The monetary success of some investors and miners is causing people to look at the cryptocurrency market differently. And some of them already want to set up a mining farm to make money from coins. The process of collecting your own farm is complex because it involves many nuances and details.
First, it’s worth deciding whether a person really wants to build a farm, because every day mining is becoming less and less efficient, and costs continue to rise. If the answer to this question is yes, then it’s worth providing step-by-step instructions for beginners on how to assemble a mining rig.
A cryptocurrency mining farm consists of several required elements, without which it simply will not work.
1) Video card. The most important part for mining, responsible for the extraction of cryptocurrencies using its power. It is advisable to select several video cards (5-6). It's better not to save on this, since the miner’s income depends on this element. Among the large companies that create video cards, there are two leaders: AMD and Nvidia. The history of their confrontation for the attention of miners began with the sharp growth of cryptocurrency.
The most popular video cards
| Nvidia: | AMD Radeon: |
| GTX 1050ti | RX 470 |
| GTX 1060 | RX 480 |
| GTX 1070 | RX 570 |
| GTX 1080 and 1080ti | RX 580 |
Best models
AMD and Nvidia have produced many quality products for miners. It is worth paying attention to the main ones:
- Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti. One of the most powerful, but at the same time expensive video cards. The GPU has a frequency of 1480 MHz, which is a remarkable result. The model is suitable for those who are willing to spend money. It shows fantastic power, but the video card is not even in the top ten in terms of payback.
- Nvidia GTX 1060 3Gb. The only minus of the model is 3 gigabytes of memory, otherwise the video card can easily compete with its competitors in terms of power. That's why it tops the list of fastest-paying products.
- AMD RX 470 4Gb. Probably the best model of an American company in terms of price-quality. One of the fastest payback and profitable products on the video card market.
Both companies still have many models released. The fastest payback models are at the bottom of the table.
Prices vary depending on the company and the specific model. For example, the new Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti will cost a miner 60 thousand rubles. And for AMD RX 470 4 Gb you will have to pay 4 times less.
It is also worth remembering that the price of a used video card, for example, on Avito is several percent lower than the market price. Therefore, it is worth considering such offers to save money. But don't forget about scammers.
2) motherboards. The place where numerous video cards are connected. The choice of a specific model depends on their number. All products in this category are divided into groups from 4 to 13 supported motherboards. You can also choose another model for 2 or 3 video cards. The largest company producing motherboards is ASRock. It produces products for a different number of video cards. A good motherboard costs 6-8 thousand rubles.
3) Raisers. Special conductors through which video cards will be connected. It's better to buy risers with USB 3.0 and the maximum possible length. You don’t have to make a special choice, since the models differ only in the connectors, which must match the power supply. Raisers are cheap components. For one piece the seller will charge a maximum of 1,000 rubles.
4) CPU. At the beginning of the development of the cryptocurrency industry, mining took place mainly using the processor. But due to the constant increase in difficulty, mining on it will no longer be profitable. Now only lazy people don't build farms on video cards. Therefore, for 2018, the processor is a simple formality, and you need to choose one that can simply withstand the work of the miner. This model costs about 2-3 thousand rubles ( the most durable from Intel).
5) Power supplies. In no case should you skimp on this component, since the operation of the entire farm depends on it. Therefore, you need to be prepared to pay around 10 thousand rubles. It is worth choosing a power supply at least 100 W more than the potential power of the farm.
Also, for the adequate functioning of the farm, a hard drive, RAM and a housing for the mining farm are required. The minimum price for all components starts from 80,000 rubles.
Detailed instructions on how to assemble a mining rig
In general, the mining rig is sold as a complete set, but it is much more profitable to assemble it yourself. Considering that this is not a complicated process. So, step-by-step instructions for assembling the farm.
1) First you need to assemble a simple frame, which will contain the necessary equipment for mining cryptocurrency. This design is assembled simply and not for long, the main thing is to correctly calculate the required size.
2) Next you just need to start assembling the computer. To begin with, the motherboard is installed, it is located approximately at the bottom center in our made design. But, it is advisable not to just put it on the frame, but to lift it a little. note that When choosing a video card, you need to pay attention to the number of PCle slots.
3) After this, the processor with the cooler is connected to the motherboard.
4) Then the power supply is attached to the corner of our frame. This step is very important; if it is poorly secured, it can lead to dire consequences, for example, a farm fire.
5) Then the hard drive is installed on the stand. It must be connected to the power supply and motherboard using special cables.
By and large, this completes the assembly of the mining rig. Then you just need to connect the farm to power and the Internet.
How to set up a farm
To make money on your own using cryptocurrencies, you need to choose high-quality software. To do this, the user is determined by the coin that he will mine. And then he searches for suitable software that will allow him to mine the necessary tokens.
Ready mining farm There is also a more profitable option associated with connecting to a special pool. Its work looks simple: each mining rig connected to the server mines the required block. Their combined actions help to mine cryptocurrencies faster. After successful mining, all profits are divided based on the work done.
The number of pools is large, in order to choose the most profitable one, you need to find out about the server capacity, the method of dividing profits (everything equally or relative to the work performed) and about payments and commissions.
The NiceHash pool is suitable for beginners. It is designed in such a way that it mines the most profitable cryptocurrency at the moment, and then transfers it into bitcoins.
How to set up the NiceHash program, see the video below.
This service is reliable and easy to use. The Minergate pool has become extremely popular. A special program is installed on the user’s computer and uses the farm you assembled to mine cryptocurrency. What the miner earns can be withdrawn to the wallet at any time by paying a commission of 1.5 percent. In general, you just need to look through the possible pool options and choose the most convenient one specifically for the user.
As a result, you didn’t have to spend a lot of time and effort to assemble a mining rig at home, since this process is very similar to assembling a computer.
What cryptocurrencies are best to mine.
The cryptocurrency market in 2018 is proving to be unpredictable. But some conclusions about the profitability of coin mining can still be drawn. The most successful mining companies in 2018 are:
1) Monero. The main difference between this cryptocurrency and its large competitors is its easy mining, which even a laptop can handle. Also a positive thing is the gradual increase in price. In three years, the coin was able to grow from 2.5 dollars to more than 400.
2) Electroneum. Cryptocurrency with great prospects. The developers offer users secure anonymous payments. The creators also stated that they want to set up mobile mining, which will only increase the price of the coin.
3) DigitalNote. A small and little-known coin is precisely what attracts the attention of investors and miners. The mining process is extremely simple and can be done on a CPU.
As a result, assembling and setting up a mining rig is not that difficult, and with step-by-step instructions this process will take a matter of hours. And the profit from such a project can be unusually high. The main thing is to choose high-quality components and the right cryptocurrency for mining.
