Bitcoin Forum

Hello Guys,

With the Recent increase in GPU mining, I've found that ASRock BTC Pro ver 1, ver 2 boards and ASRock Anniversary Edition boards are typically selling $100+ each.  This is a little too much for my taste if I plan to scale.
Do any of you guys know of reliable and cheap boards  that will provide 5-6 GPU connections if combined with risers?  Can be PCiE 1x, 4x, 16x...I don't really care.


Please only recommend reliable hardware motherboards and CPUs that is affordable.

biostar tb250 btc, but i can't find it

Biostar Motherboard TB85   ?

that look like another good option i wasn't aware of its existence

i would only choose those with two molex, to feed proper wattage

I have an order on TB250 btc coming in April 21st and I have TB85 sitting in a warehouse if you want some.

Thats over a month away.  How much are you selling your boards?  I'm looking for boards ideally $70 or less.  I can see some boards available now for $80-$125.

PM'd you pricing, I have 200 more pro btc coming air freight 1 week out.

ASUS PRIME H270-PLUS 109$
MSI H270 TOMAHAWK ARCTIC 125$
ASROCK H270 PRO4 112$

both 1151 socket & 6 PCIe 3 slots (same Offer as Biostar which should be much cheaper), reference price from AMZ

Gonna be hard to drive 6 GPUs from 5 PCIe slots.

Please only recommend boards you know work.

For instance I have a board with 7 PCIe slots and 2 m.2 slots that theoretically could drive 9 GPUs.

Realistically it can only drive 4.

First you cant populate any M.2 with NVMe w/o account for PCIe lines (and PCIe slots), you should use M.2 Sata SSD.

Whatever nobody who want to earn money will put nothing more than a cheap usb3 16gb flashdrive on it, so discard the M.2 interference.
You should setup PCIe to PCIe v2.0 in bios.

Specifications for Asrock H270 Pro4 are wrong at amazon.

but these are verified:

ASUS Prime H270-Plus
>>> 6 PCIe slots: 1:x16 1:x4(x16 slot) 4:x1
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/PRIME-H270-PLUS/specifications/ (https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/PRIME-H270-PLUS/specifications/)


MSI H270 TOMAHAWK ARCTIC
>>> 6 PCIe slots  3:x16 3:x1
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/H270-TOMAHAWK-ARCTIC.html#productSpecification-section (https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/H270-TOMAHAWK-ARCTIC.html#productSpecification-section)

All based the on Intel H270, better chipset than as Biostar's TB250 H250.

However, I suggest caution to invest on these MoBos as soon will be available cheap PCIe Switches for 8+ GPUs from at least two vendors, one of these seems is regular to bitcointalk.

https://www.diodes.com/products/connectivity-and-timing/pcie-packet-switchbridges/pcie-switch/part/PI7C9X2G808PR

What do you mean 8+ "switches"? Can you share links to posts/pages that elaborate?

Can you PM me pricing as well? I would be interested in obtaining more of these boards since most major retailers seem to be sold out.

First of all I would like to thank you since these boards look awesome
ASUS PRIME H270-PLUS
MSI H270 TOMAHAWK ARCTIC

I am leaning towards Asus but MSi is a good option too.

Are you positive that all 6 pci-e slots can be used with these boards?

z87 quad deluxe 6 gpu ok. Maybe we can use 7 gpu

Have gotten 7 GPUs working with the ASUS Z270-A PRIME.

Here's what I found:

-- Had to flash the BIOS.  Board shipped with 5.0.0 and I updated it to the latest (7.0.0 I think)-- this is necessary to get the "Above 4g decoding" option. Which appears on the boot menu in the bios.
-- PCIe switched to Gen2
-- Didn't make the other changes.

WARNING WARNING WARNING

When I flashed the BIOS the onboard network hardware stopped working with linux. this caused a bunch of problems.

I had to run this utility to refresh the network drivers ROM to make things work:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19186

Current setup for this board-
-- Ubuntu 16.04 server
-- 7x NVIDIA 1070 8GB Cards

Working fine. (And about %10 more hash under linux than under Windows.)

Im asking my self the same question, will the msi support
6 gpus, has anyone got them running using the same motherboard mentioned above.



Thanks

FWIW, I would recommend going with a PROVEN 6-GPU mobo.  Ideally, one that was made for it like the ASRock BTC PRO or Anniversary edition or the Biostar TB85.  There are tons of miners and farms built on these boards and they are proven to work time after time.  Be aware that just because a mobo has 6 PCIe slots, that does not necessarily mean you can get 6 GPUs running on it. Personally, I went through this when getting into mining about 6 months ago and learned a lesson. I got an ASRock x99 mobo that has 6 PCIe slots but I've only even been able to get 4 GPUs running on that board, despite hours and hours and posting in forums with questions, etc.  To me, it's better to even pay a slight premium on those proven boards vs taking a chance on 1 that could limit you to 4.

the issue is the ending of production of the chipsets by intel and they are ending the LGA 1150 production.  If you're looking for one or two that is awesome, if your looking for several hundred of these boards you might find the boards but the cpu stock is currently more limited with no future production.

