The ASUS H370 Mining Grasp connects 20 GPUs to at least one motherboard with PCIe over USB

The truth that anybody can use off-the-shelf parts to generate digital wealth saved on a decentralized blockchain is a testomony to the facility and openness of the PC platform. Cryptocurrency mining shortly caught the eye of two of our veteran engineers, together with one who has been finding out the sphere since 2010. They realized early on that standard motherboards don’t meet the distinctive wants of mining operations, they usually noticed a possibility to attach extra graphics playing cards to a single system.

With a kind of in-house mining lovers main the design, we developed the unique B250 Mining Professional with assist for as much as 19 particular person GPUs. The board was so forward of its time that miners couldn’t absolutely exploit it at first. We needed to work with AMD to take away restrictions on the variety of Radeons able to operating in parallel earlier than miners had been capable of notice the board’s potential.

Reasonably than simply hopping on the blockchain bandwagon to seize headlines, the B250 Mining Professional made bold hobbyist farms extra accessible and industrial-scale operations extra environment friendly. It was massively profitable, with a six-figure gross sales quantity that far exceeded expectations. With the idea confirmed in follow and extra perception gained on what miners want, we refined the formulation for a second era. The brand new H370 Mining Grasp will increase density with assist for as much as 20 graphics playing cards, simplifies connectivity by letting USB riser cables plug instantly into the PCB, and reduces downtime by making issues simpler to diagnose. You may see it operating at full capability in a customized mining rig unveiled at Computex 2018 in Taipei, Taiwan. This blockchain behemoth will probably be on the ASUS sales space, #M410 in Nangang Corridor, from June 5-9.

Extra GPUs maximize effectivity

Mining is a numbers recreation; it’s solely worthwhile if the worth of the cryptocurrency you generate exceeds the price of producing it. Growing the variety of graphics playing cards per node is a good way to stack the deck in your favor. This lets you allocate extra of your {hardware} and energy finances to the GPUs that create wealth slightly than motherboards, CPUs, and different system parts that act because the supporting forged.

With 12 Radeon RX 470 and eight NVIDIA P104 playing cards tied to a single motherboard, our demo rig highlights how a lot horsepower could be harnessed by the H370 Mining Grasp. The graphics playing cards are mounted in a particular rack constructed only for this machine by our companions at Cooler Grasp. Spacing out the playing cards offers the GPU coolers room to breathe, which is important when the underlying chips run repeatedly at full tilt. PCIe risers make configurations like this attainable by connecting every graphics card to the motherboard with a size of versatile cable.

Crunching crypto blocks doesn’t require a variety of interface bandwidth, so every card can get by with a PCIe x1 hyperlink routed over USB 3.1 Gen 1 wiring. The risers accountable are sometimes made up of three items: the x16 slot that hosts the graphics card, the x1 card that plugs into the motherboard, and the USB cable that connects them. The H370 Mining Grasp simplifies this chain by changing its predecessor’s x1 slots with banks of vertical PCIe-over-USB ports that permit riser cables plug proper into the motherboard. This direct connection is sturdier than utilizing a PCIe card, with much less likelihood of inadvertent disconnects, and it reduces the whole variety of components in your farm. Reimagining riser connectivity additionally cuts down on litter across the motherboard, which permits cleaner wiring worthy of cross-posting on /r/cableporn.

The vertical USB ports are made particularly for riser playing cards. They’re fed by PCI Categorical lanes within the Intel H370 chipset, in order that they’re incompatible with ASIC mining modules that require a real USB connection. We constructed this board to grasp the artwork of mining with GPUs, whose general-purpose computing prowess can chew by means of new algorithms lengthy earlier than purpose-built silicon is introduced, not to mention accessible. One graphics card can even sit within the accessible x16 slot on the motherboard, however putting in it there disables the primary riser port, so the utmost continues to be 20 playing cards whole.

Simpler troubleshooting minimizes downtime

It’s not sufficient to easily construct a high-density mining rig; you additionally should preserve it operating easily. Much less time sustaining your machine means extra time mining with it, which is why the H370 Mining Grasp features a suite of diagnostic options designed to make your farm simpler to handle. Chief amongst them is GPU State Detection, which scans the system at boot and signifies whether or not every riser port is empty, related to a purposeful graphics card, or experiencing issues.

The up to date State Detection GUI clearly identifies the situation and standing of every port together with the alphanumeric code that identifies it. To additional streamline troubleshooting, the board will ship with matching alphanumeric labels to stay onto corresponding riser playing cards. You’ll be capable to shortly have a look at the labels to search out flagged GPUs as an alternative of being pressured to hint the trail of cables related to affected ports.

Onboard diagnostics are augmented by particular person debug LEDs that gentle up when there are issues with particular system parts, just like the CPU or reminiscence. The 2-digit POST code show identifies points that interrupt the boot course of, additional simplifying the troubleshooting course of, whereas built-in energy and reset buttons make it simpler to work with a naked board.

Farm-friendly options streamline setup

Environment friendly mining requires a number of UEFI tweaks which might be consolidated in a particular Mining Mode. The motherboard’s PCIe lanes are set to run at Gen 1 speeds to enhance compatibility and stability with USB riser playing cards. Above 4G Decoding is enabled, which is essential for supporting numerous graphics playing cards, and Launch CSM is disabled, which lets the motherboard and graphics UEFIs synchronize with one another. Mining Mode is activated by default, so that you’re able to go proper out of the field, with out having to fiddle within the firmware interface.

With a trio of 24-pin main energy connectors, the H370 Mining Grasp can hook up with as much as three PSUs concurrently. Each is tied to a separate financial institution of riser ports, permitting you to scale up the variety of GPUs regularly and add extra energy as wanted. Some motherboards require modifications and particular startup sequences to run on a number of PSUs, however the Grasp is tailor-made for the duty. All that’s required is for the PCIe energy connector on every graphics playing cards to be plugged into the identical energy provide because the corresponding riser port.

The graphics playing cards used for mining are sometimes headless number-crunchers that by no means hook up with a monitor, and a few lack show outputs solely. Conventional show duties are dealt with by the graphics processor on the CPU, whose sign is piped by means of graphics ports on the motherboard. The B250 Mining Professional is restricted to a single HDMI output, however we bought a variety of neighborhood requests for DVI, so we added it to the rear cluster on the H370 Mining Grasp. Along with broadening assist for cheap displays, this improve supplies native assist for twin shows, so you may increase the display actual property accessible for monitoring all of your GPUs.

See the way forward for mining motherboards at Computex 2018

The H370 Mining Grasp raises the bar for mining motherboards by letting extra graphics playing cards join with an easier interface. It’s slated to be accessible later this yr. Should you’re at Computex 2018 in Taipei, make sure to take a look at the board in our superb demo rig on the ASUS sales space, #M410 in Nangang Corridor, from June 5-9.