The increasing popularity of cryptocurrency has led to a systematic increase in the interest of users - many began to find out whether it is even possible in practice with their own hands. The situation is different for different types of payment instruments, but the construction of a coin-mining installation itself is a simple process. Even for people who have little knowledge of hardware and PCs. In the current century, all boards and components are modular in nature, and are also abundantly supplied with manuals and drivers - any of you are unlikely to have any difficulties connecting them.
How it works?
A video card farm for mining is a computer with equipment connected to it, which provides computing power for the benefit of the system. In the most common cases, such components are video cards - a standard tool used by ordinary users for games, rendering and other tasks.
But a video card mining rig will not be limited to just installing components on a rack or in a computer case. The fact is that the heat transfer of these cards is very high - for some models, a temperature of 120 degrees Celsius is still acceptable under short-term loads. Those who want to make money are faced with the question of how to set up a mining farm and maintain normal heat transfer. Cryptocurrency mining, after all, involves constant long hours of work “at high speeds”, therefore, a mining video card farm requires care about cooling.
Installing additional coolers increases air circulation and reduces the stagnation of hot masses in the space between video cards - this way the mining rig will work longer and more productively. This not only increases their performance, but also extends their life cycle - no modern component can be combined with excessive heat. Semiconductor elements on memory boards quickly begin to deteriorate if proper air circulation is not provided and if proper care is not taken, a DIY Bitcoin farm will turn into a pile of failed components.
Basic nuances during assembly
And yet, how to assemble a farm? In an ideal case, video cards are installed on a remote rack, and coolers for airflow are attached to the structure on several sides. The maximum number of cards connected to a computer is 6 pieces - these are the capabilities of modern motherboards. But before you create a mining farm, there are many details to consider.
The next issue that the future miner needs to solve is energy consumption. If we are assembling a mining farm, then this becomes a matter of first importance. The fact is that, with all their energy-saving improvements and reduced process technology, video cards consume a huge amount of current. If you are planning to build a mining rig from scratch, then electricity costs should also be taken into account - they will be very high.
The minimum power of devices in the mid-price segment with not the best computing power is 50 watts per hour. For top-end solutions, the more relevant figure is 100 W per hour, which when multiplied by 6 (the maximum number of slots) gives an impressive 0.6 kilowatts. Creating a mining rig will force you to consume current almost like any household appliance.
But that’s not all that those who want to build a farm need to know. The installation cannot work on its own - in fact, it is the same computer as everyone else, only with expanded capabilities. Therefore, we also add the central processor, RAM, hard drive and coolers on the racks and inside the system unit.
All of the components listed above can add another 200–400 watts, which in ideal conditions gives 1 kW per hour. Or about 24 kilowatts per day - for some citizens this is the consumption rate per month per person. Creating a mining farm will turn you into a current consumer comparable to a small office. Don’t forget about the dimensions of a do-it-yourself mining farm. The dimensions would be comparable to a small diesel generator or something similar. The size of an ASIC-based mining rig can also be huge. Some installations weigh up to 25 kilograms.
Another way to mine cryptocurrency
The profitability of mining could not help but attract large companies involved in high technology and electronics. Already in 2012, the first one saw the light - specialized microcircuits for counting hash sums. In fact, instead of a video card, which is a multifunctional device, manufacturers simply created a mechanism that can only mine cryptocurrency.
Now users have stopped thinking about how to make a mining farm on video cards - it turned out to be simply irrelevant. In addition, I didn’t have to think about how to make a mining farm from a bunch of spare parts and maintain them all. The performance of such solutions is incredibly high. Current controllers outperform flagship video cards in computing power by about three orders of magnitude. Such numbers gave rise to a bunch of questions about how to assemble a mining farm. The step-by-step instructions for controllers turned out to be several times simpler. Another thing is that the price for high-end miners is one and a half to two thousand dollars, and sometimes even higher. Therefore, not everyone could afford a do-it-yourself mining farm. 2017 became the era of these microcircuits. At first glance, such a purchase seems unjustified and it is better to think about how to make a Bitcoin farm on video cards.
But here it’s worth comparing installations on video cards and miners in several key parameters. For example, Radeon RX 550 and Antminer S9 are taken - the most popular solutions:
| Farm of six video cards + power supply | Miner |
|---|---|
| Power consumption – about 0.5 kilowatts per hour (not including the computer) | Power consumption – 1.5 kW (without system unit) |
| Computing power is about 210 Mhash/s. | Computing power – 13000-14000 Mhash/s. |
| The price (including the power supply, excluding additional coolers and rack) is almost $900 ($120 for each card and about $150 for the power supply). | Cost – $1900 (power supply is built-in). |
| The noise level is about 60 dB. | Noise level – less than 40 dB. |
As a result: one miner, with a 2-fold loss in cost, has an advantage in power of almost 70 times. And given twice the energy consumption, the profitability of this farm will be even higher. The payback is higher, which is also worth considering before assembling a mining farm.
Profit and financial component
To calculate performance, we will compare a farm of six Radeon RX 550 with current models using calculators. We also use power databases, which can be found on the website with instructions on how to assemble a mining rig in 2017. Let’s take the average price for electricity to be around 4 rubles per kilowatt, for ease of billing. We select miner models based on the optimal price-performance ratio.
For
Radeon RX550 x6:
- productivity 60 Mh/s;
- net profit about $70 per week;
- electricity costs – $6 per week;
- price – 900 dollars;
- payback period – 3.5-4 months.
Miners are absent as such.
Making money on the Internet has long become commonplace and quite popular. From time to time, new types and methods appear, which are immediately successfully mastered by network users.
This is what happened with cryptocurrency mining. As soon as it appeared on the market, people were immediately found who began to mine it. By the way, one of the first to do this was the creator of the first crypt, who generated about a million new blocks back in the days when the cost of BTC did not particularly impress anyone. But looking at the current exchange rate of this digital currency, you understand that a person has provided for himself for the rest of his life. He also became the first owner of a mining farm.
Even those who, in principle, have never been interested in this topic have now heard a lot about virtual currencies. They talk and write a lot about them, they call them the future of the global financial system, so it is not surprising that many people far from this area began to show interest in it. And, naturally, such people have a lot of questions, which we, to the extent possible, try to answer in our materials. We will talk about what a mining farm is in today’s article.
Indeed, there will be very little of it, since the topic of mining digital money goes back not to ancient times, but only to the recent year 2009, when a certain Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin to the world.
As soon as the cue ball was born, some users began to mine it, at first, rather out of curiosity, since the cost of BTC was low at that time. But as the value of the crypt grew, so did people’s interest in mining it, which, in turn, provoked not only a further rise in price of the coin, but also a complication of the process of generating new blocks.
If at the initial stages the CPU power of a more or less modern computer was sufficient for mining, then over time it became sorely lacking, and miners began to use graphics processors (video cards) for their purposes, the power of which was tens of times higher. For some time, GPUs became the leaders among all possible mining options; they were used to form entire complexes, called farms, consisting of several video cards. But this method of mining gradually lost its relevance, as it began to bring less and less income due to the continuously growing complexity of the process.
