Kramp's PC Build

Hey there.
I've got some extra cash burning a hole in my pocket, so I'm thinking about putting together a mining rig.
I'm mostly worried about compatibility issues and potential headaches with these builds. After spinning my wheels for a bit, I've narrowed it down to two possible paths:

1.
Motherboard: MSI Pro B365 or maybe an MSI MAG B460 Tomahawk—I could probably grab something $100$50 cheaper, but isn't more expensive always better?
CPU: Intel Celeron G5900

2.
Motherboard: MSI H110 Mining (honestly, just a gut feeling here)
CPU: Intel Pentium Gold G5420

Power supply for both: EVGA SuperNOVA 850G (from what I can tell, the main difference with the Aorus version is having two fewer cables and slightly shorter ones).
I'm assuming 850W is plenty for 4 GPUs—if I decide to scale up later, I'll just pick up another PSU.

RAM: whatever cheap 8GB stick I can find.
SSD: the cheapest 128 GB drive available.

Any suggestions, ideas, or warnings? Cheers.

Terry Collins9 said:Hey there.
I have some extra cash on hand, so I am planning to put together a mining rig.
I am primarily concerned with component compatibility and potential bottlenecks within these two specific configurations. After running through the numbers myself, I have narrowed it down to two possible setups:

1.
Motherboard: MSI Pro B365 or MSI MAG B460 Tomahawk — I could probably opt for something roughly $100$50 cheaper, but I operate under the assumption that higher cost equates to better quality.
CPU: Intel Celeron G5900

2.
Motherboard: MSI H110 Mining
CPU: Intel Pentium Gold G5420

Power supply for both scenarios: EVGA SuperNOVA 850G (from what I can gather, the main difference with the Aorus version is having two fewer cables and slightly shorter lengths).
I assume 850W is sufficient for 4 GPUs; if I decide to scale up later, I will simply purchase an additional PSU.

RAM: the cheapest 8GB stick available.
SSD: a basic 128 GB drive.

Any suggestions, advice, or thoughts? Best regards.

MSI Pro B365 or an ASUS board for 6 GPUs.
MSI MAG B460 Tomahawk for 5 GPUs.
MSI H110 Mining for 13 GPUs.

If you aren't planning on using a dedicated mining OS or Linux and want to run Windows 10 instead, you won't be able to run more than 10 GPUs on a single board from the same brand. This means if you go with the MSI H110 Mining to hit all 13 slots, you'll need a mix of Nvidia and AMD GPUs.

Match your motherboard choice to the number of graphics cards you intend to buy or invest in. Generally speaking, more slots at a lower price point is the smarter play.

You absolutely have to calculate the maximum TDP alongside your overclocking settings; that is how you determine your power requirements. It is very easy to miscalculate here... When selecting a power supply, wattage is important, but having as many 6+2 pin PCI-e cables as possible is even more critical.

There are quite a few variables to manage if you want the whole system to remain stable.

I get that theoretically I can plug GPUs into just about any board. What I actually need to know is configuration compatibility—specifically, how many GPUs I can realistically run before the system load or general stability hits a wall.
For power, I’m budgeting roughly 130W per card. With four GPUs plus the core components (CPU, motherboard, SSD, RAM), we're looking at around 600W total—which puts an 850W PSU at about 70% capacity. I've got one of those plug-in wattmeters, so I'll be able to verify exactly what each card pulls. Obviously, if I scale up the number of cards, I'll just pick up a second PSU.

I'm leaning toward building two smaller rigs rather than one massive monster. If everything goes south—and let's face it, things always do—is it better to have one whole rig dead or just half of them? An 8-card setup (not including the cards themselves) would run me about $1500, assuming I include two PSUs, whereas splitting it into two builds would cost $5,700. Once you factor in the cost of those $400 GPUs, the gap isn't huge, but the peace of mind is worth it.

My plan is to go with two rigs holding 4-5 cards each. I'm not buying everything at once; I'll probably just grab one GPU a month. Of course, if a good deal pops up, I might snag two.

I think the real headache is figuring out where and how you’re going to pick up a GPU, and whether it'll actually pay off in the long run (aka when). The motherboard and CPU are just peanuts compared to the rest of the build.

I won't pretend I'm some kind of genius here—I’m not just jumping into this blindly like some reckless idiot. I know there's a real chance this whole thing ends up being a massive waste of money, but hey, you only bet what you can afford to lose, right? Besides, we all know GPU prices have gone absolutely insane lately.
I've been scouting shops over in Germany, and honestly, I might be able to snag some cards at prices that actually make sense compared to the highway robbery happening here. I'm looking at an EVGA RTX 2060 for about $600—shipping included.

Terry Collins9 said:I wouldn't claim to be an expert, but I’m not just jumping in blindly either. I know there's a risk this could end up being a total waste of money, but like they say, you should only gamble what you can afford to lose. I realize GPU prices have gone through the roof lately.
I've been checking out shops in Germany, and I can find cards there at prices that look almost reasonable compared to what we see locally. I'm looking at getting an EVGA RTX 2060 for about $600, shipping included.

