Motherboard for mining: how to choose, review

One of the main components when assembling a mining farm is the motherboard. The reliable operation of all equipment with which cryptocurrency will be mined depends on it. If the miner selects the wrong motherboard, the 24-hour operation of the farm may be disrupted, which will lead to a drop in profits. Therefore, at the start it is important to choose good and high-quality equipment. Motherboard for mining: how to choose, review of the best options.

Motherboards for mining on video cards

There are a huge number of different motherboards available in the market.
But choosing a motherboard for GPU mining can be difficult. Today we will present for you a list of the best motherboards for GPU mining, which you can buy in almost any computer or online store. Please note that all motherboards will be priced in real time.

Many people ask us which mining motherboards are best to buy in 2022?

The best motherboard for mining is a board with 6 GPUs, since in terms of price/quality ratio, boards with 6 cards usually win.

So, in this article, we have listed all the best motherboards that you can use for mining. The boards were chosen from those that we personally used/are using, and from those that were recommended to us by our subscribers and miner friends.

We chose the most optimal boards based on the value-to-quality ratio, since overpaying a couple of thousand rubles for a board with the same characteristics is stupid; mining takes a very long time to pay off.

Also note that this post will be updated as new motherboards are released.

Raisers and their types

A raiser (or riser) is an adapter between a video card and a motherboard, or more precisely, several video cards. As a rule, no more than 2 video adapters can be installed in a standard motherboard, but if you need more, a raiser helps. What it includes:

1. A soldered PCI-e input where the video card is installed.
2. Input for connecting to the motherboard.
3. A USB cable designed to connect the connector on the video card to the connector on the motherboard. At the same time, it simultaneously functions as an extender so that video adapters can be placed at a convenient distance from each other.

The raiser requires a certain amount of power; products are available with different connectors for this purpose. You need to choose the one that most suits your power supply. The most common raisers now are those powered via SATA.

There are also different versions of raisers (007, 008), which differ in the types of power connectors. It is better to buy those that are newer; the savings here can be deceptive. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to buy a raiser in a regular store, so you’ll have to do it either by hand or on Aliexpress. If you have an “Everything for Mining” store in mind, then you can look there, but the prices there will be much higher.

Best motherboard for mining 2022

There are various motherboards with different specifications and prices. So the choice depends on how many GPUs you are going to use in 1 rig.

The number of GPUs depends on the motherboard and its PCIe slots.

For example, if you are going to launch a farm with 8 GPUs, then you will have to look for a motherboard with 8 PCIe slots, or M.2 slots, but it will be more difficult for a beginner to set up a farm with M.2, plus you will have to buy an adapter .

Below in the table we have listed the best motherboards in our opinion, in terms of price/quality ratio. Later in the article we will look at these boards and many others in detail.

We did not include motherboards from MSI in this table for a reason; we personally think that they have many problems, which we will discuss later in the article.

Now let's move on to the motherboards that, in our opinion, are worth considering purchasing.

ASRock

Let's start with ASRock. In our opinion, these are one of the most inexpensive and convenient boards for mining.

The thing is that almost all ASRocks are very easy to configure; in Bios we switch from Gen1 to Gen 2, turn off the sound and the motherboard is ready for work.

Among our friends and subscribers, we conducted a survey “the best and most convenient motherboard” - almost everyone put ASRock in first place, Asus in 2, GIGABYTE in 3.

ASRock Easy to set up, not expensive!

ASRock H110 Pro BTC+

This is a great mining motherboard from Asrock. As far as we can tell, this is the best motherboard for Ethereum mining. With ASRock H110 PRO, you can use 13 GPUs to mine any cryptocurrency.

Let's immediately look at its price. In Russia, ASRock H110 Pro BTC+ can be purchased at the following prices:

Without a doubt, this will be one of the best motherboards for Ethereum mining. We also used this board to mine the Zhash and X16Rv2 algorithm with 13 GPUs.

This motherboard supports DDR4 (DDR4, 2133-2400 MHz (32 GB)). ASRock H110 PRO BTC runs on LGA 1151 and supports AMD and Nvidia video cards. This motherboard supports Intel processor.

We recommend that you only use Pentium or Celeron processors for mining as this will save your investment.

But there's one catch. If you add all 13 GPUs to your motherboard and are using Windows, your OS may not recognize all of the connected cards. Additionally, the OS may not work with all GPUs, or at least not at full efficiency.