And in 2012, the GPU era was replaced by the era of ASIC equipment specially designed for mining. These devices produce results incomparable to the previous ones, they are highly productive and energy efficient, so mining crypto coins using ASICs is still relevant today.
True, for home use, some miners still assemble farms from video cards, since they are much cheaper than ASICs, although they bring in less profit.
As you probably already guessed, a mining farm is a large amount of special equipment concentrated in one room and intended exclusively for mining cryptocurrency. This, as they say, is in general terms.
This equipment is designed specifically for computing work. The main thing here is that you have a very powerful CPU, and the size of the hard drive does not matter much either. The main elements are powerful video cards (GPUs) and corresponding power supplies that are able to provide energy to the system you have created. If your home mining farm has good computing power, then you can easily set up the mining of digital coins and will have a constant, fairly decent additional income. And with a successful combination of circumstances, such income can eventually develop into the main one.
But you, of course, understand that it’s only on paper that everything turns out smoothly and smoothly. In reality, before setting up a mining system, you need to take into account a lot of details and subtleties, since this type of wallet replenishment is quite complex and requires a considerable investment.
So start by calculating the cost of your enterprise, including the cost of equipment and energy costs. Take care in advance of the room where you will place all this “hardware”, since it heats up quickly and requires constant cooling and ventilation. If you do not provide the necessary conditions, then your components will simply fail due to overheating, and instead of making money, you will only have losses.
Mining of digital currencies can be individual, when the user works alone and all the earnings go to him alone (it is called solo mining), and it can be collective, as part of a pool, when a block is generated jointly and the reward is divided between all members of the pool.
We will look at several types of mining farms for working alone:
- Firstly, farms can be assembled from several video cards (up to 6 pieces). The profitability of such a system is directly dependent on the total power of the GPUs used, that is, the greater the power of your system, the greater the profit you can count on.
- Secondly, there have been attempts to create farms on FPGA modules. However, they stopped quite quickly, since in all respects, except energy efficiency, such systems were inferior to their GPU counterparts. So this practice has not received proper development.
- And today the leaders are farms created from ASIC miners. They are quite expensive, but their performance, payback period and profitability leave far behind the similar indicators of the options described above.
To imagine how a mining farm functions, you need to understand that, in essence, this entire system is a computing device. Calculations are made on the blockchain in accordance with certain algorithms and programs. Miners track and process new blocks of transactions, and each such block brings a certain reward to the “miner” who discovered it.
You can search for a block for 10 minutes, or several days or months. The timing depends on certain factors, among which the two most significant are the power of the equipment and the complexity of production.
Now let's talk about mining difficulty or network complexity. The activity of the blockchain chain is provided by user-miners, and the more of them there are, the more difficult it is to find a new block and the lower its cost. The profitability and relative simplicity of this type of earnings attracted a very large number of users, which means that the complexity of the network over the years of the existence of cryptocurrencies has increased significantly, and the profitability of this business has, accordingly, decreased.
If you have a more budget mining farm, namely on a GPU, then you shouldn’t even talk about mining Bitcoin, since the complexity of the network is so high that you will only work at a loss. Hence the conclusion - you need to mine altcoins like Ethereum, Monero, etc.
If you want to get the cue ball, then, as they say, there are options:
- You can purchase ASIC devices specifically designed for its extraction, but in this case, be prepared to shell out a tidy sum, and then wait several months for your investment to pay off.
- The second option is mining altcoins on the GPU and instantly converting them into BTC using special services. This method cannot be called very profitable, but your income will be in cue balls.
- And finally, you can do cloud mining. You may not earn very much, but you won’t have to invest a lot of money, your expenses will quickly pay off, and problems with setting up and maintaining the equipment will not affect you at all.
So, if you are determined and no arguments can shake your desire to acquire your own system for mining crypt, then you need special equipment and software. The second one is easier - go online, look for the option you need and download it completely free.
But with hardware everything is much more complicated. And there are many types of this equipment, so figure out what’s worth buying and what’s not. And you will have to spend quite a lot of money. It’s possible, of course, not very much, but then you can’t expect much income. Well, and problems with assembly, configuration, maintenance. In general, there is enough hassle, and you need to have at least basic knowledge.
There is also an option such as buying a ready-made farm. Finding such offers is not a problem, but such an “easy” option will cost you almost half as much as a self-assembled system. Moreover, there will be no confidence in the quality and performance of the equipment, because, perhaps, the system has already been actively used, and there is nothing left for it to survive. So the option of purchasing individual components and setting up production yourself is still preferable.
- Look for the latest graphics cards from manufacturers like Nvidia or AMD. What type of GPU you buy depends on what kind of crypto you intend to mine.
- Choose a motherboard from the point of view of having a sufficient number of slots to connect all your video cards.
- Naturally, you need a computer and constant access to the network. Everything else in your machine (CPU power, RAM and other nuances) does not matter much. All you need from your computer is uninterrupted 24/7 operation.
- Of course, you need a hard drive.
- We also need power supplies, preferably of high quality and with a guarantee, in the quantity necessary for the mining farm to operate stably.
- And you still can’t do without a frame on which all this splendor will be mounted. You can buy a frame, or you can build it from what is at hand, the main thing is that it is reliable and convenient.
As for assembling all the listed components into a single whole and setting up this “whole,” it is better to find detailed instructions on the Internet and follow them exactly. But if you are a complete beginner and don’t know much about computers, then we advise you to turn to a more experienced friend for help. Still, at least basic knowledge and experience in this matter are required.
The advantages of this method of creating a farm, first of all, include cost savings, especially if you already have some components. The second advantage is that you can show some flexibility in selecting the necessary parts. Well, and most importantly, this is the pleasure that you will get in the process of work, as well as from the knowledge that you were able to do it!
But it’s impossible to do without minuses. You will have to spend a lot of time searching and purchasing the necessary components, and it is not a fact that you will be able to buy everything, since, for example, powerful GPUs are in great short supply and purchasing them is not so easy.
Then, as we have already emphasized, for this work you need to have some special knowledge. However, they can be quickly purchased; the Internet is full of such information. And one more thing - you will be forced to come to terms with the lack of warranty for your product and do without service.
Naturally, before spending money on all the components for your own mining system, any sane person will ask the question - is it worth the candle or, in other words, does it make sense from the point of view of profitability to invest in all this hardware?
Let's figure it out together. The first thing that needs to be taken into account is the increase in the payback period compared to the first years of the popularity of mining. 3-4 years ago, the period of “breaking even” was plus or minus six months. But time passes, progress in the field of crypto mining is moving by leaps and bounds, and now such a period is rather a rarity than a rule. Even large companies include much longer time periods in their plans.
