Happy New Years! Seventh alt coin thread!

[deadsix]

A word of advice... avoid using those M2 adapters - had an "fiery" experience with my first attempt, literally "smoked" right in front of me, and never tried anymore M2 adapters.
The culprit was the power cable that powers the adapter via molex from the PSU. Very poor quality those cables - probably recycled from power cables meant for floppy drives.

Smoked my first m.2 adapter a while ago (luckily turned it off quick enough to not damage anything else) have used over a 50 since problem free. The issue was, like you guessed, the power cables - DO NOT plug them in on m.2 adapters, not needed at all.

[deadsix]

he is the inventor of the internet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=BnFJ8cHAlco

That's me in Interviews 

[crazydane]

I have 3 rigs with Asus PRIME Z270-A boards.  All 3 have 2 M.2 adapters installed so that each rig can run 9 GPUs.

I can confirm that power does not need to be connected to the M.2 adapters.  I haven't had any issues with mine, but I was very careful to center the adapter in the M.2 slots on the mobos.  It is a pretty loose fit and the pins are tiny, so being off center by like a 1/64th could be an issue.

[P00P135]

Hello everyone... I will be building a couple of rigs based on the Asus Prime Z270-A Mobo in the next few days and have a question about making use of the M.2 slot.

I understand that this slot can take a GPU via adapter.  I found this one at Ali Express that seems to be what I need, but was wondering if any of you have used this or have another recommendation.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/NGFF-M-2-to-PCI-E-X16-Slot-Adapter-Card-Mining-Riser-Card-1x-to-16x/32823390321.html

Thanks!

A word of advice... avoid using those M2 adapters - had an "fiery" experience with my first attempt, literally "smoked" right in front of me, and never tried anymore M2 adapters.

The culprit was the power cable that powers the adapter via molex from the PSU. Very poor quality those cables - probably recycled from power cables meant for floppy drives.

Given that this M2 slot (which is in fact designed for M2 storage) - these adapters was a workaround to add another PCI slot, likely something did not add up in power requirements, especially when you use cheapo M2 adapters onto reputable branded mobos.

I did see some builds in Youtube that works fine, especially the ones with white PCB vs the green ones. For low powered cards, seems that you dont even need to power the M2 adapter, to get the mobo to recognize the GPU.

You don't use the power plug for any m.2 adapters if you use powered risers.  They also make straight USB 3.0 versions that have a usb plug instead of pcie 1x.

[crazydane]

You don't use the power plug for any m.2 adapters if you use powered risers.  They also make straight USB 3.0 versions that have a usb plug instead of pcie 1x.

They also make ones with a mini-usb plug like this:



I got a couple of them.  With 008C revision risers no less.

[QuintLeo]

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070 Ti

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814932029&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-VigLink-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=6163686&SID=jdkwz1w6qc011rh100053

Still available even after ~30 minutes of auto-notify. Granted, $70 over regular retail but still ~$150 cheaper than anywhere else.

out of stock  and all 9  of my gently used 1070's are gone.  sold for 500 each plus shipping.

yeah... shocked they even lasted 30-40 minutes to be honest. Maybe it's a sign supply may start to open up a bit... maybe not lol.  At least now i only need 1-2 more 1070ti's to complete my 2nd Nvidia rig.

 Given the JUNK fans on those cards, I'm amazed they didn't last longer.
 I don't think I've had ONE Windforce 3-fan model where the fans all lasted a year (though my 1080 ti still has a few months to go before it hits that mark).

[BogdanCo]

Hello everyone... I will be building a couple of rigs based on the Asus Prime Z270-A Mobo in the next few days and have a question about making use of the M.2 slot.

I understand that this slot can take a GPU via adapter.  I found this one at Ali Express that seems to be what I need, but was wondering if any of you have used this or have another recommendation.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/NGFF-M-2-to-PCI-E-X16-Slot-Adapter-Card-Mining-Riser-Card-1x-to-16x/32823390321.html

Thanks!

A word of advice... avoid using those M2 adapters - had an "fiery" experience with my first attempt, literally "smoked" right in front of me, and never tried anymore M2 adapters.

The culprit was the power cable that powers the adapter via molex from the PSU. Very poor quality those cables - probably recycled from power cables meant for floppy drives.

Given that this M2 slot (which is in fact designed for M2 storage) - these adapters was a workaround to add another PCI slot, likely something did not add up in power requirements, especially when you use cheapo M2 adapters onto reputable branded mobos.

I did see some builds in Youtube that works fine, especially the ones with white PCB vs the green ones. For low powered cards, seems that you dont even need to power the M2 adapter, to get the mobo to recognize the GPU.

