mining with msi z170A Gaming M5

[DeepTerrfici]

Has anyone been successful running 7 cards at the same time with this motherboard or know if you can or cannot?

[Sequoia93]

You can.

Make sure you have bios version 1.D0 from 12/16/16

in bios settings change 4G decoding to enabled

and change integrated graphics configuration from PEG to IGD

And plug your monitor into the onboard graphics.

Also, please do not ask obvious questions in a new topic. This solution appears in at least 3 threads within the first two pages of topics.

edit: oh, and use a skylake (not kaby lake) processor

[Dave789]

You can.

Make sure you have bios version 1.D0 from 12/16/16

in bios settings change 4G decoding to enabled

and change integrated graphics configuration from PEG to IGD

And plug your monitor into the onboard graphics.

Also, please do not ask obvious questions in a new topic. This solution appears in at least 3 threads within the first two pages of topics.

edit: oh, and use a skylake (not kaby lake) processor

I run a newer BIOS on mine, one was released in May, 2017 and calls the 4G decoding option "4G decoding/cryptocurrency mining". Haha, looks like they caught on.
Also, I have integrated graphics turned off and just use PEG. I'm able to run 7x 1070's like this just fine.

[iamnoobplzhelp]

That's a custom bios that someone had created and was cute and added the "cryptocurrency mining" tag. I've had problems that bios. Use the one from the MSI site.

[Sequoia93]

That's a custom bios that someone had created and was cute and added the "cryptocurrency mining" tag. I've had problems that bios. Use the one from the MSI site.

I just check their site, and it does look like they added an updated bios in May!

All I know is what I said earlier will work with the bios from december

[DeepTerrfici]

I am sorry for the repeat thread. Brand new here. I have another question. Searched a few pages and did not find a similar post. Can you run a 1300w or higher PSU off a regular wall socket? Or how are y'all running power?

[Elder III]

I am sorry for the repeat thread. Brand new here. I have another question. Searched a few pages and did not find a similar post. Can you run a 1300w or higher PSU off a regular wall socket? Or how are y'all running power?

If you're in the USA your wall outlet is part of what is typically a 20 Amp or 15 Amp circuit. You have about 1920 watts (at 80% "safe load") available on a 20 Amp circuit, a 15 Amp circuit is about 1440 watts. You would need to determine how many other things are plugged into that same circuit in order to determine how many watts are available to use. You can do this yourself with a killawat plug in meter ($20 on amazon or newegg) and a bunch of leg work, or you could hire an electrician to analyze the circuits in your house and tell you how many mining rigs you could run without tripping breakers constantly.

[Djentriser]

Has anyone been successful running 7 cards at the same time with this motherboard or know if you can or cannot?

I hope that this is helpfull
http://cryptomining-blog.com/8700-8x-gpu-nvidia-mining-rig-with-asus-prime-z270-a/

[DeepTerrfici]

Update:

I installed everything with latest drivers. Was able to set bios to run the 6 cards I have so far, 7th arriving later today. Using claymore, mining eth, i am only hashing at about 17.3 total. All cards at like 2.8, 2.9. Is it this slow because I'm using recent bios driver? I am using msi afterburner to OC gpus a bit, but still maxing out there. Afterburner says they're using about 30% power

[ltcsprite]

Update:

I installed everything with latest drivers. Was able to set bios to run the 6 cards I have so far, 7th arriving later today. Using claymore, mining eth, i am only hashing at about 17.3 total. All cards at like 2.8, 2.9. Is it this slow because I'm using recent bios driver? I am using msi afterburner to OC gpus a bit, but still maxing out there. Afterburner says they're using about 30% power

Try running DDU uninstall drivers and then re-install them.

Should work.

I am using the 1.D bios though.  Not sure if there's any issues with the most recent bios.

[DeepTerrfici]

Where can i get that bios?

[Sequoia93]

Where can i get that bios?

MSI support page for the mobo. You might as well get the new BIOS from May, it works as well and even labels "above 4g decoding" as "cryptocurrency mining" now

[DeepTerrfici]

Found the bios, though when i try to restart with that flash drive in, i never get a video signal. I also have yet to be able to get a signal on the onboard HDMI, although I did switch to integrated setting, so I'm still running video off one of the cards

[ltcsprite]

Found the bios, though when i try to restart with that flash drive in, i never get a video signal. I also have yet to be able to get a signal on the onboard HDMI, although I did switch to integrated setting, so I'm still running video off one of the cards

Try to Unplug all the GPU's and use onboard video for flashing the bios.

[DeepTerrfici]

should I be using a flash drive with only the bios on it?

[ltcsprite]

should I be using a flash drive with only the bios on it?

Yes.

[DeepTerrfici]

I got the May bios set up and settings set. That allowded me to run the onboard HDMI. The only OC that causes them to fail is putting core clock at 190, so I have it at 180. Still max hash is about 17.5. Don't know what else to try. Setup is:
msi z170a gaming m5 motherboard
6 x msi gtx 6gb 1060 gaming X 6G cards
Pentium g4400 3.3ghz
2 x 4gb ddr4
ax1500i psu
60gb ssd

I have the pcie power from psu connected to cards as well as the sata to molex in the powered risers. I unplugged the molex plugs from two of the risers to see if that was maybe interfering with the pcie power. those two cards just didnt work like that. I did still have the sata end in the psu. I plugged them back into the risers and they work again, but still only total hash at 17.5

[Elder III]

Did you increase your page file? I have not tried mining Eth with NVIDiA, but for AMD at least I have found that I need to set about 4GB per GPU in order to have smooth mining in Claymore. If you have enough space to do so with your smaller SSD try bumping that up to at least 24 GB and see if it changes.

[DeepTerrfici]

I started out with the page file at 16gb. increased it to 20, but that's almost all the room I have after running Windows 10 pro. I was wondering if i should get another ssd for the page file and make it as large as i want. or could I run put the page file on a usb 3.1 flash?

[ivanst776]

You can.

Make sure you have bios version 1.D0 from 12/16/16

in bios settings change 4G decoding to enabled

and change integrated graphics configuration from PEG to IGD

And plug your monitor into the onboard graphics.

Also, please do not ask obvious questions in a new topic. This solution appears in at least 3 threads within the first two pages of topics.

edit: oh, and use a skylake (not kaby lake) processor

I have the same motherboard but don't know if it is the exact Gaming M5 but I assume they are the same model.

When I enabled 4G decoding and other things after modding the bios the windows doesn't start, I have formatted it but still the same result so I ended up setting an older bios version and then start the stuff again from the beginning.