7 x XFX RX480 8GB - MSI Z170A GAMING M7

Hi,

I’m planning to build my first mining rig using following parts:

CPU: Intel Celeron G1840
M/B: MSI Z170A GAMING M7
RAM: Corsair Value Select DDR3 - 4 GB
SSD: Intel 540S 180GB
GPU: 7 x XFX Radeon RX 480 GTR Black Edition 8GB
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 P2 power supply - 1600 Watt

Case: Rosewill RSV-L4500 (will custom mod it)
PCI-X reiser: 7 x USB powered via 6-pin (not SATA)

I was originally thinking about Asrock BTC motherboard and 6 XFX cards but I might as well pack maximum I can in a 4U chassis :wink: Also PSU might be a bit overkill but I want to avoid running two smaller PSUs.

It will be hosted in a proper datacentre with very good cooling (cooling alleys etc)

Any recommendations / suggestions?

Thanks

Hey @kobazik,

The Intel Celeron G1840 uses the LGA1150 socket and the MSI Z170A Gaming 7 uses LGA1151, so they aren’t compatible. You’re better off with the ASRock H81 Pro BTC or even the ASRock H97 Anniversary, as they’re both compatible with the G1840 and they’re much cheaper than the MSI board.

If you really want 7 PCIe slots, then the MSI Z97 Gaming 5 is the LGA1150 board you want, but it’s $100 more than the ASRock boards (assuming you can find them in stock). That being said, I believe 6 card rigs are actually more cost effective than 7 card rigs. The main reason is because the SuperNOVA 1600W P2 is ~$200 more expensive than the 1300W G2 model where I’m from. Together with the extra $100 on your MSI motherboard, you’re adding close to $300 to the cost of your rig, and you haven’t even bought the 7th GPU yet. So you’ll have to check local prices and do the math to see if it makes sense for you.

Everything else looks good. SSD doesn’t need to be that big, but I see that model is on sale on Newegg so that’s fine. The Rosewill case is a really nice touch, as I’ve seen some pretty sweet rigs built with those.

Good luck and happy mining!

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Oh my bad I completely missed that the Celeron got different socket :slight_smile:

Regarding PSU will 1300W be enough got 6 gpus? I will try to undervolt them and overclock memory. Also is worth investing in platinum PSU rather then gold?

Thanks

I’m running 6x RX470 on an EVGA 1000W GQ, undervolted core and OC’d mem and dual mining so 1300w for 6 480s sounds reasonable, 1200w would also work. Whether or not it is worth going platinum depends on energy cost and price gap between gold and platinum in your case. I would also recommend 4gb 470s with Elpida or Samsung ram, I am beating some 8gb 480s with my visiontek 470s (30mh/s ETH), at a lesser initial and power cost.

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Comparing EVGA 1600 P2 with EVGA 1300 G2 I’ve noticed the first one got 5 x 6-pin ports only where 1300 G2 has 6 x 6-pin ports. This will leave me with max 6 GPUs which actually would make more sense cost and power usage wise.

Is it better to use 6-pin or Molex pci-x riser?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6set-USB3-0-PCI-E-Express-1x-to-16x-Extender-Riser-Card-SATA-6Pin-Power-Cable/152370049211?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3D6ccdcb65b9cb47fc835cc878e5e049ab%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D132073205708

I’m of the opinion that the higher the version number the better - so would suggest these (from your post) which are version 6C - where as the pack of 6 is version 5.

Hi, I wanna see that mode case!! :+1:

in such a case do NOT use molded power cables. the chassis will get hotter then normal making the risk for a (contained) burn out more likely!

What would you class as moulded power cables? Do you mean the cable from socket/PDU into the PSU?

Any cable directly from the PSU is good

i am meaning them adapter cables. I think someone even posted a video about it earlier today in this forum you might wanna check out.

But how I can know what memory have every GPU? Because can´t see in the Specifications of the vendors :pensive:

Have you set it up successfully? I remember someone said this motherboard does not support 7 GPU due to memory bandwidth, instead it only support 6 GPUs with 8G RAM.

Kindly help me how to enable 6 GPU on my below configuration:

Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M7
CPU: Intel i3 6098P
RAM: CORSAIR 16 GB DDR4 3000MHz OC
PSU: Corsair AX1500i
GPU: 4 x SAPPHIRE RX NITRO+ 480 8GB OC + 2 x SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 470 4GB OC
SSD: Samsung 750 EVO 120GB
HDD: WD 1TB

I’m tired of searching online for the solution to enable 6 GPUs. I am not succeeded. Kindly help me how to enable.

where is the problem :slight_smile:

Hi anybody!
I use MSI z170 m5 with 6 gtx1070. Runs great with 6 gpu and i think it can runs with 7 gpus, but i have issue with the upper pci-e x1 slot. Every time i connect to the upper pci a video card i have a lot of crazy behaviours of PC and it cant load OS.
I dont know what to do, because i have one more gtx1070. Should i go to this mobo seller and ask to change board. Or should i give up? )

Asus gtx1070 8gb very nice. have 420 sols/s in stock from each and 460+ with small overclocking.

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its probably the z170 chipset does have enough pcie lanes, but i cant confirm as i dont have a z170

No, the problem exactly in upper slot. a can connect only one device in upper slot and see tha same result.

oh i see, most other 170 boards cant handle more than 4 cards.

Look around for the dedicated z170 topic here. I believe I read there that you need to update your BIOS to the latest (v1.7?), and that fixes the 7-GPU problem. It’s quite an elaborate thread, so take a look!

Edit: MSI Z170 7 GPU BIOS Setting step by step - #17 by dawnpwns

actually i remmeber a guy emailed me late last year, said he bought a truck load of those baords from MSI, said he forced MSI to make a bios for the board to accept more GPUs

I told him to push them to make the BIOS public

dont want to say i had a hand in that bios being available, but I very well might have as he didnt think he could get them to make it public… but i told him… tell MSI,… they will sell boat loads of the boards if they do so

never heard back from him after

looks like they did

ill check out the thread

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