Cryptocurrency mining has become a lucrative opportunity for many around the world. This has also pushed the prices of GPUs. Mining cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin is really like solving a puzzle, which will need a lot of processing power from the system. Hence, it’s safe to say that setting up a Bitcoin mining rig is not cheat at! You will be spending nearly what professional gamers spend on their hardware; moreover, it will increase your energy bills too. Many who want to get into this weekend project are unsure of how much to splurge in the mining rig, so after doing some research, I’ve created a cost breakdown of the hardware cost, which you should expect to spend.
What is the Cost of Setting Up a Bitcoin Mining Rig? The average cost of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency mining rig cost around $3,500. You should expect to reach a breakeven point in 250 days.
Building your Bitcoin miner will start with a stackable mining frame, which will cost around $40 and then the real GPUs and components which will take your base price to nearly $4000 for one mining rig.
Here’s an average cost breakdown of what you should expect to spend!
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- 1080ti – $3000
- Breakout board – $50
- Server PSU – $130
- PCIe cables – $70
- Mining frame – $40
- PCIe risers – $50
- Monitor plug and Y splitter – $70
- Average Total – $3,410
Selecting the Frame
The open frame for the motherboard and other components is the first thing you will be buying. Although you can buy a decent frame for under $100, you can create one for yourself from spare parts. The reason for having a frame is to have ventilation and space to keep GPUs. You could stack some full-sized graphics cards, but you have to make sure they get enough ventilation to cool down. It is necessary for the frame to have fans, which will often lead to a noisy space, so make sure the room is well ventilated as well.
Motherboard
You need a more stable operation than high-performance from your motherboards. The plan is to attach as many GPUs as possible; however, you should check up the documentation to know how many graphics cards it can handle. Moreover, you will also have to make some BIOS adjustments to increase stability with more number of tickets. Some models can support up to 19 GPUs, which will cost you nearly $250.
On top of that, the price of hardware, especially cryptocurrency rigs are getting expensive every day. Even to buy a board that supports up to 6 GPUs, you will have to pay a fortune. Plus, there’s a supply and demand problem, which makes cost-effective hardware to sell out quickly.
To stack GPUs with a motherboard, you will need a PCIe riser card. Mining doesn’t need a high-bandwidth connection between the card and the system, so you can use just about any PCIe slots to make it work. This should cost you under $50.
CPU
Any typical multi-core CPU should be enough for the mining rig, plus a standard 8 GB of DRAM. In the case of CPU, it is not wise to spend more on high memory configurations and doesn’t have a good return. A $50 CPU from Celeron or Pentium should be just fine. Many opt for CPU mining such as the CryptoNight algorithm which can make you some profit. You can mine at least $1 per day with a decent processor.
Graphics Card
GPUs for mining can be pretty expensive, especially the ones made from AMD and Nvidia. GTX 1060 and Vega 56 are great options, but they have become costly. You should expect to spend nearly $2500 to $3000 in GPUs alone. Some older cards would also do fine, but they consume more power than the new ones, which is a good option for miners living in areas with low electricity rate. By all means, avoid buying used GPUs, you are better of using older models for a low cost than buying used GPUs for a low price.
Power Supply
A significant investment goes into the power supply because mining rigs need plenty of power, even more than the gaming systems. A minimum gold rated power supply is standard as mining rigs regularly run on high loads. Moreover, it depends on the type of GPU and the number of GPUs you are running, so expect to purchase at least a 1000W output. It won’t hurt if you buy a couple of them. For bigger mining rigs, you will need multiple power supplies connected to a single motherboard, for which you will need a dual PSU adaptor cable. You should expect to spend nearly $700 for an efficient PSU, or a cheaper $150 PSUs.
RAM and Storage
Most of the investment goes into buying graphics cards and power supply units, but you can get along with cheaper system memory and storage. A standard of 8GB RAM is enough to run your mining rig; you can also get away with a 4GB memory. Even for a drive, its speed is not of much importance for mining. Any old hard drive or SSD would do just fine, as you don’t need much storage space for your extraction. Expect to spend nearly $50 in this component.
Buying Pre-Built Mining Rig
If you want to give away all the hassle of configuring your mining rig, you can purchase a pre-built one starting from $1800 to $4000. You can even buy an ASIC miner such as Antminer D3 for $400. For a professional miner, the Shark Pro should be a good option which comes with 6 AMD RX570/580 but cost around $3,800. A compact miner such as PandaMiner B5 Plus with 8 AMD Radeon RX 460, will cost you under $2,000.
Other Costs in Cryptocurrency Mining
Mining Software – A cryptocurrency mining software will connect you to the blockchain or your mining pool. First, you will need a Bitcoin wallet which will give you a Bitcoin address to transact mining rewards and payouts. Some of the best portfolios are BRD, Samourai, Electrum, and Ledger Nano S. You should expect to spend nearly $70 on Bitcoin wallet unless you opt for open source apps. A mining software is typically free unless you want to create custom software and willing to set up a farm with some miners. Some of the popular mining software are BTCMiner, CGMiner, BFGMiner, EasyMiner, and RPC Miner.
Electricity Cost – A typical 3 GPU mining rig would consume over 15KWh and then depending on the area; you will be paying quite a lot in electricity bills. For 15KWh with 21 cents per KWH rate, you will be spending nearly $100 in electricity bill for your rig.
Related Questions
How many Bitcoins are left for mining? As of now, there are over 21 million Bitcoins which can be mined.
What is the cost of mining one Bitcoin? In the USA, the cost of mining 1 BTC is $4758. The most expensive country is South Korea where mining 1 BTC is over $26,000, and the cheapest is Venezuela with a cost of $500 per BTC.
What is the payout for mining 1 BTC? It depends on the price changes depending on the market. In general, solving on the block will reward you with 12.5 BTC which is around $125000.
Conclusion
Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency mining is solving a mathematical problem using powerful computers. The problem here is the upfront investment in setting up a rig. There’s no guarantee that you will be the one to solve the puzzle first, as there are many who are trying to solve the problem and probably using even more powerful computers. It is a matter of luck!
Moreover, the mathematical problems get harder to solve, using means your computer will be making a lot of incorrect guesses, thereby producing a lot of electricity bill and noise. Then again you have to notice the diminishing value of cryptocurrencies. Today, according to Fundstrat the break-even for Bitcoin mining is over $8,000.
