ASUS B250 Mining Expert MB - 19 Cards!

[wtfonly16]

Does it make a change? with 32GB RAM?

no, i tried 8gb with 13amd 570 working good on windows.
and tried 16gb with 14amd 570, board will not post.

[Metroid]

the 13 card limit is very strange.

[ibinsad]

Anyone is using this motherboard with unpowered risers?

Which is the real driver gpu limit in windows 10?

[QuintLeo]

I want to buy this card but franky the story behind this board is fuzzy. I mean their claim is loud and clear «19 GPU» but in reality you can have 13 conventional GPU and 6 mining ones. Could you please give me clear answers to the following questions that everyone needs to hear?

I still don't understand if I can mix AMD and Nvidia cards respectively on Windows / Linux. I want my GPU to be 100% GTX 1070 but this question could become crucial later on[/li]
[li]We all know that the issue is caused by Asus itself but I don't get if this is a clear bug or a wanted "feature"[/li]
[li]Asus promised a BIOS update (maybe) aimed to solve this bug (or feature?). What's the hell is going on? Their latest update doesn't change anything[/li]
[li]Final question: buy or pass? If we pass what is its closest alternative?[/li][/list]

 You can mix AMD and NVidia on Windows easily, at a cost in stability.
 The jury is out but indicating "not" on recent LINUX version - the NVidia drivers and the AMD drivers USED to be able to coexist but that capability seems to have been dropped by NVidia around drivers version 361.
 It MIGHT still be possible via workarounds, but I've yet to get it working on anything more recent to date.

 The 13 "real GPU" limit is DEFINITELY not a wanted feature - it may be a bug but I'm more inclined to think it's a "design decision for NO real or sensible reason".

 ASUS seems to be VERY VERY slow about getting an update out to fix the issue - they appear to think that forcing folks to use a specific TYPE of GPU is acceptable, or whatever is causing them to have set that limitation up is being more difficult for them to FIX then they expected.

 If you can get the board close to it's $150 MSRP, it's still a good option for a rig in the 8-13 card range, though perhaps somewhat overkill for the lower end of that range.
 The built-in PS management features are nice, and make the ACTUAL price a lot closer to all other options in that range then just the "raw price" compare would indicate.

[Metroid]

Mixing nvidia with amd cards is a losing battle. Forget it and don't ever do it, is more hassle than anything else I have ever seen in mining and the 13 gpu limit makes no sense, if it was amd or nvidia drivers then would be acceptable but is not, it's the board. i wonder if this has anything to do why asrock made a 13 gpu board and not 14 or more gpus. Maybe it must be something we dont know about yet.

[QuintLeo]

Might be an addressing limitation, though I'm still inclined to think it's just ASUS doing wierd stuff with their bios or perhaps trying to push their P106 cards (there aren't a lot of folks that MAKE the "mining specific" cards).

[Corsa1r]

Might be an addressing limitation, though I'm still inclined to think it's just ASUS doing wierd stuff with their bios or perhaps trying to push their P106 cards (there aren't a lot of folks that MAKE the "mining specific" cards).

I Believe so too, one would think there would be an updated bios ready by now.

[nitrobg]

Might be an addressing limitation, though I'm still inclined to think it's just ASUS doing wierd stuff with their bios or perhaps trying to push their P106 cards (there aren't a lot of folks that MAKE the "mining specific" cards).

12-13 is an oddly specific number - ASRock and ASUS have 13; Biostar and AMD have 12; users with PCI-E multipliers get 12 as well, so I believe that there is an address limitation indeed. Mining cards count as a compute accelerator so they don't take up VGA address space, this could be the reason we can mix mining and regular cards on this motherboard.

[Metroid]

GPU's without display work like mining cards but gpu's with display dont work, so it might be related to that.

[betaminer]

Maybe the board is NVIDIA Volta-ready and 19 cards are possible than...

[Bigdrago]

You guys are better than me because I struggle to power 8 GPUs adequately. I cannot imagine trying to power 19 in a single PSU-- I am guessing a multiple PSU setup?

Correct. I'm using 3x evga g2 1600w.

[Bigdrago]

Are you guys using ram from the QVL (qualified vendor list)? Or do you just pick randomly?

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/PRIME_B250M-K/B250_2DIMM_memory_QVL_report_201712.pdf?_ga=2.103543104.1991857897.1515584922-1145890633.1514051408

[Boriss]

Are you guys using ram from the QVL (qualified vendor list)? Or do you just pick randomly?

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/PRIME_B250M-K/B250_2DIMM_memory_QVL_report_201712.pdf?_ga=2.103543104.1991857897.1515584922-1145890633.1514051408

I am using the one from QVL but that doesnt mean some other brand or model won't work, this is just what has been documented till now to work.

[flip4flop]

You guys are better than me because I struggle to power 8 GPUs adequately. I cannot imagine trying to power 19 in a single PSU-- I am guessing a multiple PSU setup?

The board has direct plug ins for 3 PSU which is why it makes it such a great board for 13+ cards.  I just added my second PSU last week and it worked great. I like not having to link PSUs together using add2PSU.  They make it easy. Now if they would just release that bios update to handle the full board of cards that would be nice.

[Bigdrago]

You guys are better than me because I struggle to power 8 GPUs adequately. I cannot imagine trying to power 19 in a single PSU-- I am guessing a multiple PSU setup?

Hi.
Are u using the atx12v molex connectors?
I thought the point of this board was to having less cables. The asus website says that all u need is to connect the cards and good to go.


The board has direct plug ins for 3 PSU which is why it makes it such a great board for 13+ cards.  I just added my second PSU last week and it worked great. I like not having to link PSUs together using add2PSU.  They make it easy. Now if they would just release that bios update to handle the full board of cards that would be nice.

[airric00]

I have this card running with 10amd 580s, stable and mining zec at 3KH/s.    Just picked up 3 more xfx cards to add to it after I get drivers installed.   Hoping they release the update to add the remaining 6 cards.   I don't want to mix the Nvidia cards as simple mining doesn't allow that.   But for now I'm up and running smoothly.  Anyone have info on the update?

[Anthrakorixos]

why this card is so difficult to find?

[QuintLeo]

Greater demand than supply, like MOST "mining-related" hardware since March or so of last year.

[airric00]

I'm having an impossible time getting unbuntu on mine.    What did you do?    i get i386 error

"Bits Be Trippin'
4 days ago
@asus @ASUSUSA Just got off Asus Support and they confirmed 13x is MAX on B250 Mining Expert until BIOS update in 4Q. Case ID#
N171017058"

Having the same issue. Can't get past 13 GPUs. ASUS support says that to get more than 13 we need to use mining cards. Can someone confirm this?

Thanks

I run my rig on Ubuntu 16.04.

I put 13 general purpose gpus (rx570 580, 1060 1070) on the board and it runs perfect.
However, if I put the 14th general purpose gpu, I got POST fail.

If I put 3 more mining gpus to 16 cards (13 general purpose gpus + 3 mining gpus), runs smoothly.

But I have no idea if Ubuntu supports more than 16 gpus.

[betaminer]

Just ordered one board in Norway, and payed for it directly in the shop... delivery time unknown. What does it mean... they are writing in the add the release date is unknown... I thought that board was already released... or is it because this will be (the new?) version 2, as mentioned in the add...?