AsRock H110 Pro BTC+ – motherboard for mining

For the owners of most mining farms, it is very important to maintain value for money, which is why the AsRock H110 Pro BTC+ motherboard has been the optimal choice for more than a year. This is a relatively inexpensive and very high-quality model that fits perfectly into the mining industry. Moreover, among other advantages, this motherboard allows you to connect up to 13 video cards. Therefore, it is considered one of the best options both for large farms and for those who start with several video cards with subsequent expansion.

Specifications

The release of the AsRock H110 Pro BTC+ motherboard was initially received very warmly by miners, because the previous model, AsRock H81 Pro BTC, had gained enormous credibility in this area. Moreover, if the H81 allowed the use of only 6 video cards, the next model H110 expanded the capabilities of the motherboard up to 13 connected video cards, which at the time of its release was unprecedented for hardware in the mid-price category.

When assessing the characteristics of the AsRock H110, it is important to remember that this board is designed specifically for miners. Key Features:

Supports CPU Intel i3, i5 and i7, Pentium, Celeron sixth and seventh generations.
RAMM support DDR4 (2133/2400).
PCI-E slots: 12 PCI-E0 x1 + 1 PCI-e 3.0 x16.
Outputs – DVI-D (1).
4x SATA3.
4 USB 3.0.
1 M.2 slot (SATA3).

There are also power and reset buttons on the device.

It is worth noting the issue of compatibility for video cards. At the time of release of the AsRock H110 board, the manufacturer recommended using mixed configurations: 5+8 devices from different manufacturers. This imposed some restrictions on miners and was perceived as a disadvantage. The reason is simple - Windows 10 did not support more than 8 video cards from the same manufacturer, so miners combined NVidia and AMD devices.

However, today this problem is a thing of the past and Windows 10, with proper configuration, can easily “withstand” all 13 cards, so a forced transition to Linux is not required. Most often we are talking about NVidia devices. Moreover, some miners connect a 14th video card, although it is not recommended to do this without experience in setting up and handling farms. Also, the problem with the Claymore miner, which was limited to 10 GPUs from AMD, was resolved a long time ago. As a result, miners were forced to put up their remaining cards to mine another cryptocurrency or buy NVidia devices.

Limitations in mining on AsRock H110 PRO BTC+:

Putting 13 GPUs on one motherboard is undoubtedly a good idea until you realize that nothing comes for free. Although what we’ll talk about now is certainly not such a big disadvantage, much less AsRock’s mistake, I think it will be important to take these limitations into account when choosing between assembling two 6 GPUs or one 13 GPU mining rig. First of all, due to the recent boom in cryptocurrency mining, it has become almost impossible to purchase new video cards that would be ideal for mining. This new motherboard model could have become a mega-hit six months ago, but at the moment it is much easier to find a good motherboard for mining on sale than good GPUs. Most likely, this situation will not change until the majority loses interest in mining cryptocurrencies, which we are already beginning to slowly observe due to the decrease in the profitability of mining. The situation can also be improved by the release of new graphics processors from AMD and NVIDIA. In our opinion, this situation is a temporary phenomenon, and not something that will have to be put up with for a long time. Therefore, if you have the opportunity to purchase the AsRock H110 PRO BTC+ now, this is a good time to buy one or two of these motherboards for the future.

The second limitation concerns compatibility with Operating Systems . As you may have already heard, Windows 10 cannot work correctly with more than 8 video cards from the same manufacturer (AMD or NVIDIA) at the same time. The only way to run all 13 GPUs under Windows at the same time is to build a mixed configuration (for example, 8 GPUs from NVIDIA + 5 from AMD, or vice versa). However, you can always switch to Linux, of course, if your experience with this OS allows you. Linux distributions have no such restrictions and you can run up to 13 GPUs of the same architecture on this motherboard.

Limitation of the Claymore miner : if you are going to use the Claymore Ethereum miner, then you should know that the miner can crash when using more than 3 AMD GPUs. In this case, the solution is to run several copies of the miner with 3-4 GPUs in each. Claymore's miner has a 10 GPU limit, so you will have to assign the remaining 3 GPUs to mining another coin, such as Zcash.

All these restrictions are not errors or oversights of AsRock and may be corrected in the future. In fact, the AsRock H110 PRO BTC+ is the ideal motherboard for cryptocurrency mining, at least for now. As a result, the new product turned out to be a worthy replacement for the previous generation MB for mining in the form of AsRock H81 PRO BTC, and the purchase of this MB model will become even more relevant after GPU prices return to their previous course.

