Mining: AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon

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diklooc

New Member
Sep 1, 2017
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0
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Hi Guys
For Monero Mining Purpose:
I am interested in buying a server with 4x "AMD Opteron 6136 8-Core 2.40GHz" .
As I looked up this cpu doesn't support AES

On which features of cpu should I focus?
  • no of cores
  • clockspeed
  • aes support
 

JazzFaucet

New Member
May 19, 2017
29
4
3
When it comes to choosing a CPU for mining Monero, AES support is critical due to the fact that the CryptoNight algorithm is, according to Wikipedia "AES-intensive and memory heavy". With regards to the later, you need 2MB of L3 cache per CPU core. As for the rest, you ideally want as many cores operating at the highest clock speed consuming the least power that you can get for the lowest price. These criteria tend to be mutually exclusive however.
 

ELit3

Banned
Aug 10, 2017
309
24
18
40
Texas
Hi Guys
For Monero Mining Purpose:
I am interested in buying a server with 4x "AMD Opteron 6136 8-Core 2.40GHz" .
As I looked up this cpu doesn't support AES

On which features of cpu should I focus?
  • no of cores
  • clockspeed
  • aes support
I have a few buddies who mine with the 6136 2.4GHz 8 cores each not sure how they do it because its not my cup of tea but I can ask.
 

spfoo

Member
May 23, 2017
102
16
18
Hi Guys
For Monero Mining Purpose:
I am interested in buying a server with 4x "AMD Opteron 6136 8-Core 2.40GHz" .
As I looked up this cpu doesn't support AES

On which features of cpu should I focus?
  • no of cores
  • clockspeed
  • aes support
It really depends more on your electricity cost. On-chip AES makes a pretty big difference on the performance as does the L2 and L3 cache per core. While the 6136 is an excellent CPU for the money it's not that power efficient. In mining it will pull 112-114W. Add to that the MB and fans and with 4 CPU's you are easily at 600W energy consumption for maybe about 1200-1400 h/s. You will likely get max performance with 5 or 6 cores/threads per CPU so you can try turning off some cores in the BIOS settings to save energy.
 
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jims2321

Active Member
Jul 7, 2013
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I am running an SuperMicro H8DGU-F with (1) Opteron 6238 active (waiting on some more ram to turn on the second cpu) what sort of hash rate should I be seeing.. the L3 cache is 16 so with 9 threads I am getting around 400+ h/s. I don't see how diklooc could get that rate, maybe 800 h/s. But if you have some insight into tuning the to achieve that rate I am all ears.

config.txt cpu info

"cpu_threads_conf" :
[
{ "low_power_mode" : true, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 0 },
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 1 },
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 2 },
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 3 },
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 4 },
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 6 },
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 8 },
{ "low_power_mode" : true, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 10 },
{ "low_power_mode" : true, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 11 },
],

[2017-09-02 19:07:57] : New block detected.
HASHRATE REPORT
| ID | 2.5s | 60s | 15m | ID | 2.5s | 60s | 15m |
| 0 | 45.4 | 45.3 | 45.3 | 1 | 31.1 | 31.1 | 31.1 |
| 2 | 33.6 | 33.6 | 33.6 | 3 | 33.7 | 33.6 | 33.6 |
| 4 | 58.7 | 58.6 | 58.6 | 5 | 59.1 | 59.0 | 59.2 |
| 6 | 59.2 | 59.1 | 59.1 | 7 | 43.3 | 43.1 | 43.3 |
| 8 | 43.3 | 43.1 | 43.3 |
-----------------------------------------------------
Totals: 407.5 406.6 407.1 H/s
Highest: 411.5 H/s
miner@monerominer2:~$
 

spfoo

Member
May 23, 2017
102
16
18
I am running an SuperMicro H8DGU-F with (1) Opteron 6238 active (waiting on some more ram to turn on the second cpu) what sort of hash rate should I be seeing.. the L3 cache is 16 so with 9 threads I am getting around 400+ h/s. I don't see how diklooc could get that rate, maybe 800 h/s. But if you have some insight into tuning the to achieve that rate I am all ears.
He has 4 CPUs. But I haven't tried the 61xx series yet so I don't have real experience on it - that's why I said "maybe" regarding the hash rate. I just guesstimate he would get around 2/3 h/s versus a similar CPU with AES. Anyway the main point of my comment was more about electricity cost versus revenue. Even at 600W with 1200 h/s it's hard to be profitable. Unless of course energy is "free" or daddy's wallet is being raped by him unknowingly paying for the unprofitable mining. I think the latter is a common case today....
 

jims2321

Active Member
Jul 7, 2013
184
44
28
your probably right. I am averaging 4.7 kw/day on my amd rig. But then I pay the bills :D. I am expecting to pick up an additional 2-300 H/s off the rig when I bring on the second cpu. That will probably take it to 7.5 kw/day or 225 kw/m @ $.12/kw that will add $27 to the electric bill since the rig is in my basement which is unfinished. At that number making about $3o/m mining, not very profitable, but then I am just learning and experimenting.
 

