Bitcoin Forum

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300810765385?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

I was just strolling through ebay when I ran across these really cheap motherboards.  They have (1) 16x slot and (2) 1x slots.  Any reason I couldn't throw a few gpus on this and let it mine some alt coins?  I've never used a motherboard from a manufacturer like Dell or HP before.  Thinking about just throwing in a slow socket 775 celeron into that. 

And is that a 6 pin CPU power connector on that board?  What is that? 

Yeah I wouldn't touch that thing..

Even for $14? lol 

I mean if its going to fry a gpu though, then I suppose you're right. 

I bet you would have a hard time getting it working with more than 1 gpu. It's made to offer the bare minimum.  wtf is a 6pin power for the motherboard? I have never seen that before..

Yep, that's why I wanted to post here to get an opinion.  Willing to throw a few bucks on it, but only if I could get it working and mining with 3 gpus.  If it couldn't handle that strain, I'll look elsewhere. 

Same with the 6 pin.  I have never seen it before, and have no clue what that is.  Don't even know where you would get a psu that would have that connector. 

6pin CPU power is very common, not sure what you guys are talking about, that you've never seen it before.

That motherboard is not exactly high quality, but it's not the worst thing in the world either. I'd say it's a coin flip there. However Core 2 Duo CPU is still quite expensive though, so probably negates the savings from buying the board, unless you have an extra lying around (which doesn't sound likely if you don't recognize 6pin CPU power ports).

I believe I got an AMD Sempron for like $25, and MB for $45,  (both new) which would be cheaper than most C2D CPUs.

If you wanted to try it and do it as a test for the price what the heck but if you want to go all out then put a little more in.  This thing looks like an HP reject from back in the day.

Probably better to buy an un-used MB.

Troubleshooting old boards is really annoying.

I have a brand new MSI 990FXA-GD80 I would be willing to sell :)



dual core AMD cpu and possibly some ram to go with it :)

I have 4 of the full HP7800 BTX board sin my shop.

Problem is the BTX type setup doesn't allow dual slot cards in the case. Otherwise they would work fine with 1 (and I assume 2 or 3 cards with extenders.)

There is no point in buying anything at this point with the intention of doing GPU mining. You should be looking at low power motherboards (ie: ATOM) based or Raspberry Pi or a cheap laptop in conjunction with an ASIC. GPU is only marginally profitable right now and ONLY already have the equipment and ONLY if it is already paid for itself and ONLY if you are running multiple cards on a motherboard or if you have free electricity.

This. Don't get a GPU for mining. If anything, pickup some FPGAs to upgrade to ASICs later on. Preferably using a low power system, but thats not terribly important, all things considered (assuming multiple units mining on a single PC).


However, I will say I run the following:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130274

Using 6 5850's per motherboard (currently got 2 running). I use risers to make them all fit and to reduce heat. Everything's mounted in a custom made, open air case. However, these machines have already paid for themselves, so I keep them running while still making a profit. I'm not planning to expand (I'm actually starting to line up buyers for my old cards) GPUs, but I'm looking at getting a couple of FPGAs instead.