Turnkey mining farm: pros, cons and payback (2019)

Nadezhda Zakharova 11/29/2020

1 comment

Cryptocurrencies are talked about everywhere today. In the past, the main topic to start a conversation was the weather, then the dollar exchange rate today, and now the key topic is the price of Bitcoin.

As its value increases, other coins also grow, and along with them the computing power allocated to mining the most expensive and promising coins. When you first get acquainted with the issues of mining, it may seem that everything about it is extremely simple - you buy or assemble a farm (another option is to buy an ASIC miner), launch it and the money begins to trickle into your pocket. Let's figure out how profitable it is to invest money in mining equipment today and what exactly can you mine with it?

Contents:

What is a mining farm?
Turnkey mining farm - what to look for when choosing
Farms on video cards and ASIC farms - what to choose in favor of
Pros and cons of a turnkey farm
Advantages and disadvantages of ASIC
How long does it take for a mining farm to break even?
How to calculate mining payback
FAQ

What is a mining farm?

Initially, there was no such thing as a farm. There were powerful home computers whose video cards and processors were used by enthusiasts to mine Bitcoin.

At that time, no one believed in its future and most simply wanted to join the new fashionable feature of the Internet.

However, when the cost of the coin exceeded $10, interest increased significantly and people began to calculate the profitability of mining in the medium term.

That's when the first farms appeared - computer systems with several video cards.

Computer components for farms have a number of differences compared to gaming system units:

Creating a farm involves using a PC not with top system configurations , but with those that will provide maximum computing power to the miner and consume a minimum of electricity;
The key component of the farm is the video card. Small farms may include 3 - 4 cards. Professional, sharpened for maximum profit 8 cards;
Payback. Key parameter. It is influenced by farm productivity, energy consumption and the current exchange rate of the coin being mined.

Important ! Let us warn you right away, for example, to mine Bitcoin, or rather 1BTC, it will take a lot of time, and sometimes the payback of the farm can be achieved no earlier than 5-6 months after installing the farm, and sometimes later.

Linux for mining

Linux is in great demand among miners, so Windows is no longer held in high esteem here. Builds like RaveOS, HiveOS and SimpleMiningOS, as well as many others, have completely taken over the market. The advantage of such assemblies is that they allow you to launch a farm in just a few minutes and provide the ability to monitor and fine-tune the farm. Therefore, it is better to immediately choose the Linux operating system if you do not intend to use your farm as a regular computer.

Building HiveOS for Linux

Turnkey mining farm - what to look for when choosing

For any cryptocurrency there is a mining scheme that uses the latest developments in the world of computer technology.

Note that not all cryptocurrencies can be mined, since the coins only support the PoS storage protocol.

To create a mining farm you will need:

A high-quality motherboard with a large number of PCI-E connectors , where we will connect video cards, for example, the ASRock BTC series;
Hard drive with 60 GB memory capacity. This will be enough to connect a wallet, install the OS, and also connect several video cards for mining;
Video cards. For example, here are a few - nVidia 1060 GTX - 1080 GTX, Radeon RX 570 - RX 580;
Power supplies. Since the most expensive part of the work process will be electricity, you will need to buy several power supplies that will cover the needs of video cards with a reserve;
Adapter systems for video cards . It is not possible to install all cards directly into one motherboard. For this purpose, special extension adapters are used - risers.

For Bitcoin mining, ASIC is best suited; for Ethereum, high-performance video cards are used.

Interesting! Some craftsmen in Russia use garages for mining, but this mining method is controversial, although the premises are quite attractive, this requires the required room temperature, and sometimes cheap electricity, all that remains is to provide the Internet.

Assembling a farm for Ethereum mining

Basics

We install the processor into the motherboard, install the cooler and memory stick. We connect the SSD drive via SATA cable. We power it all from one power supply, it will be our leading unit. We are installing only one video card for now.

BIOS

We start our farm, go into the BIOS and update it to the latest version. At the moment this is Version F4A, you can download it from the Gigabyte website. To install Bios, you will need to write the file with the new version to a USB flash drive. If updating the BIOS is difficult for you, skip this step. Most likely everything will work with standard firmware.

After successfully updating the BIOS, you need to configure the motherboard for mining. Screenshot of 2Miners proprietary settings, all of them are in advanced settings:

Windows

Install Windows 10 64bit, do a standard installation, ignore everything unnecessary. We set up the Internet and download drivers for the motherboard from the official website. Feel free to install all the drivers offered by the Gigabyte website.

