Mining on a computer: review of mining on a home PC, programs, calculators, payback

Any home computer can be used to mine cryptocurrency - the only question is what to mine and whether it will be profitable. You can mine coins using a processor, video card or hard drive, or by combining all three devices. It will not be possible to mine bitcoins in this way, but in 2022 there are promising altcoins, the creators of which pay a lot of attention to protection from the influence of ASIC miners, giving priority to owners of ordinary PCs. The editors of Profinvestment.com decided to figure out what is needed to start mining on a personal computer and which altcoins will be profitable to mine.

Features of mining on a home PC

There are three main components in a personal computer that are suitable for mining cryptocurrency:

CPU.
Video card.
HDD.

Let's consider the nuances for each of them.

CPU Mining

It has relatively low computing power, but is suitable for mining specially optimized coins, such as Monero. It is considered optimal to use mid-priced processors, since the expensive ones will take too long to pay off, despite the high hashrate. Examples of processor models that may be profitable as of 2022:

Intel Core i7-9700K
Intel Core i5-7600K
AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X

Details about mining on a processor.

Mining on a video card

Due to the high speed of processing operations, video cards are often used for mining, and several devices at once. But in the case of home mining on a computer, it most often means using only one video card, which will also be used for gaming or working with graphics. Models of video cards that today meet the following requirements:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080.
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64.

Details about mining on video cards.

Hard drive mining

Hard drive mining is fundamentally different from other options because it uses a special Proof-of-Capacity (PoC) consensus algorithm. Its essence is to generate volumes of data, a process called plotting. The efficiency of mining in this case depends on the number of recorded “plots”, that is, essentially on the amount of space on the hard drive. The efficiency is also affected by the data transfer speed of the internal memory buffer. You can mine on both HDD and SSD. Examples of hard drive models suitable for mining:

Toshiba HDWD130EZSTA
Seagate ST 10000 VN0004
Seagate ST 8000 AS0002
Western Digital WD Red

To achieve maximum efficiency, you can use three types of devices at once when mining on your home computer. The CPU + GPU option is often used and supported by mining programs such as MinerGate. It can be used to mine Monero (XMR) very efficiently.

Programs for GPU/CPU mining on a regular PC

The easiest way to start mining on your computer is to download programs from MinerGate or NiceHash. Their advantage is that they combine everything you need for mining in one place, that is, you do not need to separately search for a pool and configure the software, and these applications also have a convenient graphical interface (unlike those that can only be worked with through the console ). Let's consider both options in turn using the Monero cryptocurrency as an example.

MinerGate

First, you need to create an account if you don't already have one. This is a standard procedure and should not cause any difficulties. It is enough to confirm your email address.

Minergate

Next you need to download the miner program. There are both graphical and console options for all popular operating systems.

Install the downloaded miner and log in with the credentials created on the site. On the main page of the miner, the most profitable coin at the moment is automatically determined. On the next tab you can find a list of all available cryptocurrencies. Those that are currently unprofitable are hidden by default unless you click a special button to display them.

Now all that remains is to click the “Start mining” button in the CPU and GPU columns, or in one of them. The process will begin immediately.

If you prefer to work with a console interface, then the MinerGate pool supports such popular miners as xmrig and xmr-stak. The settings for them are given on the website:

NiceHash

The peculiarity of NiceHash is that it is a kind of power market. Sellers rent out their computing power, and buyers pay to use it. Thus, from the sellers’ side it looks like income mining, and from the buyers’ side it looks like cloud mining. The entire process is carried out automatically and with minimal user intervention.

NiceHash Miner is a mining software that includes a number of third party miners that are not owned by NiceHash.

To get started, register on the website and click “Download miner” in your personal account.

Select the first option and click "Download".

Download the installer from GitHub.

It is better to disable anti-virus protection at this time. Almost all antivirus programs recognize the miner as a virus.

Install the program and log in with the same credentials as on the site. Wait for the miner's executive files to load.

All that remains is to click on the “Start mining” button and wait until the benchmark (assessment of the computer’s capabilities) is completed. When mining starts, the most profitable coin at the moment will be automatically selected, but all profits will be converted into BTC and automatically transferred to the Bitcoin wallet on the site. However, you can specify any external wallet address in the settings.

