Motherboard of choice for 6 or more GPU's

[Sidorovich]

I have a Z77A-GD55 and I can't figure out how to get 4 7970s to work on it. I was able to get 3 working without any problems. Does anyone else have this board?

I am downloading windows 8 right now and will try that, but after reading through this thread, It seems like I shouldn't need to switch from 7 to 8 with only 4 cards.

What graphics driver version are you running? What slots are you using, and are you using powered risers on the x1 slots?

I'm using 1x powered risers for all of the cards. I tried every slot combination I could, and I was using the latest driver. Right now I'm downloading the beta driver and will see if that works.

Don't use the Beta driver. Stop it and use 12.8. And are you using the x16 slots or just x1 slots? Post your mobo configuration.

I installed 12.8 instead and now CGminer just crashes after I start it.

I have a card in every other slot, so the first, third, fifth, and seventh slots are being used.

[jaywaka2713]

Did you just uninstall the driver or did you use the Driver Cleanup Utility available on the AMD Driver page? You need to use the cleanup utility before uninstalling the drivers (will uninstall them in the process) to do it correctly.

[Sidorovich]

Did you just uninstall the driver or did you use the Driver Cleanup Utility available on the AMD Driver page? You need to use the cleanup utility before uninstalling the drivers (will uninstall them in the process) to do it correctly.

Yesterday I managed to get all of the cards to work, I just had to switch the third one to a 16x riser and connect my monitor to it. I used the 13.4 driver too.

[BlazinBeaches]

Hey guys which GD65 motherboard are you using for 7 cards?  The regular blue one or the black gaming one?

Also are you using Win8 for 7 cards, or linux?  Which version of Linux is best for mining for linux noobs.

[svetlim]

I'm building some more rigs.... Just wanted to figure out what today's motherboard of choice was for miners using 6 or more GPUs.  I would like to get 7 or 8 on a board but wasnt sure what boards support it.  I dont think there are any boards that support 8 gpu's, but let me know if you know of one.

Thanks!

hi, get H61DEL

this have 1 x16 + 5 x1 PCI-e slots

[boozer]

Hey guys which GD65 motherboard are you using for 7 cards?  The regular blue one or the black gaming one?

Also are you using Win8 for 7 cards, or linux?  Which version of Linux is best for mining for linux noobs.

Regular blue one is fine... Black gaming one has some extra features that are not needed for mining.  I used a self-bastardized version of 64bit BAMT... but its probably not the best for linux noobs.  There are several guides for Linux mining rigs out there (like this one https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gw7YPYgMgNNU42skibULbJJUx_suP_CpjSEdSi8_z9U/edit)... I would just search and follow one of those if you decide to use linux.

[jaywaka2713]

I'm building some more rigs.... Just wanted to figure out what today's motherboard of choice was for miners using 6 or more GPUs.  I would like to get 7 or 8 on a board but wasnt sure what boards support it.  I dont think there are any boards that support 8 gpu's, but let me know if you know of one.

Thanks!

hi, get H61DEL

this have 1 x16 + 5 x1 PCI-e slots

That is extremely trivial to the GD65. It can hold 8 cards and your H61DEL can only hold 6, and 5 slots need powered risers. The GD65 only needs 4 powered risers for its x1 slots.

[BlazinBeaches]

Hey guys which GD65 motherboard are you using for 7 cards?  The regular blue one or the black gaming one?

Also are you using Win8 for 7 cards, or linux?  Which version of Linux is best for mining for linux noobs.

Regular blue one is fine... Black gaming one has some extra features that are not needed for mining.  I used a self-bastardized version of 64bit BAMT... but its probably not the best for linux noobs.  There are several guides for Linux mining rigs out there (like this one https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gw7YPYgMgNNU42skibULbJJUx_suP_CpjSEdSi8_z9U/edit)... I would just search and follow one of those if you decide to use linux.

Awesome and awesome!  Many thanks

[jaywaka2713]

Hey guys which GD65 motherboard are you using for 7 cards?  The regular blue one or the black gaming one?

Also are you using Win8 for 7 cards, or linux?  Which version of Linux is best for mining for linux noobs.

Regular blue one is fine... Black gaming one has some extra features that are not needed for mining.  I used a self-bastardized version of 64bit BAMT... but its probably not the best for linux noobs.  There are several guides for Linux mining rigs out there (like this one https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gw7YPYgMgNNU42skibULbJJUx_suP_CpjSEdSi8_z9U/edit)... I would just search and follow one of those if you decide to use linux.

Awesome and awesome!  Many thanks

I highly recommend using Linux if you run 7 or more cards. I'd recommend that to anyone.

[FullLife]

I have a Z77A-GD55 and I can't figure out how to get 4 7970s to work on it. I was able to get 3 working without any problems. Does anyone else have this board?

I am downloading windows 8 right now and will try that, but after reading through this thread, It seems like I shouldn't need to switch from 7 to 8 with only 4 cards.

I have this board (Z77A-GD55) and am currently running (5) 7950s on it, no presence shorts, dummy plugs, or powered risers.  I just run the cards at stock clocks (925/1250) and under-volt them to prevent the need for powered risers.  My current setup is Win 7 Ultimate SP1, 12.6 drivers and cgminer 3.1.0.

