everything about bitcoin is a risk.  If you're not a gambler, you should probably get out.

Tbh, any motherboard with multiple PCIe slots will be good.  

The speed doesn't matter, you can use x16, x8, x4 and even x1 slots.  Don't believe me?  Here's my proof of concept.

https://twitter.com/relay_1/status/290159160987897858/photo/1

The motherboard is a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514
Which has 4 PCIe x4 - x16 slots and 2 PCIe x1 slots.

I'm using these PCIe risers to connect them.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005TEJ3MI/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00646VJDG/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Or you can slap 4 cards right on the board.

Dummy plugs aren't needed unless you're using Windows I believe.  I use Ubuntu and it's not required.  I had them on in that photo, but took them off shortly after and it still works perfectly.

Good luck.

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

I have a 5770 reporting that it's running at 105C at 85 Mh/s.  Now, I know this is complete nonsense because I have, on the same board, a 5870 running at 412 at 55C.  Also, the room temp is close to freezing, roughly 40C right now, it's an uninsulated pond pump shack in my backyard and I live in the NW.

I assume this inaccurate reading is throttling the hash rate, I can get at least 215 out of that card (as I have in the past).

Any ideas on how to trouble shoot what exactly is wrong and fix it?

lol

What are your cards running at?  You seem to get better numbers than I do out of the same series cards.

There's a lot of speculation on what will be profitable or not.  Try reading through the forums on the butterfly labs website.

I have 4 pre-ordered, and everytime I mine a little extra, after paying off my costs and EC2 bill, I pre-order another one.

But, if you can afford a larger ASIC right out of the gate, get it if you're serious about mining.

Here's a picture of Rig 2, before I put it out in the shed.
https://twitter.com/relay_1/status/290159160987897858/photo/1

My total hashing power is 4.5 Gh/s
Rigs 1 and 2 have 1200w PSUs and use PCIe Risers, refer to the picture above, rigs 3 and 4 are just GPUs stuck in the boards.
I keep my rigs outside (I live in cold climate) for free cooling.  I don't mine for personal profit, just to break even on gear and electricity and make a little bit of $$ to power the 7 tor relays I operate in the EC2.  Anything extra goes back into gear or more relays.  

Rig 1,  ~1.6 Gh/s
2x5850     2x375 Mh/s
1x5830     270 Mh/s
1x6850     254 Mh/s
1x6950     366 Mh/s
adding a 5870 or another 5850 this week

Rig 2,  ~2000 Mh/s
2x5870     2x415 Mh/s
2x5850     2x375 Mh/s
1x6850     255 Mh/s
1x5770     200 Mh/s (on a good day)

Rig 3,  ~900   Mh/s
2x7870      2x450Mh/s

Rig 4, ~1 - 1.2 Gh/s
2x7950
(This rig is in the mail from newegg)

You going to use this captcha stuff to try to circumvent captcha in the future?