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

[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.

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?

I use 5x of these SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 470 100407NT+4GOCL 4GB in each rig with that motherboard. Currently I have three of those rigs up and running in that configuration with no issues. I do not mix or match GPUs in any of my rigs as I usually buy everything I need to build one in a single order.

[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?

I use 5x of these SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 470 100407NT+4GOCL 4GB in each rig with that motherboard. Currently I have three of those rigs up and running in that configuration with no issues. I do not mix or match GPUs in any of my rigs as I usually buy everything I need to build one in a single order.

And how much in Eth or Zec are you able to pull per each rig in that configuration?
I was going to get 390 R9 cards because they can do 280 for Zec. What can these RX 470 do per card?

[philipma1957]

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?

I use 5x of these SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 470 100407NT+4GOCL 4GB in each rig with that motherboard. Currently I have three of those rigs up and running in that configuration with no issues. I do not mix or match GPUs in any of my rigs as I usually buy everything I need to build one in a single order.

And how much in Eth or Zec are you able to pull per each rig in that configuration?
I was going to get 390 R9 cards because they can do 280 for Zec. What can these RX 470 do per card?

just because a card can do 280  does not mean you should clock like that.

Lets say you have really cheap power and don't care   that 280H speed wastes power  it  has other issues.  You tax the cards the fans and the motherboard running at top speeds.

[PanneKopp]

Hi @bobben2

Has anyone succeeded in getting a miner going with at least 4 gpus on a Z170 motherboard?

I got BioStar Z170GT7 running fine (Win7_64p) with
i3-6100 + 2 x 8GB DDR4 + 120GB SSD
2 x RX480/8 (Powercool Ref.)
2 x RX470/4 (Saphire wt backplate)

... now even integrated wt EVGA GQ750-v2
in a Mid-Tower Case wt 8 PCI-Slots.

Stable ~750 sol/s @ 700W from Wall.

  PanneKopp

[fiscorcle]

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?

I use 5x of these SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 470 100407NT+4GOCL 4GB in each rig with that motherboard. Currently I have three of those rigs up and running in that configuration with no issues. I do not mix or match GPUs in any of my rigs as I usually buy everything I need to build one in a single order.

And how much in Eth or Zec are you able to pull per each rig in that configuration?
I was going to get 390 R9 cards because they can do 280 for Zec. What can these RX 470 do per card?

just because a card can do 280  does not mean you should clock like that.

Lets say you have really cheap power and don't care   that 280H speed wastes power  it  has other issues.  You tax the cards the fans and the motherboard running at top speeds.

Makes complete sense to not max out the cards. That just lessens their life cycle and might end up costing you more money in electrical costs and not worth doing the in long run.
Think about what you are about to do with the GPU's you are about to purchase and know what you going to do with them before you get them.
Just as the knowledgeable Philipma1957 has said.

[bittawm]

my z170 has 4 gpus right now going strong

[Eyedol-X]

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

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

I use this same board as well, no issues

[digitalgrow]

just a heads up for everyone
ive flashed 10 gigabyte GA-Z170-Gaming K3 to latest bios F20
9 out 10 work flawlessly with 6 cards, problematic rig needs taking apart and resetting
been stable for 2-3 days now
for anyone with the following board

ASROCK Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6
using BIOS 2.8
can run 5 cards by doing the following in the bios
go to advanced mode
and chipset settings
Change PCIE to gen1 on both options
change max TOLUD which is the next option down from the above to 2.5GB

this makes 5 cards work
I have not got round to flashing the bios yet to reassess if can do 6 cards

[bluedeep]

The best  motherboard for mining is AsRock H81 Pro Btc, also it works very well with 6 gpu.

[hughson]

I managed to get 5 GPU running on Asrock Z170 Pro4s. I updated BIOS to 7.0 and set all PCIe to GEN1 in BIOS. This is not a stable fix ... after restart windows no longer shows 5 need to fiddle with BIOS again(usually I set back to Gen3 save/restart go back in BIOS set to gen1(this usually does the trick))

Since  updating BIOS a few weeks ago Asrock has released a newer version of the BIOS, maybe it will fix this restart bug I'm running into.

[racminer]

Almost a success story with the MSI Z170A pro carbon

Hi

I would like to  share  my own experience with MSI Z170A pro carbone motherboard. First of all and in order to get it to accept USB 3.0 Powered PCI-E 1x -16x Risers, I have to mod the bios and set all PCIe lanes to gen1 (all 20 of them, I did this because I was unable to find which PCI socket goes with which pci lane).
Under window 10, I have succeeded in getting 4 GPU's to work fine (Rx480, R9 380 or R7 370). But I have not succeeded to run more than 4 x Rx480 gpus nor more than 4 x R9 380 gpus, I get the famous message "not sufficient resources ... code 12".

!!!!! However, 7 x R7 370 have worked just  fine with no issues whatsoever !!!!

1) I don't think that the problem is a pci lanes assignment Chipset issue as is often reported, since 7x R7 370 has worked fine.
2) I don't think it is a IRQ issue as often reported also, because each R7 370 have had it own IRQ assigned.
3) I think that the problem is Memory Resource Assignment. By examining the control panel, I noticed that the R7 370 reserves much less memory and I/O port resources than the Rx480 or the R9 380.

