What Motherboard to Use for a Multi-GPU Mining Rig

21 Mar
2016

asrock-h81-pro-btc-motherboard

With the recent spike of interest in GPU mining thanks mostly to Ether a lot of people are getting back to building GPU mining rigs using more up-to date hardware much like back in the days of the Litecoin and prior to that of the Bitcoin mining boom. Nowadays it is much easier and you have way more options for different motherboards that have the option to work with 4, 5 or even 6 video cards by utilizing not only full width x16 PCI-E slots, but also the multiple available PCI-Express x1 sots with the help of extenders. We have prepared a list of all possible candidates for use as motherboards for multi-GPU mining rigs 4-6 GPU mining from ASRock, the company that has made its name among miners thanks to their dedicated BTC-branded motherboards made especially for GPU mining rigs. Other motherboard manufacturers such as Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and others also have products that might do for a multi-GPU mining rigs, but these are not dedicated for such use and this may cause some problems.

Nowadays ASRock has a lot of BTC-branded motherboards that are designed for use as multi-GPU mining rigs for different processor platforms from both AMD and Intel. There are also quite a few more non-BTC named motherboards that could do the job perfectly and some that might also work fine, but some of the PCI-E slots might not be available for GPU use under specific conditions, so you need to be careful. What is important for a motherboard that will be used with multiple GPUs for mining is for the motherboard to have enough PCI-E slots, to be affordable in terms of price as you don’t need extras targeted at gamers or enthusiasts and to be able to be used with cheap dual-core CPUs. ASRock’s BTC-branded motherboards do come with some extra features that may help by minimizing possible issues such as the fact that they have been designed to provide extra power to GPUs and have dedicated connectors for additional power from the PSU. They do not share PCI-E lanes with external hardware such as network controllers, audio cards, storage controllers or USB controllers that may cause problems if you want to use all of the available PCI-Express lanes for video cards and so on. These motherboards are offering just basic features, but ensure stable and problem free operation even under not so good conditions that often are available with GPU mining rigs that generate a lot of heat an may not be optimally cooled.

The list below covers all possibly suitable ASRock motherboards for 4-6 GPU mining rigs, you should choose to go for the models that do have the BTC in their model nae as they will most likely be the best choice. The next are Anniversary and Pro series and then the others if you have no other choice, but with such a big list you should have a lot of options. Unfortunately the only 6 GPU capable motherboards are for Intel socket 1155 and 1150 CPUs, still no affordable options for the latest Intel 1151 platforms or AMD FM2 sockets. Sure the company has some high-end enthusiast level products that can do 6 GPUs, but these are pointless for use as multi-GPU mining rigs as they will add to much to the price of the setup and you will be better off spending the extra cash for more video cards or more powerful models. After all you need to find the right balance that includes cheap motherboard, cheap processor and powerful GPUs along with some PCI-E extenders (powered preferably) with PCI Express x1-x16 USB 3.0 Extenders being the best choice if available.

Intel Socket 1151 ASRock Motherboards

5 cards:
ASRock B150A-X1
ASRock B150 Pro4D3
ASRock B150 Pro43.1
ASRock H170A-X1
ASRock H170 Pro4
ASRock H170 Pro4D3
ASRock H170 Pro4S

4 cards:
ASRock B150 Combo
ASRock B150M Pro4S
ASRock B150M Pro4
ASRock Q170M vPro
ASRock H170 Combo
ASRock H170M Pro4S
ASRock H170M Pro4

Intel Socket 1150 ASRock Motherboards

6 cards:
ASRock H81 Pro BTC
ASRock H81 Pro-G
ASRock B85 Anniversary
ASRock H97 Anniversary

4 cards:
ASRock H81M BTC
ASRock H81M-G
ASRock B85M BTC
ASRock B85 Pro4
ASRock H87 Pro4

Intel Socket 1155 ASRock Motherboards

6 cards:
ASRock H61 Pro BTC
ASRock H61 Pro
ASRock H61DEL

4 cards:
ASRock H67DE3
ASRock P67 Pro
ASRock P67 Pro3 SE
ASRock P75 Pro3

AMD FM2/FM2+ ASRock Motherboards

5 cards:
ASRock FM2A58+ BTC
ASRock FM2A58 Pro+
ASRock FM2A78 Pro3+
ASRock FM2A88X+ BTC
ASRock FM2A88X Pro+ R2.0
ASRock FM2A88X Pro+
ASRock FM2A88X Pro3+

4 cards:
ASRock FM2A58M+ BTC
ASRock FM2A78 Pro4+
ASRock FM2A88M+ BTC






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17 Responses to What Motherboard to Use for a Multi-GPU Mining Rig

bathr

March 21st, 2016 at 21:52

Great Article. I have a bunch of ASRock H81 Pro BTC boards and they are perfect in every respect with all kinds of cads for years. Note, that I use powered USB risers so I’m NOT using the extra 4-pin SATA power slots on the boards.

