Asrock H81 BTC Pro Board and Sapphire Tri-X 290s

[bitcenturion]

Having an issue with the Asrock BTC Pro board recognizing all 3 of my Sapphire Tri-x 290's. Windows 7 64-bit - It sees 2 of the cards (all 3 on risers in 1x PCIE slots) but can't get it to see the third for the life of me. Confirmed the 3rd card works as I swapped it with the 2nd card to ensure it CAN be seen, which it can, just not 3 all at once. I am running two 850w corsair PSUs together for the board (with the an adapter to combine them)

Any ideas? Does the presence pin on the 3rd PCI 1x slot need to be shorted?

You'd think that the board DESIGNED for running risers as a rig for mining would support all cards out of the box.

[1713304802]

1713304802

[zmhaha]

I am hunting for this board too. Not sure if it can power 6x 290x. I heard people saying they should use powered risers but some said don't because it will short something and do some damage.

For your case, I am sure your PSU is not give you enough to power 3x 290 and all the rest of the stuff.
Also, do not crossfire for mining. You have to manually disable it.

[Street Jammer]

Do NOT use powered riser cables. This board provides additional power to all slots, if you run power from PSU1 to the Motherboard, then power from PSU2 to the riser, it will short through the PCI-E slot between supplies. Some have reported melted riser cables.

We have many of these boards with 6x R9 280X's and dual 1200W supplies. The only issue we have currently is AMD driver not allowing more than 5 cards to be enabled at a time.

If anyone knows a work around for this please help. We've tried Win7, Windows Embedded 8 Standard, Windows 8.1, Xubuntu. I've read suggestions of Catalyst 12.6 and 13.1 allowing more than 5 cards, however the R9 280X will not work properly and isn't supported back in 13.1

To clarify... Connect PSU 1 to All motherboard connections, depending on size, run GPU 1 and 2 from it's PCI-E connectors.

Connect PSU 2 ONLY to PCI-E 8+6 pin connectors on GPU 3 and 4, and PSU 3 ONLY to PCI-E 8+6 on GPU 5 and 6

Do NOT use powered risers.

Out set up has, PSU1 runs all motherboard connections + GPU 1,2,3. PSU2 runs GPU 4,5,6.
We've modified 2 ATX 24 pins extension cables into a connecting the Green and Black 'power on' wire between supplies so PSU1 and PSU2 both are on or off at same time as motherboard.

[novymivo]

hi all. i want use 5gpu=s r9 280x
I got win 7 64bit but last card got error code 43.
4 cards works perfect
the same mb ashrock 81.
all gpu-s are fine , all risers as well.
what to do ?
sdk is necessary or maybe drivers I used 13.06 beta.
Please help or pm tip will be given.

[Street Jammer]

try debian or Xubuntu

[novymivo]

try debian or Xubuntu

no thanks i need win 7
c'mon you know how to do it please

[Street Jammer]

try 12.6 drivers ,  some people got it working

windows 7 supports max 8 GPU cores.

Since r290x card has as 2 GPU cores each

Only 4 X R290xcards works with windows

With Linux you can have 5 cards easy

[novymivo]

try 12.6 drivers ,  some people got it working

windows 7 supports max 8 GPU cores.

Since r290x card has as 2 GPU cores each

Only 4 X R290xcards works with windows

With Linux you can have 5 cards easy

i will try but do i need sdk as well or not ?

i got r9 280 x not 290x so ?

[Street Jammer]

same for both cards , im not sure about sdk

[humorme201]

Okay, I have 4 Sapphire Dual-X R9 280x cards and just purchased the ASROCK H81 PRO BTC. Also have 1 PSU Corsair 1200i. Do i need another PSU for this rig? Should I use Windows 8.1? Comments and suggestions? Should I add one more R9 280x to this setup? Also, if I were to build another rig, should I go for 4x R9 290x? What brands would you recommend folks?

thank you...the information above is very helpful!

dsy

[Street Jammer]

Corsair 1200i is enough for 4 Sapphire Dual-X R9 280x cards , use windows 8.1

if you were to add one more card i recommended 1600w psu

If you are going to build a new rig go for sapphire R9 290x tri oc ,

[humorme201]

Corsair 1200i is enough for 4 Sapphire Dual-X R9 280x cards , use windows 8.1

if you were to add one more card i recommended 1600w psu

If you are going to build a new rig go for sapphire R9 290x tri oc ,

Thank you so very much for your input.  Much appreciated.  For the new rig, same psu for 4 sapphire R9 290x?

[Street Jammer]

Corsair 1200i is enough for 4 Sapphire Dual-X R9 280x cards , use windows 8.1

if you were to add one more card i recommended 1600w psu

If you are going to build a new rig go for sapphire R9 290x tri oc ,

Thank you so very much for your input.  Much appreciated.  For the new rig, same psu for 4 sapphire R9 290x?

