Cheapest AMD Crossfire board?

[Ulti]

Hey Hexites,

Any of you know what the cheapest AM2+/3/3+ board with 2 PCI-E slots with the most gaps in between them is?

Stuff like USB3, SATA3 6Gb/s won't be needed as I will be running a 40GB HDD.

[Ulti]

I've found the MSI 870U-G55 for ~£60 and it has 2 slots in between, should be enough space for a little bit of airflow. I've currently got a Biostar TA870+ and although it's great, there's only 1 slot in between so there's no space for airflow for the top card.

[Sputnik]

Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3L http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...-sata-raid-atx

[shakerist]

bitcoin ? im looking for the same thing

[Pob255]

The 2nd slot on that one is only x4 http://www.msi.com/product/mb/870U-G55.html#?div=Detail edit:and the gigabyte, lilit of the x70 chipset

you really want a x90 chipset motherboard for x16+x16 eg http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...sata-3gb-s-atx

Also a cheaper foxconn alternative, however there's been a lot of bad reports about this one (mainly issues with phenomII x6) http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...nn/a9da-s.html

not that cheap but have you also considered an AM3+ motherboard? http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-9...-sata-raid-atx that would cover you for later cpu upgrades

[ehhhhhhh]

what are the temps during load with the biostar board?

[Ulti]

Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3L http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...-sata-raid-atx

Thanks but that's more expensive than the current one I listed and don't need the extra features as I'll never upgrade.

bitcoin ? im looking for the same thing

Bingo! Guess you should keep an eye on this thread too Just a hint for you, Athlon IIs are really cheap on eBay, but I guess a Sempron 140 would be better as you save more but I haven't searched for them.

The 2nd slot on that one is only x4 http://www.msi.com/product/mb/870U-G55.html#?div=Detail edit:and the gigabyte, lilit of the x70 chipset

you really want a x90 chipset motherboard for x16+x16 eg http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...sata-3gb-s-atx

Also a cheaper foxconn alternative, however there's been a lot of bad reports about this one (mainly issues with phenomII x6) http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...nn/a9da-s.html

not that cheap but have you also considered an AM3+ motherboard? http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-9...-sata-raid-atx that would cover you for later cpu upgrades

As I'm using it for Bitcoin mining, bandwidth on the slot does not matter as the graphics cards are simply solving calculations or something along those lines. I remember I did like the Foxconn a long time ago. Searching up on it now.

what are the temps during load with the biostar board?

The top 5850 is at 90 degrees with 80% fan and the bottom is at 70 degrees with 40% fan. 80% fan is far too loud for me to sleep comfortably in though.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is the cheapest 890GX motherboard I can find ATM:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/253249

It has a very wide gap between the PCI-E slots.

This 990X motherboard is also worth looking at IMHO:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/270603

If symmetrical Crossfire is not important then I would consider one of these 870 motherboards for under £60:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/255180

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/259268

[Pob255]

But those 870 BioStar are only single slot between cards.

Not sure what effect the lower bandwidth would have on bitcoin mining, you may not be moving a lot of big texture files to and from the card, but you are hammering the streams with lots and lots of small calculations.

That foxconn board is a 790GX which means it's also got onboard graphics, not sure if you can use it at the same time as both the pci-e x16 solts
However if you can then you could totally dedicate both card to bitcoin mining and just have the onboard for monitor output.

PS personally I'm not going near bitcoin but if your willing to take the plunge then good luck with it.

[Ulti]

As Pob255 says, those Biostar only have single slots in betwee, I'm currently using the 870+ one and Bitcoin is working fine with x16/x4 mode but the temp is very hot as noted above. Even with the window open now the room feels very hot so I dont think I can sleep if the temp gets any hotter.

I've ordered the Foxconn board and it's actually 890GX too, it's got x8/x8 crossfire but as I said before, it probably won't matter. I guess I just gotta hope for the best with the temps.

I'm still a "poor student" so I may as well take the plunge and see what happens with this small "investment" project haha. Currently running 2x 5850s with an Athlon II X2 215e or something and it gets to about 390-400W load which is really pushing it for the Coolermaster PSU I'm using right now, don't think I'm gonna run it 24/7 until I receive my new PSU; ordered the XFX 650W Core Pro or whatever it's called as it has 4 PCI-E cables but Dabs have been taking the piss with their extra long customer support wait time and have seem to have lost my order so I'm gonna see what's on Scan's Today Only tomorrow and hope for the best.

[shakerist]

What speeds are you getting on 2x5850 around 600mhash? I managed to convince my dad to buy me a 5850 running it with my 6850 I think i will be getting around 1 btc a day

[Pob255]

Uummm I hate to say this but having an extra slot between the two cards is not going to make your room any cooler, you're not going to reduce the total amount of heat coming out out your case, infact you might make it worse (by a fraction of a degree.

Cooling is all about transferring heat from one thing to another, in pc's it's about getting heat from the components into the air then getting the air out of the case as quickly as possible, it does not reduce the total heat produced.

I think you may need to look at the air flow of your room, maybe you need to make a blow hole and add in a couple of fans.
House modding FTW!

[Domestic_Ginger]

This is quite interesting where the chap 're engineers' a mid range board to us ethe PCIe x1 slots to build a rig using 5970s.
http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=42

Just get the ASUS crosshair; you know you want to!

Is that power draw at the wall Ulti? any overclocking?

[shakerist]

difficulty increased 50% I wouldnt spend any money just in case you dont get it back, but if you dont mind a risk then i guess its ok because a higher difficulty rate might mean more £ per btc

[Ulti]

Well I just got the Foxconn board along with a second hand Corsair TX750W, just waiting on a few fans from Scan and the rig should be relatively quiet. Before I moved over here I was used to sleeping near a train bridge (I wasn't that poor, just my room was facing the train bridge unfortunately) so I'm pretty used to sleeping with noise, but fan whine is not the nicest thing to listen to.

Now that there's a gap in between the graphics cards, the graphics card in the top slow runs much cooler and I can run both the cards at 40% fan with temps of between 75-80 C for the top card and 65ish for the bottom card. Much happier now, also as I got a "better" PSU (was using a 520W modular coolermaster or something so it was running at a very high load and thus produced a lot of heat) and so it can run at probably the most efficient load (I think this generally occurs between 40% and 60%) and it now draws around 375W on my energenie power meter.