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

e-coin-e-card

The service E-Coin that is offering users a Bitcoin-powered Debit Card and an online Multi-Sig wallet is apparently going to be rebranding to Wirex. So in the future instead of E-Coin debit cards you will be getting a Wirex Bitcoin-powered debit card, but with the rebranding we are also supposed to get new extras including a dedicated mobile applications for Android and iOS. Meanwhile the old E-Coin website is still fully functional and is still the way to use your Bitcoin online wallet and to control and manage any virtual or physical Bitcoin-powered debit card if you have already have one.

e-coin-bitcoin-visa-debit-card

Last year we have reviewed the service and even got our own physical E-Coin Bitcoin debit card issued to try it out, you can find our first impressions using the card here. We should note that we got an unbranded Visa card issued from My Choice Corporate and apparently the new cards should be Master Cards branded as Wirex Card and be issued from by Wave Crest Holdings. We will have to wait a bit and see that when the rebranding is finished and E-Coin fully transforms as Wirex, something that is currently going at the moment.

e-coin-buy-bitcoin

As we have already mentioned E-Coin is an online multi-sig wallet for securely storing Bitcoins as well as a service that allows you to get a Bitcoin powered debit card. The Bitcoins you have in your balance however are not directly available for use through your Bitcoin debit card, you need to first load your card by essentially exchanging Bitcoins for the fiat currency of the card. It is also possible to to load money directly in the Bitcoin debit card with a bank transfer, but up until recently you had no option to “unload” money from the card back into your Bitcoin wallet from within the service. Now you finally have to option to Buy Bitcoin with the balance in your card, so you can move BTC to fiat and vice versa any moment you like, so you can even profit “trading” when the exchange rate changes. Of course for trading you would prefer to go for an exchange, but it is convenient to be able to get any unspent EUR from your Bitcon debit card back to Bitcoin if you are not going to be needing them for the moment.

For more information about the virtual and physical E-Coin Bitcoin-powered Debit Cards…

what-to-miner-x11-profitability

Some very good news for the very few owners of the first batch of iBeLink DM384M X11 ASIC miners, but also for GPU miners as well – X11 mining profitability on NiceHash has skyrocketed in the last hours and is still keeping high. Selling X11 hashrate on NiceHash has been the most profitable long term choice since the beginning of this month and the preferred choice for the 50 lucky owners of the first batch of iBeLink X11 ASICs. Today however we are seeing the X11 profitability more than doubling compared to what it was just a few days ago.

Now, some people are considering that X11 is already a lost cause for GPU mining, but it is too early for that as there are still very few X11 ASIC miners available and with high profitability increase like the one at the moment you should take advantage even with GPUs, let alone to miss the opportunity if you have an ASIC miner in your hands. The next batch of iBeLink X11 ASICs is expected around mid-May and even then the number of available units will most likely be small as compared to what we have seen with LTC ASIC miners fooling the market when they first appeared. So if you are not mining Ethereum or Decred with your GPUs you might want to check the profitability for X11 for your GPU mining rigs, and even if you are mining ETH or DCR you might still check if this X11 peak will not be more profitable on the short run.

If you want to check your current X11 GPU/ASIC mining profitability on What to Mine…

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