Currently, the AsRock H110 Pro BTC+ motherboard is in stock in the ComputerUniverse online store at a price of RUB 12,736. (186.55 Euro) . Instructions on how to make purchases on ComputerUniverse at a discount .

Mining equipment

Pros and cons of mining

Let's look at the main advantages of the AsRock H110 Pro BTC+ board. First of all, it is worth highlighting the main advantages:

13 PCI-E slots.
High quality assembly and PCB.
Built-in M.2 slot (can be used to connect an M.2 hard drive or a 14th video card using a conductor).
Built-in two reset buttons.

Support for 13 video cards has become a real “panacea” for miners, especially for those who assemble large farms or upgrade, gradually purchasing additional video cards. H110 allowed us to significantly save money that would have been required to purchase a second motherboard, processor, memory, etc. It is also worth noting the better organization of space, where one rig always outperforms two installations. Even if you don’t take into account the possibility of connecting a 14th video card via an M.2 slot with an adapter, the number of slots satisfies miners of any level.

High build quality can be considered a plus, because all normal models of motherboards for mining should support this bracket by default. Otherwise, they will not be listed and considered as a potential top pick in the category.

Among the minuses it is worth highlighting:

No HDMI, Dvi only;
Close location of PCI-E slots.

The last minus is the most significant, it is partly dictated by the size of the board. If you insert raisers into the slots in the “one by one” mode, that is, only into the white slots, there are no problems. But if you connect more than 7 video cards at the same time, there is a possibility of contact contacts, which can lead to a short circuit. Naturally, the contacts can be isolated or immediately purchased raisers that will not interfere with each other, but this is already considered a correction of the problem, and not its absence. Moreover, not all miners will know about this when purchasing AsRock H110 Pro BTC+.

The lack of an HDMI output can only be called a conditional disadvantage, especially when taking into account the connection of old monitors to farms, but in some cases this can be considered as a disadvantage. The advantages of the motherboard greatly outweigh the disadvantages, which can be easily fixed. All this makes the H110 model the optimal solution for mining even a year after the board was released.

What about cryptocurrency mining?

The specifications that you can see above already speak volumes regarding cryptocurrency mining. First of all, the number of PCI-E slots tells us that based on the AsRock H110 PRO BTC+ , you can build one mining rig with 13 GPUs, instead of two with 6 GPUs each. This is a great opportunity in many ways. First, you avoid purchasing an additional motherboard, processor, RAM, and hard drive. Secondly, you save space, and most importantly, it is much better to have one powerful rig than to configure and control two separate installations. This motherboard can also be used for other purposes than its intended purpose, so you can easily sell it later if you decide to retire. It supports everything you need for a powerful modern work and gaming computer, including support for the latest generation Intel processors, modern DDR4 memory and M.2 slot for installing a high-speed SSD and a full set of USB, SATA connectors, which is not particularly needed for mining, but useful for building a powerful and modern computer. An important detail is the presence of power and reset buttons on the PCB of the motherboard, which makes its use for mining even more convenient, because few people use traditional computer cases to assemble mining rigs, and connecting additional buttons or shorting pins on the motherboard to turn on the rig is not very comfortable things.

Does AsRock H110 give an advantage in cryptocurrency mining?

The computer hardware industry is full of marketing gimmicks, where the same technologies are often sold at a significant markup by adding various attachments to the device. However, when it comes to mining motherboards, specifically the AsRock H110 Pro BTC+, the advertising claims have a solid basis. Firstly, we are talking about an unprecedented number of supported video cards. Not a single “regular” motherboard can compare with a profile device in this matter, because the number of slots is the first sign of a motherboard for mining.

Build quality and high voltage protection cannot be called absolute advantages, although in this regard the H110 has been a leader for more than a year. The fact is that previously special attention was paid to quality only in overclocking devices, which are aimed at extreme overclocking of hardware and require special attention. However, mining devices were later added to this category. Therefore, high-quality textolite, maximum protection against short circuits and other conveniences have become a feature of many mining boards. The exception is budget models, on which manufacturers simply save money.