The second point is the amount of money spent. If you put together a mid-level farm, then you will spend at least 150 thousand rubles on equipment, plus electricity costs, and the amount turns out to be quite significant. This means that in order to quickly recover your costs and start earning money, you need to choose the “right” crypto and make allowances for fluctuations in its exchange rate.
As of the middle of this year, the top five most profitable digital currencies looked like this: Bitcoin led the way, followed by Ethereum, followed by Dash, Monero and Ripple.
If we take the ratio of the profitability of a coin and the time required to mine it, then from this position Ether looks the most tempting. At its current cost and expenses of 150 thousand rubles on equipment, a mining farm for ETH will pay for itself in about a year, even a little less. But you shouldn’t trust such forecasts too much, since they are made for the long term, and during this time any changes can occur, because in this sense the cryptosphere is very dynamic.
Let's summarize
To end our article, we would like to say some things that you may not like. But with common sense, you will understand that we are not doing this out of malice, but simply so that you do not lose your sense of reality.
Firstly, numerous articles about big earnings from cryptocurrency mining are, as a rule, 99% just an advertising ploy by interested manufacturers of the same mining equipment and others like them. And if one percent of users actually managed to earn a lot of money, this does not mean at all that the same thing will happen to you (although it is possible that it will happen).
Secondly, mining Bitcoin on a home farm is futile (I just want to say “dead number”, but I can’t, my upbringing doesn’t allow it), no matter who and what anyone tells you. Of course, I would like to (of course, given the exchange rate), but take a closer look at new, less popular currencies, visit a couple of forums, analyze the situation and choose a coin with potential and prospects. After all, not just Bitcoin!
In short, be patient, realistic and make only informed decisions before risking money and nerves. Good luck!
How do mining farms work and how relevant are they in 2017-2018? What is the best way to make a frame for a mining farm? How to make a housing for a mining farm with your own hands?
It turns out that you can become a farm owner without even understanding agriculture. Moreover, you don’t have to go to the village for this. A city apartment will do just fine. As you probably guessed, we are not talking about hydroponics, and not about growing mushrooms, but about the production of cryptocurrency.
Denis Kuderin is with you, an expert on money issues on the HeatherBober portal. I will tell, what are modern mining farms?, what miners do, and why mining bitcoins on video cards is becoming less and less profitable.
You will also find out in which countries of the world the most profitable mining farms operate, why pools (mining communities) are needed, and get an answer to the question: how much money does the average mining farm bring in.
1. Mining farm – business of the 21st century
Computers are working, bitcoins are flowing, and you are relaxing! Money literally appears out of thin air! Business of the future with unlimited income!
This or something like this is how mining is described. There is some truth in these enthusiastic phrases. Mining farms are indeed calculate the cryptographic code by themselves, without requiring special intellectual effort from the owners.
True, it takes a lot of money and time to assemble a farm, connect, configure, launch and support. Popular wisdom says: to do nothing, you need to work a lot.
You really have to work. And it’s not a fact that the farm will pay off in the next year. era solo mining Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies are irrevocably becoming a thing of the past.
But let's talk about everything in order.
What is mining? This is support for the operation of the blockchain system: the creation of new blocks (coins), authentication of transactions and other operations with cryptocurrency. Without mining, the Bitcoin network or any other blockchain-based system will not work.
For their activities, miners receive rewards in cryptocurrency. All digital money that is currently in circulation has been calculated and put into circulation by miners.
What is a mining farm? This is a high-performance computer with several video cards, configured for mining cryptocurrency. Most modern farms mine bitcoins, the most popular digital money in the world.
But more and more private miners are switching to mining ether and other cryptocurrencies that require less energy costs.
What a novice farmer needs to know about mining:
- Professional equipment is expensive– in addition to video cards or specialized chips, you will have to configure the cooling system, buy a power supply and much more.
- The process is accompanied by colossal energy consumption– Be prepared for incredible electricity bills.
- The payback period for equipment is on average 1 year– and sometimes 15-20 months.
- The number of computing power and computers employed in the Bitcoin system is growing– and the reward falls.
Many of the farmers who have been mining BTC for many years are now starting to quickly get rid of their equipment. For different reasons.
Some have already “played enough” of being miners, others realized that it is useless to compete with Chinese industrial clusters operating on the basis of power plants, others have found alternative options for making cryptocurrency earnings, less expensive and complex.
If you are not afraid of the listed difficulties, welcome to the world of large (medium and small) digital money. But I have to warn you again: amateurs are gradually leaving mining, only professionals remain.
This does not mean that private cryptocurrency mining no longer generates income. It’s just that the general trend is that the niche is being crushed by big players with serious money.
There is an opinion that citizens of the Russian Federation will soon be banned from mining solo cryptocurrency at the state level. However, bills on this topic have not yet come to fruition.
There are a huge number of participants in the Bitcoin system. But miners are only a few of them - these are those users who are ready to provide the power of their PCs to collect new transactions, confirm their authenticity and produce new blocks of the chain.
To become a miner, desire alone is not enough. If it were that simple, new blocks, and at the same time coins, would be generated in the hundreds per second. But the value of bitcoins and other decentralized currencies is precisely that they are not easy to mine (that is, calculate).
Creation blockchain, protected by cryptographic encryption, - complex task requiring high computing power. To create one new block, the entire network takes approximately 10 minutes: this time does not depend on the number of miners in the network.
Farm is a computing center consisting of several video cards or specialized chips. These processors simultaneously calculate the hash code, or rather, try to close the open blockchain using cryptographic encryption.
This is the meaning of the farm - to combine computing power for a single purpose.
If at the dawn of the cryptocurrency era it was possible to mine bitcoins using an ordinary home computer, now the computing algorithm has become much more complex. Even video cards, which were seemingly ideal for computing, no longer meet the increasing computing needs.
Since the number of bitcoins is limited, it becomes increasingly difficult to mine them. By 2015, the difficulty of mining had increased 10,000 times compared to 2009. By 17, this figure had increased by several orders of magnitude.
Not long ago, professional mining equipment was created - processors from the manufacturerASIC. These devices are designed exclusively for BTK mining and, unlike video cards, are not intended for other tasks.
The creation of ASIC chips marked the end of the era of amateur bitcoin mining. Now this is a professional activity that requires not only special skills and knowledge, but also significant financial costs.
Even ASICs have already gone through several generations, and the cost of this equipment is such that not everyone can afford to keep more than 1-2 chips at home.
To help you understand the difference between solo and industrial mining, I will give an example:
Imagine that in the 21st century you decide to engage in artisanal coal mining. Is this theoretically possible? Perhaps yes. Find a deposit and start digging. Perhaps you even purchase special equipment. You start mining coal. But even if you dig several tons a day, the profitability of such an enterprise will be questionable.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to mine bitcoins alone
Nobody mines coal alone anymore. Bitcoins are still being mined, but this era is inevitably coming to an end. At the very least, you will have to team up with other miners in pools– communities of miners. These organizations reduce the randomness factor and distribute bitcoins fairly, according to the amount of power provided. Alone, you are unlikely to be able to mine at least 1 BTK.
