Wednesday, January 17th 2018
Confessions of a Crypto Miner: The Setup
As I have mentioned on the forums here at TechPowerUp a few times, I was an active crypto-miner during one of the most tumultuous times in crypto history: The period between 2013 and 2015. Rather than tell you a long and sad story, I will say just this: I ended up with a net loss by the end of this era, and it wasn't a good time to be an investor if you didn't like roller coaster rides. The reasons I lost money are many, but I think I can attribute them to primarily a lack of experience, a lack of written records, and really, a complete lack of a plan.
My New Plan
Yes, I'm planning on mining again. I've always been drawn to the tech, and I am in a much better position to do so now. Ironically, this time around, I'm not really in it for the money. I've already been there, done that, and it's too stressful for me. Having no end goal of riches doesn't set me up for failure. I think it is a more realistic mindset for taking on this project. It also gives me a chance to document my endeavor to the world, and to you, dear reader. I hope we all learn something here.
First off, a piece of advice: Personally, I would never really consider getting back into crypto mining for money's sake. But if you have the money available and want to do this as a side operation for some fun and the possibility of making some money while you are at it, it might be for you. The aim of this column is to show you what the life of a crypto-miner is like, by becoming one, and to keep you updated with the things that concern miners these days. It will show you the work that goes into producing that "magic Internet money" that a lot of people claim "grows on trees" and show you that it is indeed an occupation in its own right… or so I hope. If I get rich off this, I really won't mind per se, but my assumption is I'll probably end up making below minimum wage at the end of the day, as has happened in the past.
Also, this article is meant to educate you, the reader. It is meant to be a piece for those considering getting into crypto-currency mining, to help them know what they are diving into. The reason I have no problem with doing this series is, the outcome doesn't matter. If I break even, I'm happy. I still get to tell a story, even if I basically worked as a miner for free for a year. The math now indicates I'll be more than breaking even in that timeframe, so I'm comfortable with this, even if the math ends up being somewhat horribly off.
The Math
Yes, the math. Unlike my prior endeavors into crypto, I did some homework first. I found that due to the GPU shortage, I could only easily get my hands on NVIDIA GTX 1080 cards. So, I bought two of those and the cheapest modern motherboard and CPU money could buy. The complete build, for the curious, may be viewed in Newegg receipt form here (Note I supplied the HDD, though a prospective miner could easily boot from USB as well):
So, I decided from the beginning that to minimize risk, I would mine a somewhat mainstream coin rather than go for some higher risk options. That basically means ZCash or Ethereum (I eliminated Monero as an option because some exchanges are beginning to flag this relatively anonymous coin as "high risk" transactions, and I want my liquidity to be high). Of the two, GTX 1080s do significantly better in ZCash than Ethereum, making about $300 per month over my electricity cost (I pay roughly 0.10 cents per kilowatt-hour, for reference).
The whole setup will draw less than 650W. It must, because that's the max rating of the PSU it's being supplied with. I went with a Titanium Seasonic Prime PSU both for their excellent quality/efficiency and for the fact that it may be usable after the mining is done.
The whole setup cost around $1,640. At $300 per month, it will be paid off in a little under six months, so it's not too difficult to get to a profitable point if you can spend the money upfront. From there, the setup can be sold or you can mine further, so you have more than surpassed your "Return on Investment." But you need to account for hours of your time spent, if you want to ask if it's really worth it. I'll be reporting hours throughout this build.
The Build
The Build is of the open-air type and minimalist in all regards, except for cooling. I designed this setup (which may be a generous term) some time ago back in the Litecoin GPU-mining era with Radeon 7970s, back when things were much hotter, much nosier, and much harder to keep cool. Basically, the concept is simple. Use the motherboard box as a makeshift breadboard case and splay the innards of the PC around it on a shelf. Mount a big house fan on top of the GPUs to hold them in place (It will also provide cooling on hotter days, of course.) The result is pictured below, ready to mine. All in all, the assembly probably took two hours, but the install and setup of the OS (I went with Windows, but Linux options are available), various updates, and ZCash mining and wallet software probably took me another four hours. It really was a whole day of work, truth be told. I am listing seven hours of work for the moment on my chart. All for this:
The rig is mining right now (has been since the 8th of January, actually) and producing as expected from the looks of it. Expect a report in approximately two weeks and a biweekly column from this adventure. It should be an interesting ride.
You can track the stats of how TPU's new mining project is doing at anytime here.
My New Plan
Yes, I'm planning on mining again. I've always been drawn to the tech, and I am in a much better position to do so now. Ironically, this time around, I'm not really in it for the money. I've already been there, done that, and it's too stressful for me. Having no end goal of riches doesn't set me up for failure. I think it is a more realistic mindset for taking on this project. It also gives me a chance to document my endeavor to the world, and to you, dear reader. I hope we all learn something here.
Also, this article is meant to educate you, the reader. It is meant to be a piece for those considering getting into crypto-currency mining, to help them know what they are diving into. The reason I have no problem with doing this series is, the outcome doesn't matter. If I break even, I'm happy. I still get to tell a story, even if I basically worked as a miner for free for a year. The math now indicates I'll be more than breaking even in that timeframe, so I'm comfortable with this, even if the math ends up being somewhat horribly off.
