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How to build a cryptomining rig: Bitcoin mining 101

149

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

for Hardware 2.0

| October 27, 2021

| Topic: Hardware

Cryptocurrency has been — and continues to be — a wild ride.

I’m old enough to remember being given a couple of bitcoins when they were worth next to nothing. Needless to say, I don’t have them anymore. Now, with bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices skyrocketing again, there’s renewed interest in cryptomining, which is a way to accumulate cryptocurrency without having to pay for it.

Why are graphics cards prices so astronomical?

Prices are being driven high by two factors:

Supply chain issues causing backlogsIn order to prevent high demand from miners causing even more issues, most cards now feature LHR (Lite Hash Rate) to limit mining speeds, making them less desirable for cryptomining. The card listed below is not limited, so the price making it perfect for mining.

Motherboard

Asus B250 Mining Expert

OK, let’s start with the motherboard. The Asus B250 Mining Expert is a beast of a motherboard, capable of having 19 graphics cards connected to it. That’s a lot. The board isn’t new — it was released in 2017 — and it is finicky when it comes to setting up (it needs a specific layout of AMD and Nvidia graphics cards),

Asus has published recommend GPU layouts for 19-, 13-, and 11-card for this board, and while other layouts might work, I recommend staying with what the manufacturer suggests, as veering away from this is a recipe for a serious — not to mention expensive — headaches.

Note: Asus recommends running Windows 10 with this motherboard.

$999 at Newegg

CPU

Intel Core i5-6500

There’s no real point in overspending on a CPU for a mining rig since it’s the GPU’s that are doing the hard work. This quad-core Core i5 is perfect for this setup and works great with the motherboard chosen above.

$140 at Newegg

RAM

G.SKILL Aegis 16GB (2 x 8GB)

You’re not going to overspend on RAM either. The motherboard supports DDR4 2400, and this 2x8GB kit from G.SKILL fits the bill.

$55 at Newegg

Storage

SanDisk SSD Plus 1TB

I’d install a couple of these 1TB SSDs. At under $100 each, they’re perfect for this kind of application. You could go with HDDs, but I prefer going with SSDs nowadays.

Also: Best external hard drives

$85 at Newegg

PSU

Segotep 850W Full-Modular PSU

Depending on how many graphics cards you have installed, you may need multiple PSUs. It’s tempting to find the cheapest possible, but since they are going to be pushed hard, I recommend paying a little more.

These Segotep PSUs are middle-of-the-road good value, yet they offer reliable performance. The modular nature also means that you’re not turning the mining rig into a spaghetti of wires.

$104 at Newegg

PCI-e Riser

FebSmart 16x to 1x Powered Riser 6-pack

Even if you’ve built a PC in the past, I bet you’ve not had to fit in PCI-E risers. This is where a bitcoin mining rig differs from a regular PC in that you can’t have all the graphics cards directly attached to the motherboard, so these risers allow you to connect them indirectly.

You’re going to need one of these for every card you connect (other than the card that goes into the x16 PCI-e slot). This six-pack of powered risers are great and provide stable power to your graphics cards.

I do not recommend using non-powered risers. I’ve had nothing but problems with stability using them in the past in cryptomining rigs, so don’t make the same mistake I made!

$65 at Newegg

Nvidia graphics card

MSI Ventus 3X GeForce RTX 3090

This is a great card and everything you’re looking for in a mining rig. Loads of potential for overclocking, stable, and great cooling. Another nice side benefit is that it’s quite an efficient card, which means lower power consumption and reduced mining costs.

And, unlike a lot of graphics cards nowadays, this does not feature LHR (Lite Hash Rate) to limit mining speeds.

24GB 384-Bit GDDR6XBoost Clock 1725 MHz1 x HDMI 2.1 3 x DisplayPort 1.4a10496 CUDA CoresPCI Express 4.0

$3,070 at Newegg

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