This is a how-to guide for mining Monero, Zcash, Ether, and other crypto currencies (but not Bitcoin). This guide applies to Windows 7.0, 8.0/ 8.1, and 10. This guide does not address Linux or Apple installations. My goal is to have you up and mining in as little time as possible.
Intro
A crypto coin miner is simply a desktop computer in an open frame (wood, aluminum, wire shelving, something else) which has four to eight graphics cards connected to the motherboard by PCIe “riser boards.” Because the graphics card GPU’s do most of the difficult computational mining work, you do not need the latest motherboard or processor. You do, however, need a 64- bit version of Windows, whether 7, 8/8.1, or 10 to follow along with this guide. The most stable version of Windows for mining that I have tried is Windows 8.1 64-bit, although installation of the device drivers for six or seven graphics cards can be tricky.
A Windows 10 installation is easier except that Windows 10 forces upgrades upon the user which can present issues with display drivers. Windows 7 also works and if you have a Windows 7 64-bit license, you can still upgrade to Windows 10 for free here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade
A mining rig with six quality graphics cards, plus all associated hardware, is going to run around $900-2,000, even if you build it yourself. The largest cost by far is that of the four to six graphics cards that you will want, which at a minimum is going to run about $1,200 (6x $200). It might cost you a little more or a little less, depending on your choices. Newer NVIDIA and AMD Radeon RX470/480/570/580 graphics cards are more efficient at hashing on a per watt basis than older video cards.
Does it make sense for you to mine crypto currencies?
If you hope to make money, that mostly depends on what you pay for electricity and your time frame for earning back what you spent on parts. Start by taking your last few monthly statements from your electricity provider, and divide the total amount you paid for the service by the number of Kilowatt hours used (1 kWh = 10 x 100 watt light bulbs running for one hour) since your last reading to get your “all in” cost per kilowatt hour. The total number of kWh used since your last reading will be listed somewhere on your bill. You always want to go with the graphics card/mining rig setup that gives you the highest hashes/SOLs per watts used; do not forget that.
Once you have this information, then go to these sites and plug in your costs. Cyrptocompare.com is probably the most useful site for this purpose.
https://www.nicehash.com/?p=calc
http://whattomine.com/
https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/xmr?HashingPower=500&HashingUnit=H%2Fs&PowerConsumption=200&CostPerkWh=0.12
You also need to know the cost of your graphics card of choice (currently, I recommend the Sapphire Radeon Nitro+ RX 480/580 8GB models available from Newegg.com, Amazon.com, and other retailers), plus the costs of all other components in your rig. Most people pay from a few pennies per kilowatt hour to as much as 25+ cents per kilowatt hour. A six graphics card mining rig, even an efficient one, is like running a 800/900-watt hair dryer all day long, except that I’ll show you how to make your rig run much quieter and it will throw off less heat.
If you want to mine crypto currencies for personal reasons, you will find this guide very helpful as well. Please understand that the value of all crypto currencies is very, very volatile and that is likely to continue. At the moment, Ether, Monero, Zcash, and a few other “alt” crypto coins are profitable candidates for GPU mining. Bitcoin is not because it is mined using application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), not graphics processors.
Part 2 coming soon In next part we will learn Basic knowledge of computer hardware, things you need to know before you start your mining business
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