How to build a farm for mining Ethereum in 2022. Detailed instructions.

Predicting the future of cryptocurrency mining is a thankless task, somewhat reminiscent of fortune telling on coffee grounds, but, nevertheless, there are certain indicators that you can rely on when studying the issue of mining prospects. Let’s figure out whether it’s worth starting mining in 2022 and how best to do it.

It’s worth clarifying right away that in 2022, mining of the most popular cryptocurrencies has largely become industrial and for 95% of ordinary users (whose investments do not exceed $100,000), the most profitable format for investing in cryptocurrency is its direct purchase on the exchange. It is on the stock exchange, not in the exchanger because exchanges charge much lower commissions, provide maximum liquidity, and most importantly are safe to use.

The reliability of a cryptocurrency exchange is primarily determined by the trading volume and the number of users. By all key metrics, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world is Binance. The site has the largest cash turnover and supports transfers in rubles from Visa/MasterCard and payment systems QIWI, Advcash, Payeer .

For a safe and convenient purchase of cryptocurrencies with a minimum commission, we have prepared a rating of the TOP 5 exchanges that support deposits and withdrawals of funds in rubles, hryvnias, dollars and euros:

Especially for beginners, we have prepared a detailed guide: How to buy Bitcoin on a crypto exchange for rubles?

Next, we will move directly to assessing the relevance of mining in 2021 and answer the question under what circumstances it is still profitable to mine cryptocurrency on your own.

How does a mining farm work?

Video cards perform calculations using a specific PoW algorithm, thanks to which they maintain the functionality of the blockchain network. Due to this, you can receive rewards from the volume of calculations performed and the solutions found to the unknowns in the equations (we will not delve into coding).

Roughly speaking, you can make money on equipment, due to the relatively high cost of popular cryptocurrencies, the main thing is not to forget to pay for the electricity consumed.

A mining farm is primarily an investment. You invest in equipment (video cards, power supplies, motherboards, and additionally renting premises, paying for light), the equipment produces cryptocurrency thanks to its power and energy efficiency, and you, as an investor, wait out the payback period to reach net earnings.

Prospects and relevance in 2022

People are divided into two camps that have different views on the future of mining.

Representatives of the first are confident that earnings from mining are a soap bubble that will one day burst. I'll explain with an example.

It is profitable to purchase products whose price is increasing at a rapid pace in order to resell them a little later at a higher price. Therefore, such a product is in demand. More and more consumers are purchasing it - the price is increasing even more.

As you can see, the true value of the product in this case is not at all important, because it plays practically no role. The hype around a product is born out of nothing, appears as if out of thin air, which is why such an increase in demand and cost is called a soap bubble.

One day there will be a peak when people no longer want to pay the offered price for the product. The owners of the products will decide that it is time to sell what they have accumulated, but there will be no more buyers.

Then sellers will begin to reduce the price until someone takes the goods. And in this case, most often you will have to sell for pennies.

The same thing, according to the first group of users, will happen with cryptocurrency. The exchange rate for all its types will fall, and mining digital money will become unprofitable.

The second scenario is more positive. Users believe that the heyday of cryptocurrency is yet to come. The most profitable mining will be for such digital currencies as:

• Ethereum
• ETC,
• Ravencoin,
• Ergo,
• Beam,
• Conflux,
• MTP,
• Equilibria,
• BitTube.

Miners claim that the above-mentioned representatives of the cryptocurrency are capable of bringing the greatest profit and they will be relevant for many more years.

But in general, it is impossible to say whether the first group of users or the second is correct. Still, mining is an uncontrolled and independent process.

Cryptocurrency mining has both positive and negative sides. Therefore, everyone must decide for themselves whether it is worth spending time and money on mining. When making a decision, you should consider the following factors:

1. The difficulty of mining virtual money is increasing every time.
2. Prospects for the development of mining equipment.
3. Government decisions regarding mining and cryptocurrencies in general.
4. Future increases or decreases in electricity prices.
5. Possibility of selling equipment in case of failure in mining digital currency.
6. Prospects for the development of the main cryptocurrency platforms.
7. General state of the global financial system.
8. The probability of a drawdown in cryptocurrency rates.

