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Topic: What is the best motherboard for multiple GPUs? (Read 750 times)

newbie
Activity: 14
Merit: 0
the best motherboard is mine and i won't tell you the name duh
full member
Activity: 180
Merit: 100
AO Blockchain Founder | Lead Developer
In a standard case, your probably going to want to make sure you have a high airflow fan in front of the cards to make sure they keep cool. Preferably something above 100 CFM. You can get a decent fan of that caliber for around $20.

If you are going to look at building your own chassis for your graphics cards, you can get up to 7 cards on some of the higher end motherboards. Asus and Gigabyte both have good boards for that.

I have a pair of Rampage IV Extreme's with 6 cards on each (all on PCI-E x1 to x16 extensions). Boots and runs, testing hashing capacity tomorrow.

As for power, the 7950 seems to require about 220W per card for mining. Also requires 25A on the 12V rails. So for 4 7950s, you'll need a minimum of 880W and 100A. Add in the 80% capacity rule, and your going to want at least an 1100W power supply for 4 cards. And 100A on the 12V rails.
full member
Activity: 238
Merit: 100
This is what I bought;

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-434-GI

Cheap, native support for 4 cards side by side or even more on risers and rock solid.  Lips sealed
sr. member
Activity: 364
Merit: 250
I was looking at one... ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77
Can anyone tell me if it is any good? looking to put 2 NVIDIA cards in.
newbie
Activity: 4
Merit: 0
I second the suggestion of the GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-OC. I switched from an old ASUS board to this one & run 4x TOXIC r9 280's in it. The board has an extra PCI-E 6-pin power connector near the PCI-E slots so you don't need to bother with powered risers. The x16 slots are spaced a decent distance apart as well so you can have 2 cards fitted in the board and two on extenders which is how I've been running mine for the last few months without problems. There is also an extra 1x slot so you can upgrade to 5 cards max I believe.
newbie
Activity: 2
Merit: 0
I agree:

Depending on your budget, the GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 5 may be a good choice for mobo.
It has all these slots:
2x PCI Express 3.0 x16
2x PCI Express x8 (x16 connector)
3x PCI Express x1
member
Activity: 78
Merit: 10
GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-OC is good for standart case setup
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
Depending on your budget, the GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 5 may be a good choice for mobo.
It has all these slots:
2x PCI Express 3.0 x16
2x PCI Express x8 (x16 connector)
3x PCI Express x1
sr. member
Activity: 350
Merit: 250
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.3870584

"Best" and "cheapest" is not the same.
newbie
Activity: 16
Merit: 0
A friend of mine who build his mining system used pci-e extender cable to be able to mount the cards farther apart in a custom made chassis.  So as along as the board has the slots you can position the cards as needed.

They are sold on ebay and such for like $10-20.
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
I want to run a machine with multiple 7950's (I'm currently using just 1)

what motherboard would you recommend?  And how many watts should my power supply be?

I know the card takes up a lot of space, and a lot of motherboards have them really close to each other, so I'm curious if they actually fit.
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