Part 2: Building a Mining Rig – Assembling the Components

Continuing on through the guide where we set up our mining case here, we will start assembling everything.  If you are familiar with putting together a PC, you can skim quite a bit, as this is trying to be geared to someone who may be less familiar.  Almost all parts from this guide are from here. 1. …

Part 2: Building a Mining Rig – Assembling the Components Read More »

Continuing on through the guide where we set up our mining case here, we will start assembling everything.  If you are familiar with putting together a PC, you can skim quite a bit, as this is trying to be geared to someone who may be less familiar.  Almost all parts from this guide are from here.

1. Place the lining that you will use into the crate.  If you haven’t already done so, be sure to cut it to lay flat.

2. With the crate lining already placed, we will place the motherboard in the crate, like so:

Make sure the ports are on the same side that you cut for the graphics cards, in the previous tutorial. If you haven’t already cut the spots for the USB, be sure to do so now.  Take out the motherboard before you do this!

If you are unfamiliar, here is a quick diagram of where things go (Click to expand if you can’t see):

We want to do this in a specific order, so that it is easier to add additional pieces and put it all together. First, lets do the CPU.

CPU

When handling the CPU, be sure to try and hold it  by the edges, avoid touching the top and the bottom of the CPU, as this can leave oil from your skin onto the chip, which can affect cooling.  When removing the CPU from the packaging, be careful not to touch the bottom of the CPU fan, as there is a wet substance on it that we need to preserve to cooling the CPU.

1. Step 1, Lift the tiny lever next to the CPU socket, so that we can place the CPU in.

2. With the socket raised and the CPU arrow facing the top right, gently set the CPU into the socket.  DO NOT PRESS DOWN!  The CPU should fit in without any problems.  If it is lopsided or doesn’t seem to fit in right, make sure you have the lever up and the corners matching.

3. With the CPU in the proper position and seated well, place the lever back down.

Adding the CPU Fan and Heatsink

The metal part under the fan is called the heatsink. Be careful not to touch underneath the heatsink, as there is gooey stuff on it.

The CPU fan has two modes, locked and unlocked.

This is unlocked!

RAM

The motherboard manual for this board recommends that ram goes in the light blue slots first.  So if you have 2 sticks, they should fill the light blue slots before the dark blue.

1. So to add the RAM in, simply open the clips.

Then push the ram in, making sure that the ridge(Highlighted above) aligns with the ridge on the ram (Look under it, it is a fairly obvious groove).

Make sure that both clips on each side are pressed back against the ram and not in the open position.

I decided to use the 4 gig stick I bought for this machine in the guide, to instead upgrade my desktop that I use regularly, and to swap it with 2x2gig sticks that it used.  So don’t panic if your RAM looks different = ).

Wireless Card

If you are using a wireless card, be sure to add it in the PCI slot on the furthest from the graphics cards slots, as labeled in the first diagram.  It should place in firmly without any problems.  Make sure your wireless card is PCI not PCIE.

Adding the Holes for Cables

Before you add in all the cables like shown below, I’d recommend you cut the holes necessary.

Being careful not to hit anything, you will cut 3 holes in the floor of the crate for easier cable management.

1.  Basically you want one hole next to the hard drive (Not shown, labeled as Was Added)

2. One next to the power slot by the CPU.

3. One next to the power slot by the RAM.

Adding the Cables

From left to right:

1. Hard Drive Cable — Bottom Left

2. PCIE-x1, using a powered 1x-16x riser

3. PCIE-x1, using a powered 1x-16x riser

4. PCIEx16 riser

Now I set my crate with the motherboard in it, on top of the other crate, and start adding in the power cables.

When you do this, make sure the cables are clipped(Pressed) in all the way.

From Left to right:

1. Plug in Motherboard main power

2. Plug in Motherboard secondary power

These are both normally labeled.   For the power supply recommended in the guide, the cords are also labeled.  Make sure the cord end labeled PSU is saved to be plugged into the Power Supply.

I set the power supply on a its box in the bottom crate, and now the plugs look like this:

 Edit: I recommend not using a box long term, use something that isn’t flammable and isn’t electrically conductive, like a sturdy plastic container or something.

Now I start placing the PCIE cords for the graphics cards. For my build I use 3 cards, which use 1 PCIE connection each.

It is much easier to start at the top and thread them down through and plugin them into the PSU than vice versa.

So in the above picture, I added 3 PCIE cords, 1 IDE cord, which is plugged into the powered risers. Don’t forget to do this!

Added the Hard Drive

I have also added the hard drive, and connected it to the motherboard, and also connected the hard drive to the power supply.  Which you can see on the left of the above image.  If you look at the back of the hard drive you should see 2 L shaped connectors, the longer one is for power, the short one is data (the one that connects to the motherboard).  Find the connector for your power supply that matches this.  Other accessories, like DVD roms, are likely similar.

Setting up the Cards

Place your card support.

Begin to place your cards and start to plug them in, each one needs 1 data cable (from the motherboard, which would be the 3 PCIE cables, and 1-2 power cables, depending on the card.  I would not screw your cards in until the cables are plugged in, it makes it way easier.

So, for the 270′s we just need 1 cable.

2. Plug the power cables (From the power supply), into the cables highlighted in red.  Make sure they are in there well or are clipped in.

3. Plug the PCIE cables into the bottom of the cards.  Make sure they are secured in place well, both the bottom where the the cord plugins into the motherboard, and where it plugs into the graphics card. Try not to tangle them unnecessarily.

4. Lock your cards in place.

You should now just be about ready to start it.  Give it one last look over and make sure all the cords are firmly in place, your ram is well seated, and so on.  Then we can put the power supply into the ON position, plug it in, and see if the motherboard lights come on.  Then we can give it a start.

5. Pressing this button left of the RAM will boot the computer into BIOS.

From here, you can set your boot device to DVD or USB, and install your operating system.

Did I miss anything? Questions, comments? Let me know!

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