Here, BAMT is discussed. Looks like I can try it off a USB stick without yet stepping on my w7 install.

https://forum.litecoin.net/index.php?topic=2924.0

All 5 cards are 7850. Well, some are 1GB and some are 2GB. And some are different brands. But I can get any 3 of them to work. All are on 1x to 16x extenders.

Which linux distro? Are there any that "just work". That support more recent motherboards. And can easily get the AMD drivers.

Disabled 1 or 2 peripherals in the BIOS. Not much available. And no change. Still only 4 GPUs. According to GPU-Z. And the device manager has one Unknown Device.

Forum thread has people saying Windows 7 can do 5 GPU or more.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=103244.20
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=188334.0

Sure ain't working for me though. Might depend on the AMD driver version?

Found this. May try w8. That might give me 5. Or even 6 with additional tweak.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=215987.0

I have heard, disable some devices in BIOS. That is pretty easy I will try that.

Some claim that Windows 7 can handle 5 GPU. Change to Windows 8 or Linux would take a while.

I guess I can also try different slots for the 1x adapters. This motherboard has 4 1x slots and 3 16x. I do have an ivy bridge cpu so in theory even 7 GPU is possible.

Motherboard is MSI Z77A-GD65 GAMING.
Windows 7 enterprise.
Five 7850's.
5th card does not show up in GPU-Z.

What is the basic advice in this situation?

How much temperature difference are you seeing? Your issue is that they are in the chassis. If you get extender cables and hang your graphics cards in the air, like in many photos here, they should both run cooler and near the same temperature.

Or, if you keep them in the chassis, and swap them, one of the positions will run hotter. In my case, er situation, I believe this one card runs hot no matter where I position it.

They are all hanging freely in open air. Several inches between each of the 4 cards.

I have 3x7850 +1x7970 working. But suspect I can get more kh.
Motherboard is "MSI Z77A-GD65 Gaming" 16GB RAM, Ivy Bridge i3 3225.
These are all off 1x to 16x adapters and strung up for cooling.
Temps are 63 82 56 61. The 82 is one of the 7850s, not the 7970!
I tried re-seating the heatsink. Seems like just a hot GPU chip.

Desktop runs off the 7850 in the 1x slot closest to the CPU.
Drawing 680w.  ltc mining about 362 kh on each 7850. But only 478 off the 7970.

I am the OP. I have 3x7850 +1x7970 working. But suspect I can get more kh.
Motherboard is "MSI Z77A-GD65 Gaming" 16GB RAM, Ivy Bridge i3 3225.
These are all off 1x to 16x adapters and strung up for cooling.
Temps are 63 82 56 61. The 82 is one of the 7850s, not the 7970!
I tried re-seating the heatsink. Seems like just a hot GPU chip.

Not using any dummy plugs. Desktop runs off the 7850 in the 1x slot closest to the CPU.
Drawing 680w.  ltc mining about 362 kh on each 7850. But only 478 off the 7970.
What are dummy plugs supposed to do for me again?

How would you suggest I change my cgminer options, currently I am using this command...
cgminer -o http://coinotron.com:3334 -u **** -p **** --scrypt --gpu-fan 0-100 --gpu-engine 1050 --gpu-memclock 900 --intensity 12 --thread-concurrency 13632   --gpu-threads 2

open air. what's a good excuse to RMA the card?

These 3 cards are identical Gigabyte HD7850's 2GB. Why is one 7850 at 78 degrees, but other two at 54 and 57? Each and are pumping out 362kh each.

Identified them by stopping the fans with my hand to see which one heats up or cools down. Tried re-seating the heatsink on the hot card and putting some better paste. Can't figure out why one of my GPU runs 20 degrees C hotter than the other two. All are hanging freely in the air and have decent airflow.

I am using this command...
cgminer -o http://coinotron.com:3334 -u **** -p **** --scrypt --gpu-fan 0-100 --gpu-engine 1050 --gpu-memclock 900 --intensity 12 --thread-concurrency 13632   --gpu-threads 2

GPU-Z shows all 3 cards all running fans at 100%. Only strange thing is one of the cards is showing a higher VDDC. But this is not the hot card! Any ideas?

Many thanks. Yeah its an i3 3225. Ivy Bridge.
So it does have the Intel 4000 graphics.
What does that do for me?

I can use the 3rd 16x slot (there was a sticker on the mobo stating this).
Ivy Bridge needed for this. Not sure if 4000 is part of that.

Does it help to crossfire the cards?
That will be a bit of a trick, if I want to put them on extenders, for better cooling.
Right now, system draws 300 watts, the 7850s run at 80 and 60 degrees C,
and deliver about 360kh each, 724kh total.

I am heading to IKEA to look for something to get this out of the case and zip-tied onto some shelf or rack.

I wanted to run my monitor off the integrated motherboard graphics, and devote my 7850's to pure mining. I can direct my BIOS to use the IGD. And my two 7850's even show up in gpuz. But cgminer says it doesn't detect any graphics cards.

Motherboard is MSI Z77A-GD65 GAMING. They stopped selling the vanilla Z77A-GD65. Latest BIOS.