Miners who do not want to surrender to the mercy of industrial corporations have backup options:
- switch to mining ether (Etherium) - ASIC for this cryptocurrency has not yet been created and, apparently, will not be developed in the foreseeable future;
- get involved - join the industrial mining of cryptocurrency as investors;
- sell or rent out your equipment.
You definitely shouldn’t give up on your mining rig if you already have one (or have the necessary parts awaiting assembly). New cryptocurrencies emerge regularly. And at the initial stage, they will be much easier to mine than bitcoins. And the popularity of some digital money (the same ether) has already come close to BTK.
We have previously written in detail about, read our publication.
3. Types of mining farms
Farms vary in the type of equipment they use. The era of CPU (mining on processors) has long sunk into oblivion. Miners use more powerful hardware, tens of times more expensive than the processor.
These are either GPUs (graphics processing units or video cards), FPGA modules, or ASIC chips.
Type 1. Based on video cards
Video cards have replaced ordinary processors. Graphics computing power based on GPUs is still used today, however, for mining bitcoins - less and less.
I have already voiced the reason - a new generation of equipment and industrial-scale farms has emerged. However, no one prohibits the use of video cards for mining alternative cryptocurrencies.
Please note that one video card, even the most powerful one, does not provide the computing power necessary for modern mining. You need at least 4-6 cards.
Type 2. Based on FPGA modules
This is the third generation of miners. ModulesFPGAs are not inferior in performance to video cards, but at the same time spend less energy. Such farms do not need powerful cooling systems - they are more cost-effective and compact. True, the cost of FPGA is quite high.
In addition, the era of modules turned out to be short due to the appearance of ASIC processors on the market.
Type 3. Based on ASIC processors
These processors are expensive, but at the same time they are the absolute leaders in the field of professional Bitcoin mining. These devices are created solely for the purpose of computing cryptographic code and confirming Bitcoin transactions. The speed of ASIC processors is approximately 25 times higher than that of any other devices.
There is only one minus - these chips are used exclusively for mining bitcoins. They are not suitable for other cryptocurrencies.
Comparison of types of mining:
4. TOP 5 mining farms, known all over the world
The reality of cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin in particular, is a multi-billion dollar business plus advanced digital technologies. Blockchain itself is considered by experts as a greeting to humanity from the future.
So far, block chains and the cryptocurrency created on their basis are increasingly used as a speculative tool. Bitcoins are used as a means of payment only by some Internet companies. It is much more profitable to sell goods for bitcoins rather than buy.
Everyone needs bitcoins. Let's talk about the heroes of the invisible front - those who ensure the emission (issue) of cryptocurrency.
1) Dave Carlson's Secret Farm (Washington, USA)
Considered to be the largest farm in North America. Dave Carlson, a programmer and entrepreneur, decided to get into mining after he began to experience financial problems at his previous job.
The farm that Carlson founded in the basement of his own house and called MegaBigPower, has grown into a multi-million dollar business in less than a year. Now the company has changed its location, but still occupies a leading position among American crypto miners.
The farm has 15 employees. Along the way, the company is engaged in the production and sale of mining equipment.
2) Genesis Mining (Iceland)
The main production facilities of this farm are based in Iceland. Why in this country?
There are several reasons:
- cold climate;
- inexpensive electricity;
- fast internet.
The farm, called Enigma, is the main consumer of electricity in the country. In addition to mining bitcoins, Genesis Mining is engaged in issuing ethers.
The company also provides everyone with a cloud mining service - an opportunity to make money by renting production facilities.
3) Allied Control (Hong Kong)
To organize mining in a country with a hot and humid climate, Allied Control uses advanced cooling technology using double immersion in liquid. The company uses chips in its work BitFury, which are characterized by increased productivity and quiet operation.
4) Data center Bit-Fury (Tbilisi, Georgia)
Another farm based on BitFury equipment. The company practices an environmentally friendly approach: the mining center operates on the basis of a local hydroelectric power station.
Why Georgia? The reasons are the same - low cost of electricity and cheap labor.
5) Linthal (Switzerland)
A relatively new farm located in a small village in eastern Switzerland. The founder is Guido Rudolphi, a well-known personality in the world of cryptocurrencies. According to the owner, the main thing in his work is not getting rich, but promoting blockchain technologies to the masses.
Let's take a break and watch a short video about a Chinese bitcoin farm:
5. How to assemble a mining farm with your own hands - step-by-step instructions
If you have firmly decided to start mining on video cards in 17-18, first think about whether the game is worth the candle. Be prepared right away that the equipment will pay for itself only in 1-1.5 years, not earlier. And think about it - maybe you should immediately set up the equipment for ether extraction?
Our task is to help you launch your farm as quickly and competently as possible.
Step 1. Select and buy a video card
Choosing a video card (if you are not using an ASIC) is a key point in the process. The more cards you buy, the more computing power you get. At the same time, the most productive card does not mean the best.
Focus on:
- reliability;
- cost of adapters;
- energy consumption level;
- good cooling.
In theory, cards from any manufacturer are suitable, but experienced miners choose the Radeon RX 480 or Geforce GTX 1 070. Expensive, but reliable. And they pay for themselves faster than others.
Step 2. Buy a powerful power supply
Since each board consumes about 300 Watts, we need a powerful power supply. This will ensure smooth operation and maximum productivity.
You will also need:
- motherboard with several slots for video cards;
- hard drive 60-160 gigabytes;
- processor – average power is quite acceptable;
- RAM – 4 GB is enough;
- adapters - purchase devices with additional power.
This is only the most basic - you will purchase the remaining elements as you set up.
Step 3. We build a structure to accommodate the equipment
Ideal if you have a special room for a farm.
Mining in a one-room apartment is an option for die-hard crypto miners. Heat, noise, intensive energy consumption - all this does not contribute to comfort. The room must be dry and well ventilated.
The design for a professional farm looks like a server rack. An open frame is needed to cool equipment. The racks are made of wood or aluminum profile. Such frames are available for sale on Avito if you don’t want to make them yourself. Dimensions depend on the number of video cards.
Home farm on a wooden frame
It is better to place the motherboard in the center of the bottom shelf of the structure to create a kind of air cushion. We install a processor with a cooler on the motherboard. We screw the power supply to the structure with screws, then connect the hard drive and the power button.
Step 4. Ensure good air circulation and equipment cooling
The fans are mounted on the side panels of the structure. They should be located on all 4 sides. The number of coolers depends on the number of video cards. We hang the video cards themselves on the upper crossbars of the rack and connect them to the motherboard with special cables (risers).