I get about 565Kh/s with this config: -w 256 -I 19 -g 1 --thread-concurrency 16384

My plan now is to see if I can get 6 cards working on this board.

[JohnSy]

My favorites are the military MSI motherboards.  Seems to always take the heat well.  Have a few running for a year or so.

[jaywaka2713]

My favorites are the military MSI motherboards.  Seems to always take the heat well.  Have a few running for a year or so.

Those are just built with super high quality parts AFAIK. Nice boards though. Care to share what motherboard model you have?

[Mr.V]

Here's a list of motherboards from other threads that are known to work with 4 or more GPU's

known to work
-------------
5 GPU - ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ($145)
4 gpu - Asrock 970 Extreme3 ($99)
4 gpu - Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 ($104)
7 gpu - MSI Big Bang-XPower II ($369)

power supply limitations and airflow/overheating are the biggest concerns in 5+ card systems.

add2psu sells a gadget to link two or more power supplies together. If space isnt an issue, two smaller power supplies may be cheaper than one big one

If you know where the link to the info about the 5 GPU - ASRock 970 EXTREME4 could you post it here please?

[Beaflag VonRathburg]

If you know where the link to the info about the 5 GPU - ASRock 970 EXTREME4 could you post it here please?

http://www.google.com/

[Mr.V]

If you know where the link to the info about the 5 GPU - ASRock 970 EXTREME4 could you post it here please?

http://www.google.com/
[/quote]

I aint lazy jerk I'v been spending a lot of man hours just sifting through these threads and forums, so piss off

[ssateneth]

I'm building some more rigs.... Just wanted to figure out what today's motherboard of choice was for miners using 6 or more GPUs.  I would like to get 7 or 8 on a board but wasnt sure what boards support it.  I dont think there are any boards that support 8 gpu's, but let me know if you know of one.

Thanks!

hi, get H61DEL

this have 1 x16 + 5 x1 PCI-e slots

That is extremely trivial to the GD65. It can hold 8 cards and your H61DEL can only hold 6, and 5 slots need powered risers. The GD65 only needs 4 powered risers for its x1 slots.

why do people still spread this powered riser FUD? I have NEVER used a powered riser, and I have never had problems. All my rigs have 6 cards (8 gpu for 5k series, or 6 7970) and use 16x and 1x slots all with 1x > 1x risers. Been mining since july 2011.

[boozer]

If you know where the link to the info about the 5 GPU - ASRock 970 EXTREME4 could you post it here please?

You might have found these already, but if not these "might" help:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=203326.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=201820.0

Or maybe you can hit the guy up via PM since he seems to have gotten 5 working on that board.

[cptmooseinc]

I'm building some more rigs.... Just wanted to figure out what today's motherboard of choice was for miners using 6 or more GPUs.  I would like to get 7 or 8 on a board but wasnt sure what boards support it.  I dont think there are any boards that support 8 gpu's, but let me know if you know of one.

Thanks!

hi, get H61DEL

this have 1 x16 + 5 x1 PCI-e slots

That is extremely trivial to the GD65. It can hold 8 cards and your H61DEL can only hold 6, and 5 slots need powered risers. The GD65 only needs 4 powered risers for its x1 slots.

why do people still spread this powered riser FUD? I have NEVER used a powered riser, and I have never had problems. All my rigs have 6 cards (8 gpu for 5k series, or 6 7970) and use 16x and 1x slots all with 1x > 1x risers. Been mining since july 2011.

Do you mine SHA 256 or scrypt? If the latter then powered risers help to feed the memclock necessary to hash on scrypt. SHA 256 coins don't need this extra power for the memory.

[FullLife]

I have a Z77A-GD55 and I can't figure out how to get 4 7970s to work on it. I was able to get 3 working without any problems. Does anyone else have this board?

I am downloading windows 8 right now and will try that, but after reading through this thread, It seems like I shouldn't need to switch from 7 to 8 with only 4 cards.

I have this board (Z77A-GD55) and am currently running (5) 7950s on it, no presence shorts, dummy plugs, or powered risers.  I just run the cards at stock clocks (925/1250) and under-volt them to prevent the need for powered risers.  My current setup is Win 7 Ultimate SP1, 12.6 drivers and cgminer 3.1.0.

I get about 565Kh/s with this config: -w 256 -I 19 -g 1 --thread-concurrency 16384

My plan now is to see if I can get 6 cards working on this board.

Had to presence short the 6th card for windows to see it, but it's showing up as error code 43 in device manager.

From reading back through this thread, it seems that no one has been able to get (6) 79xx series cards working with Windows 7 or am I missing something?  Everyone running 6 or more of these cards from one board is using Windows 8 or Linux correct?

[cptmooseinc]

FullLife,

I had problems even getting 5 cards working on Win7 without presence shorting. Windows 8 is much nicer and cleaner for running 5+ GPUs. I suggest it highly!

If you don't want to pay for a license on it, there's some nice torrents for it around if you don't mind that sort of thing. (: