When the news background is constantly filled with all sorts of references to new records of cryptocurrency quotes, many are wondering how to build a mining farm and start making money on it. The topic of mining digital assets is extremely relevant, as it differs from crypto trading – there are less risks. Yes, you can invest in equipment and then see how the rate of the mined coin falls. But along with this, the equipment itself will not go anywhere, the miner will still have it. The cost, of course, will decrease, but not to 0.
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Technology
Mining: what it is, how it works and what it is used for
In addition, history shows that usually the value of cryptocurrency only grows in the long run, so you can wait out the period of low prices and save up coins in order to sell them at a higher price later. Mining farms are not only huge hangars with hundreds of computing devices. Household mining is very common and almost every owner of a video card in his free time from other use starts mining. We will tell you what a farm is, how it works and how to assemble it.
Mining farm in simple words
In fact, almost everything that can mine cryptocurrency through computing can be summed up under the concept of a farm. Speaking formally, a mining farm is equipment for mining cryptocurrency. There are 4 main options:
- Specialized equipment called ASICs. Basically, it’s a chipset in a box that’s not very big. Used to mine bitcoins (BTC), litecoins (LTC) and other ASIC coins. It has high computing power according to some specific algorithm.
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Central processing unit (CPU). There are literally a few coins that are mined on them. This is not a common type of prey at all.
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Video cards (GPU). Simple and clear, accessible to most option. As equipment, ordinary video cards for computers are used.
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Drives (SSD and HDD). The old way of mining, which was popular again not so long ago, but for a very short time. Now practically irrelevant.
So, a farm is just a set of equipment, no matter what. With ASICs, everything is quite simple – these are already finished products, you just need to provide electricity and an Internet connection. The process of creating a GPU farm is more complex, but at the same time more accessible.
How a mining farm works
To understand how and why a farm is going, you need to familiarize yourself with the principle of mining. Let’s imagine that we have 1 video card on which we will mine. Let’s also assume that they meet the necessary requirements for mining the particular coin chosen. Then there are 2 options:
- Solo mining. Our video card will try to solve the block alone, it is practically useless, due to the extremely low probability of success. Mining capacities today are simply huge, and are constantly growing. This is called the network hashrate.
- Mining on the pool. We join the team of miners. If the pool finds a block, then the reward is distributed in proportion to the power of each individual miner.
The next step is scaling. One video card is not much, it will not bring a solid income, so miners put several cards at once, according to their financial capabilities. They all have different characteristics, different cost and electricity consumption. The more cards, the greater the total hashrate of the farm and the income from it.
What is needed for a mining farm?
After the decision to assemble the mining farm is made, it is necessary to prepare for the placement of the equipment. This is exactly the first stage, the budget can be considered after. Key points:
- Supply of electricity. GPU mining farms do not consume very much compared to ASIC farms, but when scaling, the issue becomes relevant. Available power should be with a margin. We also look at the wiring, fire safety is paramount.
- Possibility of cooling. Let’s just imagine that a heater with the power of our farm is running in a room or room, since all the power consumed is converted into heat. If there is a need to compactly place equipment, then in this case, some use either forced ventilation of the room, or install air conditioners. This, by the way, additional costs and electricity consumption.
- Consider the location of the equipment. The farm consists of rigs – separate sets of video cards connected in most cases to the same power supply and located on the same stand or case.
- Select all the necessary components – motherboards, processors, RAM, power supplies, risers and, finally, the video cards themselves. We are not trying to save money, but you shouldn’t overpay either, we carefully study as much information and real user reviews as possible. It is also advisable to purchase special equipment for remote restart of rigs. A power outage will result in a loss of time and, ultimately, money.
- Provide Internet access. Communication must be uninterrupted, otherwise you will face equipment downtime and lost profits.
- Select a coin for mining. Most often it is ETH – ether.
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Computers
Mining motherboard: how to choose the best option?
After drawing up such a plan and considering all the details, you can do the practical part.
How to set up a mining farm
Now let’s move on to the assembly of the farm itself. We need to do everything so that the equipment works without problems for several years. Consider the whole process step by step:
- It is necessary to decide in what form the farm will be. You can choose from simple frames made of wooden bars, a more advanced version of aluminum corners, closed cases and shelving cabinets. The last two options are the best in terms of ventilation, they can be equipped with large coolers with efficient cooling, this will significantly extend the life of the equipment. It all depends on the budget and conditions.
- Buy all the necessary components and assemble the rigs. After that, you need to find on the Internet the optimal profiles for each of the video cards in order to get maximum performance. For example, the RTX3070 at standard settings gives 50 megahash, and when configured with an overclocking profile, it gives 60 megahash. The difference is significant.
- Check the power consumption of each rig, one by one. In this case, you need to focus not on the numbers in the descriptions or in the mining program. We recommend taking a wattmeter and checking the power consumption with it – this way the data will be the most up-to-date.
- Select a mining pool. You need to proceed from the reputation, the total hashrate, the payout policy and their regulations.
- Choose a miner – a special program that will mine cryptocurrency. For example, NBMiner or T-Rex, for AMD products – TeamRedMiner.
There is nothing complicated in assembling a farm, but it is important to monitor the temperatures. If they are too high, then in this case you need to either be puzzled by improved cooling, or try to push the video cards to the maximum distance from each other so that hot air from one does not enter the other. Assembling the truss and rigs separately involves experimentation. Even to lower an already normal temperature, it makes sense to try different layouts and look for the best solution.
