Whats a good motherboard to start with?

[bigjee]

Some well known motherboards out there:

6-8 cards (natively supported)

-MSI Z170A SLI Pro
-Gigabyte H270-ud3p
-Asus Z270P/A/AR Prime plus and CSM (the latest 370 series is pretty good too but expensive)
-BIOSTAR TB250-BTC/BTC+
-BIOSTAR TB350-BTC
-AsRock H81 Pro BTC

Honourable mention: gigabyte EP45-UD3P (j/k ...somewhat. it works for 5 cards)

12-13 cards:
-Asrock H110 Pro btc
-Biostar TB-250-BTC Pro

19 cards:
-Asus mining expert

Pretty sure Ive left out a few of the good ones but its a start.

[WickedPigeon]

What a wild and fluid market, the "Gold Rush" is full on - everything in the computer component world is in flux (good time to be a seller I guess). Parts availability and price are moving so quickly. By the time I push "post" some of my favorite MB's will be gone for good. Back in November I bought a couple of Asrock H81 Pro BTC boards for $85 - no more; also bought a couple Asus Prime Z270-P for $95 - now they are asking $140, YIKES! Never mind you can't find any GPUs, and if you do, prices are up at least 20% from last month!

I'm looking for a good, stable 6 GPU board that is good enough for mining. Like most people here, I start with PC Parts Picker and NewEgg, filter down to the specs I need: 6 PCI express in some combination of X1 or X16 plus a M2 slot or two. Then I come over here and search to see how many issues other miners have posted.

Here is my short list based on price and availability right now:
ASRock - B250 Pro4 - $87
Asus - PRIME H270-PLUS-CSM - $99
MSI B250 PC MATE - $94 ($74 after $20 MIR) holds 5 plus 2 M2
MSI B250 GAMING M3 - $109 ($79 after $30 MIR) holds 6 plus 2 M2
MSI Z370-A PRO LGA  - $109 ($99 after MIR)
MSI Z370 GAMING PLUS - $119 ($109 after $10 MIR)
Any others?

So if anyone has any thoughts and/or experience with setting up a 6 GPU 1070ti/1080 rig with any of these boards, I would rally like to hear about your experience.

[klintistwood]

Another option might be to take a motherboard that support PCIe bifurcation, you would then be able to plug more than 1 GPU on one slot. I checked if my Asrock could do that but it can't, there other smaller models from Asrock that can.

With this type of hardware: PCIe to 8 PCIe you could potentially do some crazy stuff

[WickedPigeon]

Another option might be to take a motherboard that support PCIe bifurcation, you would then be able to plug more than 1 GPU on one slot. I checked if my Asrock could do that but it can't, there other smaller models from Asrock that can.

With this type of hardware: PCIe to 8 PCIe you could potentially do some crazy stuff

While I know you can, not really my style. I like to run 5 or 6 GPUs per board, mostly due to electrical wattage issues with my house, so if one rig stops for any reason, the others are still working away. I like to keep the GPU support cost as reasonable as possible: MB, CPU, Memory, and PSU run about $350 dollars. That's $58,34 per GPU based on 6 GPUs. Adding more GPUs doesn't really cut the support costs enough to justify the risk and problems - at least in my mind. 

[ramzhies]

why limit urself on buying a 6 slot gpus if u can buy a mobo with more slots and just add gpus later on?

[WickedPigeon]

Another vote for Asus Z270 A, they are good boards. I use 7 GPUs without problems.

--ypsi

Great boards, I agree. And I've use the Asus z270 Prime P in the past because it was cheap and good - used to be $95. But today both the A and the P boards seem too expensive. The Asus Prime A@$150 and the P@$140.

Is there value to a miner at that price? Are there better ROIs at the lower price boards? If so, which ones have people used and like?