No such problems were found on Linux. It is also worth noting that 6 cards on this motherboard run “without dancing with diamonds,” however, 13 can be launched even on Windows.

Minuses:

1. Connecting x13 GPU on Windows is a complex setup, not all cards can work at full capacity
2. To connect an x13 GPU for video cards of the 1070 (2070) series and older, a large number of PCIe wires are required, as well as several power supplies, since the total consumption will be more than 2900 Watts. The best options are 8 GB cards 570/580 from AMD and 1060/1660 from Nvidia.

Pros:

1. Price
2. Connecting a large number of video cards
3. Inexpensive CPUs on socket 1151
4. Price-quality ratio

ASRock H81 Pro BTC R2.0

So, if you want to start mining with 6 GPUs, then ASRock H81 is for you.

This motherboard will work with any graphics card, be it AMD or Nvidia. We have used it to mine Ethereum, Ravencoin, Grin, Beam and many other coins.

The board performed well with both 6x 1080TI and 6 AMD Rx570/580.

You can buy this motherboard in Rossi at the following price:

This is one of the cheapest mining motherboards you can find. All novice miners prefer to work with ASRock.

Why? Everything is simple, as we already said, the setup of their motherboards is very simple, especially the setup of ASRock H81 Pro BTC R2.0.

The motherboard supports DDR3 (1066-1600 MHz (16 GB)), and socket 1150 .

You can connect all 6 GPUs without losing efficiency, and all graphics drivers are supported. The motherboard recognizes all video cards and also works fine with Windows.

In our experience, this motherboard works great and there are no issues with it.

Minuses:

1. LGA 1150 is more expensive than 1151 and older. If you want to use this assembly as a PC in the future, then most likely the hardware will already be outdated

Pros:

1. Price
2. Connection
3. Operation – efficiency (no loss of power)
4. Connecting any card

ASUS

Next in our list we will look at boards from Asus.

These boards are very popular, most of them, like ASRock, are easy and quick to set up.

ASUS PRIME Z270-P

ASUS PRIME Z270-P is not an expensive motherboard, a direct competitor to the ASRock H81 Pro BTC R2.0. In fact, they both connect easily and work with 6 GPUs, both Nvidia and AMD, without loss of power.

You can buy ASUS PRIME Z270-P in Russia at the following prices:

A clear advantage of the ASUS PRIME Z270-P over the ASRock H81 Pro BTC R2.0 is the presence of M.2 slots.

However, if ASRock is sold noticeably cheaper, then we would recommend buying it, but if the price is the same or with a slight advantage, then Asus is an excellent option, since in the future you will be able to add additional cards to this board via the M.2 slot.

ASUS PRIME Z270-P supports DDR4 DIMM RAM, 2133-3866 MHz with support for up to 64 GB.

It runs on the LGA1151 socket and easily supports 6 video cards via PCIe slots.

Minuses:

In our opinion, this model has no disadvantages

Pros:

1. Modern socket 1151
2. Easy connection
3. Work without losing card power
4. Connecting any card
5. Price

ASUS B250 MINING EXPERT

ASUS B250 MINING EXPERT is a real heavyweight in mining, both among all boards from Asus and among other manufacturers.

B250 MINING EXPERT allows you to connect up to 19 cards at once!

You can buy ASUS B250 MINING EXPERT in Russia at the following prices:

Most often, the ASUS B250 MINING EXPERT costs 1-2 thousand rubles more than the ASUS PRIME Z270-P, but allows you to connect up to 19 cards at once! But not everything is so simple!

A beginner will be able to connect up to 8 cards, making sure to connect 1 at a time; if you connect them all at once, the board won’t see them!

Overall, this is an excellent motherboard that works without loss of power with 8 cards and has room to connect more additional cards.

However, when connecting card 9, a beginner will encounter a drop in the hashrate of all other cards, so if you are not yet an experienced miner, then we would not advise you to buy it.

ASUS B250 MINING EXPERT is a real card for “dancing with tambourines”, when connecting more than 8 cards!

We have said more than once in our videos on YouTube and in posts on the website that the most optimal connection is 6 cards. Since they are most often easy to connect, there is no loss of hashrate, there is no need for a 3rd or 4th power supply, and the cards feel great and do not overheat against each other.

Minuses:

1. Complex connection board
2. Price
3. If the connection is incorrect: crashes, lags, loss of hashrate
4. In fact, the x19 GPU card is a “show off” from ASUS

Pros:

1. Connection without loss of hashrate for up to 8 cards
2. Connecting any ADM / Nvidia video card

Biostar TB250-BTC PRO

An excellent mining solution is finally on sale at a discounted price of 129.99 USD.