Other software

Mining software on your home PC allows you to control the process - start or stop mining, configure it for a specific pool, select the equipment used, and much more.

CG Miner

One of the most popular programs is CGMiner. Its only drawback is the lack of a graphical interface, but on the other hand, everything is extremely simple, you just need to enter the necessary keyboard commands from the list of available ones. Download here https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer.

Another option is to install the EasyMiner program, which is essentially a graphical interface for CGMiner and works well when mining on a CPU and GPU simultaneously.

Almost all such programs conflict with the antivirus, so you need to add them to exceptions.

Benefit

It is still possible to benefit from mining on your PC. But I wouldn't say it will be very easy. First, you will have to invest a lot in purchasing good equipment. Then you need to wait until it all pays off. Also take into account energy costs, which will be high, especially if you use multiple video cards.

Only after all this can you begin to calculate your net profit. Won't you get tired of all this by then? Will your hardware hold up? The payback period is at least six months: what will be the difficulty of production by then? Before you start mining at home, try to answer all these questions.

Also, let's return to the question of mining on a laptop. Like I said, it's accessible. But I don't think it's beneficial. The cost of good laptops is usually higher than that of computers of equal performance. Again, don't forget about your electricity bills. Mining on a laptop stopped being profitable about 2-3 years ago, if not earlier.

Finally, I would like to wish you to adequately assess your capabilities. If you feel like you can get through this, then I wish you luck and determination. And of course, patience, because you may encounter problems such as a collapse in the exchange rate. Then the benefit will be slightly less. Ready for mining? You can test your computer.

Happy endeavors!

Mining on the HDD of a home computer

While mining is happening on the processor and video card, you can simultaneously run mining on the hard drive, since they use different resources. But it is important to set priorities correctly (this can be done through the task manager). The main priority should be the video card.

Burst and Sia cryptocurrencies are suitable for mining on a hard drive (so-called plotting). Most often they stop at Burst. This method of mining cryptocurrency is very economical and efficient, since hard drives consume little energy.

How to mine BURST cryptocurrency solo:

Download the software from the official website https://www.burst-coin.org/wallet/. Also make sure that the latest version of JAVA is installed on your computer.
Create a wallet account, save the secret phrase in a safe place.
At the bottom of the screen, click Write Plots and then Plot this Drive.
Select the amount of disk space and the number of cores that you consider optimal to use for mining on a personal computer.
Enter your ID and click Start Plotting.
When the process is complete, you can close all command prompt windows.
A Start Mining button will appear next to the Write Plots button. By clicking on it, select the mining pool.
In the window that appears, click Change to connect your account to the pool.
Click OK to copy the pool address. Paste it into the second line of Recipient. In the first one, enter your secret phrase. If an error message appears, click Change again and repeat the following steps.
When you see the hash signature, click the Start Mining (CPU/AVX) button and Burstcoin mining will begin.

Note that this type of mining can only be used as an additional option. There is no point in assembling a full-fledged farm of hard drives for mining Burstcoin, since with a coin price of $0.003, the payback of such a farm will take more than 80 years.

The next method of mining Bitcoins is mining using video cards.

Unfortunately, the period when it was possible to receive Bitcoin using a standard video card is irrevocably gone, because since that time the Bitcoin mining procedure has become much more complicated and today, to perform the calculation procedure, you need to use much more resources than a few years ago. Due to the growing attention to Bitcoin, in view of the rise in its value and value, video card and processor developers are every day inventing new ways to increase the power of video cards, and miners are creating new pools to make their earnings more stable and predictable.

Mining pools on your home computer

If using MinerGate and NiceHash is not suitable for you, then let’s look at what pools there are and how to choose the best one for mining on your home computer.

The process of mining cryptocurrency is designed in such a way that as the amount of computing power in the network increases, the complexity of the calculations also increases. And taking into account the cost of electricity and the impressive costs of equipment, this is not always a profitable enterprise.