If we take into account the price of the H110 model (100 euros for CU and about 8-9 thousand rubles in Russian stores) with the capabilities of the motherboard, then its purchase will be almost mandatory. The device is superior to conventional boards in all respects, which makes the choice quite obvious.

ASRock H81 PRO BTC R2.0

On the tab Advanced open folder Chipset Configuration
PCIE2 Link speed parameter set to Gen2 (default is Auto)
OnBoard HD Audio value set to Disabled (default is Auto)
Restore on AC/Power Loss parameter set to Power On (default is Power Off)
On the tab Advanced open folder Storage Configuration
On the tab Advanced open folder USB Configuration
On the tab H/W Monitor open folder USB Configuration
On the tab Exit

Biostar TB250-BTC and Biostar TB250-BTC PRO

On the tab Advanced open folder ACPI Settings
On the Chipset set the Mining mode parameter Above 6x VGA (the default is Above 6x VGA)
On the tab Chipset open folder PCH-IO Configuration
open the PCI Express Configuration 7 parameters PCIe1 speed, PCIe2 speed, PCIe3 speed, PCIe4 speed, PCIe5 speed, PCIe6 speed, PCIe7 speed set Gen1 (the default is Gen1).
On the tab Chipset open folder System Agent (SA) Configuration
set VT-d value Enable (enable by default)
PEX16_1 Max Link Speed parameter set to Gen1 (default is Gen1)
On the Save&Exit , click Save Changes and Reset . Then YES to save.

The system does not see 1,2,3 video cards

Check that you have tightly connected all cables and the riser (with the system completely turned off)
Try swapping the risers in the PCI-e slot (with the system completely turned off)
Check in the BIOS if you have set all the parameters correctly

After all the settings with Bios, we connect 1 video card. We install drivers for each (It is best to download the driver from the official website).

Download the miner. Install MSI Afterburner after downloading the program from the official website. We check the visibility of all video cards in Afterburner, set the overclock, launch the batch file (miner).

In this article you will learn “How to automatically restart the miner if it stops working in Windows?”

Gigabyte H110-D3A Bitcoin Edition and Gigabyte GA-B250-FinTech

On the tab Peripherals
Set Above 4G Decoding value Enable (the default is Enable).
parameter
On the tab M.IT open folder Miscellaneous Settings
On the BIOS , set the Windows 8/10 Features option Enabled if you plan to install Windows (the default is Disabled)
In the Chipset , set the VT-d value Enable (the default is Enable)
In the Power , set the AC BACK value Always on (the default is Always off)
On the Save&Exit , click Save Changes and Reset . Then YES to save.

Buy memory on Avito, no HDD - either SSD or flash drive!

The Intel Celeron J3455 processor has a power consumption of about 12 W, so it does not require any special VRM modules to power it. Even a powerful cooler with a 5000 RPM fan is more of a protection against heat dissipation for the entire farm than a necessity. There is no audio path on the board, and there is no shortage of free space either, so the excess space can be allocated to a single SO-DIMM DDR3 slot (1333, 1600, 1867 MHz). Why the company chose SO-DIMM, one can only guess, but you can easily buy laptop DDR3 memory sticks on Avito at a price of about 1,400 rubles for 4 GB: no one needs this memory now, so it’s cheap, and for mining on a GPU you don’t need more . Keep in mind that you don’t need to go all out for cheapness, because the ASRock J3455 Pro BTC+ does not support 2GB modules.

If you plan to use HiveOS or another Linux miner, you will probably install the operating system on a flash drive, but the motherboard does not have internal USB ports. External - a pair of USB 3.1 just for bootable media and a pair of USB 2 for installing the OS or setting the WatchDog timer. By the way, I was completely upset by the fact that the board does not have hardware WatchDog, so the farm will have to be monitored using the Hashrate indicator.

To boot Windows, there are two SATA-600 ports: one regular and one in the M.2 form factor. The latter can accommodate M Key format drives up to 22110, and, in principle, again, buying a new SATA M.2 SSD from a new laptop will be much cheaper than looking for a regular 2.5-inch SSD on sale. Because, as a rule, small M.2 SATA drives are almost thrown into the trash, while a traditional drive can be installed in any computer, which is why it costs more.

Looking at the ASRock J3455 Pro BTC+, for some time I thought that I had lost the plug for installation in the case, and after searching the box, it dawned on me - there is no and there cannot be any case, it won’t fit anywhere! Having dealt with the shortage, you can continue.