Is it a driver issue?  Is it possible to mod the driver in order to delete unneeded resources.

Does the  chipset has anything to do with  memory and i/o port assignment ??

In any case, the news here is that the MSI Z170A pro carbone works perfectly with 7 x  Asus Strix R7 370 4Gb

[deadsix]

Thanks folks
The BIOSTAR board looks nice.  Pity the price is $30+ higher than the MSI and the ASRock boards.

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

Hey Phil did you finally put your Z170GT7's in PC Cases(towers) like you were planning to?

just a heads up for everyone
ive flashed 10 gigabyte GA-Z170-Gaming K3 to latest bios F20
9 out 10 work flawlessly with 6 cards, problematic rig needs taking apart and resetting
been stable for 2-3 days now
for anyone with the following board

ASROCK Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6
using BIOS 2.8
can run 5 cards by doing the following in the bios
go to advanced mode
and chipset settings
Change PCIE to gen1 on both options
change max TOLUD which is the next option down from the above to 2.5GB

this makes 5 cards work
I have not got round to flashing the bios yet to reassess if can do 6 cards

This is great news, Ill try to source those Gigabyte boards now.

[Bare]

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

Exactly!

It's so frustrating and I don't know if I can do anything to make it work with more than 4 gpus,
I have the new MSI Z170A-PRO (bought it 2 weeks ago) and couldn't manage to run more than 4 x sapphire 390X nitro

I mean its the latest consumer intel chipset with the latest 1151 socket but it's garbage for mining, any mobo that can't handle more than 4 gpus nowadays is a garbage in my book as one guy has said.

btw any success stories running 4+ gpus?

[IojkinKot]

btw any success stories running 4+ gpus?

ASrock H170A-X1 work fine with 5 GPUs - rx480 8G
Gigabyte Z170 gaming k3 work fine with 6 GPUs - rx470 8G

[racminer]

Almost a success story with the MSI Z170A pro carbon

Hi

I would like to  share  my own experience with MSI Z170A pro carbone motherboard. First of all and in order to get it to accept USB 3.0 Powered PCI-E 1x -16x Risers, I have to mod the bios and set all PCIe lanes to gen1 (all 20 of them, I did this because I was unable to find which PCI socket goes with which pci lane).
Under window 10, I have succeeded in getting 4 GPU's to work fine (Rx480, R9 380 or R7 370). But I have not succeeded to run more than 4 x Rx480 gpus nor more than 4 x R9 380 gpus, I get the famous message "not sufficient resources ... code 12".

!!!!! However, 7 x R7 370 have worked just  fine with no issues whatsoever !!!!

1) I don't think that the problem is a pci lanes assignment Chipset issue as is often reported, since 7x R7 370 has worked fine.
2) I don't think it is a IRQ issue as often reported also, because each R7 370 have had it own IRQ assigned.
3) I think that the problem is Memory Resource Assignment. By examining the control panel, I noticed that the R7 370 reserves much less memory and I/O port resources than the Rx480 or the R9 380.

Is it a driver issue?  Is it possible to mod the driver in order to delete unneeded resources.

Does the  chipset has anything to do with  memory and i/o port assignment ??

In any case, the news here is that the MSI Z170A pro carbone works perfectly with 7 x  Asus Strix R7 370 4Gb

Ok now the story is a success 

by setting TOLUD to 3Gb instead of Auto,  6 gpu's  Rx480 and/or R9 380 work fine on the MSI Z170A pro carbone motherboard (with 12 Gb ram)

 

[deadsix]

btw any success stories running 4+ gpus?

ASrock H170A-X1 work fine with 5 GPUs - rx480 8G
Gigabyte Z170 gaming k3 work fine with 6 GPUs - rx470 8G

Ok now the story is a success  

by setting TOLUD to 3Gb instead of Auto,  6 gpu's  Rx480 and/or R9 380 work fine on the MSI Z170A pro carbone motherboard (with 12 Gb ram)

 

Are you sure guys? I would want to try the Gigabyte Z170 Gaming K3 if all of you can get 6 RX 470/480 cards working on it. Also, on the MSI Carbon, you said you can get 6 RX 480 working. Can you please test if 7 work too?

[QuintLeo]

The best  motherboard for mining is AsRock H81 Pro Btc, also it works very well with 6 gpu.

 Too bad that MB has been out of production for years.

[marlon6]

hi everybody,

I am getting mad to successfully setup a 6x GPU mining rig...I have been experimenting with
3 motherboards but I never managed to have more than 4 GPUs working.
I would go with the "traditional" Asrock motherboards that work flawlessy but they are not easy to find at the moment.

I see some of you managed to setup 6x GPUs on Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 and Gigabyte Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon.

@racminer and @IojkinKot
can you please confirm this?

@deadsix
did you try with one of those motherboards?

Thanks!

[justchil]

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

Has anyone managed to get this board to do 5 cards with 17.4.3/4?  I have tried almost everything to get it to work.   I had 5 cards working at one point -- reboot and back to 4 -- reboot 4 times to get the 5th back.  It has something to do with the board having 2 x16 slots I believe.

[Truthchanter]

Haven't read the thread but I have had 7gpu working on my MSI z170a gaming pro carbon (currently running 6gpu on it since 1 card or riser was giving issues after few hours of mining)