Therefore, cryptocurrency mining in pools began to dominate. A pool is a group of miners who combine their resources into a single network and jointly mine cryptocurrency. A pool has a higher chance of receiving a block reward than a solo miner, although it is then divided according to agreed conditions among all participants in the pool.

The main criteria for choosing a pool for mining at home on a personal computer:

Compatibility of the devices you plan to use with the pool requirements. In addition, the pool must be compatible with the software. Some pools set separate requirements for Internet speed.
Task distribution mechanism. The pool can contain both huge groups of capacities and small ones. It is important that the algorithm efficiently and evenly distributes data computation tasks among these subgroups. For example, he assigned more complex tasks to a strong group.
Transparency operation. There should be access to a dashboard that is updated in real time and provides an overview of all payments and rates.
Reliability and stability. The pool must provide a secure connection and be protected from DDoS attacks and hacking.
Payout frequency and limits. If you mine on a home PC, then this indicator is especially important - with low power, it will take longer to reach the minimum payout threshold, and this can lead to payouts being more infrequent.
Commission structure. Each pool charges members a fee, although some are voluntary and more of a donation. There is also an option that the pool does not charge a commission under certain conditions - for example, installing its software.
Size. Large pools have a higher probability of finding blocks, but the payout per block will be lower. And vice versa. It all depends on your priorities - what is more important, to receive money regularly, but little by little, or less often, but in larger amounts.

Popular mining pools for mining altcoins are 2Miners, AltPool, Multipool, SoloPool, etc.

To join the pool, you need to go to its website and register. There you can make initial settings, give the workers a name (a worker is your working device, computer, farm, etc.). Also enter the wallet address for payments. In your personal account you can track the effectiveness of your work.

power unit

It supplies energy to the entire PC, and also protects it in case of network surges, so there is no need to take the cheapest models, miners do this. We won’t talk in detail about the differences in circuit design, capacitors and other little things inside the power supply, but let’s just say - take trusted brands. Read reviews on the Internet and on marketplaces, and make your choice based on this.

Mining calculators for calculating the profitability of mining on a PC

Of course, mining on a regular computer does not require financial costs, so you can start doing it at any time and see in practice how profitable it is. However, it is recommended to make preliminary calculations - perhaps your equipment is too weak and will not bring any income, in which case you can upgrade one or more components.

To calculate mining profitability, calculators are used: WhatToMine, NiceHash, CryptoCompare, Coinwarz, etc. To calculate the profitability when using a home PC, a calculator is suitable, where you can specify several different devices at once or just the total hashrate.

For example, we use the CryptoCalc calculator. Initially, you need to select the cryptocurrency that you plan to mine. In this case it is XMR (Monero).

Next, you need to calculate the hashrate of your existing CPU and GPU (hard drive performance is calculated separately, completely differently). Substitute the resulting value into the “Hash-power” field. Then, similarly, add up the energy consumption of two devices and indicate the electricity tariff that applies in your region. The pool commission is also indicated so that the result is as clean as possible. The approximate profit is displayed on the right. It changes in real time as you adjust the settings on the right.

As for the hard drive, if you mine Burst on it, it is recommended to use this calculator for calculations: https://burstcoincalculator.com/. If you specify the hard drive size in it, for example, 1 TB, then the profit per day, week and month will be displayed. As you can see, for 2022 the profit will be 3 Burst per week. At a price of $0.003 per 1 Burst, of course, this profit is practically zero.

When using 10 TB, the situation is a little better, but still the question of the feasibility of such mining remains open.

Example of payback calculation

Let's try to calculate the payback of mining on a home computer, if we imagine that you bought the main components specifically for it. We will take not the most expensive options.

Initial costs 72,000 rubles:

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT video card – 35,000 rubles
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X processor – 20,000 rubles
Hard drive Toshiba HDWR11AUZSVA HDD 10 TB – 17,000 rubles

example of calculating payback when mining on a PC
Using the RandomX algorithm used by Monero, the processor shows approximately 1.4 kH/s, the video card – 1.5 kH/s. Total – 2.9 kH/s. Total power consumption – 225 + 180 = 405 W.

