Windows vs Linux - My First Cryptocurrency Mining Rig
Although not a lot of interest was sparked - in fact, I haven't had any comments as of yet (haha) but I've been doing a lot of reading, a lot of youtube'ing and I've joined a lot of cryptocurrency forums to try and gauge all the different opinions before making my decision - and actually, I think I am now comfortable with the decision that I've made.
So Windows or Linux?
Well before I give that away, I think I should explain what factors I took into consideration and why they impacted my decision. Hopefully, this information will help others that are also researching about building their first mining rig.
Factors To Consider
You don't want to set up a mining rig to later find out you used the wrong operating system and have restricted yourself or have made a very unstable rig - so you should look at all the different options and one of the most important would be which operating system to install. Let's face it, you don't want to spend all day setting it up to then a month down the line, having to format and boot it on a new OS, do you?Below I've listed a few factors that I've taken into consideration when making my decision on which OS to build my mining rig on.
- Installation Time
- Setup + Configurations
- Maintenance + Repairs
- Remote Access + Scalability
- Performance
Installation Time
It's ok just having to install it the once but what about when I'm setting up the next mining rig, or the rig after that... and the one after that? - Time is Money... and that is a fact!
The Linux Ubuntu OS is considered to be a very "light" install with many of the additional features not included in the basic install by default. In fact, once it's downloaded you can have the installation process completed in about 20-3minutes.
Setup + Configurations
Setting up Microsoft Windows wouldn't be too hard as I've built many desktop PC's and I'm very comfortable and confident using the Windows operating system.The Linux Ubuntu operating system would be completely new to me so this would take me quite a while to setup - especially if it means I have to enter lines of code in Terminal.
Maintenance & Repairs
However, the initial setup would not be as easy as a Windows setup (for me anyway) because it would require some Terminal code inputting. If it does ever fail at any point or require repairs, I wouldn't know where to start when trying to troubleshoot a problem on a Linux OS.
Who do you call at 2 am if your rig doesn't want to boot up + you don't know Terminal?
Windows is really easy to setup and although it's not considered to be as stable - if it does ever break down or require any repairs or maintenance, I would feel quite comfortable troubleshooting any issues myself.
I heard that a Windows-based mining rig can crash after a week of GPU mining 24/7 and this did worry me.
However, I've since had confirmation from several 'rig farm' owners that say their Windows-based rigs can run for 20-25 days without requiring a reboot. They leave the "Auto-Update" on and adjust "Windows Startup" menu so that after a windows update, when the system does reboot - the mining software will restart and continue mining without any user-interaction required.
Remote Access + Scalability
Remote access with Windows is real easy using third-party applications such as Teamviewer. It can be done on a Linux machine as well but does require Terminal commands and I'm not comfortable with Terminal, so I wouldn't be keen linking-in every day to check up on the system as I would with a Windows set-up.The benefit of the Linux setup really comes in when we think about scalability.
Once you've got a perfect configuration you can download the install configuration to a removable USD stick. When you're ready to set up another mining rig, simply insert the USB and install from the backup and you're good to go!
Performance
In fact - after speaking to 10-15 rig farm owners about their views on performance, the majority said that they believe it to be true - that there is a slight performance gain to be had by building a mining rig on a Linux Ubuntu-based operating system; however, the gains are negligible.
So - What Operating System?
It has been one of the toughest decisions I've had to make because I do intend on growing my farming rig as fast as possible and I like the feature of Linux where I can copy an install to another rig so seamlessly and knowing I have a robust OS I can rely on.On the flip side, I don't know a word of Terminal coding so if it does require maintenance, breaks down or requires an update - I wouldn't really know where to start and choosing Linux would mean a lot of my time will be spent learning the language.
Windows would be really easy to setup and maintain and I wouldn't lose sleep if it breaks down because I'm comfortable with troubleshooting Windows-based issues. But it's going to be really annoying as my rig farm grows and I have to do multiple installs.
After careful consideration - I realised I don't have the time to learn a new language at this stage and so, I've decided to build my first cryptocurrency mining rig on a Microsoft Windows Operating System.
I'm undecided on whether it will be Windows 7 or Windows 10 but we'll leave that for another day... unless you have an opinion you'd like to share, then please leave your comments below!
Good luck on your build. I started out with Windows 10 Pro on my first few Nvidia rigs. They ran well and I restarted them 1-2 times a month after applying updates. I used the built-in Remote Desktop for remote management. As my farm grew I switched to SimpleMining OS. I'm currently trying Hive OS on 3 of my rigs.
Hi Chris
Wow whats SimpleMining OS like? I’ve not looked into SimpleMining or Hive OS before. What were your reasons to switch over?
Streamlined remote management were my main reasons for switching from Windows. SimpleMining is pretty good. Put the OS image on a thumb drive, plug it in and manage the rig through a web interface. Hive OS works the same way, but has more features and seems to be updated more often.
That is really cool!
Have you mined with pools such as Nicehash and had no issues?
I've got a software called "SumoMiner" which allows me to enter the pool address, password and wallet address and I can start/stop mining from there - I was planning to install it on the Windows setup when I'm done. - Which method do you use to connect to mining pools using the SimpleMining OS and Hive OS?
Also - sorry last question... you mentioned putting the OS image on a thumb drive. Would this work similar to the Ubuntu restore procedure whereby once you've got your ideal mining configurations setup on one machine, you can take a backup onto a thumb drive and install it (restore) to as many systems in the future ?
Again, sorry for all the questions!!
Best of luck! Cheers!
Thank you :) I will keep everyone updated when I begin building the rig next week and start mining coins - be sure to follow for updates!!