Motherboard designed for mining, and better riser cables in this thread.

[RickJamesBTC]

Thanks!

[1714761723]

1714761723

[1714761723]

1714761723

[1714761723]

1714761723

[chMiner]

What the heck, don't link to those overpriced ones!! Go to my website, only $20 each!

Good to know that!

[Mineraholic]

I read about fried Asrock Pro BTC boards when people used them with powered risers but also heard claims that without powered risers only 2-3 cards would work.

I'm planning on building a rig with an Asrock Pro BTC mobo in mind with 5 cards, but with 2-3 types of video cards, with different power consumptions. So what would be the safest route to take?

Always use powered risers and if you don't understand what I just wrote, let me put it a different way..............................

ALWAYS FREAKING USE POWERED RISERS!

There!

Get it?

Got it?

Good!

My $.02.

hmmmm........and for what reason?

I got a rig running without power (Molex) to the motherboard (Asrock H81 pro BTC) without powered risers with 5 R9 280X.

@pontiacg5
You got the sexiest rig I've seen so far! Awesome work dude!

[sebasimp]

can i use those PCI-E 1x usb riser on a 16x PCI-E port? thanks!

[RickJamesBTC]

can i use those PCI-E 1x usb riser on a 16x PCI-E port? thanks!

Yes

[rascal777]

With those longer riser cables, 30cm... I had so much problem, but then i wrapped alumimum around the cable and placed plastic wrap over the aluminum, and some of my problems went away.

Really, aluminium? What problems went away ?

I bought some 30 cm risers from hash rate store, and I think that the risers are the weakest link. I would experience on bootup of the motherboard, a single r9-290x would all of a sudden have the fan spin up to max and the computer would hang in the middle of booting up, requiring a hard restart.  After fiddling with the risers for a while, I wrapped aluminum foil around the cable, and then placed plastic wrap over that to prevent shorting.  Seemed to help a lot, eliminating the hang on boot problem, but i also noticed that just moving the riser cable a little before bootup could also cause the boot hang to happen.

[RickJamesBTC]

With those longer riser cables, 30cm... I had so much problem, but then i wrapped alumimum around the cable and placed plastic wrap over the aluminum, and some of my problems went away.

Really, aluminium? What problems went away ?

I bought some 30 cm risers from hash rate store, and I think that the risers are the weakest link. I would experience on bootup of the motherboard, a single r9-290x would all of a sudden have the fan spin up to max and the computer would hang in the middle of booting up, requiring a hard restart.  After fiddling with the risers for a while, I wrapped aluminum foil around the cable, and then placed plastic wrap over that to prevent shorting.  Seemed to help a lot, eliminating the hang on boot problem, but i also noticed that just moving the riser cable a little before bootup could also cause the boot hang to happen.

You should throw those away and get some USB risers. That's just silly.

[sub-80]

I can comment on the USB 3.0 riser cables. They are much better than the old ribbon cables, plus allow you so much more creativity with mounting cards.









It even looks like they have pci-e presence shorts built onto the boards, though I haven't had to mess with them or pci-e presence pins on msi z77-gd65 and z77-gd45 mobo builds.  

Thanks for the thread on the latter mobo, btw  

Hey;

I also use a powered usb riser a different model this one:

Am wondering are you getting the gpu fan speed and temp?

[RickJamesBTC]

You should be getting all signals from the GPU with the USB risers. I've had a few cards that didn't always do it, but the gpus were usually on the way out.

[repairguy]

You should be getting all signals from the GPU with the USB risers. I've had a few cards that didn't always do it, but the gpus were usually on the way out.

Same, I use that exact same riser and have no issues with temp readings.  Usually you will either get all or none, because it shares the data channels for the whole operation of the card.  If you can mine with it, the riser is almost impossible to be the problem. I do remember you need a modified cgminer for the temp display to work with 290s.

[goin2mars]

Okay, I've been looking through this thread and others and keep coming up with different answers. Posting here because i'm seeing actual pictures of an excellent setup.

I want to run a p9x79 pro, 4820k, with 4 r9 290 cards. I know the mobo and cpu are overpowered for this, but I owned them before I decided to mine with them . . and mentioning them here helps me stress that I'd like to not destroy them. I want to use them to mine safely.

Anyways, I have a couple questions about using risers:

I will be using two different single rail 850w power supplies for this type of setup. If I mount them all on risers, do all 4 powered risers need to be powered through one PSU? If so, does it need to be the main psu that I'm using to power the mobo or the secondary psu powering only the two extra GPU's? If different, do the risers have to be on the same PSU as the GPU that is powered (2 risers on each PSU)? I intend to use the powered USB risers that have been linked here.

Alternatively, I already have a comp case . . so can I put two cards on the board in the case and two cards outside of the case on a stand? I'm asking this because I already built a stand that will hold 2 GPU's and the second power supply. I'd like to know if I should just put all 4 cards off the mobo and on the stand (I designed it to fit up to 4 cards, but only has supports for two right now)  . . or if I can get away with 2 in the case and two out? If the split 2in 2out option is ok . . should I still have the two powered risers that I'll be using on the main PSU or the one outside the case? If this isnt safe I have no problems modifying my stand . . but it would be nice to save time if I can do it safely.

[repairguy]

Okay, I've been looking through this thread and others and keep coming up with different answers. Posting here because i'm seeing actual pictures of an excellent setup.

I want to run a p9x79 pro, 4820k, with 4 r9 290 cards. I know the mobo and cpu are overpowered for this, but I owned them before I decided to mine with them . . and mentioning them here helps me stress that I'd like to not destroy them. I want to use them to mine safely.

Anyways, I have a couple questions about using risers:

I will be using two different single rail 850w power supplies for this type of setup. If I mount them all on risers, do all 4 powered risers need to be powered through one PSU? If so, does it need to be the main psu that I'm using to power the mobo or the secondary psu powering only the two extra GPU's? If different, do the risers have to be on the same PSU as the GPU that is powered (2 risers on each PSU)? I intend to use the powered USB risers that have been linked here.

Alternatively, I already have a comp case . . so can I put two cards on the board in the case and two cards outside of the case on a stand? I'm asking this because I already built a stand that will hold 2 GPU's and the second power supply. I'd like to know if I should just put all 4 cards off the mobo and on the stand (I designed it to fit up to 4 cards, but only has supports for two right now)  . . or if I can get away with 2 in the case and two out? If the split 2in 2out option is ok . . should I still have the two powered risers that I'll be using on the main PSU or the one outside the case? If this isnt safe I have no problems modifying my stand . . but it would be nice to save time if I can do it safely.

No all 4 risers do not need to be powered from the same supply.  You can have one feeding the two in the case for the risers and the cards and another feeding the two on the stand and their risers