The answer is that a 3800XT does 40 minute plots with MM (windows), 16GB DDR4 3600CL18 on a single WD SN750 black.
Another interesting thing that I found is this; when screwing around with the bios setting I accidentally left the clock speed fixed to 3900 (base value for this CPU) and I found that this had almost no effect on the plot time compared to leaving it on auto, which has it boosting all core to about 4400Mhz. 39 minutes vs 40mins. The difference in power consumption however was rather significant, 60W with peaks up to 70W (phase 1) vs 80W with spikes to 90W on auto clock.
Absolutely - I’m in your camp too. I’m plotting on gear I had, and finding the best settings has been part of the fun. If I only get 2-3 plots a day it’s inconsequential, ROI at these numbers indicate that building a dedicated plotting beast is either a labor of love or a really foolish investment.
Wow! I really appreciate your post and showing of support. Just when I assumed common sense was mutually exclusive to this Chia forum community. You really saved the day. For me at least!
I’m honestly at 3.8 hours per plot with my setup. The one big rock left unturned is to short stroke the sas drives. I use the default plotter via the GUI. I can hear the boos and jeers from the audience right now.
I will revisit Mad Max but my results were odd. Not many users in my boat with similar hardware so not a lot of guidance out there. No brainer if using modern system and or good CPU with 3rd party cooling. No time to delve into MM just yet. Not sure I’m willing to run my CPUs at 100% for the sake of this project if it’s only shaving 1 hour. Speed has a cost always with computers. It’s simple math. It’s called heat. What kills components faster? Heat. Here endeth the lesson.
Anyways, thank you for posting and being brave in the face of peer pressure and the race to spend the most money possible on Chia hardware.
I consider using Chia plotting as an excuse to finally do a full waterloop build with hard tubes and RGB bling as perfectly good sense
I guess my point is I think actually a lot of people here agree with you in principle, perhaps just not the condemning tone the message comes in.
Building computers and getting the most out of it is just a lot of fun. Also you can get good value by just using it for a shot while and looking out for bargains.
My previous plotter was a dual xeon 2680v2 that I bought for 530 euro, spent another 150 or so to get it to were I wanted it to be and after 6 months sold the parts for 620 while keeping the perc310. So basically free plotting for 6 months.
The package that the message comes wrapped in in the best part or so I’m told.
Good on you for selling the hardware and recouping the investment. It’s what I love about crypto mining and Chia farming. The hardware should in theory have residual value on the resale market.
Right now I’m more focussed on finding forever homes for hardware that is not ready for the melt down. Keeping hardware in circulation is the definition of noble causes. As is using power for POW blockchains.
