Z170 Motherboard for mining with at least 4 gpus - any success stories?

[bobben2]

Has anyone succeeded in getting a miner going with at least 4 gpus on a Z170 motherboard?
With Black Friday coming I might get one if I hear it can be used with at least 4 gpus.

I am thinking about the MSI Z170-A Pro in particular, which seems like a good deal - now $90 only at newegg.

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[Raja_MBZ]

Yup, it's all good for 4 GPU's, even for 5 GPU's, I can confirm that. Just make sure that you get the x1 to x16 USB risers as well.

[IojkinKot]

Asrock H170a-x1 work well with 5 GPUs RX 480 8G

[QuintLeo]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1584973.0

 Phil likes the BIOSTAR Z170 boards you can put 4 cards on with NO risers needed.

[bobben2]

Thanks folks
The BIOSTAR board looks nice.  Pity the price is $30+ higher than the MSI and the ASRock boards.
And I would be concerned about heat and the mobo able to deliver  power with 4 gpus side-by-side like Phils pic is showing 

[Raja_MBZ]

Thanks folks
The BIOSTAR board looks nice.  Pity the price is $30+ higher than the MSI and the ASRock boards.
And I would be concerned about heat and the mobo able to deliver  power with 4 gpus side-by-side like Phils pic is showing 

Don't even bother doing that if you are not living at a place with extreme cold.

[Svchost]

Has anyone succeeded in getting a miner going with at least 4 gpus on a Z170 motherboard?
With Black Friday coming I might get one if I hear it can be used with at least 4 gpus.

I am thinking about the MSI Z170-A Pro in particular, which seems like a good deal - now $90 only at newegg.

Hello
i have the same problem with the  MSI Z170-A Pro work fine with 4 GPU  But when i add more than 4
http://imgur.com/a/0HgUk
http://imgur.com/a/0HgUk

[philipma1957]

Thanks folks
The BIOSTAR board looks nice.  Pity the price is $30+ higher than the MSI and the ASRock boards.
And I would be concerned about heat and the mobo able to deliver  power with 4 gpus side-by-side like Phils pic is showing 

Don't even bother doing that if you are not living at a place with extreme cold.

It worked all summer long in a 95f garage

I have three at the moment.

But  you need to understand that overclocking is for fools.

A proper Zec rig can do 500H at 400 watts a piece of cake for that mobo.

I know this because I do it.

also that board can run  at 92-96 MH for ETH PULLING  AROUND 580 WATTS been there done that.  All summer long.

While 95f is not crazy hot it is hot.

[philipma1957]

Thanks folks
The BIOSTAR board looks nice.  Pity the price is $30+ higher than the MSI and the ASRock boards.
And I would be concerned about heat and the mobo able to deliver  power with 4 gpus side-by-side like Phils pic is showing 

no riser costs  make up for it.  and if usa there is a rebate

120 usd

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138421&cm_re=biostar_z170-_-13-138-421-_-Product

rebate is 20 off

$164.99
$119.99
Sale Ends in 4 Days (Sat)

Save: $45.00 (27%)
$99.99 after $20.00 rebate
$0.99 Shipping (restrictions apply)

 - FREE 3 DAY or faster shipping
Sold and Shipped by: Newegg
 3 Years for the Price of 2 Years $22.00
(more options)  read warranty details

[swogerino]

Hey Philip
how about these boards?
The gaming can do 7 GPU's but can they all work at the same time as this person had issues with his board not working with all the GPU's connected to it?
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP7 MB with 5 or more GPUs?

MSI Z170A SLI PLUS ATX LGA1151 Z170 DDR4 3PCI-E16 3PCI-E1
http://www.ncix.com/detail/msi-z170a-sli-plus-atx-66-126208.htm

MSI MSI Gaming Z170A XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM EDITION LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130870

MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition LGA 1150
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130801

[ray_saeed]

I have a Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 3 and that motherboard gave me nothing but trouble when setting up multiple R9 390s on it with usb risers. I switched to Asrock H81 PRO BTC motherboards after that and have been happily mining ever since.

[Za1n]

I have been able to get 5 GPUs to work on the ASRock H170 Pro4S boards. They are selling for $85 on NewEgg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157640


I also have the MSI Z170-A PRO board you asked about, and with that I have only been able to get 4 GPUs to work. I am disappointed a bit in that one for mining, but I might just use it for my gaming rig instead.

[QuintLeo]

Thanks folks
The BIOSTAR board looks nice.  Pity the price is $30+ higher than the MSI and the ASRock boards.
And I would be concerned about heat and the mobo able to deliver  power with 4 gpus side-by-side like Phils pic is showing  

Don't even bother doing that if you are not living at a place with extreme cold.

 Reference/blower style cards help a lot, since they blow the air AWAY from the cards instead of just right around them.



 Per readings elsewhere *ALL* of the Z170 boards seem to have some serious limitations past 4 or 5 GPUs - that chipset doesn't support many PCI-E lanes to transfer data on (relies almost entirely on the ones on the CPU itself) and some of them end up assigned to stuff like M.2 SSD slots and the like.



 BTW - I finally got around to doing some tweeking on my my current 3 card 1070 builds, currenty pulling 86-88 MH/s on ETH running around 460 watts at the wall with a Seasonic X850 gold PS *WITH* the GPU on the A10 working MooWrapper - a lower-power CPU/APU would probably drop the system draw 30-50 watts.
 Stock BIOS, no undervolt, +550 memory -200 core, 75% power limit in Afterburner - and seems like there's still some room for improvement.