Klee

Well-Known Member
Jun 2, 2016
1,289
396
83
your probably right. I am averaging 4.7 kw/day on my amd rig. But then I pay the bills :D. I am expecting to pick up an additional 2-300 H/s off the rig when I bring on the second cpu. That will probably take it to 7.5 kw/day or 225 kw/m @ $.12/kw that will add $27 to the electric bill since the rig is in my basement which is unfinished. At that number making about $3o/m mining, not very profitable, but then I am just learning and experimenting.
But remember Monero is still young and will only go up in value.

I'm mining and holding them all betting that they will increase alot more than they have, and going by history thats a very good bet.

I started in at $12.50 each and it has gone up in value over 10 x since about 6-7 months ago while the difficulty is about 3x more.
 
Last edited:

spfoo

Member
May 23, 2017
102
16
18
your probably right. I am averaging 4.7 kw/day on my amd rig. But then I pay the bills :D. I am expecting to pick up an additional 2-300 H/s off the rig when I bring on the second cpu. That will probably take it to 7.5 kw/day or 225 kw/m @ $.12/kw that will add $27 to the electric bill since the rig is in my basement which is unfinished. At that number making about $3o/m mining, not very profitable, but then I am just learning and experimenting.
You'll get double the h/s with the second CPU and you will be more energy efficient eg. better hash rate per watt = cheaper Monero's produced. The motherboard consumes about the same 60W regardless of if you have 1 or 2 CPUs plugged into it. So the investment into the second CPU makes sense.

The fun part of the mining is more important than the money for me. I get to use almost all my knowledge on this - well except mobile dev and project management perhaps. But case modding, server building & admin, scripting, networking, security, tuning software and hardware, optimizing software...

But remember that this is a risky business so invest in equipment with that in mind. If one day crypto coins are declared illegal the value of your investment will drop like a rock. So make the equipment pay for the investment as much as possible. I re-invest all of the revenue (gross) into new equipment. So my investment loss would be the money I've paid for electricity in case this whole show goes under.
 

Marsh

Moderator
May 12, 2013
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If one day crypto coins are declared illegal the value of your investment will drop like a rock.
I rarely discuss politics, but want to point out a fact.
BitCoin breaks $1000, $2,000 , $3,000 , $4000 .

Even Chinese authoritarian government have a difficult time to put BitCoin genie back into the bottle.
Chinese government want to combat money laundering and corruption. But these activates had been going on over 4000 years.

The more government wants to control crypo currency, the higher the price.
 
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spfoo

Member
May 23, 2017
102
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I rarely discuss politics, but want to point out a fact.
BitCoin breaks $1000, $2,000 , $3,000 , $4000 .

Even Chinese authoritarian government have a difficult time to put BitCoin genie back into the bottle.
Chinese government want to combat money laundering and corruption. But these activates had been going on over 4000 years.

The more government wants to control crypo currency, the higher the price.
True. I've been following crypto's a long time, but I always assumed the day would come when they become illegal or controlled etc. Nowadays I'm more in the belief that there was never a real will to control and it was allowed to happen for some reason still unknown to me. As more and more countries are starting to tax mining revenue it's less and less likely that there would be any kind of prohibition. In some European countries the legislation can't even define what Bitcoin is, but they can still tax it...
 

Klee

Well-Known Member
Jun 2, 2016
1,289
396
83
I rarely discuss politics, but want to point out a fact.
BitCoin breaks $1000, $2,000 , $3,000 , $4000 .

Even Chinese authoritarian government have a difficult time to put BitCoin genie back into the bottle.
Chinese government want to combat money laundering and corruption. But these activates had been going on over 4000 years.

The more government wants to control crypo currency, the higher the price.

Look at the history of things that are made illegal by a government, it always makes the item skyrocket in price.
 

NetScans

New Member
Sep 14, 2017
2
0
1
55
Hi Everyone,

So I have been playing with a DL385 G7 and need a little help sorting out the CPU. I read the more cores and threads the better but also read that the miners can only use so many cores.