Advantages of mining on a video card.

Mining with video cards is a source of passive income. You invest in equipment, assemble and set up farms, and they then work for you, producing cryptocurrency. The time required is minimal: you only need to maintain functionality and perform maintenance. Income from farms is relatively stable over a long period of time, in addition, you will be able to engage in other activities, and you will also have time for leisure.

I advise you to read the article How to mine on your home computer.

Read how to set up Ethereum mining here.

Nvidia

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is NVIDIA's latest flagship GPU. This is the best gaming graphics card ever released.

It is already a known fact that the first batch of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 was sold out within a couple of hours from the moment of release.

Actual mining performance was recorded at around 106 MH/s on the DaggerHashimoto algorithm. The mining software used to perform this test is still unknown at this time.

The current hashrate is 120 MH/s with +1350 memory clock and 100% power cap. The GPU consumes 300 watts of power. If the power limit is lowered, the hashrate begins to drop sharply.

Where to buy the components needed for the farm?

Most of the hardware can be ordered and purchased at computer stores. Order less affordable parts from China via Aliexpress, for example, risers for video cards or power supply synchronizers.

You should not purchase equipment on credit, since it is impossible to accurately calculate the long-term profitability to pay off monthly payments.

At times, the secondary market with used components is gaining popularity, where you can buy video cards or motherboards cheaply. Purchasing such equipment is often fraught with risks, because you cannot accurately determine how long a used video card will work for you, and in general, what it has experienced during its operation.

Profitability calculator

Typically, a calculator is developed to calculate the profitability of each type of cryptocurrency. It is quite simple to use, but there are some subtleties.

Initial data for calculating profitability:

• Hashrate (hardware performance), CH/sec.
• Equipment power consumption, Watt.
• Electricity tariff (monetary units per kilowatt-hour).
• Commission charged by the pool.

When choosing the type of cryptocurrency, the miner automatically sets the basic information parameters of the electronic coin:

• calculation algorithm;
• reward amount for finding a block;
• confirmation time;
• the amount of the issue at the current moment (the number of coins already mined);
• complexity;
• network performance;
• trading volume;
• capitalization amount.

The result of the calculation is the predicted profit for the day. When mining, you have to use a calculator often, since the data is constantly updated. The value of assets changes within 15–30 minutes, difficulty changes daily.

Calculate

A natural question from readers is what is the profitability of mining in 2022? This article will not provide an exact answer in numbers. Why? Read on and you will understand.

What does a mining rig consist of?

A farm can consist of one computer and even one video card, but I agree that this is ridiculous. Sorry for the pun. A single computer with video cards connected to it is called a rig, or farm. Typically a rig consists of at least four or more video cards. Up to 20 pieces connected through special extension cables, risers, that are inserted into the PCI-e connectors of the motherboard. Video cards are powered by one server or several ATX power supplies. The operating system is installed either on a cheap SSD drive or on a USB flash drive, which allows for faster downloads or software updates. The processor, as a rule, is an office type, any available dual-core option. The type of RAM DDR3 or DDR4 is selected for the motherboard and processor (I do not consider DDR2 due to obsolescence). The required amount of RAM depends on the software and the cryptocurrency being mined; if the farm runs on a Linux-like operating system, then 4 GB is enough, if on Windows, then 8 GB is needed, especially if you plan to mine Ether (the page file will also need to be increased) . It is better to use HiveOS, a lightweight operating system for mining with a bunch of settings, monitoring and statistics, and most importantly it works stably, and video cards provide an increased hashrate.

What should you consider when assembling a farm?

First of all, take care of the room, ensure good air flow through ventilation, and optionally install a rheostat with an air conditioner. The ideal option would be a basement or garage in the northern latitudes of the globe.

The second important thing is the wiring: thick copper wires, expensive circuit breakers and protection systems, reinforced risers, high-quality connections (sockets, plugs) and current equalizers. Although for an apartment or small garage, just thick wiring may be enough.