 Down side is the cost of the 1070s....

 [edit] was playing with a USB-drive based Win10 version, lost over 10% of the hashrate with no other changes. THAT experiment quickly got reverted [/edit]

 That BIOSTAR board seems to go on sale at $120 or so every 2-3 months for a bit.

[Raja_MBZ]

Thanks folks
The BIOSTAR board looks nice.  Pity the price is $30+ higher than the MSI and the ASRock boards.
And I would be concerned about heat and the mobo able to deliver  power with 4 gpus side-by-side like Phils pic is showing 

Don't even bother doing that if you are not living at a place with extreme cold.

It worked all summer long in a 95f garage

I have three at the moment.

But  you need to understand that overclocking is for fools.

A proper Zec rig can do 500H at 400 watts a piece of cake for that mobo.

I know this because I do it.

also that board can run  at 92-96 MH for ETH PULLING  AROUND 580 WATTS been there done that.  All summer long.

While 95f is not crazy hot it is hot.

So... what were the temperatures of the cards in that hot (95 F) garage? It's pretty amazing to see those GPU's working this close in that hot... I personally would never try that.

[maxmad_x]

Thanks folks
The BIOSTAR board looks nice.  Pity the price is $30+ higher than the MSI and the ASRock boards.
And I would be concerned about heat and the mobo able to deliver  power with 4 gpus side-by-side like Phils pic is showing  

Don't even bother doing that if you are not living at a place with extreme cold.

 Reference/blower style cards help a lot, since they blow the air AWAY from the cards instead of just right around them.



 Per readings elsewhere *ALL* of the Z170 boards seem to have some serious limitations past 4 or 5 GPUs - that chipset doesn't support many PCI-E lanes to transfer data on (relies almost entirely on the ones on the CPU itself) and some of them end up assigned to stuff like M.2 SSD slots and the like.



 BTW - I finally got around to doing some tweeking on my my current 3 card 1070 builds, currenty pulling 86-88 MH/s on ETH running around 460 watts at the wall with a Seasonic X850 gold PS *WITH* the GPU on the A10 working MooWrapper - a lower-power CPU/APU would probably drop the system draw 30-50 watts.
 Stock BIOS, no undervolt, +550 memory -200 core, 75% power limit in Afterburner - and seems like there's still some room for improvement.

 Down side is the cost of the 1070s....



 That BIOSTAR board seems to go on sale at $120 or so every 2-3 months for a bit.

I heard one success story on 1x to 3*1x pcie splitter with Z170 chipset. My order is on the way I should get it by 2-4th dec. I can reply on around 5th Dec. It costs almost same as H81+$25 for splitter = Biostart or anniversary etc. But there are no alternatives for LGA1151 so this is my try. Lets see how it goes

[swogerino]

I have been able to get 5 GPUs to work on the ASRock H170 Pro4S boards. They are selling for $85 on NewEgg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157640


I also have the MSI Z170-A PRO board you asked about, and with that I have only been able to get 4 GPUs to work. I am disappointed a bit in that one for mining, but I might just use it for my gaming rig instead.

Which cards were you able to get working in the ASRock H170 Pro4S stable and hashing at a good rate?
Model specific and I guess you can't mix and match them. I mean putting in a 290 with 480's?

[HashZilla]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1584973.0

 Phil likes the BIOSTAR Z170 boards you can put 4 cards on with NO risers needed.

Depends on the cards, I tried 4 x RX470 Nitro and it's too tight, the fans touch the adjacent card.  The side fans get no airflow and temps get over 90c and the middle cards throttle.  Having 8 fans at 3000+ rpm sounds cool too.

Using v6.0 risers now.

[ivanting89]

I have ASUS H170 Pro Gaming can work fine with 6 x 370 but when it come to rx470. Max 4 rx470 working or only 2 when more than 4 installed, the rest give error code 12, it even same at Windows 10.

[philipma1957]

Thanks folks
The BIOSTAR board looks nice.  Pity the price is $30+ higher than the MSI and the ASRock boards.
And I would be concerned about heat and the mobo able to deliver  power with 4 gpus side-by-side like Phils pic is showing 

Don't even bother doing that if you are not living at a place with extreme cold.

It worked all summer long in a 95f garage

I have three at the moment.

But  you need to understand that overclocking is for fools.

A proper Zec rig can do 500H at 400 watts a piece of cake for that mobo.

I know this because I do it.

also that board can run  at 92-96 MH for ETH PULLING  AROUND 580 WATTS been there done that.  All summer long.

While 95f is not crazy hot it is hot.

So... what were the temperatures of the cards in that hot (95 F) garage? It's pretty amazing to see those GPU's working this close in that hot... I personally would never try that.

  70c at 70% fans

now doing zec which is less power 55c at 50% fans

[philipma1957]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1584973.0

 Phil likes the BIOSTAR Z170 boards you can put 4 cards on with NO risers needed.

Depends on the cards, I tried 4 x RX470 Nitro and it's too tight, the fans touch the adjacent card.  The side fans get no airflow and temps get over 90c and the middle cards throttle.  Having 8 fans at 3000+ rpm sounds cool too.

Using v6.0 risers now.

back plate gpus do not work on that board