Bitcoin Forum

Want to start a small miner at home, any tips?

Building 5. Gtx 1070 and gtx 1080 is the best way to start home mining.

I think my top tips (given to me) would be:

• Make sure the supply of power is reliable and clean
• Make sure you have the cooling planned
• Make sure your network (LAN/Internet connection) is well maintained
• Find the right space: You may have a noise problem to contend with

Other than that - ask lots of questions and never stop learning :)

Review your electricity supplier/contract, ensure you have the best and cheapest price. Ive just changed my electric tarrif and gone from £0.17p down to £0.12p per kW

1 rig - you don't need extra cooling
2 rigs - you have to put an extra A/C

Don't overpay too much for mining hardware. 

If you are super concerned about immediate ROI, mining may not be for you.

Consider investing what you would pay for miner hardware directly into a few coins as an alternative strategy to breaking into crypto.

If you like messing with stuff and the idea of buying in directly doesn't appeal to you, follow the rest of the advice in this thread :-)

But firstly think hard do you really need it?!
Since profitability of mining is dropping from month to month, now it's a little bit over net cost, and it will drop more in th next months, when ETH goes POS and thousnds of miners with dozens thousends of GPU will searching for new coins to mine. If you do not have free electriciry, you should think twice to start mining right now.
Maybe it's better just to buy coins for example ETH, BTC or some new and very promissing and to hold it?!

Guys, you are really brave to try to answer to such a common question

@danielcool : there are plenty of tutorials on Internet, why don't you read some before posting here ?

I suggest you this one, as it's my favorite : http://www.cryptobadger.com/2017/04/build-ethereum-mining-rig-hardware/ (http://www.cryptobadger.com/2017/04/build-ethereum-mining-rig-hardware/)
Other example : http://1stminingrig.com/tutorial-ethereum-mining-rig-part-3-building-the-rig/ (http://1stminingrig.com/tutorial-ethereum-mining-rig-part-3-building-the-rig/)

Have a good reading ;) keep in mind that profitability have drastically dropped those last months...

It seems that nobody wants to point out the most crucial part in building a minig rig at home - knowing your home circuit and knowing where to plug your miner.

Most North American home have 15A circuit breakers. One or more wall outlets could be in series pointing to this circuit breaker so that means once you plugged your miner, which let's say pull 1000w off the wall, no other high-powered device should be plugged in that same breaker, or else you'll repeatedly trip it which means down time and taking a trip to the breaker panel every time.

I have two rigs in my small apartment and i did somewhat of a trial and error knowing which outlet is connected to which breaker, as even the maintenance guy doesn't know squat about it.

I'm now constantly mining without interruptions and my wife is back again in using her microwave as well as the electric kettle and stove.

the biggest problem i had with home mining is the wife
she wont let me keep any antminers at home as its too noisy
bare this in mind when blindly buying S9's

Ventilation, ventilation, ventilation. Too often cards are run in environments which cause the cards to overheat or run hot for extended periods of time; also remember to occasionally dust your components. Dust comes quicker than you expect. Humidity is easy to keep in check, but if it gets to be too excessive a dehumidifier can be bought for pretty cheap.

That is Bitcoin mining and this section of the forum is reserved for Altcoin mining. What you said is true, though- for a comparison, imagine a vacuum cleaner full blast.

If you're going to build 2-3 rigs, I think no problem, but more than 3 rigs, you should carefully consider on power supply, ventilation, and noise.
I put all rigs in basement just because they're noisy, but it's hard to make cooling plan with only 1 window size of 100cm*50cm.

If you have electricity price over 0.10 USD per Kwatt then do not do it. Difficulty has already hit sky.

Don't buy  antminers to keep at home... they are extremely noisy.. i risked an injury for too much noise from the neighborhood,,,,, so keep antminers in a safe place , far from home.... when the fan spin in the middle of the night all the building will wake up

Best for mining start is to make one rig with 6x 1070 or 4x 1070.
With them you can mine almost all gpu coins, and easy to make and set up rig.
And nvidia have good eficiancy, so no prob with power consumption.

Yes, it seems to me that mining is already losing its relevance, because it concentrates in the hands of several large companies.

Mining rigs with few 1050ti seems suitable for home mining.
For more power consumption, it depends on your region's electricity price.

Unless you have free/cheaper electricity it's not that worth in my honest opinion! (just opinion not contradicting home mining in anyways)

Basically, it depends on lots of factors like electricity?
how much are you looking to invest?
what is your room optimal temperature?
what GPU are you going to pick?
what coin are you going to mine?

I would only say yes if you are planning to mine new difficulty coins. (Just gambling, those new coins may click or may not!!)


Thanks

All valid points. I'd also suggest to think ahead of minor details such as PSU cable length (for best flexibility you may want to get 12v GPU power extenders), number of available sata power/molex connectors...etc
Also try not to use molex2sata power adapters (I've got several of those crisped on the 12V yellow cable), get some sata powered raisers instead.

First you have to understand this;

Mining is not an investment, it is a job.

Most miners out there immediately cash out their coins because they are making a living out of this. Very little of them are actually holding what they mined.

If you are a holder, if you are thinking cryptos as a long term investment, don't mine. Just buy and hold.

Any suggestion for an Altcoin to mine with gpus?

Just get nicehash, (google it) it auto mines the most profitable coin for you and autopays  you in bitcoins.