Folding Forum

I am looking to setup long term a 4gpu setup
I have 1 nvidia 1060 already and have seen this card using 40% of the pci-e bandwidth so to run 4 would need 4 gpu at 8x to gt this bandwith without ppd suffering from the cards does any one have a processor / motherboard combo suggestion for this type of setup or would I have to think of setting up 2 systems with 2 cards each. I'm also aiming for low power processor mobo etc so I can focus of gpu folding and lower costs hence I started with a 1060

This is an example of a open case design with 4 GPUs though the mainboard has limited pcie bandwidth.
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=28869

EVGA Z170 Classified is a intel skylake mainboard which can handle 4 GPUs at x8 using a pcie switch chip PEX8747
(Don't get the EVGA Z170 Classified "K" it only supports 2 GPUs at x8)
or ASUS Z170-WS = 350$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

You need a 4 core CPU to feed up to 4 GPUs. e.g. i5-6500 = 200$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

You need up to 1 GB RAM per GPU folding core and some for operating system so I would recommend 8 GB RAM = 30$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

I did not check if these offers are honest.

Is this the only solution you know of? If so 2 systems with 2gpu in each would work out far cheaper maybe I should wait to see what zen offers on launch.

Yes 2 gpu PC is cheaper e.g. you can use AMD 990FX mainboard and FX-4300 CPU.

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 = 100$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product
AMD FX-4350 = 70$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

Keep in mind that intel pcie x16 has version 3.0 and amd has pcie x16 version 2.0 which is half as fast.
So this 990fx board has 2x pcie 2.0 x16 and equals intel 2x pcie 3.0 x8 so fast enough for 2 GPUs.

Thanks for the amd links I think I will wait for zen release I had no idea how far amd were on the tech front still using pcie 2 and even ddr3 what year is this 2010?