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Windows for mining: build selection and optimization

By Lasgom Inner 

altcoinlog.com

10 min

June 13, 2021

View Original

The choice and configuration of the operating system for mining are very important elements on which the stability of the rig depends. The use of a large number of video cards is not supported by all builds of Windows and sometimes requires certain manipulations for the system to recognize all the equipment.

This article discusses issues related to choosing the best Windows build for mining.

How to choose Windows for mining, features of assemblies

Official image of Windows 10 - https://www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/software-download/windows10

The operating system for mining must provide the following conditions:

• ensure simultaneous operation of a large number of video cards;
• support the operation of programs for mining cryptocurrencies ( in most cases 64-bit );
• load computing resources, RAM and disk space as little as possible;
• do not contain viruses and spyware modules, as well as vulnerabilities that would allow hackers to hack it, take over control of the rig and steal computing resources.

Operating system difference

For mining, you need to use operating systems that support modern high-performance video cards. However, sometimes it is necessary to install the latest drivers , which are not always released for older operating systems . In addition, they may not support simultaneous operation with a large number of video cards.

At the same time , systems released for older processors have very performant code, contain fewer utility and spyware modules introduced by developers , and those they contain are quite easy to disable. Based on this, it is possible to differentiate between different systems and select the optimal system suitable for the existing equipment.

Table of operating systems and video card support

Operating systems for mining can be divided according to the number of maximum supported video cards, resource intensity, ease of setup and other parameters.

When fine-tuning the system, it is possible to launch a larger number of video cards than indicated in the table, but setting up the system will take a lot of time, and the stability of such a rig will not be very high . Therefore, the question of how many video cards Windows 7 supports in mining is not very correct, since on some motherboards it is possible to run 8 video cards, while on others even 4-5 are difficult to run.

The situation is similar with the question of how many video cards Windows 10 supports in mining. The first builds of this system can work with eight cards, but not all motherboards support this feature. With the Fall Creators Update , support for more video cards has been added, but still the performance of the rigs in each case needs to be checked in practice.  In any case, one rig running Windows 10 will not be able to run more than  12 AMD video cards for mining . You can increase the power of such a rig by adding video accelerators from Nvidia. Better yet, switch to  Linux right away . Of course, regular Linux is very difficult to configure for an inexperienced user, so download Hive OS right away . 

Reinstalling drivers can also help with error 0x000000ea in Windows 10 during mining, as well as with errors associated with failures of files necessary for the miner to operate. For AMD video cards, this error may cause messages to appear related to the inability to launch OpenCL for mining, which can be resolved by downloading and installing new drivers for Windows 10.

In Windows 7/8, error 43 can be fixed using a 6 card mod ( bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=712228.0 ) or by manually modifying the registry branch HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325 -11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} for each card (they are designated by numbers “0000”, “0001″ and so on). In the values ​​“000*” you need to create two Dword parameters (32) named DisplayLessPolicy and LimitVideoPresentSources with a value of 1.

When assembling a rig, you don’t need to chase a large number of cards installed in it (more than 8), since it is more difficult to configure, and losses from various downtimes and shutdowns for maintenance will be higher than when turning off two small rigs one by one.

The amount of reserved GPU memory is important when mining cryptocurrencies that use DAG data  , such as Ether, CLO, and the like. Due to the large reservation of video memory in operating systems of the Windows 10 family, it is impossible to mine Ether on video cards with 3 gigabytes of video memory, on any operating system. As for the Ethereum Classic coin, after the hard fork it became available for mining even on three-gigabit machines. True, this won’t last long, so it’s better not to build a rig on these maps.

For mining on old equipment, if the rig uses up to 6-7 video cards from AMD, you can use the Windows 7 build. For Nvidia, in this case, Windows 7/8/8.1 was previously used. But they no longer produce drivers for the eight.

Installing Windows 10 on a hard drive

Probably, almost every PC user knows how to reinstall the operating system, but just in case, we will conduct a brief educational program, especially since a mining farm is not an ordinary desktop computer and if you decide to launch a large rig on Vidovs, if you are not aware of some of the nuances, problems may arise in at the very beginning. So, brief instructions for installing Windows 10 on a crypto mining installation.

1. Burn the selected image to a USB flash drive using Rufus or UltraISO .
2. Connect only one card to the PCI-E 16x slot via the riser, leave the rest unused for now.
3. Connect the flash drive to the farm's motherboard and disconnect the Etherenet cable (or turn off Wi-Fi). Do not connect to the Internet until installation and preliminary settings are complete.
4. Start the farm and enter the BIOS using the DEL button . In some motherboards, in order for a large number of video cards to work correctly through risers, you need to change the BIOS settings. Setting example: “ CPU fan control = auto ”, “ PCIe Speed ​​= Gen1 ”, “ Restore on AC / Power Loss = Power On or Last State ”. With these parameters, the rig will automatically start in the event of a forced reboot.
5. Select the USB flash drive as your priority boot option and press F10 to save the configuration and reboot.

If the image was written correctly, Windows Setup will launch after a reboot. The best hard drive option for a farm is a 128 GB SSD , but in principle a regular HDD is also possible. If there is a lot of space on the hard drive, divide it into several sectors and install Windows on drive C. If desired, an additional partition can be used to plot some coin that is mined on the HDD .

After the first installation of Windows, you need to disable services and components that are unnecessary for the miner axis, such as Windows Updates, Cortana, OneDrive. Of course, you can work this way, but they will unnecessarily load the system, and with automatic installation of updates, Windows will reboot every time. You also need to increase the size of the paging file, and set the power mode to maximum performance, and only then connect all video cards and start mining. Let's talk in more detail about the operating system presets.