Video cards Radeon, as practice shows, they have a cooling system that is optimal for mining. Moreover, they wear less than other models.
Step 5. Connect everything to the computer
All that remains is to connect the farm to the computer. If you are an inexperienced farmer, do not start the equipment until you have checked the circuit several times. Better yet, show the design and its components to a knowledgeable person.
Step 6. Join the pool
As I already said, mining is no longer done alone. Therefore, after building the farm, you will need to select a pool.
Selection criteria - principle of reward distribution, current capacity, number of participants, main location of participants. Well, reviews about the community of miners on specialized services, and not only Russian-speaking ones.
Mining as part of a pool is much easier, but there is always a risk of running into a fraudulent community that will take most of the reward for itself.
Step 7. Start mining
All that remains is to start mining - turn on a special program that will begin to perform calculations at the maximum available speed. Professionals advise installing additional software to monitor the status of working devices to prevent overheating and failure.
Separate question - converting earned cryptocurrency into real money. The most profitable way is direct exchange between participants in the Bitcoin network. But this option is not always available. Therefore, it is more advisable to use reliable online exchangers.
– the best monitoring of such resources in RuNet. The service finds the best exchange rate at the moment and offers many conversion options. The monitoring list contains only verified sites that have confirmed the status of honest and fast exchangers.
Some useful tips for those purchasing hardware.
Tip 1. Choose only modern equipment
No used devices even at very attractive prices. Mining equipment wears out and becomes obsolete at an alarming rate. We only take new equipment, with a warranty from the manufacturer.
Tip 2. Focus on maximum functionality
What is the advantage of video cards: with their help, mining of almost any digital currency is possible. While ASICs are designed only for Bitcoins.
If suddenly one fine day the Bitcoin bubble bursts, you will be left with expensive equipment that will have no one to sell and nowhere to put it.
Tip 3. Never take out a loan to buy equipment
Considering the high energy costs, as well as the illegal status of cryptocurrencies, taking out a loan to purchase a farm with a likely payback of more than a year is an unjustified risk. Go broke on interest.
7. How much money will a mining farm bring?
The answer to this question depends on your initial costs. If you mine ethers, which are cheaper than bitcoins, the payback period will increase, but further profitability will be higher, since this cryptocurrency is easier to mine.
Profitability also depends on electricity costs, pool efficiency and many other factors that cannot be calculated in advance. If you really want specifics, then approximate figures for ETH miners are: 5-25 dollars per day at medium power.
Experts assure that there are no gold mountains in mining for a long time, and the future for artisanal cryptocurrency mining is far from bright. The only reasonable option for miners is switch to mining other crypto-money included in the TOP by capitalization and popularity.
8. Conclusion
Mining farms are still a popular way to earn cryptocurrency. However, private Bitcoin mining using video cards and even modern processors is becoming less and less profitable.
The reason is the emergence of industrial enterprises with enormous computing power. Conclusion: miners should switch to mining other cryptocurrencies – ETH, LTC, DASH.
Question for readers
Do you think mining farms will ever be banned in Russia?
We wish you successful mining! We are waiting for your feedback and comments. If the material was useful, do not forget to share links to the article with your friends on social networks. See you again!
As soon as the cryptocurrency breaks through another psychologically important high, many users of the global network begin to mine and the question of how to assemble a mining farm again arises with all its urgency.
Cryptocurrency mining on a video card is a way to mine virtual money, without the use of specialized tools (ASIC machines).
The fact is that cryptocurrency mining on a video card remains profitable to this day. The main thing is to know which cryptocurrency to mine and why to do it. It is not at all necessary to sell the crypto immediately after it falls into your wallet.
In this article, we will talk in detail about how to assemble a farm for crypto mining with your own hands, select the necessary components, and explain which currency is best to mine in 2018.
Do you need to engage in crypto mining?
Is mining cryptocurrency on an NVidia video card relevant?
First of all, you need to understand that mining cryptocurrency on an NVidia video card is impossible without investment. And if you decide to get virtual money on your home computer, stopping to play games and watch TV series, then immediately forget about this activity. Using a computer in this way can only result in very rapid wear of components and increased electricity bills.
You shouldn’t engage in mining on a home farm if you don’t even have basic skills in assembling computers and caring for them. The assembled harvester for the extraction of virtual money will require daily monitoring and appropriate care.
Therefore, if you do not have at least 50,000 RUB in starting capital and do not have the skills to assemble and maintain system units, you should abandon the idea of mining at home.
Selection of computer components for a mining farm at home
One of the most important stages in assembling a farm. How reliable the device as a whole will be, how long it will work in extreme conditions, and what profit it will bring in the long term depends on the quality of the components and their correct selection.
When wondering how to assemble a mining farm, you should take into account that you should not save on purchasing computer parts. The better and higher quality the hardware is purchased, the less often it will fail, and the greater the profit it will bring. You don’t need to consider yourself the smartest and think that you can get a good income by installing the cheapest video cards assembled from low-quality components.
In order to assemble a mining rig, you need to purchase the following components:
1. Selecting a motherboard
It is common to underestimate this component of the farm. It is absolutely unfair to believe that crypto mining depends only on video cards. Professionals know that video cards work under the control of the motherboard, and the efficiency of mining as a whole depends on how efficiently it manages and distributes their computing power.
Just a couple of years ago, there were no specialized cards for crypto mining. The basis of the farm was any motherboard with a sufficient number of PCI-E ports
The first sign and a real legend for miners around the world was the ASRock H110 Pro BTC+. The products of the Asus subsidiary are still relevant today, and will become a reliable basis for any home farm.
Despite the fact that the chipset and socket of this motherboard are already outdated, there is still enough power to simultaneously support 6 mid-range video cards.
This is interesting! According to statistics, over 50% of all home farms from 2015-2017 were assembled on this motherboard. And at the end of 2016, the demand for it was so high that the plant in Taiwan could not cope with the flow of orders.
A little later, Gigabyte released a similar model. It features a modern chipset and socket, but is also somewhat more expensive. This motherboard is called GIGABYTE H110-D3A Bitcoin Edition
Despite the modern chipset and socket, it only supports 5 video cards. The advantages include increased reliability, since solid-state capacitors and ultra-reliable element base are used.
And if you want to build an uncompromising mining rig, then you should pay attention to Asus products. The ASUS B250 MINING EXPERT motherboard is the best (but also the most expensive) that is available today in order to assemble a mining farm yourself. The manufacturer claims that the motherboard is capable of supporting 19(!) video cards, but in reality this is not the case. If you use sufficiently powerful video cards, then the resources will only be enough to support 13-14 video adapters.
