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Topic: Mining on a Pcie x4 2.0 Slot (Read 4922 times)

newbie
Activity: 15
Merit: 0
May 29, 2011, 09:23:56 AM
#4
Sure there are cheaper boards if x1 is enough. If 3 PCIe paths are enough, the cheapest I could find was ASRock I-H61 S1155 H61M-S which has one x16 and two x1 and that costs under 45€. For 4 PCIe paths the cheapest was Asus P8H61-M PRO Intel H61 Rev.3 (two x16 and two x1) for under 70€. The prices are from www.mindfactory.de. You might find them even cheaper on eBay or something.

EDIT: Though, they are both on H61 chipset which doesn't have SATA3, USB3 or for that matter anything else interesting.
member
Activity: 67
Merit: 10
May 28, 2011, 12:26:31 PM
#3
Quote
People even use x1 slots  http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=42. (it isn't bitcoin mining, but similar use of GPU)

All you need is any PCI-e slot + suitable risers for the cards where necessary. My board was second hand on ebay with 4 PCI-e slots for £55 ($95), including CPU, memory and hard disk.
Okay, thats good to hear, thanks. So I'll probably take the first one then, but I guess there no cheaper board then than the first one I listed for a 1155 Socket, because I'll buy a 2500k too. Need a new system anyway, so I'll get a mining rig/gaming combination and use the old one just for mining (3xPcie x16).
sr. member
Activity: 256
Merit: 250
May 28, 2011, 12:24:38 PM
#2
I am using a x4 slot with no problems.
member
Activity: 67
Merit: 10
May 28, 2011, 12:13:31 PM
#1
Does anyone have experience in this?
I need to buy a new mainboard with either 4 Pcie or 3 Pcie 2.0 Slots.
The one with 3 Slots costs about 110€ and has 1x16, 1x8 and 1x4. I don't think the x8 Slot would be a problem, but what about the x4 Slot? Does mining need a big bandwith and does anyone have experience with an x4 Slot?
If it has a bad influence on the hashrate I'd buy a mainboard with 2x16 and 2x8 Slots, as a board with 1x16 + 2x8 Slots costs 185€ and a quad Crossfire board 'only' 200€.
These are the boards I'm talking about:
  • x16+x8+x4: ASRock P67 Extreme4, P67 (B3) (120€)
  • x16+2x8: Sapphire PURE Black P67 (185€)
  • 2x16+2x8: ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution Rev 3.0 (200€)
I'd use 3/4x5870 on them. If you know any better boards please let me know.
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