Topic: 14x 6/8pin PCIe from a EVGA 1300 G2 (Read 408 times)

Allow me to explain the concept of a powered riser a little bit more clearly:
During typical use, a graphics card installed directly into the motherboard will draw power from both its onboard PCIe power connections (if any) AND through the motherboard's PCIe slot itself.

Back in the day, most people used PCIe x1 to x16 ribbon risers. Some of those were unpowered risers, meaning each card would pull some of its power through an x1 slot instead of a full x16 slot. Turns out that this didn't work so well for multi-card setups on some motherboards. *insert horror stories*

A good powered riser should allow you to provide the graphics card with power through the slot on the riser, most of which was never pulled through the motherboard.

To put it simply, when you are plugging in the power connectors for your risers, you are not just powering the riser itself (although yes, I'm sure it uses a little bit of power for itself), but you are also providing power for the graphics card. It's difficult to determine exactly how much power is drawn through the slot vs. through the card's onboard PCIe power connectors. Do note that AMD has sometimes gone over-spec with how much power goes through the slot (https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Power-Consumption-Concerns-Radeon-RX-480).

Quality molex connectors handle going over-spec quite well. SATA is more controversial.

My bad then, I thought you wanted to power GPU's with the molex/sata. I am assuming here you have the Risers that take pcie plugs? Sure you can use Molex to pcie adapters to power those, but do not use sata. Even the Riser can pull upto 75W if its an AMD GPU.

I'm using ASRock H110 Pro BTC+ & as soon as I connected my 3rd GPU it told me to give it more power via molex. I would never try to power a GPU with molex or SATA, I'm just looking at powering the last 2 risers(10 watts each) off of a 2x molex to 2x 6 Pin connector.

I am curious what others use or what best practice is, if there is one?
Thanks!

DO NOT, REPEAT, DO NOT use Sata or Molex to power GPU's. Unless its a really low end GPU that can function without the PCIe power and has the plug just for overclocking etc.
Molex cables are rated at 75W, Sata cables are rated at 50W. A normal PCIe would draw a MINIMUM 75W so both are unsited.
OP had the right idea with using splitters on the single cables. Stick to 12 cards only with that setup, or go for a PSU that gives you more connectors, most 1000W+ give you 8 PCIe connectors. I never use EVGA for the lack of connectors.

I'm not sure what motherboard you're using, but if you're using powered risers, then a mining-specific motherboard should not need the supplementary power from the 4-pin molex connectors.

With my setup, I used all of the available PCIe power connectors available directly off of the PSU (no splitters), then I started using 2x molex to 6-pin adapters.

I have heard of 8-pin EPS 12V to 2x 6(+2)-pin PCIe adapters, but haven't tried one out before.

If you end up using SATA to PCIe adapters, I would recommend using the 2x SATA to 1x 6-pin adapters over the cheap 1 to 1 adapters that probably came with some of your risers.
Something such as this one would probably do the trick: https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-SATPCIEX8ADP-6-Inch-Express-Adapter/dp/B007Y91B80

I would avoid powering more than one riser off of a line of SATA connectors, but that's just me. SATA connectors are not rated for the same current that 4-pin molex or PCIe connectors can handle.

So my 1300 G2s come with 4 single & 2 split/Y VGA cables, giving me a total of 8x 6/8 pin connections. With my Antminers I only needed 10 so 2 splitters was easy however with a 7 GPU rig I need 14. I could split the 4 single cables to get an easy total of 12 but for the last 2 the only thing I can think of is using one of these for the 7th GPU: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9385UV7788 & one of these https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAAXT4TS1730 for the 7th riser.. OR actually what would likely be far better is to power the last 2 risers with the molex to 6 pin adapters..

Currently I'm using all the VGA cables, 1 Sata(SSD), 1 Perif(MB), 1 CPU, etc. So Basically I have 1 remaining Perif(2x molex) & 4 Sata cables. I guess I could make this whole thing a lot easier & just power the last 2 risers with the Sata adapters but I've heard they're not the best quality, still for a riser barely using 10watts they'd probably do fine?

What does everyone else do/use?
Also, this will be a 13 GPU rig but the 2nd PSU & with 4 splitters it's 12 6/8 pin connectors are for the last 6 GPUs.