What's a good starter motherboard for building a starter mining rig?

[crawl777]

Hello  I'm looking to purchase some computer parts from newegg(canada) to build my first mining rig.
i'm starting off with a 1660 & 1050ti but plan on adding more cards in the future.

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[Didz]

Hello   I'm looking to purchase some computer parts from newegg(canada) to build my first mining rig.
i'm starting off with a 1660 & 1050ti but plan on adding more cards in the future.

Hi crawl777,

First I experimented with 2 different motherboard for a mining rig and I ended with that motherboard Asus Prime Z390-A Motherboard LGA1151.
You can plug up to 8 GPU (6 on PCIe slots and 2 on M.2 slots you need this expansion card for that https://www.ebay.ca/itm/122990821026 )

I didn't try 8 GPU but I have 2 mining rigs with that motherboard with 7 GPUs each and it's pretty stable.

Be careful with the other components you'll buy, they must be compatible with your motherboard.

Here's the list of my components I bought for my 6 mining rigs:

Asus Prime Z390-A Motherboard LGA1151

Intel Celeron G4930 Desktop Processor 2 Core 3.2 GHz LGA1151 300 Series 54W

PNY CS900 120GB 2.5 inch SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz C16 (PC4-19200)

If you go with let's say 8X 3070 then you need at least 1300W PSU like this one.

I haven't try it but my next purchase, someone suggested me to buy 2 of these PSU:
CORSAIR RMx Series (2021) RM850x CP-9020200-NA 850W
Here's the link on NewEgg: https://www.newegg.ca/corsair-rmx-series-rm850x-cp-9020200-na-850w/p/N82E16817139272

It's cheaper than one EVGA 1300W and I think it's even better. If you buy 2 PSU, you have to buy a
Dual 24-Pin Mining Adapter Cable to plug both PSU 24 pin cable on your motherboard.

For the chassis or frame , my first purchase was a big mistake, then I discovered this chassis which I think is one of the best on the market:

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B092VJV8LZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

trust me a good chassis or frame is super important to have for your mining rig.

I recommend to not buy the fans with the chassis, they send the accessories (the support) to install the fans even if you don't buy the fans. So buy this chassis without the fans (because the fans that come with the chassis are cheap) then buy separately the fans. If you go with 2 PSU there's places for the 2 PSU.

You also need these cables https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08Z32NV92/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
to power your GPU risers and the GPU.

For the GPU risers, I tried different brands and I think one of the best is GPUrisers, here's their website:
https://www.gpurisers.com/

I think I forgot nothing.
My mining rigs are stable since last March and I am using HiveOS and T-Rex miner.

Let me know if you have other questions.

One last thing, forget the 1050ti, it's not profitable enough with its 15 mh/s on ETH especially with the cost of all the other hardwares. I you have a short budget, buy one 1660 super at the time and you can always add more later on.

Happy mining!

[MidNite36]

Gtx1050ti are once dead but came back to life because of bull market, it's better to build rigs based on bear market in my own case because even on gtx1660 super or ti won't be able to give 1$ per GPU soon (red market) and also I suggest you wait for more weeks so you can buy the GPUs at cheap rate, right now graphic cards are down 50$ to 60$ in value but more price low will happen soon

[FP91G]

I will give you the advice that experienced miners say to all novice miners:
Don't build the first farm with a lot of graphics cards. 5-6 video cards as a maximum.
A very good motherboard GA-970A-DS3P for 5  video cards, which does not require BIOS settings. The processor and memory are very cheap for it. Take a look at aliexpress.

[swogerino]

I think any motherboard with 6 Pciex 1 slots will do well for you but I prefer more specific motherboards that are created exactly for mining like Biostar,Asrock or Asus,the mining versions of their motherboards.Also if you plan to start with a 1660 and 1050 ti I would suggest you start with a single RTX 3060 ti if you can find one as it can do almost 60 Mhsh for just 120 watt consumption being one of the most efficient cards in the market yet.

[FP91G]

This is not a problem if a beginner makes his first farm on 1050 ti graphics cards.
It will be a good experience, but he will quickly realize that 1 modern video card like rtx3060ti will give more profit than his farm of 5 1050 ti video cards.
The only important factor will be the price for which the newbie will buy these 1050 ti graphics cards. On these video cards, a newbie can mine coins until modern video cards are cheaper and sold in stores without queues.

[JayDDee]

Nothing special is required on a motherboard except PCIe slots. The CPU is nothing special either.
Any old desktop PC will do, just add a good PSU and the GPUs.

[FP91G]

Nothing special is required on a motherboard except PCIe slots. The CPU is nothing special either.
Any old desktop PC will do, just add a good PSU and the GPUs.

This is where you are wrong.
Not all motherboards are suitable for mining, because 3-4 video cards are determined well, and then problems begin.
It is better to buy proven solutions so that later you do not ask questions about why my motherboard does not want to work with 5 video cards.

[JayDDee]

Nothing special is required on a motherboard except PCIe slots. The CPU is nothing special either.
Any old desktop PC will do, just add a good PSU and the GPUs.

This is where you are wrong.
Not all motherboards are suitable for mining, because 3-4 video cards are determined well, and then problems begin.
It is better to buy proven solutions so that later you do not ask questions about why my motherboard does not want to work with 5 video cards.

That's usually a configuration problem and the question was about a starter rig. 5+ GPUs is more than a starter.

[Skinny48]

Any motherboard with enough pcie slots will work, I'm still using a core2duo motherboard and a i3 1st gen motherboard for mining in 2021 and it's been years that I purchased these PCs they still works fine till date.

[Ceyflix-Rez]

Trust me OP you will have less headache if you go with motherboards that are built for mining purpose, old motherboards works but they misbehave anyhow, I have two old motherboards that gives me problem from time to time and I can instantly tell the difference when I got a colorful mining motherboard

[Didz]

Gtx1050ti are once dead but came back to life because of bull market, it's better to build rigs based on bear market in my own case because even on gtx1660 super or ti won't be able to give 1$ per GPU soon (red market) and also I suggest you wait for more weeks so you can buy the GPUs at cheap rate, right now graphic cards are down 50$ to 60$ in value but more price low will happen soon

I agree and disagree.

Yes presently the GPUs are cheaper compared to 2-3 months but in my humble opinion there's no perfect time to start mining. When I wanted to do mining last March a lot of people were telling me it's not a good time we are in a bull market bla bla bla... I went all in and at the peak I was making 750CAD/day.

This is actually part of the game, the market conditions are always changing so if you believe that GPU mining is interesting on the long run for you (not on the actual market conditions) then go for it. There will be low and high periods for sure.

Same for me, I believe running a node validator on ETH 2.0 is the future so I am not analyzing if now it's the best time because hooo nooo the merge is not done yet, hooo nooo rocket pool might delay their mainnet launch hooo noooo.... Just do it if you believe in the foundations of the project.    

[Didz]

I think any motherboard with 6 Pciex 1 slots will do well for you but I prefer more specific motherboards that are created exactly for mining like Biostar,Asrock or Asus,the mining versions of their motherboards.Also if you plan to start with a 1660 and 1050 ti I would suggest you start with a single RTX 3060 ti if you can find one as it can do almost 60 Mhsh for just 120 watt consumption being one of the most efficient cards in the market yet.

I think one of the most efficient GPU on the market is the RTX 3070, I have 62.37 MH/s at 114W on ETH. Super stable on HiveOS, T-Rex miner.

Also it's weird on Ebay the RTX 3060 ti seems to be a little more expensive compared to the RTX 3070, I think it's because there's less available GPUs from this model.