I expect the cpus to disappear sooner TB85 and Pro BTC motherboards.

Hi, can you please tell me which riser model did you use for this board?

i ordered the v003 but just to be sure if I would experience any issues and we have the same riser models that it's not riser related

anyone tried this AB350 Pro4

I have one on the way; I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for being a guinea pig for us. :) I'm hugely interested to find out if the B350 chipset can handle 6 GPUs. Ryzen is a nice CPU miner, so that would be a big plus if the motherboard supports enough GPUs.

So I ordered both the AB350 Gaming K4 and the AB350 Pro 4.  I got the Gaming K4 in yesterday. 

In my tests; only 4x Nvidia cards worked with Ubuntu 16.04.  I tried a lot of different bios settings; there might be one I missed, or a future bios update that enables 6x Nvidia: but for now these aren't worth it IMO.  Also might work with 6x amd cards; I only have 4x 470s, so I can't test that.

I expect the Pro 4 to have similar results.

Used this CPU:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113437

and this RAM:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233982

I am using this ASRock H170A-X1/3.1 Intel Skylake 1151 for 5x RX480. It's working ok.


Also bought MSI Z170-A PRO LGA 1151 and it's being shipped.

I'm using the Asus Z270-P https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-Z270-P/
Works well.

All I needed to do was update BIOS to get the "above 4g encoding" option, and enabled it!
PCIe gen is set at auto.
Running 6 GPUs without problems with smOS / simplemining.net.

Happy mining :D

Ya when I use my Asrock H170, I had to set TOLUD to 3.5Gb instead of Auto

And how many cards were you able to use on the H170? Tolud to 3.5 gives me a blank screen.

as i suspected these motherboard are not for 6 x gpu not good for gpu mining, also without the double molex there is risk to fry something with gpu that have high consumption

hi, which version of the risers do you use? v003 or newer? and did you mod the bios of the gpus?

I can only get 4 rx570s running
on MSI B250 Gaming M3 1151.  >:(

hi dallase!!!
wich ddr are you your sing on your mobo?
i'm building a rig with this mobo...

same problem with rx 470 nitro?

Have you guys tried modding the BIOS?

same problem. i tried modding the BIOS.

I use MSI Z170A Krait Gaming 3X, Socket-1151 (and a cheap Skylake) in 6 of my rigs. The board has 7 pcie slots, but I only use 6 of them pr rig in my setup.
Work like a charm :)

I used MSI Z170-A Pro for 6 GPU. Just need to update bios and set above 4G encoding to enabled.

Managed to get 7 GPUs working using this custom BIOS:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1819611.0

I've ordered a PCIE splitter to add an 8th GPU.

I cant believe I sold my ASROCK Pro BTC for $40 (new with a cpu)

I'm using the Biostar TB250-BTC. Getting 6 GPUs on it was relatively easy compared to some of the stories I've heard about other boards- so much so that I bought two more for my 2nd and 3rd rigs. However, I started having issues with windows 10 forgetting how to use the onboard LAN and since then I've been struggling to get more than one card working on SimpleMining. Haven't had much time to troubleshoot it so take that as you will. I'm pretty confident though that my issues are not motherboard specific. Probs just BIOS related.

At least I hope so.

Could we make a list what motherboards all work with 5-6 cards with socket 1051? I am having trouble finding 1050 boards. I ordered kinda the last one. If I want to order now I am paying over 170 euros a motherboard.

The new biostars are not really getting sold here but I could order them online if amazon starts selling them. Not in a hurry yet but would like to get 1 or 2 like when vega releases.

Socket 1051??? When did that come out?

And 1050 boards? In 2017? Why?

So I ordered a couple of the AB350 pro 4 also, based on some flakey post on another thread where someone claim it worked with 6 gpu. I updated to the latest bios which actually removes the AMD PBS menu that lets u control pcie settings for the 2 x16 ports. Hoping to test the board tonight with the stock bios, but at least for the latest bios only 4 nvidia gpu are working.

Edit:No joy, can only set the 16x slots to minimum of 2x8 I assume this leaves insufficient pcie lanes for remaining cards. I notice biostar is making AB350 btc board so i assume this can be fixed with bios update for these asrock boards.

hi, I am building a 6 x 580 GPU with msi h270 arctic, My first attempt failed, the mobo only recognized two GPU. what should I do?

I'm trying to spin up some rigs with these boards as well with 8GB RAM onboard.

I'm using SimpleMining OS and have four going now. Nothing I have tried has allowed me to get the last two working. I have tested all risers and cards and can confirm that they all work.