Thirdly: you need to establish a high-quality Internet connection, preferably wired and fiber optic with a good router, and connect the farms via a wine pair (LAN cable) using a network switch (switch). You can get by with a 4G modem with a powerful antenna to strengthen the signal, the main thing is to ensure the lowest ping when farms operate with a pool. The worse the Internet connection, the less earnings will be, because the “balls” will be canceled and will not be accepted by the pool. These are the solutions found that video cards calculate.

switch

Fourth: it would be nice to connect all the rigs to smart Wi-Fi sockets in order to remotely reboot the farm in case of errors, glitches, freezes, etc. Here you can add the presence of IP CCTV cameras and smoke detectors.

Let's move on to the main question: How to build an Ethereum mining rig?

Farm components for mining:

• Video cards,
• Motherboard,
• CPU,
• RAM,
• Storage (SSD, HDD or flash drive)
• CPU cooler,
• risers,
• Power supplies,
• Frame.

FAQ

How to connect a mining rig to a computer?

You won’t be able to connect the mining rig to your computer; you can only connect remotely to the mining rig through a browser on Rave OS or Hive OS, or through a remote access program on Windows. Read about it below. And you can only connect a monitor if you mean a physical connection to the farm.

How to connect a monitor to a mining rig?

The monitor is connected to the farm into a video card that is located on the top PCI_Express x16 slot. It will be like the main one. After connecting the monitor, you may need to reboot the farm to display images. You can also connect to the processor's integrated graphics if you have not disabled it in the BIOS. To do this, connect the video cable to the connector on the motherboard.

How to connect a mining farm to the Internet?

If you have an Ethrnet cable, then just connect it to the motherboard and everything will work. If it doesn’t work, check that the Internet actually works through this cable, and also look in the BIOS to see if the ethernet port on the motherboard is disabled.

How to connect a mining rig via WiFi?

Later there will be information on each system.

How to cool a mining rig. Especially in summer

A few important tips for cooling your mining rig and individual cards:

Cooling farm and room:

• To cool the farm, first create an air flow and exhaust in the room where your farm is installed. Try to make the air outflow as high as possible, because... all the hot air from the cards rises to the top. And the inflow is as low as possible, since the coldest air is at the bottom.
• The farm should be as open as possible so that there are no barriers to hot air. So that he could move away from the cards without interference.
• Point the fan at the cards, or just above the cards on the side, so that it blows away all the hot air that rises above the cards. If possible, blow warm air towards the hood.
• Consider installing an air conditioner if the room where the farms are located is still very hot in the summer.

Cooling cards:

• Make sure all fans on the cards are working properly. This can be checked as follows: spin all the fans with your finger; if one of them stops much earlier than the other, then something is wrong with it. But everything is also conditional, do not overdo it with conclusions.
• Check the operation of the fans at 100% speed. They should not whistle or creak. Only a strong roar of wind and revs.
• If the cards get very hot, service them, blow off dust, replace thermal paste and thermal pads.

How quickly does a mining farm pay for itself? How to calculate its profitability

It’s different in different periods. It all depends on the coin you are mining, its price, block reward, block difficulty, price, cost of your equipment and its mining capabilities.

You can calculate the current profitability and payback in the whattomine service in the coin section, find the desired coin and enter the total hashrate of all cards.

We calculate how much it will take to pay for a farm

• Hash rate - enter the total hashrate of the farm.
• Power - total farm consumption (all cards +100W per carcass).
• Cost — the price of electricity per kilowatt in cents.
• Fees - commission. Usually 2%.
• Hardware Cost - the cost of all equipment.

After entering all the data, click Calculate.

• Hour - profitability per hour.
• Day—profitability per day.
• Week - weekly profitability.
• Month—profitability for the month.

How to monitor and manage a mining farm remotely

For monitoring and remote control of the farm, it will be described in detail for the system on which you mine. Will be scheduled soon.

How to legalize a mining farm

The law on cryptocurrencies in Russia in 2022 is described in detail at the link. There is also information on paying taxes.