For comparison, a table is provided that summarizes the technical characteristics of the devices.
| Motherboard name | Supported processor type | Number of actually supported video cards | Cost for 2018 |
| ASRock H110 Pro BTC+ | 6 | 12200 | |
| GIGABYTE H110-D3A Bitcoin Edition | ntel Core i7/i5/i3/Pentium/Celeron | 5 | 7200 |
| ASUS B250 MINING EXPERT | ntel Core i7/i5/i3/Pentium/Celeron | 13 | 26700 |
If you are not going to build an extremely productive farm, then it is best to avoid the Asus motherboard due to its exorbitant cost. In terms of price/quality ratio, you should choose the GIGABYTE H110-D3A Bitcoin Edition.
2. Processor and its cooling
If you are thinking about how to assemble a mining rig more or less professionally, then the answer is obvious. The heart of such a system can only be a CPU from Intel. There is no need to spend money and buy an expensive i3, i5 or i7 series processor.
For full-fledged mining, it is more than enough to assemble a farm on an Intel Pentium G4600 Kaby Lake. This dual-core processor with four threads is quite capable of coping with mining of any complexity, because the main computing power will fall on video cards.
The second level cache in this processor is 3 megabytes. This will affect the quality of mining in the most positive way. You can use a stock cooler for cooling. This is Intel's proprietary cooling and will provide acceptable temperatures at full load throughout the year. You just need to choose a processor in the BOX package, and you won’t have to worry about buying a processor cooler.
The cost of such a processor with a cooler will be about 4,700 rubles.
3. RAM
You can really save money here. Not any famous brands, overclocking potential or copper radiators. We just buy a regular 4 GB DDR 4 RAM stick.
For our purposes, Samsung DDR4 2133 DIMM 4Gb is quite sufficient. The cost of such a memory stick is about 3,000 rubles.
4. Hard drive
An insignificant component that has virtually no effect on the success of mining. For example, you can use an AMD Radeon SSD with a capacity of 60 gigabytes. This will speed up loading of the operating system and will not become a bottleneck for the farm. Its cost is about 2,500 RUB.
5. Video cards for assembling a mining farm at home
Cryptocurrency mining on an AMD video card
The most important component of a farm. It determines how successful the mining will be and how quickly the farm will pay for itself. In principle, it is impossible to save on these components, and video adapters will account for the lion's share of the budget.
Since the shortage of video cards that occurred in the spring of 2017 was overcome, it is best to opt for AMD products. Cryptocurrency mining on an NVidia GeForce video card is not as efficient and such a farm will pay off much slower.
The funny thing is that the company's productsNVidia is much preferable when it comes to a gaming computer or everyday household use, but for crypto mining, video adapters from AMD are much better suited.
Mining cryptocurrency on an AMD Radeon video card is 15-17% more efficient than mining on similar cards from NVidia, so we will only consider products under the Radeon brand.
This video chip manufacturer produces many different models, but we are only interested in three of them. These are Radeon RX Vega, Radeon RX 580 and Radeon RX 570. Conventionally, they can be divided into high, middle and low price categories. These divisions are very arbitrary, since these are decent video cards that are quite expensive.
1) Video cardAMD RadeonRXVega
Top solution from AMD. One of the most productive cards to date. Ideal for fast mining, if not for one thing. The cost of such a card does not fall below 57 thousand rubles.
In order for a mining farm to be considered competitive, it must have at least 3 (and preferably 5) video cards.
It’s not difficult to calculate, but buying a bundle of three video cards will cost 171 thousand rubles! Naturally, not every miner can handle such expenses, although cryptocurrency mining on a Vega video card has the highest performance.
2) Video cardAMD Radeon RX 580
A very worthy hardware solution. And in terms of the amount of memory on board, and in operating frequency, and in performance, it is inferior to Vega, but it costs half as much.
A good copy of such a video card can be bought for 27 thousand rubles, which means a bunch of three devices will cost 81 thousand rubles. In turn, for five video adapters you will have to pay 135 thousand rubles. This is also a very substantial amount, but as mentioned above, mining without investments is impossible.
3) Video cardAMD Radeon RX 570
An excellent choice for home, but the minimum possible video card in order to assemble a rig for successful mining. When choosing these components for the farm, you should clearly understand that it will not be possible to mine first-tier crypto (with the exception of Ethereum) and you will have to think very carefully not only about the mining strategy, but also study forecasts for the growth of the crypto.
Components of this type are sold at a price of about 23 thousand rubles. That is, three cards will cost 69 thousand, and a full set of five pieces can be bought for 115 thousand rubles.
You need to understand that cryptocurrency mining on an NVidia GeForce 970 video card is ineffective, and the RX 570 is an almost complete analogue of this adapter.
It is very important to choose the right video adapter manufacturer. It is best to avoid unknown brands (Power Color, Zotaс, etc.) right away. It is worth choosing the models offered by Asus, MSI, Gigabyte or Sapphire. These are large manufacturers of components and the percentage of defects in their products tends to zero.
In addition, you should pay attention to the factory overclocking. Cards from the OC series (Overclocker Edition) initially operate at higher frequencies and have a manufacturer's warranty. This is very good, since you don’t have to overclock at home.
In order to better understand the situation, you should provide a table with the technical characteristics and prices of video cards.
As can be seen from simple calculations, the best card for mining isRX 580. It is significantly cheaper than RX Vega, while being 50-60% lower in mining speed. In turn, the Radeon RX 580 is slightly more expensive than the younger model RX 570, but it surpasses it in mining quality quite seriously.
Actually, professional miners understood this simple truth a long time ago. This explains that demand for the Radeon RX 580 seriously exceeded supply throughout the entire first half of 2017, and the shortage was only overcome by November. Let's continue with the instructions on how to assemble a mining rig at home.
6. Selecting a power supply (PSU)
To assemble a good farm, it is extremely important to choose not only a power supply that can cover all the needs of the equipment, but also a device that can operate with high efficiency for a long time.
It must be remembered that the power reserve must be at least 20%, only then will the power supply operate in a comfortable mode and the fan will not hum like a helicopter about to take off.
The motherboard together with the cooler, RAM and hard drive together will consume no more than 50-60 watts. The lion's share of energy will go to video cards. AMD products have an enviable appetite, and taking into account mining, the adapters will work in “squirrel in a wheel” mode with a load of 95-99%.
Five Radeon RX 580 video adapters together will consume at least 925 watts, and the entire farm as a whole will need a whole kilowatt of energy!
Thus, in order to maintain a power reserve, it is necessary to purchase a power of 1200-1400 watts.
The best choice is a high-quality server power supply, which initially has all the necessary connectors and was created specifically for round-the-clock operation and support for a large number of video cards.
An excellent option would be the DELL D1200E-S0-LITEON. American PSU has been on the market for about 3 years and is an integral part of any good farm.
The cost of such a power supply is about 25,000.
But if your budget is tight, you can get by with a more affordable option. And it can become CoolerMaster MasterWatt Maker 1200W. This is a worthy example, but it is not suitable for such active work. The author of these lines used such a power supply, and was forced to replace it under warranty after just six months, since the device could not withstand the non-stop operating mode.
