Topic: Motherboards: What Works w/Four or More GPUs? List Them - page 4. (Read 53356 times)

I didn't use them, but like I said earlier in this topic, if you want to boot with an USB key, this brand of motherboard can really be a pain in the ass.

Has anyone used a Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 (not the -D3 version, but -UD3)?  Considering getting a few of those.

thanks for the confirmation, was freaking out that I might actually have to learn linux to run 5 gpus on a setup.

Check device manage if their is 5 GPU's.
Actually only GUIMiner can able to detect more than 4 GPU's, AOCLBF will say put card number manually. Seems CGminer also detects more than 4 GPU's.

I got 5 gpus to load in windows...  but the guiminer only showed 4.

No.
Up to 8 GPU supports in Windows 7

a noob question, but windows still limited to 4 gpus?

NOOOOOOOOOO to GIGABYTE 890FXA-UD7

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.475736

MSI 890FXA-GD70 MSI 890FXA-GD70 MSI 890FXA-GD70 MSI 890FXA-GD70 MSI 890FXA-GD70

thats all you need to know.

I've come to the conclusion that the best option for dedicated miners is the Gigabyte GA-H61M-D2-B3 logic board. It's attractively priced (i.e. cheap), will take a cheap CPU and RAM but also accept a fast CPU if required later, and the four PCIe slots all work in all configurations with plain unpowered x1 -> x16 extenders.

The board seems to be pretty efficient - not wasting a ton of power internally, as proven by kripz above managing to run a quartet of 5850s from one with a 750W PSU.

On top of this, with the Sandybridge CPU installed (again, I use the cheapest one I could buy, £60 or so), it has an independent 'integrated' graphics subsystem. Lots of cheap logic boards offer this these days, so this isn't *that* special... but under Linux at least, one can boot the system with four big GPUs plugged into the PCIe slots, but configure the BIOS to use the integrated graphics first. That way, you can install, configure and run Linux off the integrated graphics, without Compiz and all the other Mac-style eye-candy getting in the way of the mining code. This doesn't even seem to use much power, either.

Obviously for you 'extreme gamers' out there who want to do some mining on the side, proper x16 connectors and triple / quad crossfire solutions on fabulously expensive 8-slot logic boards may be the order of the day. But once you go above 4 reasonable-spec mining GPUs, you really ought to be considering over 1000W PSUs, or dual PSUs.

Dual PSUs rely on your circuitry knowledge to ensure stability, and you have to also know the internal structure of each PSU to ensure that all rails are loaded to some extent (using a secondary PSU purely to power 12V loads (i.e. GPUs) leaves the 5v and 3.3v rails unloaded; in some PSUs this will instantly trip the safeties, on others the lower voltage circuitry will slowly heat up until an 'unexplained' shutdown - there are plenty of threads here about similar examples).

Single 1000W+ PSUs cost a fortune. Yes, if you're an 'extreme gamer' then you're prepared to pay large to get the best kit. But if you're building multiple dedicated miners, you don't want to be buying 'premium' kit anywhere other than where it absolutely adds hashrate.

On top of this, for packaging purposes, four GPUs is almost a sweet spot for most 'wind tunnel' type cooling systems. The board, with 4 GPUs suspended above it using extenders, fits into a cube with edges roughly the length of the logic board. This can be built into a modular system appropriate for fixing onto cheap shelving, with bathroom extractor fans at either end to channel the airflow.


There are other 4-slot boards which work well without the need for 'presence pin shorting' or any other pissing around (the Biostar board mentioned here seems a favourite), but given the PSU issue and the steep rise in price of logic boards with *more* than 4 PCIe slots, I reckon 4 is the way to go for dedicated miners.

Just my 0.0000002 BTC.

Pair it with a celeron.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116410&Tpk=g440


With graphics!

I have 12 A870 and A870U3 board.  Two of them cannot handle 4 GPUs.  One can handle only two and the other can handle 3.  I will be RMA'ing those and replacing them.  Of the 10 that can handle 4 GPUs, all are very solid.

My config is (2) x8->x16 in the x16 slots and (2) x1->x16 in the x1 slots.  GPUs vary but are mainly 5850's and 5830s.  PSU is 1000W Coolmax.  Running Ubuntu 11.04

I certainly agree and for anyone having a hard time finding this board. For some reason a LOT of the searches for that model GA came up with 4 different board layouts, prices, etc etc.

But,  http://www.comeuro.net/webshop/product.php?productid=167014
Our price: £49.81 (€56.29, $74.72 )

Thank you everyone for all their work in this thread. Will try and add some of my testing soon.

p67 chipset only has 21 lanes.

Looking at the gigabyte website, it doesnt specifically say that the 2 16x slots will run in 8x when both are used. So assuming that it doesnt, you have 16x + 4x + 1x, we are now full. I'm guessing you could run the 2 16x slots and any of the 1x slots (total 3 cards).


If you use a 1x -> 16x riser in the 16x slot (or tape the card) i think it will work.

Maybe presence pins need shorting?

Tested with powered and unpowered from cablesarus.
0, 1 and 4 work, with anything in 2 and 3 it boot loops.


I will re-test this again some time - right now the kids are all behaving, so I'm not gonna mess with them.

~RdD

powered pci risers?

What does not work:

Gigabyte P67A-D3-B3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128487

While it does work with 3, it's picky about which.

Sad, since it has 5 PCI-E slots in all - quite attractive for the price if all worked.

Confirmed on multiple boards.

If a bios flash fixes, of course I will update this.

~RdD

Thanks BkkCoins, we'll check into that when we get some courage for it. Currently, we're ok, it's just that the bug is incomprehensible. We've worked around 6 hours on it one night, on the verge of depression and ready to return everything when we found that updating the BIOS to F4B worked with some of our USB keys. Not all of them though (even if they all have the same OS on it).

I don't want to derail the topic, but this Gigabyte bug needs a sticky topic for it, or a wiki, or something with all the solutions people found for it. For those who buy those boards, it's really a major problem.

I had similar problems with my GA-970A-D3. Some Gigabyte boards have this idiotic BIOS problem that apparently has to do with requiring a Windows "signature" in the boot record. I did much searching around and this is the best I could make out about this. I did find a tool that worked for me with Ubuntu. I have all Ubuntu systems here but I do have a WinXP VM under virtualbox on my notebook. I used this to format the usb key with a universal formatting tool and after that my key booted fine.

The "Universal USB Installer" is discussed here,
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

I don't recall which forum thread I originally found out about this but it tool me many hours of trial and error to figure out this works. Apparently the HP formatter tool also works.

EDIT: Now that I think about, since this was a while back now, it may have been another tool that actually "fixed" the problem. I'm not sure right now but at the same time I also tried the "Bootice" program that did it. It's a blur now as I did this a month back in the wee hours of the morning. This program can be used to manipulate the MBR on the flash stick and if I recall you need to write a "good" MBR with this before you can boot.

http://www.pendriveapps.com/bootice-partition-flash-drive-edit-boot-sector/

Gigabyte are daft beyond words for having this boot problem and I'd seriously consider not buying their products again because of this. This was my first GA board after many years of buying only Asus.