List of video cards for Ethereum mining:

• AMD Rx 470 8 gb - 28-30 Mh/s (100 W)
• AMD Rx 480 8 gb - 30-31 Mh/s (120 W)
• AMD Rx 570 8 gb - 28-30 Mh/s (100 W)
• AMD Rx 580 8 gb - 30-31 Mh/s (120 W)
• AMD Rx 5700 XT 8gb – 55 Mh/s (200 W)
• Nvidia GTX 1080 8GB – 38 Mh/s (180 W)
• Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB – 16 Mh/s (80 W)
• Nvidia GTX 1070 8GB – 31 Mh/s (150 W)
• Nvidia GTX 1660 6GB – 24 Mh/s (100 W)
• Nvidia RTX 2070 8GB – 38 Mh/s (180 W)

The above GPUs have the best profit and payback indicator, and most importantly, they are very good at mining other cryptocurrencies. AMD Radeon RX series video cards starting from 400 and higher are usually flashed by changing the video memory timings in the BIOS, and downvolting is also performed there - reducing the power supply. After such manipulations, VRAM overclocking will be extremely noticeable using the Dagger-Hashimoto algorithm, the hashrate will be higher.

Which video cards are used to mine the most in 2022?

You can easily find out the preferences of miners around the world regarding video cards. The website of the Hive OS mining platform will help you get an idea of ​​the popularity of different GPUs; to do this, you need to go to the statistics page.

Nearly 50 percent of all AMD graphics cards are the 8GB Radeon RX 580 and the 4GB RX 570. The simplified version of the RX 580 took third place, but the RX 470 was in fourth place. The RX 570 8 GB closes the top five.

The situation with Nvidia is different: here the cheaper models are in the top. There are both versions of the GTX 1060 and 1070. The last to cross the 10 percent mark is the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB.

On the right is the rating of ASIC miners.

If you have weak video cards with a small amount of memory that are not suitable for Ethereum mining, then read this article about RVN mining.

The best video card for mining.

Since the Bitcoin rate skyrocketed in 2022, doubling its previous price record, interest in mining has grown greatly, which has led to a large shortage of video cards and other computer components.

The most affordable video cards for the farm are certainly the RX 580 8 GB and GTX 1080, which can still be found in stores or on the secondary market, and they also have excellent profitability indicators (energy efficiency and income).

What video cards are the most relevant for mining? Of course, AMD RX 5700, RX 5700 XT, RTX 2070 and 3000 Nvidia line.

RTX 3080 hashrate in Ethereum mining

Yes, the best graphics card for Ethereum mining is Nvidia RTX 3080 . Its overclocked hashrate reaches 93 MH/s with a TDP of 320 W.

This is the most profitable and powerful GPU for the farm. There is only one nuance: it is simply unrealistic to get it in online computer hardware stores, just like the new generation of AMD RX 6000 video cards.

At the ETH rate of $1200, Nvidia RTX 3080 will earn $7.5 per day!

The price of the video card is $1600, with a constant cryptocurrency exchange rate and static network complexity, it will be possible to pay for a farm of RTX 3080 in about 250 days! Even if the profitability drops by half, the payback period will be only a year and a half.

Cost of a mining farm.

• The cost of a mining farm consisting of eight Nvidia RTX 3080 video cards will be 1,000,000 rubles.
• The cost of a farm of 6 AMD RX 5700 XT video cards will be 400,000 rubles.
• The cost of a farm of 6 RX 580 8 GB video cards will be 150,000 rubles.

How to calculate the profitability of video cards of a mining farm?

In order to find out how much a particular video card will bring in mining, I recommend using the WhatToMine.com mining calculator.

Selected 9 RX 580 8 gb video cards overclocked

You will need to indicate the number of video cards in the farm, electricity charges and energy consumption (calculated automatically).

9 RX 580 video cards earn $21 per day at the ETC rate of $1200

The calculator will display a list of coins that are most profitable to mine at the moment, and an approximate income from your power.

How exactly does cryptocurrency mining occur? For what does the miner receive a reward?

For you to earn bitcoins, two conditions must match. One of them depends on your efforts, the other depends solely on luck:

• You must verify transactions per 1 MB. Everything is simple here.
• You must be the first of all miners to find a solution to a special mathematical problem.