So, we see that at the moment this option will be unprofitable. You need to either increase the hashrate, or reduce energy consumption, or choose a moment when the value of the coin on the market will be higher. Now the crypto market is not going through the best period, but this is most likely a temporary phenomenon. When exchange rates go up again, mining will become relevant again, even on a home PC.

From crypto money to real money

And now, you have earned your first bitcoin. Surely you can’t wait to convert it into dollars, euros or rubles in order to manage your money in the future. And this is much easier to do than everything we talked about above.

There are several ways to get regular, familiar money. First of all, you can sell cryptocurrency on an exchange - this is completely legal. However, the exchange often has an unfairly high transaction fee. In addition, when making a transaction on the exchange, you will automatically pay income tax on the currency sold.

You can also convert coins in special online exchangers, the most popular of which is bestchange.ru. Enter your wallet details, select the number of coins you want to exchange, and indicate the account details to which you want to transfer the money. All manipulations take no more than fifteen minutes.

In addition, in large cities there are exchange companies that purchase cryptocurrency.

You can also convert coins by selling them to an individual. It is important that this is a person you trust. Or a transaction with it must be formalized in compliance with all legal subtleties (although in the case of cryptocurrency, this does not always save).

By the way, income tax in case of sale of cryptocurrency will need to be paid in any of the above scenarios. According to the Law “On Digital Financial Assets,” which came into force in the Russian Federation on January 1, 2021, any transaction with cryptocurrency must be declared. Otherwise, the Federal Tax Service may be interested in you.

What coins are mined using regular computers?

The developers of some projects deliberately oppose their cryptocurrency being mined using ASICs. Therefore, they develop mining algorithms that are difficult to reproduce in ASICs, but which are ideal for mining at home. Examples of such currencies:

Monero (XMR). One of the best anonymous cryptocurrencies that is quick and easy to mine at home. Initially it worked on the CryptoNight algorithm, which later changed to RandomX - even more resistant to ASICs. Thus, large mining organizations will not be able to take over the ecosystem for a long time, as happened with Bitcoin.
Vertcoin (VTC). A coin that is also resistant to the development of specialized ASICs. There is convenient official software for it that supports mining on both a video card and a processor. It should be noted that only video cards from Nvidia and AMD can be used for mining Vertcoin.
Dogecoin (DOGE). The altcoin, created almost as a joke, has managed to stand out with an active community and already has one of the largest transaction volumes in the crypto-asset market. Powered by the Scrypt algorithm, which requires less electricity during mining. And the block creation time is only 1 minute.

In any case, it is recommended to join a pool; this will bring much more profit than solo mining.

What are we going to mine?

Most people today only know one cryptocurrency - Bitcoin. It is the most popular and the most expensive, which is why novice miners don’t even think about whether there are any other options. And they exist, and in abundance.

First of all, altcoins are interesting because they are easier to mine than Bitcoin, since they are younger and far fewer people are interested in them. This means that you don’t need a whole farm to mine some of them, but you will most likely be able to make money from them no sooner than in a few years, when their price increases.

Venerable miners, investors and analysts today pin their greatest hopes on the so-called ether (Etherium). Its price at the moment is a little more than a thousand dollars, but there is reason to think that by the end of this year it will increase 2-3 times.

It is also recommended to pay attention to Bitcoin Cash, a fork of Bitcoin that emerged in 2022. For a long time, its rate was almost identical to the ether rate, but now it costs much less. However, like any cryptocurrency, BCH regularly sees its ups and downs, and its all-time high recently exceeded $600.

And the choice is not limited to this: there are a huge number of resources on the Internet where you can learn more about altcoins and decide whether you want to take a risk in order to make quick money, or are you willing to wait to get rich in the future.

Where to exchange mined cryptocurrency

After mining on a personal computer has borne fruit, you can sell the cryptocurrency and receive real money for it. The main ways to do this:

Online exchangers. They support many exchange directions, including directly to a card or to any convenient electronic wallet - Yandex, Qiwi, etc. The exchange is very quick and easy.
Payment systems. Some services allow you to create separate accounts for different currencies and cryptocurrencies, and quickly transfer funds from one to another. For example, Advcash, Payeer and others.
Cryptocurrency exchanges. You can choose a classic type exchange with support for fiat currencies, for example, Exmo. Or choose a p2p exchange, where the choice of payment directions is much larger and account verification is often not required.

