between units. Definitely a lot of numbers to crunch lol. The only thing I still have a few questions on, are the memory needs, based on different CPUs… How is that calculated?
Thanks for the posts Dan. I’m also looking forward to building my third miner and I am interested in stats and build info for the 5950x as well as higher end Epyc stuff. Mining is addicting!
5950x is up and running, I’ll report back the hash rate and the build spec, hopefully tomorrow.
as far as the RAM you need, it is only around 2gigs you NEED for the mining process, a bit more for the operating system. I believe from my past research that stronger RAM speed will increase mining by a small amount, however, also found that the dramatic cost increase for very fast RAM is very expensive and doesn’t overall improve hashrate.
On the 5950x right now I am getting around 13.5 kh/s
So I am expecting more, what I did was went ahead to order RAM that is 4000Mhz and see how much higher that will get me.
I was expecting a bit more, but I guess it is consistently higher than the 3900x, and the 3950x is nearly identical to the 5950x and generally does the same hashrates ~13.5k+
I thought so too, yet Unless it’s in the terms of use, and I’m sure there are cloud providers that are offering free credits out there, might be worth a hunt for someone and great if they can share
Now since this is only my second build, I’m still unsure about memory needs, and power supply size… Also, I’ve come across a few dual cpu motherboards that are rather intriguing, when thinking about scalability. If one of the EPYC CPU’s can do 4-5x what the ryzen3900 does, can the dual motherboard run at 8-10x the ryzen??
I’m starting to grasp what to look for now!
That being said, I spent all night digging into the resources everyone shared here, and am starting to get a grasp on cpu/motherboard compatibility, and hash rate comparisons between units. Definitely a lot of numbers to crunch lol. The only thing I still have a few questions on, are the memory needs, based on different CPUs… How is that calculated?
