ASRock announces Bitcoin-mining motherboards November 18, 2013 // 9:51 a.m.ASRock has announced the world's first motherboard designed specifically for mining the crypto-currency Bitcoin - at a time when the peak benefit of GPU-based mining has long since passed.Proposed by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto back in 2008, Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer network-based currency which uses a one-way hashing function to validate transactions.Payment processing is carried out by volunteer systems, which expend computational power to create and validate the hashes that power the system - and, in doing so, unlock new Bitcoins, earning money and keeping the currency growing.That growth has, in recent months, exploded.When first introduced, entrepreneurs soon saw a money-making opportunity in selling the generated Bitcoins for real-world currency - giving those whose computers aren't fast enough to unlock Bitcoins themselves the opportunity to give the system a try.While Bitcoins originally sold at around $0.02 each, today's exchange rate sees a single Bitcoin sit an at average of around $545 - down from its peak yesterday at $618.

While it's still possible for users to generate Bitcoins themselves by generating and validating the hashes, a process known as mining, it's not easy: as the computational power of the Bitcoin network increases, the difficulty of validating a block and receiving a Bitcoin reward also increases.Currently, that difficulty sits at a value of 609 million - meaning the days of individuals mining Bitcoins alone have long since vanished, with teams partnering up in mining pools and sharing the resultant payouts accordingly.The growing increase in difficulty has another knock-on effect: the amount of computational power required to make any real money at Bitcoin mining is increasing exponentially.In its early days, the first Bitcoins miners used their computers processors to generate a few hundred thousand hashes a second.This was followed by GPU-based mining, giving access to performance of up to a few hundred million hashes; now, the profits go to designers of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) designed purely for Bitcoin mining, which can generate hundreds of billions of hashes every second at a fraction of the power draw required by a GPU.

It's in this market that ASRock has decided to launch a pair of motherboards designed specifically for GPU-based Bitcoin mining.Dubbed the H61 Pro BTC and H81 Pro BTC respectively, the two boards feature six PCI Express slots - one x16 and five x1 - and additional four-pin power connectors on the board to support up to six high-performance graphics cards.On the surface, it's a smart move: Bitcoin's value has never been higher, despite its links to shady underground trading such as drugs-and-weapons den Silk Road, and the currency is gaining mainstream interest and even payment support from big-name brands.With ASICs offering a far higher performance at a far lower power draw, however, the days of GPU mining making a profit are long gone - with ASRock potentially missing the boat by around a year.Details of the boards can be found on the H61 Pro BTC and H81 Pro BTC pages of ASRock's website.Pricing and availability have yet to be confirmed.Bitcoin Sign up or log in to customize your list.

_ Here's how it works: Anybody can ask a question Anybody can answer The best answers are voted up and rise to the top up vote 0 down vote favorite I want motherboard with 6 PCI-e slot.ethereum trade botWhere can I get that?bitcoin security forum gmail dumpmining-hardware up vote 1 down vote /mb/intel/h81%20pro%20btc/ Its one of the most used for mining rigs, since it can hold a lot of gpu's Your Answer Sign up or log in Sign up using Google Sign up using Email and Password Post as a guest Name Email discard By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.best litecoin brokerNot the answer you're looking for?ebook bitcoin gratis

Browse other questions tagged mining-hardware or ask your own question.bitcoin bank vancouverHome / Component / Motherboard / Taipei electronics firm Biostar has announced a new motherboard, this timing pushing not only its abilities when it comes to the office or the game room, but the depths of its bitcoin mine as well.bitcoin jerusalemThe TB85 supports both 4th generation i7 and i5 CPUs and up to 16GB of DDR3 in its dual slots.As the name suggests, it sports an Intel B85 chipset and 100 per cent solid capacitors throughout.There’s also support for technologies like SATA III 6Gbps and USB 3.0.However, one of its biggest selling features is that this board packs a total of six PCIexpress ports, the idea being that you then buy yourself six high end GPUs and get them all running on the same platform (Biostar also offers a x16 to x1 converter).

While there are certainly faster ways to mine coins, like using custom designed application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) – which Biostar actively produces – the idea behind this one is it can operate as a mining rig as well as a standard gaming PC when you want it.Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.KitGuru Says: Considering just one of Biostar’s own ASIC boards has the mining capabilities of over 30 high end GPUs, using commercial hardware like this doesn’t seem the best way to go about it.Plus the easy bitcoins have all been had at this point.It’s only getting harder and if you don’t have the most efficient set up in the world or incredibly cheap electricity, you’ll really struggle to break even.Tags biostar Bitcoin Mining motherboard news Check Also At Computex earlier this month, Intel officially lifted the curtain on its new family of …For a better experience on Facebook, update your browser.Log InSign UpLog InSign UpNot NowYou can head back to our homepage, or check out some great posts.