If you are going with 4X 290x , 1600w is enough each card pulls around 300 - 360w

[humorme201]

really struggling here.  have the following and windows 8.1 and cgminer only see 2 cards

Board: Asrock H81 Pro BTC
PSU: Corsair 1200i
GPU: 4x Sapphire R9 280x cards

Molex connectors have been plugged into mobo, and non of the risers have power to them per instructions above. (They have molex on them but not plugged in)

Latest Catalyst drivers and 3.7.2 cgminer too.  Have reinstalled catalyst drivers with hope of OS finding add'l cards no to avail.

Any and all help greatly appreciated...

thank you,

dsy

[humorme201]

Should I go the Linux route instead of Windows 8.1 for my above setup?

thank you.

[humorme201]

Okay, finally got it to recognize 3 of the 4 cards...looks like I may need an additional power supply for the 4th R9 280x perhaps...the card powers on and lights up but is never recognized by the OS; the card does indeed work, b/c I moved them all around tested each.

StreetJammer - what are your CGMINER settings for the R9 280x cards; I have the Sapphire Dual-X cards (4x) of them and don't Trixx and Afterburner don't let me undervolt...my hashrates are horribly low (in the mid 500s)...looking for some help here.

thank you,

dsy

[iralee3c]

Do NOT use powered riser cables. This board provides additional power to all slots, if you run power from PSU1 to the Motherboard, then power from PSU2 to the riser, it will short through the PCI-E slot between supplies. Some have reported melted riser cables.

We have many of these boards with 6x R9 280X's and dual 1200W supplies. The only issue we have currently is AMD driver not allowing more than 5 cards to be enabled at a time.

If anyone knows a work around for this please help. We've tried Win7, Windows Embedded 8 Standard, Windows 8.1, Xubuntu. I've read suggestions of Catalyst 12.6 and 13.1 allowing more than 5 cards, however the R9 280X will not work properly and isn't supported back in 13.1

To clarify... Connect PSU 1 to All motherboard connections, depending on size, run GPU 1 and 2 from it's PCI-E connectors.

Connect PSU 2 ONLY to PCI-E 8+6 pin connectors on GPU 3 and 4, and PSU 3 ONLY to PCI-E 8+6 on GPU 5 and 6

Do NOT use powered risers.

Out set up has, PSU1 runs all motherboard connections + GPU 1,2,3. PSU2 runs GPU 4,5,6.
We've modified 2 ATX 24 pins extension cables into a connecting the Green and Black 'power on' wire between supplies so PSU1 and PSU2 both are on or off at same time as motherboard.

Street Jammer,

Sounds like you got a good setup going with this H81. I bought two but haven't been able to get it quite going. Perhaps I can benefit from your experience...

When you say don't use powered risers how do you mean? I bought a bunch of 1x to 16x PCIe risers with the molex connectors. Can I just used my powered risers without connecting powering them?

I'm trying to get Ubuntu + Asrock H81 working but failing to recognize any of my 7970s in the 1x slots (only got the 16x slot working). You think Xubuntu might be better? - have you tried Ubuntu before?

Thanks.
-Ira

[razerrr]

Street Jammer,

Sounds like you got a good setup going with this H81. I bought two but haven't been able to get it quite going. Perhaps I can benefit from your experience...

When you say don't use powered risers how do you mean? I bought a bunch of 1x to 16x PCIe risers with the molex connectors. Can I just used my powered risers without connecting powering them?

I'm trying to get Ubuntu + Asrock H81 working but failing to recognize any of my 7970s in the 1x slots (only got the 16x slot working). You think Xubuntu might be better? - have you tried Ubuntu before?

Thanks.
-Ira

That's my qurstion too.
I also have this board, but out of a sudden, it won't work anymore and today my risers began to melt.
So now I'm looking for the right config especially because it worked and from just to now even not.

PS: I'm running two sapphire R290X on two different boards ( same problem on both)

[humorme201]

i finally got all four of my r9 280x to work with risers (they have molex on them) but I am NOT connecting them to the power supplies.  I have 2 Corsair 1200axi PSUs - 1 is connected to mobo along with two molex connectors to this mobo as well.  4 cards all have risers attached to them - 2 cards to each PSU.  Finally working...each card is around 73 degrees..and hashing at a rate of 735 or so.  Windows 8.1 and the latest catalyst drivers along with SDK 2.9 I think.  REPEAT DO NOT CONNECT POWER TO THE RISERS - CONNECT POWER TO MOBO and to the TWO MOLEX PORTS ON THE MOBO as well.  I have a Honeywell fan blowing directly on the mobo and cards too.

Forgot to mention the risers are 1x to 16x; I am NOT using the 16x port on the mobo...

[RickJamesBTC]

There is no reason not to use powered risers. If they have a provision for power, or if they are the USB style like I sell, they are designed to be powered. Not connecting them means that the power section was just on top of the existing connections. The USB style risers have no provision for power from the motherboard to the card, so they absolutely have to be plugged in.