Important! Change the page file size. If you have an 80 GB SSD, feel free to set the swap file to 30,000 MB. How to do it.

We recommend installing TeamViewer or other remote management software on the farm.

Installing video cards

Download the driver for Nvidia or AMD, depending on what cards we have. We install the driver, reboot the farm and check that everything works. Next, we reboot the farm again, go into the BIOS and change one more setting: set Above 4G Decoding to the Enabled state.

Turn off the farm. We connect all other cards. It is advisable to connect the monitor to card No. 1 (slot No. 1):

Important! Always connect the wires so that the card and the riser in which it is inserted are powered by the same power supply!

We turn on the farm and wait... we wait for a long time. Windows will gradually find your video cards. The black screen may remain on for a long time, don’t be alarmed, it’s not scary, Windows is thinking something. If you have installed TeamViewer, you can use it to monitor what is happening with your farm. You can, of course, monitor it in Windows Device Manager.

It happens that some cards do not install normally and hang in unidentified video adapters. In this case, you need to install the driver manually, specifying the path to it.

With AMD cards the situation is more complicated: the cards are installed, but each has an exclamation mark. AMD atikmdag Patcher will come to the rescue. Click “Yes” and after reboot the problem is solved!

Watchdog

You need to properly connect the WatchDog pins to the Reset and Power pins on the motherboard so that the timer can reboot or turn off/on the farm. 2 photos of the connection, they are absolutely the same, just wires of different colors.

Install the driver and watchdog timer program from the official website: driver, program. The program must be set to autoload, and monitoring must be configured in it; we always configure Internet monitoring on the site yandex.ru or google.com, and process monitoring on cmd.exe.

Chips

A few things to remember to do:

Disable system sleep in power settings. This setting is best done after everything, because it may be reset when installing video card drivers. Getting to this menu is simple: Win -> Gear -> First menu item (system settings).

If you're going to get more out of your cards than they can from the factory, we recommend installing Afterburner. We use MSI Afterburner. AMD cards require the latest Beta version. Make all card settings at your own peril and risk; for advice, you can contact Chat 2 Bitcoin.

Linux distributions for mining

Linux OS has long overtaken Windows in popularity among miners. Dedicated mining builds such as RaveOS, HiveOS and SimpleMiningOS, as well as many others, have completely taken over the market. The fact is that such systems allow you to launch a farm in just a few minutes and provide the opportunity to monitor and fine-tune the farm. If you are building a special farm just for mining, i.e. If you do not plan to use it as a regular computer, we strongly recommend that you immediately select the Linux operating system.

HiveOS interface

Mining programs

On the “How to start” page of the 2Miners pool, you can always download an archive with a configured miner program for any cryptocurrency. All you need to do is replace the wallet address with yours. Password for the 2miners archive

If you plan to use several farms on Windows, read the post Do-it-yourself automation of farms on video cards, there are detailed instructions on how to do this. This “makeshift” method still works in 2022.

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Farms on video cards and ASIC farms - what to choose in favor of

For the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, the optimal hardware is ASIC.

Some sites are ready to give you detailed calculations of examples of the payback of using video cards.

You just need to indicate the power, type of video card and the calculation is almost ready. The cost of the BTC cryptocurrency (bitcoin) plays an important role; now it is becoming increasingly difficult to mine, and therefore, miners have to weigh the pros and cons in favor of one or another video card.

Let's consider this point: the cost, for example, of ASIC Antminer s9 from the manufacturer is approximately 120 thousand rubles.

In Moscow you can order it for somewhere around 250 thousand rubles, then you have to wait 2-3 months for it to be delivered, during which time you can lose profit.

There is an option to outbid, but then you will have to overpay 2-3 times more, but the payback will come faster.

In principle, you can order an ASIC from the manufacturer, then you will have to wait several months (let’s say right away that the queue for new video cards is several months in advance. The recorded record is 9.5 months).

Mining Tips

Almost everything is ready. It remains to disable sleep mode and other delights of power modes that may prevent us from becoming a successful miner. Win -> settings -> system settings. We order the farm to never fall asleep or turn off under any circumstances.