Peculiarities

• support for 12 video cards;
• availability of additional power supply 2 MOLEX + 1 SATA;
• based on Intel B250 chipset;
• Full protection against power surges and other protections.

Links:

Page on the manufacturer’s website Product page on NewEgg – price 129.99 USD Product page on Amazon – price 155.00 USD

Minuses

Windows 10 may not cope well with supporting 12 on board the farm; alternatively, use Linux-based systems.

It is necessary to think over the design of the truss, since it will not be possible to fit all 12 cards in one row; the optimal placement is in two rows.

GIGABYTE

Next, we will look at mining motherboards from GIGABYTE. These boards are less popular, but they are not expensive and are relatively easy to configure.

GIGABYTE GA-H110-D3A

GIGABYTE GA-H110-D3A is a good motherboard that allows you to run 6 video cards for mining at once.

GA-H110-D3A, like ASUS PRIME Z270-P, can be considered a competitor to ASRock H81 Pro BTC R2.0.

You can buy GIGABYTE GA-H110-D3A in Russia at the following prices:

However, the GIGABYTE GA-H110-D3A has become a relatively cheap motherboard since late 2022/early 2020, cheaper than Asus and ASRock.

In this case, we recommend buying GIGABYTE, as you save a lot and get almost the same board with simple setup.

If the prices are approximately the same, then we recommend buying: ASRock or Asus (ASRock, in our opinion, is simpler and more convenient, Asus still has room in the form of M.2 slots), and at the end GIGABYTE.

DDR4 RAM , 2133-2400 MHz (32 GB). LGA1151 socket and works with 6 cards without loss of hashrate!

Minuses:

This model has no disadvantages

Pros:

1. Modern socket 1151
2. Easy connection
3. Work without losing card power
4. Connecting any card
5. Price

GIGABYTE GA-B250-FinTech

GIGABYTE GA-B250-FinTech is a monster from GIGABYTE that allows you to run up to 12 cards at once!

This is of course a smaller monster compared to the ASUS B250 MINING EXPERT, but it allows you to run all 12 cards with a little “dancing with a tambourine”.

You can buy GIGABYTE GA-B250-FinTech in Russia at the following prices:

Connecting 6 video cards to this board does not cause any problems, but connecting all 12 already requires many actions with Bios.

Minuses:

1. Complex setup
2. There may be a loss of hashrate when all 12 cards are running

Pros:

1. Price
2. Easy connection of up to 6 cards + stock

MSI

Lastly, let's look at motherboards from MSI. In our opinion, these are not the best boards, as they have many bugs!

We had several boards from MSI and most of them were constantly lagging and buggy.

Repeatedly when entering Bios, the motherboard reset the language to Chinese, turned some of the text into broken artifacts and did not allow me to switch to tabs.

We have had a lot of trouble with some MSI boards, like many of our subscribers and acquaintances, so we have selected for you only more or less stable models.

MSI H270 A Pro

MSI has released a new version of the MSI H270 A Pro motherboard. This motherboard is specially made for mining.

This is the same board as the MSI Z270 A Pro, but it has been modified and improved, bugs have been fixed (of which there were a lot in our opinion in the Z270 A Pro model) in order to work stably in mining.

You can buy the MSI H270 A Pro motherboard in Russia at the following prices: This motherboard supports 7 GPUs for mining, where there are 6 PCIe slots and one M.2 slot. You can convert m.2 slot to PCIe slot using a converter.

MSI H270 A Pro supports LGA1151 /chipset and DDR4.

Minuses:

1. Connection
2. price

Pros:

1. Modern socket
2. Stable operation of 6 cards

Some tips for earning cryptocurrencies

For cryptocurrency mining to be successful, you need to pay attention to some nuances. For example, the state of the wiring. This is especially true if your farm includes more than 5 video cards. Such a farm will immediately consume approximately 1 kilowatt upon startup. In the best case, it will simply knock out the plugs; in the worst case, the wiring will ignite.

Therefore, before starting work, you need to extend all the farm’s communications to a separate distribution panel - in much the same way as is done for a washing machine or water heater.

AMD cards will definitely require downvolting (minimizing the voltage to a level at which everything will continue to work stably). This move can reduce energy consumption by 1.5 times. Once every couple of months, do maintenance on video cards, like other components of the farm. Also provide good cooling with 2 or more fans.