This process is also known as Proof-of-Work.

• Good news: You don't need advanced mathematics. Essentially, each miner tries to be the first to guess a 64-digit hexadecimal number (hash) that is less than or equal to the target hash. This is where the main work lies.
• The bad news: The hash is picked randomly, and if you want to be first, you'll need a ton of computing power. To operate successfully, you need to have a high hash rate - the hash rate, which is measured in megahashes per second (MH/s), gigahashes per second (GH/s) and terahashes per second (TH/s).

That's a lot, a lot of hashes. If you want to understand how many bitcoins you have a chance to get with the hashrate available to you, you can use a mining calculator where you can select a specific hardware model (for both ASIC and GPU) and set your electricity cost.

Operating system for mining.

To make video cards mine, you not only need to assemble all the components into one, but also install the software on the drive.

List of operating systems for mining.

• Windows 10;
• HiveOS;
• RaveOS;
• NicehashOS.

Windows is more suitable for testing and flashing video cards, or for starting mining on a home PC overnight. The main thing is not to forget to install special drivers for mining if you have AMD video cards.

NicehashOS is built on the lightweight LINUX distribution. The positive side of this operating system is that there is a mining benchmark function for your video cards, with the help of which the most profitable algorithm for mining is automatically determined. Funds are transferred to the service’s internal account directly in BTC. There are only two minuses: there are no hardware settings, and the user does not see exactly what coins his farm mines under the control of this operating system. More suitable for beginners.

HiveOS and RaveOS are also built on the kernel of the lightweight LINUX distribution, they are almost identical in functionality, even the interface is similar. A bunch of settings for the farm, precise overclocking and monitoring of each video card, detailed miner config. Suitable for experienced miners, but it will be easy for a beginner to figure it out.

These operating systems automatically detect the model and manufacturer of the video card, install the necessary driver and have a high rate of stable operation. Special credit for stability goes to the smart watchdog, which, in the event of a glitch or video card failure, is able to restart the miner or reboot the farm.

Under Windows, farms constantly freeze for various reasons, every day, week or month. Linux works much more stable.

Best operating system for mining 2022.

Of course, it cannot be said that one OS is better for mining than another. The choice of operating system for mining is a purely personal matter for everyone, and depends on the situation and needs. If we take into account statistics and various positive aspects, and also see for ourselves in practice which operating system is more stable and convenient, then the choice will naturally fall on HiveOS.

When registering, enter the promotional code miningfaq and receive a $10 bonus to the account of one farm.

What equipment to mine bitcoins with - ASIC

The days of Bitcoin mining through desktop computers and laptops are gone 6 years ago. Let's say more. If you think that Bitcoin is mined through video cards (GPUs), then you are seriously mistaken. To mine cryptocurrency “gold,” special-purpose integrated circuits (ASIC miners) are used.

This small installation serves one single task - cryptocurrency mining. ASIC does not solve any other problems. At this stage, such miners are the only profitable equipment for Bitcoin mining. GPU mining of BTC is not profitable.

Current models for Bitcoin mining: Antiminer S7, Antiminet S9, Antimner D3. The Bitmain brand produces these ASICs.

The key indicator for miners is power consumption and hashrate. The S9 model has a hashrate of 12,000 to 14,000 Gh/S (giga hash per second). Power consumption: 1300-1400 Watt. All these miners mine using the Scrypt algorithm.

The running Antiminer S9 model with a hashrate of 13.5 Th/S and a consumption of 1400 Watts will cost $2,200-2,500 or 150,000 rubles. You have to buy miners from the Chinese - only they produce them on an industrial scale.

Features of ASIC Antiminer S9 for Bitcoin mining

This summer, a new ASIC appeared in the world of cryptocurrency. If we characterize it in a few words, we can say that it is very powerful, very fast and quite expensive. The developers did not skimp on the most advanced technologies. Moreover, each individual element is far superior to earlier versions. Miners can buy ASIC AntminerS9 for two thousand dollars.

