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Hello, I am considering a setup for a 3x Radeon R9 280x rig, could You suggest me which other parts I should use? To minimize the cost, and be optimal aswell (so the GPU is the bottleneck)?

Assistance from anyone who has similar setup would be even more helpfull :)

really, no one with some helpfull advice?

Afaik scrypt mining doesn't require much cpu or ram power so I would just go to newegg and find the cheapest motherboard with 3 pci-e slots (probably 1 pci-e x16 and 2 pci-e x1 would be cheapest). PSU would probably need to be 1000W to be safe.

I thought I do need 3x x16 PCI slots, since this card(280x) has PCI x16?

Has to be pci-express not pci. Can be x1 with powered risers or x16 with risers.

Beware of the heat produced. You will need risers or external fans to keep them cool!

I currently have GA-P35C-DS3R on my old PC, it has 1x PCI-e x16, and 3x PCI-e x1, does that mean I can use 3x 280x which have x16 PCI-e slots?

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2749#sp

Your motherboard can support 4 video cards with riser cables.

Awesome! Riser cables only for 1x pci-e slots, right? Is the only purpose of riser cable to allow cards to be further from each one, or PCI-e x1 slots need those to connect to PCI-e x16 card(which I doubt is necessary)?


Do You mean that those connected to PCI-e x1 need external fans, or each one (x16 slot one too)?

For more than 2 cards you might as well just use riser cables for all of them. You need to space them out because they produce a lot of heat even with the built in fans.

Okay, do I need PCI-e x16(female) ---> PCI-e x1(male) cables for PCI-e x1 slots on my card?

http://s13.postimg.org/tug6gbuhz/3853049986.jpg


Or can I use PCI-e x16 --> PCI-e x16 ones?

"wow I'm jealous!" isn't advice but it may be the answer you're seeking. If not I'm sure everyone will walk you through it b/c you're not feeling like using search/google. You should get 1 before you go all in

 :D

Kinda late with Your post, also I've seen many guides but in my opinion buying 300$ motherboard isn't necessary at all.

you'll want a 1200W PSU (just to be safe), if you go with the sapphire vapor X's you cant fit 3 side by side on most motherboards, and even if you could they will run too hot, so you'll need risers so they can be mounted elsewhere (and further apart)

I just use an amd a4 in my miners, don't need much cpu and 4G-8G ram.

You don't need a good motherboard just one with enough pci-e slots.  I use the f2a85x-up4 in my miners but that's just because im familiar with the board and I like a few of its features. (its a tad unpredictable with risers though). You can use any type of pci-e slot, 1x, 16x etc, it doesnt matter just get the right risers (e.g 2x pci-e 1x to 16x risers, 1x pci-e 16x to 16x) I have a rig here atm with 3 280x's. 2 in 1x slots, 1 in 16x slot, all powered risers.

Does the slower PCI-E slots affect the hashrate? I mean is hashing faster on card connected via PCI-e 16x, and slower on those connected on PCI-E x1?

no