How to set up Windows 10 for mining

Mining does not require any additional functions, so in any generation of Windows you can choose the lowest edition. It is better to install the official original build, without optimizations from folk craftsmen who add Trojans and worsen the stability of work.

Correctly setting up Windows 10 for mining involves the following steps:

• Setting up the motherboard BIOS (enabling decoding over 4G, reducing PCI-E speed to 2.0 or 1, disabling the built-in video card) and installing the selected distribution.
• Installation of drivers and software packages.
• Optimizing Windows 10 for mining, which involves the following actions:
• disabling SLI/CrossFire mode, if installed, enabling computing mode in AMD drivers;
• disabling sleep mode, unnecessary services, special effects and updates;
• removing unnecessary files and utilities;
• increasing the paging file.
• Testing the operation of the rig and eliminating any problems that arise.
• If necessary, installation of programs for remote monitoring of operation, hardware and software Watchdogs to monitor the performance of the rig and its automatic restart.

Changing the swap file

Preparing Windows 10 for mining requires a mandatory increase in virtual memory to a value equal to the total installed video memory. In any Windows it is done approximately the same. The easiest way to do it is this way:

1. Press Win+R , enter sysdm.cpl in the window that appears ;
2. In system properties, go to Advanced - Settings - Performance, where select Advanced - Change.
3. In the window that appears, disable automatic selection of the swap volume, specify the desired fixed size, equal to the total video memory of the installed video cards.
4. Click the Set button and restart the computer.

Based on the need to have a large Windows 10 swap file for mining, when purchasing an SSD for a rig, you need to provide the necessary reserve for its volume.

What additional software is needed for mining?

If the system is configured correctly, a large amount of additional software is not required for mining Ether and other cryptocurrencies under Windows.

For AMD video cards, you may need AMD Compute Switcher (activation of computer computing in drivers) and Atikmdag-patcher (for patching drivers of firmware AMD cards).

When operating a rig, you only need to use the miner programs themselves, overclocking utilities and monitoring the rig’s operation.

To overclock AMD and Nvidia video cards, you can use the MSI Afterburner program , which is very easy to use, but the best results for overclocking are obtained by correctly configured Nvidiainspector for Nvidia and OverdriveNTool for AMD (or setting overclocking values ​​in the BAT file for launching mining programs from the developer PhoenixMiner ) .

Monitoring the operation of the rig and a software watchdog (Watchdog) is best implemented using FarmWatchBot from acrefawn, the latest version of which can be downloaded at github.com/Undertrey/FarmWatchBot or on the Russian-language forum Bits.media.

To reinstall drivers, use the latest version of DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller). You can download it from the official website of the developer https://www.wagnardsoft.com/ . When you launch DDU for the first time, go into the settings and activate the system reboot button into safe mode.

Optimizing and disabling sleep mode

You can seriously increase performance using the following types of optimization:

Disabling decorations is done by right-clicking on my computer, where they activate properties, go to the additional menu - parameters - visual effects, where they activate the best performance.

In the system properties window, switch to remote access and disable the ability to connect to remote assistance.

To disable useless services, press the Win+R combination, enter services.msc and disable the following services:

It is best to disable unnecessary programs and tasks from autorun using the Microsoft utility Autoruns, which can be downloaded at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns . This program even shows hidden entries written deep in the registry. In Windows startup there should only be a mining program, an overclocking utility and, if desired, a Watchdog program .

If you decide to disable Windows Defender, then this is unlikely to work through services.msc . You need to open Registry Editor. To do this, press the same Win+R, write “ regedit ” and open the section: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinDefend .

Double-click the Start parameter, which is located on the right side of the Registry Editor panel, write the number 4, then save the value and reboot. The Registry Editor allows you to disable any unnecessary service or component, but we repeat once again, before making changes, create a backup copy of the system.

For mining, you need to choose a high-performance power supply circuit . To do this, through the start button, go to the system and security - power tabs and open the line of additional plans, where they activate the high performance scheme and turn off the hybrid sleep mode. To completely get rid of it, you need to press Win+R, enter powercfg hibernate off and press enter.

Windows update, what to do with it?

For mining, there is no particular need to carry out system updates, because it can disrupt the established optimal settings for mining, so it is better to disable it. If you want to install the latest updates from the point of view of patching security holes, then it is better to do this during the system installation stage.

To get rid of starting automatic updates, you need to disable the Automatic Update Center , Background Intelligent Transfer Service and Update Orchestrator Service in the services . In addition, you must disable the Schedule Scan job . This is done by doing the following:

1. Run Cmd.exe, which is located in the C:\Windows\System32 folder, as administrator.
2. Enter the command takeown /fc:\windows\system32\usoclient.exe /a , press enter, a success message should appear.
3. Right-click on the usoclient.exe file in the same folder and go to the file properties - security - change where to disable all permissions.

Choosing the right operating system and optimizing it is worth the effort by ensuring that your computer runs smoothly when mining.

In order not to repeat the same setup process on different rigs of the same type or when reinstalling the system, you can make an image of the configured system using a backup program, for example, from Acronis, which will allow you to reinstall it if necessary within a few minutes.

On thematic forums, miners still cannot agree on what is better to use: Windows or mining axes such as Hive OS or Rave OS. Of course, old-timers prefer Linux-based platforms, but most newbies and some experienced miners only work on Windows. Everything is learned by comparison, try one and the other option and then you personally will be able to appreciate them. Happy mining!

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