Conversation(s) on the Intel B360-F Pro and H310-F Pro motherboards

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Tom M
Tom M
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27 Mar 2021 11:43:22 UTC
Topic 225118
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    The current test rig is here. 

    The reason I wanted to start this thread is I failed to successfully install this motherboard under Ubuntu 20 and Rx 5700 gpus.

    After verifying that all my surrounding hardware was good (GPU, riser cards, cables, PCIe adapters) I have started testing again.

    The original problem is when I tried to plug-in Rx 5700 GPUs on any slot to the "right" of the Long slot (further away from the CPU) it caused the connection light next to each PCIe slot to light up in slots that had nothing plugged into them.

    Further testing seems to support that the slot I was actually plugged into wasn't able to pass data for the GPU to process.

    I have also demonstrated that Rx 460/570/580 cards have no problem with those slots.

    As of this moment, I have one Rx 5700 plugged into the left of the full-length slot and 3 Rx 460/580s plugged into the right of the full-length slot.  Previous experience had apparently shown that this would work without a problem.

    It seems to be working.

    Stay tuned for further exciting reports on moving the plug-ins around and seeing what lights up, doesn't light up, and/or should not be lighting up and is.

    Tom M

     

    A Proud member of the O.F.A.  (Old Farts Association).  Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)  I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!

    Tom M
    Tom M
    Joined: 2 Feb 06
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    Ah, an important note is

    27 Mar 2021 11:54:58 UTC
    Message 184552
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      Ah, an important note is these are Mining Motherboards.  The B360-F Pro supports up to 18 GPUs.  The H310-F Pro supports up to 13 GPUs. The H310-F Pro looks like the B360-F Pro except that it is missing 5 PCIe slots.

      Tom M

      A Proud member of the O.F.A.  (Old Farts Association).  Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)  I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!

      Keith Myers
      Keith Myers
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      Why don't you ask these

      27 Mar 2021 16:34:45 UTC
      Message 184557
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        Why don't you ask these questions in more appropriate places like crypto mining hardware forums where participants also use this type of hardware.  You will get more responses and more informative ones than anybody here can offer I think.

        Must be some type of newer capability that the 5700 has that the motherboard BIOS does not understand as a guess.

         

        Tom M
        Tom M
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        As has been noted (over in

        27 Mar 2021 17:24:16 UTC
        Message 184558
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          As has been noted (over in Seti@Home) Crypto crunching doesn't always map to BOINC crunching.  Just like Game Playing on a video card doesn't map to BOINC crunching.

          And I have some new/old observations/ideas.

          1. A connection light "on" doesn't guarantee that the OS or Boinc will "see" the video card. But I suspect a connection light out does confirm the card will not be seen.
          2. I have evolved a supposition that Rx 5700 cards will be identified if they are plugged into the "back" rank of the PCIe slots on the motherboard. Back is where the peripheral panel is with the USB, Rj47, video card ports are.
            1. If you plug 3 video cards into one of the "lines" of PCIe slots (running back to front) the Rx 5700 card is recognized only if it is in the back rank.
            2. Additional PCIe slot lights have lit up to the right of the 3 plugged-in video cards but so far have not stopped the 3 cards from processing.
              1. I will need to borrow some cards from my other machines to confirm if those lit up/currently empty slots will still drive video cards.
            3. So far this supposition has held up on three distinct columns (there are 6 columns including a two-slot short column and excluding the long slot as a column)
          3. The only way to run heterogeneous card collections on the same system and same project are to use the "lowest common denominator" settings (shades of high school algebra!).  For example, if one card is only up to running one thread/app/instance then all cards are limited to that.

          Respectfully,

          Tom M

          ps. If my supposition is correct then the motherboard may be able to support up to 7 Rx 5700 class video cards while backfilling with Rx 560/570/580 cards.  This will likely limit GPU tasks to two per card under Windows and 3 per card under Ubuntu.

          A Proud member of the O.F.A.  (Old Farts Association).  Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)  I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!

          Keith Myers
          Keith Myers
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          My response was not with

          27 Mar 2021 22:15:08 UTC
          Message 184562 in response to message 184558
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            My response was not with regard to the end use of the hardware.  My answer suggests you contact other people actually familiar with the actual hardware and the BIOS layout.  You need to talk to people actually populating these mining boards with multiple gpu counts on the order you are attempting.

             

            Keith Myers
            Keith Myers
            Joined: 11 Feb 11
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            You need to figure out how

            27 Mar 2021 22:23:38 UTC
            Message 184563
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              You need to figure out how each slot is driven.  Some slots must be driven by the cpu, likely the ones that share the I/O ports.

              And the other slots will be driven by the chipset.

              Remember any chipset must be donated some PCIe lanes from the cpu.  Usually only four lanes out of however many the cpu supports natively.

              Then how the chipset drives its slots is up to the chipset and motherboard architecture and the BIOS.

              Does the board use any PLX chips for example?  I have only heard of Intel workstation mobos utilizing PLX chips to augment or create additional PCIE lanes.

              My ASUS X99-E-10G WS workstation motherboard has two PLX chips that take the 4 lanes from the cpu and multiply them out so that all seven PCIE slots are X16 wired.

               

              Tom M
              Tom M
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              Keith Myers wrote: My

              28 Mar 2021 2:36:59 UTC
              Message 184567 in response to message 184562
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                Keith Myers wrote:

                My response was not with regard to the end use of the hardware.  My answer suggests you contact other people actually familiar with the actual hardware and the BIOS layout.  You need to talk to people actually populating these mining boards with multiple gpu counts on the order you are attempting.

                Thank you.  An excellent point.  I really need to know what is "normal" for this motherboard.

                Tom M

                A Proud member of the O.F.A.  (Old Farts Association).  Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)  I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!

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