I've followed tips and instructions from this forum and others six ways to Sunday. Here's a good example:


In addition to this, I 've flashed the bios with the most recent version (7A68vA2) and even jumpered the PCI-E slots as shown here:
https://www.gobitgo.com/_images/_articles/PIC-E-1X-Jumper-Wire-Step-2.jpg

I'm about to throw in the towel on this board because I've spent what I considered a good amount of time troubleshooting and every minute down is money lost.

Anyone else get this board going with 6 (or preferably 8 with m.2 adapters) GPUs?

I believe that this board is the same as the Pro Carbon only different color scheme.
The thing that gets most people tripped up is UEFI mode but I'm not sure that that applies to Simpleminer OS.
I'll give you the Windows 10 instructions maybe that will spark something.

Create a USB bootable UEFI windows image.  You can download Windows and there's a program called Rufus for making the bootable USB.

Install latest BIOS for motherboard.
Set Win 7/10 startup and turn off Win 8 startup.
Save BIOS and restart.
Hit F11 while starting up.
Choose your USB drive but make sure it is preceded by UEFI.  Example : "UEFI: Sandisk Cruizer"
At the Windows installation screen where it shows drive storage I delete any existing partions to ensure that a UEFI partition is created.
Windows will start.
Shut down.
Start up but keep hitting DEL so that you enter the BIOS.
Set both PCI 1 and 2 to Gen 1.
Turn on 4G Encoding.
Turn off computer.
Install one video card in the main pci-e video card slot.  HDMI needs to be connected to the card connected to this slot from here on out.
Start computer.
Windows loads.
Go into device manager and manually choose "update driver" for anything with a question mark next to it other than the video card.
Turn off Windows update by opening task manager, going to the services tab, opening services (at the bottom), and turning off the Windows Update service.
Install AMD drivers.  Be sure to unselect "auto-update drivers" before closing the driver installation program.
Shut down computer.
Put card on riser and add 6 more cards on risers to motherboard.
Start up Windows.
The screen will flash a million times.  (This seams to go quicker if you don't add all 6 cards at the same time but requires another restart so that you can add the final cards.)
You'd then have 7 cards installed in Windows.

All that said, I've had a horrible time with my Carbons.  But I have no other board to compare it too so it could be some flaky cards or too much overclocking or something else other than the board.  I can't be sure just yet.

Hi guys,

instead of creating a new topic I thought I could just use this one.

At the moment, this motherboard ASUS Prime H270-Plus (https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/PRIME-H270-PLUS/specifications/). At around $100, it's one of the cheapest and one of the few 6xPCIE card available at the moment.

I couldn't find much information regarding this card, is anyone actually mining on it with 6 GPUs ? Did you have any difficulty to set it up ?

Any info regarding this card would be much appreciated ! Thanks !

Is there a minimum amount of RAM you need to use on this Mobo or could you run it with just one 4GB stick ?

I must be going blind but i can't find "enable above 4G decoding" in bios (updated via internet)

MOBO - asus prime h270-pro

anyone ?

There are a ton of other threads that have solved the problem of which motherboards work with 6 or 6+ GPUs.

It's a misconception that there is a small subset of motherboards compatible with 6+ GPUs.

settings like TOLUD, and enable 4G decoding solve these problems.

Every 6/6+ PCIe slot board I've bought (MSI, ASUS, AsRock, and Biostar) needed BIOS config tweaking to fix the issue. They all work z170, z270, b250, b350.

 

Don't know if this is too late for you. I read his post and went and bought the MSI Tomahawk Arctic H270 and it turned out to NOT WORK. It disables PCI-e Slots 2 and 5 if you plug any card into 3 and 6. It also disables PCI-e 4 if you plug in an m.2 ssd like I did. so screw that guy he doesn't know what he's talking about and made me waste money and time.

those of you having trouble with getting more than 2 GPU's working on the Asus Prime H270-PLUS - follow these instructions and you can upgrade to 8 GPU's no problem...

the issue is the bios & drivers are not going to support more than 2 or 3 GPU's unless you update them

1st, update BIOS to the latest version

2nd, go to Asus.com and look up the H270-PLUS and find the latest VGA driver  (while you're there you might as well download all the drivers and make sure you're running the latest, chipset, audio, lan, etc..)

once you download the VGA driver, extract the file in windows, then run it.... let it update your VGA driver

Now go in to BIOS change the M.2 to PCI-E if you have the M.2 to PCI-E adapters installed

Go to Advanced > System Config or whatever it's called > turn 4g decoding ON

(you may need to install 1st GPU in the pci-express x16 slot before turning 4g decoding ON)

Then > DIM > change speed to GEN 1

All the others (PEG, PCH) put on Auto...

This seems to do the trick... also, i am not sure if it will install all GPU's if you plug them all in at the same time - i just go 1 by 1, that way i know if i need to replace a bad riser etc..

Hope this helps...