Just so you know, the RTX 2060 was going for around $320 back in 2020....

Since that MSI H110 Mining board is pretty pricey ($533??), you aren't gaining much in terms of GPU performance anyway. Honestly, I don't think you'll see a massive difference regardless of which motherboard you pick.
Maybe it’s just easier to set up two separate rigs instead of one big rig running on two power supplies—it's definitely less risky. But then again, if you stick to a single unit, you don't have to deal with the headache of doubling up on all your management setup...

I know prices used to be absolute garbage compared to now! Just two months ago, I snagged a new RX 570 8GB for about $600, but now you can't even find one for $600—not even if you look under $1000. Look, I know how to read a price chart; I'm not exactly an idiot.

Forget the money side for a second—I want to talk tech.

Basically, I'm wondering if I can push an MSI Pro B365 or an MSI MAG B460 Tomahawk to run at least 5, maybe even 6 GPUs for mining, without hitting technical walls—you know, motherboard overheating, cards choking each other out, and all that nonsense?

Terry Collins9 said:Look, I know prices used to be absolute garbage compared to now! Just two months ago, I snagged a new RX 570 8GB for about $600, and now you can't even find one for 600 bucks, let alone anything under $1000 on eBay. I know how to read price charts; I'm not an idiot.

Setting the money aside, I want to focus on the technical side of things.

Basically, I need to know if I can run 5, maybe even 6 GPUs on an MSI Pro B365 or an MSI MAG B460 Tomahawk without running into technical nightmares—like the motherboard overheating, cards interfering with each other, or just total chaos.

So, the number of PCI slots really matters here; that determines how many GPUs you can actually mine with on that specific motherboard. If I had to guess, the sweet spot would be around 8 units. It should function normally because the power isn't coming through the PCI slot itself, but via risers and direct cables to the GPU.

Whatever you do, don't plug those risers into anything other than dedicated PCI-e 6/8-pin connectors. Using SATA or Molex is asking for trouble. Check out the data here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7AO...U&index=2&t=6s

You'll also notice there's a rule of thumb to add 20%, though some people push it to 25%. What does that mean in practice? Say you have 5x RTX 3070s and they are all the exact same model;
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-spec...antom-gs.b8223

The TDP is 220W, which means 220W x 5 = 1100W, plus another 100W for the rest of the system. So, 1200W * 1.25 = 1500W. This implies that if you want to be 100% safe, you should aim for a 1500W power supply for that setup. In reality, it won't pull that much constantly, but that headroom is your safety net to prevent components from frying or tripping the circuit.

Then you have the people who use overclocking settings to drop each RTX 3070 down to about 135W. That brings the total to 675W for the cards plus 100W for the system. Those folks grab a 1000W unit and think they're golden. But the second those OC settings reset to default, the cards spike back to max draw, the rig overloads, and everything goes south.

You have to watch a lot of variables and do your homework before you start building. For instance, a basic rule: if you're using two PSUs with a splitter, the risers and the GPUs must be powered by the same PSU. You cannot mix and match power sources like that, or you'll run into issues...

The most common headache is that most power supplies simply lack the wattage or don't have enough 6-8 pin cables to handle all the GPUs.

I’m not sure if you really need a 20-25% buffer—honestly, 10-15% should be plenty. Even if an overclock goes south, the PSU isn't going to be redlining at 100% capacity all day long—at least not in my setup.
Prices for power supplies don't scale linearly with wattage, and the beefier units don't necessarily offer more PCIe slots anyway. It actually makes more sense to grab two 850W units rather than one massive 1500W beast. Personally, I'm not looking at the RTX 30xx series anytime soon—I'll stick to the 20xx cards or similar.

From what I gather, a riser can pull up to 75W, which is actually quite a bit. But how risky is it to just grab risers from eBay or AliExpress? You can find them for maybe $5 or $6 there, while they go for $50 here in the States. I could probably buy two just to have a spare and still come out ahead.

Thanks for the video link—definitely some good info in there.

I spotted those BTC-37 boards with the integrated CPUs, though there's a total lack of actual reviews out there—even if some people claim they work fine.

Ugh, why would anyone bother making a decision on this nonsense!!!

If you nail the undervolt and keep those fan speeds low, you'll know when the card starts hitting its factory overclock because the fans will suddenly ramp up.

How much could I actually pull in with two RX 580 4GB cards? If someone can tell me the net profit—after subtracting electricity costs—assuming I bring in 10-$6.75 a day...

I saw some people on Facebook selling those cards for $667 each. Is that actually a realistic price?

Bryan Taylor6 said:If I run two RX 580 4GB cards—and if anyone can actually tell me what the net profit is after stripping out the electric bill—could I pull in maybe $10$6.75 a day?

I saw some people on Facebook selling those cards for $667 a pop—is that actually a realistic price?

With just one card, if you managed to snag $1.75 a day, you’d be doing alright. There's an online calculator out there.

As for those Facebook prices—if someone actually buys them, I guess they're "real" enough.

Didn't we already agree that 4GB just doesn't cut it anymore?