I am about to put together my first rig and I am beyond psyched (in the same way that most car guys get when they watch car parts being unloaded from the delivery truck).
I am using the asus prime z390-p MOBO along with the following GPU (at least I was planning) for my first build:
PNY GTX 1660 Super (2)
Zotac RTX 3060 Ti
Zotac RTX 3070
The 1660 and the 3060 Ti have the same style connector
What would I need to buy to connect the RTX 3070 to the PSU and what quantity? Also the PSU has 3 PCI slots in the picture above. Is it possible to safely connect 4 GPU’s to the PSU? I am planning on setting them up and turning down the power individually before simultaneously powering them together so I don’t fry anything if they overclock.
I am a total noob at this but I think I have the basics down.
The center column of the picture of your 1000 Watt power supply has 3 pci-e connectors above 1 sata connector. Those are the ones you want to go to your video cards. Use one cable for the 1660, one cable for the 3060, and one cable for the 3070. Note, the 3070 has two 8 pin connectors and the cables have 6+2 = 8 pin connectors. You would need a cable with two 6+2 connectors at the video card end to connect both 8 pin connectors on the 3070. However, each of the 3070 8 pin connectors should have a separate cable due to the 300 Amp + the card can draw. Amazon sells a cpu to pcie adapter that will rewire one of the two cpu slots on the power supply and turn it into the needed 2nd pci-e connector the 3070 needs. The other cpu connector (top left on power supply) has to go to your cpu. You use the longer cpu to 2x 4+4 to reach the video card, then use the adapter to plug into one of the 8 pin sockets on the 3070. So there it is, two 8 pin sockets each with their own power source.
The 1000 watt power supply has the capacity to run all 3 cards and the motherboard. you should have been given two cpu cables with the power supply. You should also have been supplied with 3 pci-e cables.
I just ordered the adapter that I linked above. I watched a ton of videos explaining this stuff and did some math so I now fully understand the rationale of this approach and why this needs to be done safely.
Taking the measure twice cut one approach. So basically the 1660 and 3060 get connected via the GPU slots on the PSU. One CPU 8 pin connector goes into the CPU slot on the PSU and the other 4+4 connector goes to the CPU. The other CPU 8 pin connector goes into the other CPU slot while the 4+4 connector goes into the the 8 pin CPU to PSU adapter and this goes directly to the 3070 and the other PCI-E cable gets utilized in the other slot on both the PSU and the 3070. Got it.
Thanks again for bearing with me and answering my noob questions!!!
I tried to contact you by email but it failed delivery… Splitters/or adapters fit the ends of the longer cables supplied with the power supply. The 4+4 end of a cpu cable is used with the adapter to rewire it correctly as an additional pcie power cable. You only need 1 cpu cable for your processor, so the 2nd cpu connector is good to use provided you adapt it to pcie.
I am attaching a video where the builder talks about using two pcie connectors on ONE cable and why it is ok for video cards that draw under 150 watts. For cards that draw over 150 watts you need to use separate cables. You power supply doesn’t have a 4th pcie cable so that is why you use the adapter with the cpu cable. Alternately, you could buy a bigger power supply, they have more pcie connectors and come with more cables.
I was finally able to put the baby asleep and get some alone time to put this thing together.
For my first computer build everything went smoothly until I tried to boot it up. I double checked everything however when I tried to boot it up using the power button supplied by the mining stand it would run for 2 seconds then shut down. I spent an hour troubleshooting and checking all of the connections since I thought it was something minor I overlooked. However, when I either remove one of the SATA or CPU wires from the PSU the computer and PSU are able to turn on and stay on (the fans on the PSU and CPU are spinning and all of the lights stay on).
Do I have any hardware issues or is there something I overlooked? Thanks.
Use no more than 2 SATA/MOLEX connectors on any cable for risers. They do not work for the GPU.
Bad Risers are possible.
Try using the Cpu cable with adapter on the two 1660 video cards and use one pcie cable on the 3060TI with two pcie cables on the 3070.
The 1000 Watt power supplly should be able to handle it however…I have a motherboard with a problem where the board won’t boot up if the power isn’t stable during post. It only happened when I added the 10th GPU to my system. I could pull the USB cable from the riser and the rig would boot. As soon as it was going to boot, I plugged the USB cable back in and all gpu’s were seen. After the boot is too late to plug the USB cable back in. The manufacturer said is was a stability problem with the power supply during boot. They recommended power supplies from their list of qualified suppliers.
I the wiring was incorrect there would have been a short and breakers would have tripped.
Try using only the 4 X1 pcie slots on the motherboard.
Also, the first adapter cable you listed has two pcie male ends, one for each 1660 Super fed from the cpu cable. I think there may be a wiring issue with the 2nd cable you listed as to whether it is just a pcie extension or cpu to gpu converter. This one is a converter.
I just received the converter that you linked. I am hoping to experiment with this and get 4 GPU hooked up after I do the troubleshooting. I tried to boot up again (this time I removed all of the GPU’s and risers from the MOBO) but it would power on for two seconds and shut off again.
This only happens when the 8pin/ 4+4 pin wire is plugged into the MOBO and the EATX12V slot on the MOBO
When you first said: " However, when I either remove one of the SATA or CPU wires from the PSU the computer and PSU are able to turn on and stay on (the fans on the PSU and CPU are spinning and all of the lights stay on)", I thought you were only removing the CPU wire that feeds the adapter and video card. You must have meant you removed the CPU cable that feeds the MOBO because today you say: " This only happens when the 8pin/ 4+4 pin wire is plugged into the MOBO and the EATX12V slot on the MOBO." Note: both ends of the cable don’t plug into the MOBO. The 8 pin end of the CPU cable plugs into the power supply, the two 4+4 end of the cable plugs into the MOBO EATX connector by the CPU.
The CPU needs the 12V ATX 4+4 connector to run. You can leave the 2nd cpu connector on the power supply unused until you get the MOBO running. Don’t use an adapter with the 4+4 cpu cable on the MOBO, the adapter is for using a GPU with the CPU cable.
This motherboard has onboard video via HDMI connector. I would remove all video cards and only plug the 24 pin cable and the 4+4 EATX cable into the motherboard to see if it will boot.
Hopefully you have a monitor with HDMI connections. If not and you have to use 1 video card to have video out, then plug it into the X16 pcie slot nearest the cpu. A bios setting allows you to toggle between PEG (PCIE graphics) and the (onboard graphics) first on bootup.
If the motherboard won’t boot with only the 24pin and 4+4 EATX cables attached then there is an issue somewhere, Motherboard? Cables? Power Supply? But like I said the EATX 12 volts is necessary for the cpu.
I have an HDMI monitor I can use to configure the BIOS when I get it booted successfully. I have a feeling that I screwed up something very simple and minor but I wont be able to look at it until tomorrow morning.
I have a question about the GPU to PCI-E adapters. Are they rated to handle the around 280-290w that the PCI-E wires & connectors are rated for? Also I just downloaded MSI afterburner on my laptop (trying to find the best settings to mine ETC and RVN) just to get familiar with the settings and I was expecting to have the ability to underpower/undervolt the GPU on my laptop (GTX 1650) but I am still not allowed to mess with the core voltage and power limit settings on the app. Is this dependent on the cards I am using? Thanks for all of your help and for taking the time to explain things to me.
Was able to look at it just now. It boots up only when the EATX 12V is not plugged in. I can get the GPU powered and spinning but since the EATX 12V is not plugged in nothing is displaying.
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