I've just built 4 Rigs with 7x Nitro Rx580 each, using Gigabyte Z270P-D3. Instead of a SSD on M2 I used the M2 powerless adapter similar to the one from the link above. Until now I have no issues with them (running for 3 weeks now), but one M2 adapter from 5 came defect from shop. I've just ordered 20 more from China over ebay.

[MagicSmoker]

my m2 adapter was pop then magic smoke all in an instant.

Now you know where my username comes from... I've been letting out the magic smoke for decades now!

But yeah, just because m.2 is compatible with PCIe from a bandwidth perspective doesn't mean you can pull the same power from it as a real PCIe slot. AMD cards, especially, tend to draw quite a bit of their power from the PCIe bus, even if they also have 6 or 8 pin connectors.

[Elder III]

Our only experience with M.2 adapters so far has been using one from minerparts (based in TX). We've been very pleased with their service, so if you do want to try one out I'd recommend them over alibaba.

https://minerparts.com/product/pcie-4x-to-ngff-m-2-adapter-with-4-pin-power-cable/

[Moondoggie]

Hi All,

Only have remote access to my rigs right now, so can't unplug and play with things.
But, I have recently switched back to mining Zec, and notice that GPU0 (GPU1 in MSI) won't go above 160w, making it hash lower than the rest of the cards on the rigs running at 200w.
Anybody experienced this issue that power % wont change in MSI / mining programs no matter what you set it to in MSI?

edit: only seems to happen with equihash (DSTM and EWBF). GPU0 is stuck at 64% power no matter where the slider is).

[blockchange88]

Hi All,

Only have remote access to my rigs right now, so can't unplug and play with things.
But, I have recently switched back to mining Zec, and notice that GPU0 (GPU1 in MSI) won't go above 160w, making it hash lower than the rest of the cards on the rigs running at 200w.
Anybody experienced this issue that power % wont change in MSI / mining programs no matter what you set it to in MSI?

edit: only seems to happen with equihash (DSTM and EWBF). GPU0 is stuck at 64% power no matter where the slider is).

i get this problem sometimes. i have a wemo plug so that i can remote reset my rigs. i use smos, but the rig reboot function never fixes the problem. cutting the power entirely and then resetting does the trick. need to expand out the house or get a 220v line because im pushing 20k sols all around my house. my big question is can i get a 220v wemo plug? maybe uncle phil can chime in?

[philipma1957]

going about this problem the wrong way.

I have the 6 slot riser free boards  and
I have the 8 slot riser free boards filled up

but I still have test rigs  for bs issues like  a card that stays stuck.

So I take the stuck card and run it on an empty board.

This is about a 90% fix rate.

A week later  I switch it back into the main board rotation.

For me space is not an issue  So have 3  or more empty boards ready for gear is common.

I had an evga  1080 ti  that was screwing up on a 6 1080ti rig.

moved it from the array to an empty  8 slot board in my garage.  it worked great on smos alone it worked great with a 1050ti.

So I moved it to my  6x 1080ti rig  which is now a 7x 1080ti rig in my garage.


This  was all in smos/linux   but I do this with windows on occasion. With good results.

mobos are cheap  compared to  a 1080ti  so 2 idol mobos  for trouble shooting smos and windows  cost me very little.

So far  since April  100 plus nvidia cards

1 dead fan -------- I fixed it
1 dead card ------- msi did a fast rma
1 dead wb card---- msi did a fast rma ------- a leak


a dozen trouble maker cards  all fixed by rotation on boards.  

full 6 slot to empty 8 slot for a week back to full board. =   this cured most every problem  except the three mentioned aboved.

At the moment I and shrinking the farm down to all 1080 ti's

[TheYankeesWin!]

So:

 1 test 6 slot
 1 test 8 slot   both for smos

what else?

as the two above would be 100 + 150 = 250  plus ram , cpus ,psu's  that keeps you over 500 for testing mobos.

[Moondoggie]

Thanks for the suggestions all.
I'll try a full power reset and/or board rotation when I get access.

[philipma1957]

So:

 1 test 6 slot
 1 test 8 slot   both for smos

what else?

as the two above would be 100 + 150 = 250  plus ram , cpus ,psu's  that keeps you over 500 for testing mobos.

well  it is more.  but I also filled them  for all of December when mining got hot and exceeded the pwoer cap on the solar array.

I like about 3 psu's   say 2  1000 watt corsair and 1 1500 watt   that is 700 in backup/tester

I like  3 mobos  2 for linux/smos one for windows  that is 300 in mobos

some ram  say 150  so I always keep 1100 in spare gear.

right now house is filled with excess mobos.  