Here are my AMD Opteron options:
Sixteen-Core Processors
6282SE (2.60GHz/16-core/16MB/140W TDP) Processor
6276 (2.30GHz/16-core/16MB/115W TDP) Processor
6274 (2.20GHz/16-core/16MB/115W TDP) Processor
6272 (2.10GHz/16-core/16MB/115W TDP) Processor
6262HE (1.60GHz/16-core/16MB/85W TDP) Processor

Twelve-Core Processors
6238 (2.60GHz/12-core/16MB/115W TDP) Processor
6234 (2.40GHz/12-core/16MB/115W TDP) Processor

Eight-Core Processors
6220 (3.0GHz/8-core/16MB/115W TDP) Processor
6212 (2.60GHz/8-core/16MB/115W TDP) Processor

Since they all will have 8 threads which is the best choice that would not leave any cores unused 16, 12, or 8?
 

Davewolfs

Active Member
Aug 6, 2015
339
32
28
Can you even make money mining crypto anymore?

For each 100k in hardware how long to break even?
 

tim.yoshi

Member
Jun 25, 2017
40
0
6
36
Kiev, Ukraine
I am running an SuperMicro H8DGU-F with (1) Opteron 6238 active (waiting on some more ram to turn on the second cpu) what sort of hash rate should I be seeing.. the L3 cache is 16 so with 9 threads I am getting around 400+ h/s. I don't see how diklooc could get that rate, maybe 800 h/s. But if you have some insight into tuning the to achieve that rate I am all ears.

config.txt cpu info

"cpu_threads_conf" :
[
{ "low_power_mode" : true, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 0 },
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 1 },
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 2 },
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 3 },
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 4 },
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 6 },
{ "low_power_mode" : false, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 8 },
{ "low_power_mode" : true, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 10 },
{ "low_power_mode" : true, "no_prefetch" : true, "affine_to_cpu" : 11 },
],

[2017-09-02 19:07:57] : New block detected.
HASHRATE REPORT
| ID | 2.5s | 60s | 15m | ID | 2.5s | 60s | 15m |
| 0 | 45.4 | 45.3 | 45.3 | 1 | 31.1 | 31.1 | 31.1 |
| 2 | 33.6 | 33.6 | 33.6 | 3 | 33.7 | 33.6 | 33.6 |
| 4 | 58.7 | 58.6 | 58.6 | 5 | 59.1 | 59.0 | 59.2 |
| 6 | 59.2 | 59.1 | 59.1 | 7 | 43.3 | 43.1 | 43.3 |
| 8 | 43.3 | 43.1 | 43.3 |
-----------------------------------------------------
Totals: 407.5 406.6 407.1 H/s
Highest: 411.5 H/s
miner@monerominer2:~$

Have you tried bigger number of cores? Like 10-11 or even all 12? I'm getting best results (around 500h/s) on 6276 with 13 of 16 cores enabled. And that with all the same 16MB L3.
And also - do you have Turbo core enabled in BIOS? Without it I'm getting like 425-435 H/s, and with it enabled - all the way to 490-505 H/s. But it draws more electricity then :(
BTW what is the amount of RAM do you have?
 

Joel Wu

New Member
Oct 12, 2017
13
0
1
Guys I have several options regarding this. I currently have a R815 Dell Poweredge Server, with 4 AMD Opteron 6174 processors. Those are 12 cores and I thought that they would be slightly worse than the 6274 in terms of hashing power, but so far, it was dismal. Bloody 450h/s on all 48 cores. What's worse is that my power draw was around 730watts.

So right now I am trying a C7000 blade server with BL685 blades. The G7 ones I've got have 4 AMD Opteron 6238 processors. Those have the AES instruction set that the 6174 does not. But I am still unsure as to the profitability of XMR mining using that.

Another option would be to buy RX460 GPUs and affix them to the Dell servers but yet again I am yet to test the hash rate and the power draw.

If any of you could enlighten me please do let me know.
 

Joel Wu

New Member
Oct 12, 2017
13
0
1
That's terrible. What other things could I do with 50 R815 Dell servers lying around, (with 6174 Opteron processors). Surely I can mine something else with them.
 

nfsden

Member
Apr 6, 2016
113
15
18
35
That's terrible. What other things could I do with 50 R815 Dell servers lying around, (with 6174 Opteron processors). Surely I can mine something else with them.
450H/s with 750 power draw, I'm correctly read?
Just sell them