The new model has an updated version of the Bitmain interface, which takes minimal time to set up. In this case, the user can receive the necessary statistical information in real time. All information is grouped in appropriate tabs and categories, which greatly simplifies working with them. But the key characteristics of the installation are the following performance indicators:

• Energy consumption level is 1172 Watt/hour.
• Hashrate 11.85 TH/s.

It is quite obvious that a lot of money has been invested in the development of such equipment for Bitcoin mining, and it is unlikely that it will be possible to create it yourself, with your own hands. The creators of AntminerS9 managed to significantly increase the speed of mining virtual coins and at the same time reduce the level of electricity consumption. When comparing the S7 and S9 models, it becomes obvious that the hashrate has almost doubled. Such a powerful jump is fully justified, because the difficulty of production has also increased significantly.

In addition, the new version of ASIC is equipped with two coolers. The fans are located on the sides of the unit, thanks to which the processor is cooled much better and faster. Familiarization with the technical characteristics of AntminerS9 makes most crypto miners want to immediately buy equipment for Bitcoin mining.

But first you need to prepare enough free space for it, taking into account the dimensions of the model: 35x13.5x15.8 centimeters. The chips deserve special mention. If the S7 had 135 chips installed, then the new version already has 185.

Approximate profitability of AntminerS9 at the moment

It is quite natural that such a large investment in the purchase of the latest ASIC model evokes a desire to find out what profit this investment will bring. The updated version of the device will replenish the crypto miner’s budget by an average of $7.29 per day (excluding the cost of electricity). At the same time, to calculate the profitability of Bitcoin mining equipment, the following indicators were taken:

• The reward for a mined block is 12.5 Bitcoins.
• Hashrate 11850 gigahash.
• Power does not exceed 1172 watts.
• With an electricity price of $0.02 per hour, its consumption per day is $0.48. It should be noted that to calculate the cost of electricity, indicators for the eastern regions of Ukraine as of October 2016 were used.

Even if the cost of electricity slightly exceeds the indicated figures, the result will still be quite impressive. If the user intends to buy Bitcoin-miner Asic, then it is best to make the purchase through a reputable online store. Only in this case can a freelancer be sure that he will receive a quality product with a guarantee. If ASICs are purchased through message boards or suspicious sites that sell goods at a big discount, then you may well come across scammers.

Buy or assemble yourself

We hope that we were able to clearly explain how a mining farm works. Now let's look at the next question - buy ready-made or assemble it yourself at home. An entire separate review can be devoted to the assembly for beginners, since there are many important points there. If you can assemble a computer yourself from individual components, then you are already one step closer to a rig. Only here you still need to additionally think through good cooling, calculate power consumption, and create structures to accommodate numerous equipment.

It will be easier to buy an installed unit, but you need to contact only professionals. An incorrectly assembled rig will not only fail to operate at 100% performance, but can also quickly break down or even cause a fire. If you are wondering how to find a mining farm, then contact specialized stores, where they will give a guarantee not only for the equipment, but also for the work. In this case, get a good device for home cryptocurrency mining.

What is the income from cloud sites

The main problem of mining is the constant increase in mining difficulty parameters (by about 10% monthly), which entails the need for more productive equipment. The cost of technical equipment and the special conditions required for its installation and operation make it difficult for ordinary citizens to access the cryptocurrency market.

Cloud mining, which involves the use of someone else's computing power, does not involve significant initial costs. But its profitability is also decreasing. Return on investment is achieved in up to 9 months. Entry occurs after signing a contract for at least a year.

You can evaluate the feasibility of an investment by using the calculator offered by the service.

Possible causes of unexpected losses

Cryptocurrency quotes depend on demand for them. The profitability of this business also depends on the activity of miners. There are also other risks in the electronic money market:

1. Possibility of adoption of restrictive and prohibitive legislative acts by the state.
2. Price dumps (sharp declines in quotes due to massive intervention).
3. Obsolescence of existing computer technology and the emergence of new, more productive equipment.
4. Technical problems related to power supply.
5. Failure of technical means of mining.

Market risks can be mitigated by mining different types of cryptocurrencies. It is recommended to pay special attention to new electronic “coins”, the danger of a sharp reduction in price is relatively low.