You may have heard of a little thing called bitcoin. Bitcoin has and is the pioneer in the cryptocurrency trend, an effort to create currency of value in a decentralized, peer-to-peer fashion. More and more businesses are legitimizing the use of this currency, and since its inception the value has absolutely skyrocketed.
Cryptocurrency can also be generated. There have been vast amounts of money made from ‘mining farms,’ a term used to describe a system of computers working around the clock to generate unique code that is only attributed to a certain value amount. Thanks to the intense mathematical procedures that must be generated in order to find a coin of unique value, there has been a revolution in how people try and focus on this farming. There is a good amount of money to be made, but it will require a solid understanding of what you need to get started.
First of all, it’s important to use the best bitcoin miner hosting service available. These services can offer insight into the rigs you need, your operational costs, and when you can expect a form of profit. These services offload some of the intense work on your end, allowing the entire procedure to take less time and feel less cumbersome from someone getting started. They can also educate you regarding the process, helping you exercise a little more autonomy the next time around.
However, one of the biggest and most frequent questions that people ask is ‘what are the initial investment costs of building a mining rig/farm?’ The answer is hard to give, because often there are many different variables involved. There are also better and worse ways to go about things. Purchasing old computers is usually not worth the effort when trying to cut costs, as the return on crypto generation is not worth it from a timeline perspective.
When building a crypto rig, you will need some of the following components:
Components
GPU
The GPU, or graphical processing unit, is the main driver of your crypto generation. It will lend the main processing power necessary to generate the mathematical ‘mining,’ and better cards often lead to better and faster results. Much to the chagrin of gamers, this has driven GPU costs up to a relatively extreme degree. We’d currently recommend no less than a GeForce GTX 1070, A GTX 1080, or a GTX 1080 Ti. GPU mining is the most popular, because it can gift you a higher hashing power compared to other methods. It also has a wider ability to stay compatible with different varieties of cryptocurrency that might be using different algorithms. These are the industry standard cards on the market right now, and are also the easiest to cool. GPU mining is the most commonly used variety of cryptocurrency mining, but you can also use:
CPU
A CPU processor is not an alternative to a GPU, you need them both for a functional machine, but sometimes you can prioritize your CPU to generate its task, and purchase a cheaper GPU. This is less expensive, but it can be one of the slowest forms of mining. With some currencies, it’s almost an obsolete method of doing it. However, for those interested in GPU mining, an i7-6700k Intel i7 processor should allow you to compute the necessary overhead requirements of your mining program while the GPU does the heavy lifting. This will allow you to avoid the low hash rate.
Power
Mining currencies of this nature requires a large amount of power, and will often run your graphical processing unit to the highest capacity it can. For this reason it’s important to know the wattage of your machine, and to calculate how much it would cost to run at capacity. It might be you spend hundreds of dollars a day on power depending on how long you leave the machines running, and how many machines you have. Knowing this amount of investment will allow you to calculate what your return will be, and if that effort is worth it. Of course, it’s also important to stagger your mining rigs around the house, office or warehouse you have in order to ensure power is equally distributed and not inclined to cause you a fire risk.
But how can you build this form of machine without spending over the odds? Here are a few tips to do so:
Cost Cutting
Buy Other Components Cheaply
Building a computer is important to do when slotting these components together. However, the price you pay on the main components can be offset elsewhere. For example, you might choose to buy cheaper RAM sticks that are off-brand but provide the necessary room you may need. We’d recommend 24GB – 32GB. You might also choose to either go for an open case provided you can cool the components effectively, or simply purchase old, used computer tower cases and install your own custom fittings to display everything well.
It’s important to know exactly what you need to buy cheaply, and what you can’t afford to. For example, buying a cheap or off brand or less powerful than needed PSU (power supply unit) can cause fires or simply damage your other components. Be sure to know that in some areas paying a little over the odds can increase your success tenfold.
Buy In Bulk
That’s right, despite the relative novelty of this entire process, old business practices do work. Often stores and auction houses will respond kindly to those building a farm, and you may cut thousands of dollars purchasing many units at once. Crypto has driven up prices of these components to a relatively significant degree, so finding this can potentially help you cut out some of those increased costs. Also, check for institutions that may be taking care of drive sales to help you find second hand yet powerful components. For example, places that use intense computational power such as second hand government science departments, or even places as large as NASA can have auctions to try and rid themselves of unused components as they update their catalogues. Simply keeping an eye out can potentially yield you some solid future profitability.
Import
While the popularity of cryptocurrency has led to the prices of GPUs and CPUs skyrocketing thanks to demand, there are some environments where this trend hasn’t caught on as well, or the market has been flooded with these components to begin with. For example, important from India, China and other countries could potentially help you find competitively priced products. Just be sure to root the system if purchasing a mining rig and adjust it to your language, or keep in mind how minature component parts might look in certain countries. For example, there may be different power requirements for certain GPU’s to adapt to a particular format.
Things To Keep In Mind
Running a cryptocurrency farm is not something that is simply completed once you set up. There are many things that you need to take care of afterwards such as:
Maintenance
It’s important to keep a close watch on your crypto farm, particularly keeping at least one technically proficient person watching it at all times. With the amount of power used and the potential for components to break, this person will be able to manage the flow of your power, turn off select machines for breaks when needed, and generally ensure all parts are well maintained, cleaned and fire safe.
Mining Hosting
If using a mining hosting platform, it’s essential to stay communications with them often. Not only will they help you become aware of tips and tricks to stay secure, but also inform you of the latest trends in crypto mining, and help you continually stay on the cutting edge of the equipment you use to make this a reality. With the right mindset, you could potentially set yourself up to grow here, and the mining hosting service should make that possible. Just be sure to use all their offerings, because crypto mining is such as competitive field that it does take a good amount of quick thinking and application to stay ahead of the curve.
Open A Wallet
It’s important to open a bitcoin wallet, or a wallet adapted to accepting the various forms of currency you feel appropriate. There are many different forms of currency popping up all over the market, and even companies such as Kodak have become famous for completely switching up their business plan to focus on this. For that reason you can expect many different forms of currency over the coming years, and finding an online secure space to keep those will be even more essential than it is now.
In Summary
Cryptocurrency mining is here to stay. With this simple advice, before long you’ll be enjoying a competent, constantly running mining farm to potentially yield some real long term profitability. It will take an intellectual and financial investment, but anything worth doing in the business field is.
We wish you the best of luck in all of your crypto adventures from here on out.