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Okay, based on my previous question, it turns out I can find a motherboard to support 6 PCI slots and therefore 6 GPUs. But now I want to use 6 GPU's, specifically, the Radeon 7970.
Obviously, they won't all fit in and at most, I can put in three. So using PCI risers, or an external PCI mount, or whatever, what cheap and available solutions exist?
Shamoon
Posted 2012-04-14T17:11:16.240
Reputation: 267
3
You can also find a Motherboard that supports 7 PCIe cards. Checkout this one by GigaByte: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3434#ov
Of course, as the other guys said, you will have to find a way to manipulate the cards and cool the system...
Shahar
Posted 2012-04-14T17:11:16.240
Reputation: 336
2
I suppose you are talking about PCIe and not PCI (since that card is not compatible with PCI, but only with PCIe x16).
You can get some riser ribbons for about 20 bucks each. The problem will be keeping these babies cool. You will need to build some kind of custom case to rig them into, (there is obviously not enough place in a normal case). I suggest looking for a cheap case you can put next to your case, if you want to fit in 6 you can try to leave 3 in the case and 3 in the other case (if there is enough space for the riser ribon to fit).
Just see you have enough fans in your inner and outer case to get rid of all the heat.
Lucas Kauffman
Posted 2012-04-14T17:11:16.240
Reputation: 2 545
1Lucas makes a very valuable point. Cooling this setup will be a major problem. Bitcoin mining is notorious for melting graphics cards. Cooling 6 will be extremely difficult without watercooling (which would also allow you to fit 6 in one case providing you replaced the end brackets of the cards. – Oliver G – 2012-04-30T11:41:06.457
I agree, watercooling is a very good and needed option in this case – Lucas Kauffman – 2012-04-30T11:54:33.447
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You need to go open air for this to keep it cool....some aluminum extruded square and angle from your local home improvement store will allow you to build a couple elevated rails. Then stagger the cards with risers...3 low spaced evenly at least 1." apart...meaning the 3rd will use a riser to move off the board but stay at MB level..the other 3 will be elevated directly up and spaced the same then blow air directly in one side with a large fan and stick it somewhere cool where dust is low and noise isnt an issue. A box fan on high does wonders. You're biggest issue is getting the dual psu's to play nicely as any issue with ripple or interference from their grounds will cause issues....avoid molex adapters for your vid's.
peewee
Posted 2012-04-14T17:11:16.240
Reputation: 21
PCIx riser cards, angle cards, and ones with ribbon extensions exist and are easily available from many places. If you are looking for a shopping/buying recommendation this isn't the right place. Examples: link link.
– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2012-04-14T18:11:58.033I'm not looking for buying recommendations. I want t\o know how to physically do it. If I get ribbon extensions, where do I mount the actual cards? – Shamoon – 2012-04-14T19:34:48.120
3Wouldn't it make more sense to wait for the 7990 dual-GPU card? That would give you six GPUs but in the space of only three ones, thus saving you the trouble of mounting six cards. – Mr Alpha – 2012-04-25T18:59:17.090
Well... The 7990 isn't really optimized for bitcoin mining – Shamoon – 2012-04-26T14:32:12.010
1Ahh, I thought you were trying to fit 67970 cards into one computer. That would be something! – neu242 – 2012-05-02T08:52:00.867
1How long are you expecting it to take to make back the money spent on setting up this 6x rig? – Cylindric – 2012-05-02T09:13:47.240
I am curious too, this site has a calculator that will help you figure out how long it will take to break even. I am interested to know how many MHash/s this setup would generate.
– Scott Chamberlain – 2013-04-01T21:30:20.963