We don’t need to fall asleep at all

If you are going to push your video cards a little, squeezing a little more out of them than they can initially, you can, of course, install some utilities, for example, MSI Afterburner. We use MSI Afterburner. AMD cards require the latest Beta version. Make all card settings at your own peril and risk; for advice, you can contact Chat 2 Bitcoin.

Pros and cons of a turnkey farm

Let's look at the positive and negative aspects of the farm and ASIC.

PROS:

Video cards are imported by dealers and suppliers all the time;
They will be in demand in the next 2-3 years. Then they can be sold to gamers.
A new video card always has a warranty, a used one only from the seller (the warranty will be less than for newly purchased equipment).
Using one video card, you can mine several cryptocurrencies (most tokens are adapted to certain types of video cards).

CONS:

It is unlikely that you will be able to assemble such a mini-factory on your own; you need the help of specialists in this industry. Do not forget that if you do not know all the intricacies of installation, then burning out the microprocessor and video card is a matter of minutes.
We install the OS exclusively for cryptocurrency mining, there is no need to download top programs, you don’t need them. You can install programs for crypto wallets, crypto exchangers and crypto exchanges, everything else will be superfluous.
The entire structure of the farm will be too bulky - therefore, you need free space in the house (for a one-room apartment - this is definitely not an option, unless you will not be living at home).
Some farms take a very long time to pay for themselves compared to the same ASIC.

Features of the service

Our store has everything you need to assemble a mining rig. If special equipment is required, we will quickly deliver it to order. Today, farms on video cards are the optimal solution for mining several promising types of cryptocurrency. And if you are interested in such a business, then we will be happy to provide all possible assistance in assembling equipment for cryptocurrency mining.

A mining farm is a kind of computer. But it has a design that is “tailored” for cryptocurrency mining. To do this, a hard drive, power supply, motherboard and several video cards are installed in a special case. Today on the Internet you can find a step-by-step diagram for assembling a mining farm. But why waste time and do it yourself if it’s easier to get a turnkey solution right now?

Please note : Assembling a mining rig is only one step towards mining cryptocurrency. You need to connect the equipment to the pool. We offer our assistance in setting up and supporting farms ordered from us. Within three months after the start of mining, clients receive online support from our online store.

Advantages and disadvantages of ASIC

Advantages:

Requires less setup - take it out of the box and turn it on.
The payback is much higher.

Flaws:

The queue is quite long, you have to wait for months.
If you come across a defect, you can replace it, but again it will take weeks and months.
ASIC is very noisy, you will have to either put up with the noise or move out of the apartment.
The device generates a huge amount of heat; ventilation must be considered.

How long does it take for a mining farm to break even?

This is the main question that miners ask themselves. You will not find a consensus on payback periods.

Let’s say right away that even the largest factories in China or Canada that specialize in mining reach self-sufficiency in 4-5 months at best.

Let's give an example: very soon a mining farm of 1000 devices will be launched in Canada.

It is planned that in the best case, the farm will be able to mine no more than 1.52 BTC per day.

Economists have calculated that taking into account the costs of cheap electricity and renting space, purchasing equipment will take at least 6 months to reach zero.

Important ! Let us note right away that now Bitcoin (end of 2017 - beginning of 2022) is throwing from side to side at prices from 20 thousand US dollars to 8 thousand US dollars, naturally it is difficult to calculate the payback at the moment.

How to calculate mining payback

For our case, a two-factor calculation system is used:

We calculate the total number of repetitions to create one block of the Bitcoin chain.
We compare the existing value to the actual capacity of your network.

For many non-specialists, this does not mean anything, but at the same time these are the most important points of payback.

In general, the main payback points are as follows:

We multiply the current productivity by the fixed time between blocks.
Let's divide our value by the number of coins paid per block.
Next, we divide the value by the power of our farm.
We multiply the value by 3600, this will give us the actual hours.
We add electricity costs for the resulting number of hours to expenses.

For the first few months, all your values will have a minus sign; you will have to add up these minuses every month to understand in what period you will reach zero.

Mining programs

Previously, you had to enter the settings yourself and perform a bunch of unnecessary actions. Now all you need to do is go to the “How to start” page of the 2Miners pool and configure the miner program for any cryptocurrency. All you need to do is change the wallet address to your own.

The password for the archive is 2miners .

Want to use multiple farms on Windows? Then this post will help you, which talks about farm automation and provides detailed instructions.

Have productive and profitable mining! And if you still have questions, feel free to ask in the telegram chat Two Bitcoins .