111

April 13th, 2016 at 19:54

ASRock H170 Pro4 also can’t more than 3 GPUs.

david

July 7th, 2016 at 15:52

asrock Z170 Pro4 cannot do more then 2 video cards. sometimes it will post with a 3rd video card but will show corruption on the screen and hard crash at windows when drivers are installed.

Ivan Popov

August 19th, 2016 at 15:54

ASRock B150A-X1 can’t do 5 cards. It can work with 4 if you disable the onboard graphics, but not with 5.
I red this article before buying this board and I trusted it. Shame. Dislike

wraolge

October 10th, 2016 at 01:35

On the motherboard GIGABYTE GA-B85M-D3H (rev. 1.x) 4.0 IS BETWEEN two PCI

LABEL THEM on / off charge PCI EXPRESS 3.0 Will CONNECT CARD

PCI-E x16 VIA Riser PCI x1- PCIx16 USB

[URL=http://pixs.ru/showimage/gigabyteb8_4604094_23613719.jpg][IMG]http://i12.pixs.ru/storage/7/1/9/gigabyteb8_4604094_23613719.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

НА МАТЕРИНКЕ GIGABYTE GA-B85M-D3H (rev. 1.x)4.0 ЕСТЬ ДВА СЛОТА PCI МЕЖДУ

НИМИ НАДПИСЬ on/off charge PCI EXPRESS 3.0 СМОГУ ЛИ ПОДКЛЮЧИТЬ КАРТУ

PCI-E x16 ЧЕРЕЗ Riser PCI x1- PCIx16 USB

Chris

December 25th, 2016 at 21:49

The MSI Gaming 3 will run 4 cards, I have it running in a GPU Rack in-front of me running three 970’s, and 750 ti; and unlike the 1150 (i7 4790) mobos above which only run Gen 2, this mobo runs at the cards at Gen 3, which for BOINC data processing (Collatz Conjecture) improves processing by around 25% more output. (You just need to go into the BIOS and click the button which says ‘force all pcie slots to Gen 3).

Perhaps you could do another article to list the Gen three, 4/5/6 pcie slot mobos..?

HAZMIN BIN HASHIM

February 23rd, 2017 at 07:27

hi

how about asus rog strix z270e .. can for mining process ?

Zulekha Cara

June 1st, 2017 at 00:10

The motherboard we are using is the Asrock z270 Killer SLI

8BG DDR4 Ram

Intel Celeron processor

6 Sapphire nitro+ 8gb RX580 cards

 

We have tried using windows and ethos but are having the following issue:

 

We are able to mine with 4 cards no problem but the moment we install the 5th carad it bombs out two cards and only three become available

 

The error we are getting is insufficient system resources

Not sure if this is the motherboard

admin

June 1st, 2017 at 13:31

Not all motherboards that do have 6 or more PCI-E slots will work with as many GPUs. You can check if the BIOS has a TOLUD (Top Of Lower Usable Dram) option available or Above 4G Decoding on some motherboards, it might help in getting more than 4 video cards working. Manually switching PCI-E slots to Gen 1/Gen 2 instead of the regular Gen 3 or Auto might also help on some motherboards.

Adam Drummond

June 3rd, 2017 at 00:13

The Z97 Anniversary can’t take 6 GPU’s

Roadkill

June 6th, 2017 at 18:10

Is there a motherboard that does 6 GPU’s (Sapphire RX580). Every board I come across that is able to do so, is sold out…

Veka

June 17th, 2017 at 00:53

Guys please help with the advice If you know. I have older ASRock P67 Extreme6 MBO http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/P67%20Extreme6/index.asp

Currently I have one gtx 1080 inside and I will definitely put two more GTX 1070 alongside for mining purposes. Can some one please tell me can this mobo run more then 3 cards. Manual says that it has 3 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots and 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots. Are these later two good for another pair of GTX 1070?

THNX

admin

June 17th, 2017 at 01:05

It will most likely work with 3 cards and could allow for as much as five, though that depends on the BIOS.

Joshers

August 16th, 2017 at 02:29

@david

I got a h170 pro4s and got 4 cards(Nvidia 1070 mixed with RX 570) to work and the 5th won’t work for me , i think its due to the fact i got a rm850x and even if i have the 1070s (i have 3) power target down to 70% when i try to add the 2 570s (That i can’t modify with afterburner)one will work and mine fine and when i plug in the 2nd card it will not boot. what kind of psu do you have ?

Jim

January 29th, 2018 at 01:09

At the moment I still having issues connecting 4 VGA to FM2A78 PRO4+
3 are working OK

Mayank

February 28th, 2021 at 10:23

I have mining pc RTX 3070, 4.0 PCIE CAN I USE MALTI GPU 5 TO 6 RING, IF NOT PLEASE LET ME KNOW SOLUTION CAN SOMEONE MADE FOR ME I WANT TO RUN 4 TO 6 GPU CANNECT ION
WAITING FOR YOUR REPLY

admin

February 28th, 2021 at 12:29

This is an old list of motherboards for mining rigs, there are many more nowadays, including specialized solutions for mining with 6, 8 or even more GPUs available.

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