The Math
Yes, the math. Unlike my prior endeavors into crypto, I did some homework first. I found that due to the GPU shortage, I could only easily get my hands on NVIDIA GTX 1080 cards. So, I bought two of those and the cheapest modern motherboard and CPU money could buy. The complete build, for the curious, may be viewed in Newegg receipt form here (Note I supplied the HDD, though a prospective miner could easily boot from USB as well):
The whole setup will draw less than 650W. It must, because that's the max rating of the PSU it's being supplied with. I went with a Titanium Seasonic Prime PSU both for their excellent quality/efficiency and for the fact that it may be usable after the mining is done.
The whole setup cost around $1,640. At $300 per month, it will be paid off in a little under six months, so it's not too difficult to get to a profitable point if you can spend the money upfront. From there, the setup can be sold or you can mine further, so you have more than surpassed your "Return on Investment." But you need to account for hours of your time spent, if you want to ask if it's really worth it. I'll be reporting hours throughout this build.
The Build
The Build is of the open-air type and minimalist in all regards, except for cooling. I designed this setup (which may be a generous term) some time ago back in the Litecoin GPU-mining era with Radeon 7970s, back when things were much hotter, much nosier, and much harder to keep cool. Basically, the concept is simple. Use the motherboard box as a makeshift breadboard case and splay the innards of the PC around it on a shelf. Mount a big house fan on top of the GPUs to hold them in place (It will also provide cooling on hotter days, of course.) The result is pictured below, ready to mine. All in all, the assembly probably took two hours, but the install and setup of the OS (I went with Windows, but Linux options are available), various updates, and ZCash mining and wallet software probably took me another four hours. It really was a whole day of work, truth be told. I am listing seven hours of work for the moment on my chart. All for this:
You can track the stats of how TPU's new mining project is doing at anytime here.
161 Comments on Confessions of a Crypto Miner: The Setup
and crypto has moved out of the down phase and back on its way to where it should be.. nvidia cards do quite well on eth or zec..
trog
It's not even about climate change, it's the waste of limited resources that adds absolutely no value to... anything.
If the mining was making calculations furthering science with all the power of these PC's, that's another thing altogether.. but it's not. It's a useless drain on limited resources, that's it.
As of right now I have been doing some pro bono work to get my company up and going to help vets so this pays the bills. People can dislike mining all they want, but the 800 billion USD it is currently evaluated in just currency is not going anywhere. This is here to stay and it is actually doing some good for the tech market. Miners need GPU's that are efficient and fast not to mention long lasting. This is all positive for consumers. When the supply issue is fixed then it is just going to be more cheaper GPU's in the future. Also remember if it was not for mining who really would by AMD cards? Don't want nvidia to get the monopoly. :roll:There are already coins working on science calculations and coins like RNDR that are trying to do the same thing as XBOX cloud gaming. Just be patient this take off is still new and has led to a lot of good decentralized computing schemes.
Mining is doing the same thing for decentralized projects, as cdawall notes:I admit, the present tech isn't really that useful and may even be considered wasteful in many ways, but it leads us to interesting roads.
Didn't stop me from correcting that leaning card last night though.
The fan is also mounted to the wall though with a hook, not just floating.
the current breed of Nvidia card runs quite cool.. more so when set at 75% max power.. overclock the memory and lower the core boost.. i am assuming a 1080 behaves similar to 1070..
www.heathrobinsonmuseum.org/williamheathrobinson
trogwhat they should look like done properly..
that one cost me 4K to build about 4 months back.. three days back it was making 50 dollars per day mining eth on nanopool.. now after the recent price correction its showing 40 dollars per day.. but i expect it to go up again as the price of eth goes up..
trog
ps.. the above rig is showing 60 C temps at 27% fan speed.. its in my caravan.. the temps inside the van are around 20 C.. the rig is the heater..
for example
And it's not a fire hazard. I ran 4 rigs with 3x 7970s like this for years back in the litecoin era. They never even rebooted let alone had an issue. Short of an mega earthquake (in which case, our whole house is dead), they aren't going anywhere either.
I also have limited shelf space that would prevent me from installing a rack regardless.It's a single box fan set to blow on low and only on summer days Trog. It's not even on now. I'm unsure how that qualifies as anything ridiculous. It's mainly there to act as an weighted anchor point for the cards (which it wasn't doing quite so well, hence the leaning card, now fixed).
In the 7970 era I used it a bit more... excessively. Some delta elctronics blower fans may have come to play, too. ;)
It's interesting though you talk about energy efficiency as that's precisely what I am going to play with as soon as my energy watt meter for 240V arrives.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynoochee_Dam
www.mytpu.org/tacomapower/about-tacoma-power/dams-power-sources/hydro-power/wynoochee-river-project.htm
EDIT: While my house is probably largely hydro driven, I can't say with honesty the Wynoochee plant is the source, but I like to think it.
trog
but i aint after a quick cheap as chips return on investment.. its more long term for me.. i hold what i mine and get more long term gain from doing that.. or i did during the last quarter of 1017.. until it all got nicked during the nicehash hack.. he he
trog
that rig pic.. 5 fans, 4 channel speed controller? hows it all hooked up?
how much power do the fans draw?
need a prop for a leany gpu use empty but closed thick 5mm+ cable ties to make a loop, squish it to a perfect brace hieght and slide it between mobo and card , might take two with shit cable ties but sooo quick :)
they basically help move the heat from between the cards and help stop one cards fans from picking up hot air from the next one to it and so on down the line.. plus they look "cool".. :)
pascal cards really dont generate much heat compared to amd or earlier generation nvidia cards..
trog
That's pretty small. It could only power ~1000 homes like mine and I don't do anything extraordinary except being all electric.
I passed that claim off as more or less factual. It's obviously more fantasy than reality looking at the numbers though, so I recant.