Bitcoin Forum

Does MOBO really matter guys?

For a standard 6 GPU rig (1070), does this really matter?

Example point of comparison:

MOBO #1: $75
ASRock H81 PRO BTC R2.0 LGA 1150 Intel H81 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

MOBO #2 $169
ASUS PRIME Z270-A LGA 1151 Intel Z270 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Motherboards - Intel

The above are just example of comparison. I mean if MOBO doesn't really matter, why i have seen people buying asus prime over AsRock?

Appreciate if you can enlighten me.

TIA

Maybe people want a motherboard that they could use for a decent gaming PC, should mining not work out in the future. Support for LGA1151 processors and DDR4 RAM is a nice. However, I'm not certain why someone building several rigs would pick mobo #2 over #1 other than it has one more PCIe slot.

Thanks for the reply and you have a good point.

However in terms of FOR MINING ONLY MOBO, will there be any impact in the performance if I choose more expensive MOBO than cheaper ones?

Some motherboards don't support using all the PCI-E slots for GPU's or make it easier to setup multiple cards for mining. Otherwise there is no performance gain from using one motherboard over another.

Some motherboards make it easier to set up and troubleshoot mining rigs due to their features.

Thanks for your replies.

If so, will you agree on me that I'd rather invest on better PSU than MOBO?

The PSU is the most important component in a mining rig. If the PSU goes out, at best so does your whole rig. Stick with gold or platinum rated PSU's from brands that use quality components like EVGA or Corsair. Platinum rated server PSU's are another good option and cheaper, but they are loud and you need additional components.

You need mobo with enough PCI-E lanes if you want 6 or more GPUs. Personaly I don't like these mining mobos, like TB-250, I had problem set one of this and there are no leds, so I had no idea what is wrong... It was CPU. Stock bios doesn't support G3900 CPU... Almost 2 years old CPU is not supported on this year new mobo -_-

I'm now using only Z270 chipset. Mix of Asus Z270-P and MSI Z270A-PRO. I like them both. Asus had some troubles but bios updates make it work like a charm.

If you are using ANTMINER you don't need to use MOBO and ANTMINER has faster ROI than 1 RIG or 7 GPU which you won't believe because they have the same price but the ROI is faster for ANTMINER in just 1 month your ROI is back.

If you are interested you can PM me for Philippines only.

The easiest way to get scammed in Crypto is to buy an ASIC from anyone other than directly from a reputable manufacurer.

Yeah, buy an ASIC from Newbie...
https://i.imgur.com/TSzE36C.jpg

i think not. it's all about how many pci slots. i use some old sky 775 boards and they do just fine. And that also shows the cpu doesn't matter either if i'm using q6600 or slower cpu's

For a straight-up mining rig, the only thing that matters in a motherboard is that it will actually WORK with the number of cards you can attach to it reliably.

+1
I second this, ive got an old amd motherboard that I would have never guessed it would have worked with mining had I not of tried it out. its using ddr2 ram and i cant remember the amd cpu its got but its slow, takes kinda forever for that rig to boot/reboot, lol but it runs the 2 gpus just fine and that's all that matters

It matters the number of slots it has for you to connect your GPUs, other than that i dont think so. You can spend the majority of your rig budget on the GPU's, not even the processor has much of an impact on the hashrate output.

You can check my other account jaki10 but hey im not judging. Thanks anyway

Much like GPUs, if you're concerned about resale at all then yes.  Otherwise I'd say mobo matters no more than beyond it's ability to run the cards you want and has features you may want.  I'm thinking specifically probably wanting an m2 slot, either for an extra card or not needing a sata power channel for your hdd, and an on-board power/reset button so you don't need an aftermarket switch jumper.

i would say it totally matters. Although i admit i used mostly "gaming" boards off the bat, i have also built with mining specific boards only now more recently.
Mining boards, are, well, made for mining, gaming boards are made for gaming. just consider the differences and you will see WHY they MAKE mining specific boards
I love my Z270A-Primes, but i feel like in 6 months im gonna have 24/7 continuous load problems, PCI-E lanes getting weak and shit :/
Manufacturers are now (finally) adding warranty void clauses for using gaming hardware for mining as well so keep that in mind

- there is no way for them prove its been used for mining, so i call it BS

A motherboard that has been designed for mining specifically will be by and large the most hassle free and the easiest to setup for mining with 6 or more GPUs with the least troubleshooting, hair pulling, and downtime. We came to the decision that at this point we won't use anything other then dedicated mining boards. Down time is lost money, let alone the aggravation of dealing with it and losing that time to do other things that need to be done.... they just aren't worth it for us at least.

One reason is that the availability of the Motherboard, Asrock H81 pro BTC is rare in other locations, other than Z270, Suppliers is very much keen on the demand and have to choose which product they want to sell

In my year and a half of experience, Mining specific motherboards have given me WAAAY more trouble than regular or gaming motherboards.
I prefer the latter because of the ease of setup ( for a total newbie it may be more complicated to setup a non mining board, but once you know your way around a few bioses, its fairly straightforward ) and stability, because their availability is much better and because prices are much more reasonable.
Sure in the long run maybe the mining board has better components that would last longer, but I doubt it seeing the cheap ass thin pcb's and lack of features on both Asrock or Biostar (I own 20+ of each btw so I speak from experience).
Suffice to say is, if one of the reputed motherboard manufacturer make any mining boards, I will buy them without skipping a heartbeat. I await the Asus mining boards for now.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree based on my own experience.  Our dedicated mining motherboards have been the most stable and the simplest to setup.... they also only cost $80 or so right now and that's cheaper then most z170/z270 motherboards... price and availability are fine here in the USA at least. Since my wife does the majority of the work once they're set up it's very important to us for them to be rock solid stable and easy to setup or or troubleshoot if something does happen.

if you dont think they can't tell capacitors and shit that have had 24/7 load thru them END on END for months, you are crazy ;p
Try it hehe, watch after 2-3 RMAs you get the email: sorry, this manufacture wont accept your shit anymore as they believe you are using it out of its recommend usage :D
It happens, guys come n these forums and tell us haha

Well in US maybe :D in EU there is bigger problem... prices are pretty high compared to normal mobo. And their desing is pretty much save on everything, they not put even control leds on them :D  I like my Z270 mobos :3

 Mining works FINE on a PCI-E 1x slot - it's NOT high level data intensive.

well, I put it fro myself very simple and straight - if I want stability to be the main thing - then PCI-E slots have to be implemented as standard feature by chipset
not by any external controllers or something similar.
that is why I choose MOBO which has 6 PCI-e slots built in
I can add 1 or 2 pci-e slot through M2 riser and that's enough for me

in the end I have a rock-stable system with nice performance and...  in the end I can sell this mb easily