How much can you earn?

Probably the most important question is how much you can earn by mining on your computer. This is easy to find out; when you start, the miner will calculate everything and show the amount you can count on.

See the profitability table for different video cards here.

Here is my screenshot of my computer with a 2014 video card. As you can see, there is no need to make any additional movements.

If your computer or laptop is really bad, look towards cloud mining!

Recommendations

A few tips before starting mining on your computer:

When choosing a coin for mining, you need to carefully study the pros and cons of its ecosystem and evaluate its prospects. It hardly makes sense to mine a currency that has no chance of increasing in value.
You also need to make calculations on a mining calculator to make sure the venture is profitable and see options for improving the process.
It is important to provide good cooling for your computer. It will become very hot during the process. It makes sense to purchase additional fans - take them into account when calculating the payback.
In regions with expensive electricity, mining profits are significantly reduced. In this sense, only a good market rate of cryptocurrency can save the situation, otherwise the results will be unprofitable.

Basic Concepts

Mining is the process of verifying cryptocurrency transactions and adding them to the blockchain. It is carried out using mathematical calculations on one or another equipment (video card, processor, hard drive, ASIC integrated circuit).
A mining algorithm is a set of instructions and mechanisms by which a cryptocurrency hash is encrypted.
Mining software is an application with a graphical or console interface through which cryptocurrency mining is configured and managed.
A pool is an association of miners to jointly search for a block and equitably distribute the reward for it.
A cryptocurrency exchanger is a platform where you can exchange earned cryptocurrency for fiat money.
Cryptocurrency exchanges are platforms where you can exchange one cryptocurrency for another or for fiat money.

Setting up stable operation of Windows 10

For optimal mining performance, you need to increase the amount of virtual memory using the hard drive. How to do it? Go to the search and type, “Setting up presentation and system performance”

Next, go to the additional tab -

Then in the “Virtual memory” heading, change the button -

Then select our hard drive, “Specify size”, enter 16000, click the “Set” button and “OK”. Reboot the PC.

Questions and answers

What is the fastest way to start mining on a computer?

Use the MinerGate or NiceHash platforms. They combine everything you need to start mining from any device, as well as detailed instructions for downloading and setting up the software.

Is it profitable to mine from a home computer?

One cannot expect that such an option will bring cosmic profits. Significant income is possible if the cryptocurrency rate is high on the market and the availability of suitable equipment.

How to calculate profit, profitability, payback when mining on a computer?

Use mining calculators for this purpose. There are quite a lot of them on the network. For example, CryptoCalc, WhatToMine, NicaHash and others.

Is it necessary to join a mining pool?

For some currencies, solo mining is also possible, but in practice it is easy to see that being in a pool is much more profitable.

What coins can you mine at home from a regular computer?

Those whose algorithms are resistant to ASIC development. For example, Monero, Dogecoin, VertCoin.

Will the equipment wear out more?

Yes, of course, mining forces devices to continuously operate at maximum capacity and heat up. One way to slightly reduce wear is to provide high-quality cooling.

Is it possible to mine on a home PC?

Yes, but there will be profit only if the technical characteristics of the PC meet a certain level - you can calculate whether its power is enough to generate income using calculators.

How to mine bitcoins on your computer?

The days of mining Bitcoin on your home PC are long gone and most likely will not return. Now, mining the most important cryptocurrency requires enormous power, which only an ASIC miner can provide.

Where to start mining on PC?

You need to download the miner program and join the mining pool. Beginners can use the services of the MinerGate or NiceHash platform and start the process in just a few clicks. If your antivirus blocks the loading or operation of an application, you should add the program to the exceptions.

Is it possible to mine on a weak computer?

At the moment, when the position of the crypto market is not at its best, even on a powerful computer, mining is not always profitable, not to mention weak. You risk going into the red by paying more for electricity.

Mining on a computer: review of mining on a home PC, programs, calculators, payback, features and recommendations for mining cryptocurrency