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Topic: PCI-e riser power questions for nVidia 12-GPU build. (Read 480 times)

legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030
Is that a G2L with the "universal" ports, or a standard G2 where the sata and peripheral ports look the same but are labeled differently?

 (edit) never mind, just found a post from an EVGA employee in their forum about that point.

newbie
Activity: 33
Merit: 0
SATA connectors deliver only 54W, molex connector delivers full-spec PCIE 75W. It's simple, avoid SATA risers and SATA adapters/convertors.

I had to wait for the order from EVGA to come through, but I purchased additional PSU to Molex cables for my power supply. I'm now powering all 6 risers with 3 Molex cables directly from the PSU. The EVGA PSU lets you mix and match the SATA and PERF ports with either sata cables or molex cables.

Additionally, the motherboard has 3 molex power connectors on it directly to give more power to the PCI-e ports so I think I'm safe and sound. The 6x1070Tis are running at 130 watts each and temps are staying under 60 C. What's nice is that with +200 core and +700 memory they perform almost equal to my 6x1080s which run at 150 watts each.
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030

Ancillary question, it is safe to Y-split an 8-pin to power both an 8-pin 1070 Ti and its 6-pin powered riser?


 Generally yes, as the PCI-E spec rates an 8-pin power connector for 150 watts and the wiring for such a connector is normally capable of handling a little more than that safely - *IF* the 1070 in question is something like the EVGA SC 1070 or the Gigabyte ITX that is only rated for 150 watts.
 If you are running the cards at a "lower than spec" TDP where the power you are SETTING the card to is 150 watts or less, you should also be OK - though sometimes when Windows crashes it will cause Afterburner to lose it's settings on one or more card and allows the card to reset itself to FULL TDP.
 180 watt cards should be OK - most PCI-E connectors have wiring that will handle that safely even on "single connector" cables, and any DOUBLE connector cable (the kind that have both an 8 pin (or 6+2) AND a 6-pin on the same cable) should be safe to at least 225 watts.

 That MSI Gaming monster card with the dual connector - might be a bit marginal but SHOULD be ok, it might be rated for 240 watts but pushing a 1070 hard enough to actually DRAW that much power for more than a short peak timeframe takes a ton of work.

 Technically, the actual CONNECTOR is rated for 288 watts, but it's rare that the wiring FEEDING the connector is rated for quite that much.

 In most cases, you can run 2 risers from a single Molex power string - but check it after the rig has been on for 10 minutes or so and make sure the wires aren't running hot. Not all power supply makers use the same gauge wiring for their "peripheral" connectors, and while the CONNNECTORS are rated for a bit over 150 watts it's rare for any device connected to them to draw more than 50 or so (and most hard drives draw less than 1 AMP or under 12 watts from the 12VDC line, though some high-end FANS can draw close to 4 amps at 12VDC).

member
Activity: 191
Merit: 12
SATA connectors deliver only 54W, molex connector delivers full-spec PCIE 75W. It's simple, avoid SATA risers and SATA adapters/convertors.
newbie
Activity: 82
Merit: 0
i try to stay away from sata cables on my rigs. some people say they work some say dont trust it. molex is a much better option. i run up to 2 pcie risers on one molex cable and wouldnt recommend doing any more than that. ive never used a splitter to power the riser and the card together, i try and stick to either just risers or cards when i use a splitter. when it comes to powering rigs, cards, risers etc. put in the time/hassle/$ to do it right the first time!
newbie
Activity: 33
Merit: 0
I'm trying to do a large mining rig like this too, which motherboard are you using to support this many GPU, all nvidia? The asus 250 needs a weird mix of Nvidia / AMD 

The B250 Mining Expert supports 13x nVidia GPUs. To get to 19 GPUs you need to use 6x P106 mining cards. No AMDs necessary.
newbie
Activity: 6
Merit: 0
I'm trying to do a large mining rig like this too, which motherboard are you using to support this many GPU, all nvidia? The asus 250 needs a weird mix of Nvidia / AMD 
newbie
Activity: 33
Merit: 0
There is so much conflicting information about powering PCI-e risers that I simply can't figure out what's real and what's not.

I have a 12-GPU build (6x 1080 and 6x 1070 Ti). The 1080s and its 6-pin powered risers are all powered fine via 6-pin with no adapters. So here's my question for the 1070 Tis:

For the molex powered PCI-e risers holding the 1070 Tis running at 130-150 watts, is it safe to use:
1. 1 sata cable to power 2 risers using sata to molex adapter?; or
2. 1 molex cable direct from PSU to power 2 risers?

I'm out of 8-pin/6-pin ports on the PSU, which is why I'm trying to figure out whether sata or molex is fine for the 1070 Ti portion of the build.

Ancillary question, it is safe to Y-split an 8-pin to power both an 8-pin 1070 Ti and its 6-pin powered riser?



It depends on your power supply. You need to check how the rails are divided and the maximum amps each rail can supply before blowing a capacitor/fuze (again depending on the power supply).

Sorry, I can't believe I didn't include that. The 1070 TIs will on an EVGA 1000W G2 (https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=120-g2-1000-xr). Cards will be set to 130-150 watts each.

It's basically the same as this https://youtu.be/QBmZG4pnr6A?t=170, only my risers are molex powered instead of 6-pin powered. So I was thinking of powering 4 risers with 2 separate molex cables going directly to the PSU, and 2 risers with 1 sata cable utilizing the sata to molex adapter.
member
Activity: 223
Merit: 21
DCAB
There is so much conflicting information about powering PCI-e risers that I simply can't figure out what's real and what's not.

I have a 12-GPU build (6x 1080 and 6x 1070 Ti). The 1080s and its 6-pin powered risers are all powered fine via 6-pin with no adapters. So here's my question for the 1070 Tis:

For the molex powered PCI-e risers holding the 1070 Tis running at 130-150 watts, is it safe to use:
1. 1 sata cable to power 2 risers using sata to molex adapter?; or
2. 1 molex cable direct from PSU to power 2 risers?

I'm out of 8-pin/6-pin ports on the PSU, which is why I'm trying to figure out whether sata or molex is fine for the 1070 Ti portion of the build.

Ancillary question, it is safe to Y-split an 8-pin to power both an 8-pin 1070 Ti and its 6-pin powered riser?



It depends on your power supply. You need to check how the rails are divided and the maximum amps each rail can supply before blowing a capacitor/fuze (again depending on the power supply).
newbie
Activity: 33
Merit: 0
There is so much conflicting information about powering PCI-e risers that I simply can't figure out what's real and what's not.

I have a 12-GPU build (6x 1080 and 6x 1070 Ti). The 1080s and its 6-pin powered risers are all powered fine via 6-pin with no adapters. So here's my question for the 1070 Tis:

For the molex powered PCI-e risers holding the 1070 Tis running at 130-150 watts, is it safe to use:
1. 1 sata cable to power 2 risers using sata to molex adapter?; or
2. 1 molex cable direct from PSU to power 2 risers?

I'm out of 8-pin/6-pin ports on the PSU, which is why I'm trying to figure out whether sata or molex is fine for the 1070 Ti portion of the build.

Ancillary question, it is safe to Y-split an 8-pin to power both an 8-pin 1070 Ti and its 6-pin powered riser?

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