The price of such a power supply is about 20,000 and can be purchased at any store that sells computer equipment.
7. Riser
Connecting all video cards to the motherboard with connectors will not be possible purely physically. In order to connect all the video cards to the motherboard without any problems, special extension cables are used - risers.
The cost of such a kit is about 400 rubles, and you need to purchase five of them, exactly according to the number of video cards. And you shouldn’t save on such a purchase. If you purchase a low-quality riser, such a product can ruin an expensive video card.
8. Truss frame
It will not be possible to place all the components in one housing. The required open stand on which all video cards and a large power supply will be mounted. In mining, such a stand is called a frame.
Professional miners assemble frames from aluminum slats, but this metal is difficult to process and quite expensive. For home cryptocurrency mining, a frame made of wooden beams is more than enough.
Of course, such a frame is less durable and prone to fire, but it is much cheaper and can be assembled with your own hands.
This is what a primitive frame for a home farm looks like. At its base lies a plywood sheet 50 centimeters long and 45 centimeters wide. For strength, the plywood sheet is secured with bars 2 centimeters thick.
The large crossbar is used to secure the video card. Fastening occurs with a regular self-tapping screw. The smaller crossbar secures the video card from below and prevents the PCB from bending.
Below, on the pallet, the motherboard and power supply are placed. Assembling such a structure will take no more than two hours and will require 200-250 rubles.
Finally, a table will be given with all the components and the total cost of the farm.
| Name of components | Quantity | Price |
| GIGABYTE H110-D3A Bitcoin Edition motherboard | 1 | 7 200 |
| Intel Pentium G4600 Kaby Lake processor with cooler | 1 | 4 700 |
| AMD Radeon SSD | 1 | 2 500 |
| RAM Samsung DDR4 2133 DIMM 4Gb | 1 | 3 000 |
| Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 graphics card | 5 | 135 000 |
| Power supply CoolerMaster MasterWatt Maker 1200W | 1 | 19 800 |
| Riser | 5 | 2 000 |
In total, a home farm will cost 174,200RUB And this is provided that you have a monitor, mouse and keyboard, as well as all the necessary adapters to connect the monitor.
Where is the best place to buy components?
In hundreds of articles on assembling farms, you will be advised to purchase equipment from extremely dubious online stores or even from Ali Express. This is fundamentally wrong, since the authors of such articles only saw mining on TV.
Equipment wears out very quickly in the process of everyday mining. The service life of a video card under such conditions rarely exceeds 16 months. And breakdowns after 6-8 months of use are not something outstanding.
And where to go if the video card purchased on Ali Express fails? In 90% of cases, nowhere. You will simply lose a very decent amount, and no one will compensate you for it.
Therefore, it is best to buy equipment in trusted stores. Yulmart, DNS, Citylink - it doesn’t matter where the equipment is purchased. It is important that these companies are verified and always fulfill their warranty obligations.
Cryptocurrency mining on a video card: step-by-step assembly of a home farm
After the frame has been assembled and all the components have been purchased, it’s time to learn how to assemble a mining rig. This process is simple - no special instructions are needed and will not cause any problems for a person who has assembled a computer on their own at least once in their life.
The stages of assembling the farm are as follows:
Step 1. Installation of the frame
The finished wooden frame needs to be installed not a small table or any other item about a meter high. This will greatly simplify the assembly and subsequent maintenance of the farm.
It is necessary to choose a location for the farm so that it is in close proximity to the outlet. The cable from the farm's power supply must be connected directly to the outlet without any network filters or other adapters. In a good way, a farm needs a separate power line, but this is an ideal case, which is very difficult to achieve in an ordinary apartment.
Step 2. Assembling the computer
The sequence of actions is exactly the same as when assembling a conventional system unit. Install the processor into the motherboard. Apply thermal paste in a thin layer over the entire area of the processor. A cooler is installed on top.
Then RAM is inserted into a separate slot and a hard drive is connected. Next, the power supply is installed and secured in the frame.
It is also worth noting that the motherboard cannot simply be placed on the bottom of the frame. In this case, it simply will not start. Special stands should be provided, as shown in the photo.
Step 3. Installing video cards in the mining rig
This operation must be carried out in two stages. First, the video card is installed in size. Then we fix the resulting structure on the frame. In the future there will be delicate work. Each size will need to be connected to the PCI-E connector located on the motherboard. The connection is made using a special adapter. This work is delicate and painstaking and must be done carefully and accurately.
It is necessary to install video cards on the frame so that there is at least 6-8 centimeters between them. This can be done, since the width of the frame is 50 centimeters.
The next step is to connect the video cards to the power supply with 6-pin connectors. The connectors must be installed until they click. Incorrect connection of additional power to the video card will damage it.
If everything is assembled correctly, the mining rig will take the following form.
Step 4. Test launch of a home mining rig
We connect the power supply to the network. Connect the monitor to the video card. Let's start the system. If everything is assembled and connected correctly, then you have a farm completely ready for crypto mining.
After installing the Windows operating system, it would be correct to install the well-known AIDA program and check whether all video cards are detected by the farm. If all five cards are functioning correctly, then you can start mining directly.
Now you know how to properly assemble a mining rig. We hope our instructions were useful to you.
What is profitable to mine in 2018?
Despite the fact that cryptocurrency mining on an AMD video card is quite productive, you should not even dream of mining Bitcoin, Litecoin or Dash. These currencies have long been mined by serious market players using professional equipment, and there is simply no place for amateur miners in the market.
Suffice it to say that in China mining has a semi-state status, and there are entire factories for the extraction of Bitcoin and Litecoin.
On such an amateur farm, you can try to mine Ethereum or Ethereum Classic. Despite the fact that there is a whole group of ASIC machines for mining Ethereum, home mining is still profitable. But it’s better to forget about single crypto mining (solo-mining) right away. Be prepared to mine in pools, as this brings the highest income.
However, if you are looking to the future, then you need to mine the so-called third-tier cryptocurrencies. Not yet promoted coins (Verge,UFOcoin,NEONEM) are mined very easily and quickly. Under favorable circumstances, they can grow in price very quickly and thus recoup all investments.
In custody
It must be said frankly that even though we have given you instructions on how to properly assemble a mining rig, getting into mining in 2018 is not promising. You will have to invest a very decent amount into the farm, but there are no guarantees that this money will be returned and begin to make a profit. You need to clearly understand that mining is akin to a “gold rush” and only one in a thousand will be able to make big money from it.
Most miners leave the market after six months of work, and sell their farms (or components separately) for mere pennies.
And if you have free 150,000 RUB, and you are determined to engage in cryptocurrencies, it is best to invest in a promising cryptocurrency, rather than build a home farm. As an example, we can cite the Ripple rate, which in just two weeks has broken through the one dollar bar and is approaching one and a half dollars per coin.