I have 15 used working mobos
I have 4-5 psus'
I have 10 sticks of ram
I have many many many ssd's hdd's usb sticks

I would say 2000 usd in idle gear.  rather then 1000.

but it lets me  test shit  fast and easy.

I sold a lot of 1070's  which is why the idle mobo count is high.

[Marvell2]

So:

 1 test 6 slot
 1 test 8 slot   both for smos

what else?

as the two above would be 100 + 150 = 250  plus ram , cpus ,psu's  that keeps you over 500 for testing mobos.

well  it is more.  but I also filled them  for all of December when mining got hot and exceeded the pwoer cap on the solar array.

I like about 3 psu's   say 2  1000 watt corsair and 1 1500 watt   that is 700 in backup/tester

I like  3 mobos  2 for linux/smos one for windows  that is 300 in mobos

some ram  say 150  so I always keep 1100 in spare gear.

right now house is filled with excess mobos.  

I have 15 used working mobos
I have 4-5 psus'
I have 10 sticks of ram
I have many many many ssd's hdd's usb sticks

I would say 2000 usd in idle gear.  rather then 1000.

but it lets me  test shit  fast and easy.

I sold a lot of 1070's  which is why the idle mobo count is high.

as we discussed in Pm's i have around the same amount of idle gear

[R0mi]

Hello everyone... I will be building a couple of rigs based on the Asus Prime Z270-A Mobo in the next few days and have a question about making use of the M.2 slot.

I understand that this slot can take a GPU via adapter.  I found this one at Ali Express that seems to be what I need, but was wondering if any of you have used this or have another recommendation.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/NGFF-M-2-to-PCI-E-X16-Slot-Adapter-Card-Mining-Riser-Card-1x-to-16x/32823390321.html

Thanks!

There is another issue with those M.2 adapters.  If they don't come with an included spacer, then you risk having the pins on the underside of the M.2 short out your motherboard if you apply power to the M.2.

The issue is that without that spacer, the M.2 boards are not parallel to the surface of the motherboard but instead angle downwards on one end.  It doesn't take much at that point to have the pins underneath the M.2 scrape up against traces or exposed parts on the Asus board.

I would put some insulating material on the bottom of any M.2 adapter.  If nothing else, two strips of electrical tape.  Or don't and enjoy the Majik Smoke some day.

[citronick]

Hi All,

Only have remote access to my rigs right now, so can't unplug and play with things.
But, I have recently switched back to mining Zec, and notice that GPU0 (GPU1 in MSI) won't go above 160w, making it hash lower than the rest of the cards on the rigs running at 200w.
Anybody experienced this issue that power % wont change in MSI / mining programs no matter what you set it to in MSI?

edit: only seems to happen with equihash (DSTM and EWBF). GPU0 is stuck at 64% power no matter where the slider is).

i get this problem sometimes. i have a wemo plug so that i can remote reset my rigs. i use smos, but the rig reboot function never fixes the problem. cutting the power entirely and then resetting does the trick. need to expand out the house or get a 220v line because im pushing 20k sols all around my house. my big question is can i get a 220v wemo plug? maybe uncle phil can chime in?

Have you tried SRR from Tytanick?

That system remotely turn off/on/reset the power from the motherboard off/on pins.

[puwaha]

Hi All,

Only have remote access to my rigs right now, so can't unplug and play with things.
But, I have recently switched back to mining Zec, and notice that GPU0 (GPU1 in MSI) won't go above 160w, making it hash lower than the rest of the cards on the rigs running at 200w.
Anybody experienced this issue that power % wont change in MSI / mining programs no matter what you set it to in MSI?

edit: only seems to happen with equihash (DSTM and EWBF). GPU0 is stuck at 64% power no matter where the slider is).

i get this problem sometimes. i have a wemo plug so that i can remote reset my rigs. i use smos, but the rig reboot function never fixes the problem. cutting the power entirely and then resetting does the trick. need to expand out the house or get a 220v line because im pushing 20k sols all around my house. my big question is can i get a 220v wemo plug? maybe uncle phil can chime in?

You can try my solution...works on 110V and 220V:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2866608

[GabryRox]

Thanks to everyone for your tips on the M.2 adapter. not sure I want to risk it for just 1 additional GPU at this point... especially given the fact that I tend to be away for several weeks at a time with all my rigs running in my house.

Anyway, regarding that same build on the Asus Prime Z270-A... is there anything that needs to be done in the Mobo settings/BIOS in order to enable 6-7 GPUs on Windows 10?  To date I have only built on ASRock BTC Pro R2 & Biostar TB mobos, both of which are good for 6 GPU on W10 with no tweaks at all... but I have read that on some mobos, they require some BIOS settings change to gen 1 or something like that.  For those of you that run these Asus mobos... is any of that necessary?