Bitcoin Forum

Hi there! My name is Agustín and I'm from Argentina. I've been interested in crypto for a couple of years now, but now with a couple of friends we decided to invest in mining.

We live in Argentina where electricity fees are very low. Our first choice is to put together a GPU rig to mine ETH and then reinvest our earnigs (I expect to be in 12 months max) in a good ASIC for mining BTC.

But of course, I'm writing this to ask help to the experts. What would you recommend me? Thank you so much in advance!

Invest in DeFI, Or literally any good project. You'll never make your 6K back in time if you're just starting now. GPU, PSU, and other Hardware prices are through the roof. During Bullmarkets you DO NOT BUILD mining rigs. You buy the coin which will make you'll more money in a month than a mining rig will paying itself back. That's my personal opinion. I'm a big miner, but I started during the first bullmarket in 2017 and never stopped even during the bear market of 2018-20.

With ETH finally getting Phase 0 and moving to phase 1.5 in 2021/22 Personally the mining game's over now. On top of that ASIC on ETH that are insanely powerful are coming online this year.

Is the money yours or your friends? Pls don't contribute money to buy miners and split money among yourselves, it's a stupid and unsafe idea, friends get greedy overtime and moreover it's lot safer if you mine coins in your garage without outsiders knowing what going on inside

Here we are again, people are packing 40 pieces of graphic cards right in front of me in a store to mine Ethereum and you are here saying you can't make your ROI back? It only takes 4 month to get ROI back on a single gtx1660 super today, since you said you build your rig in 2017? Good, my question is did you make back your ROI or NoT?

Let's not discourage OP, there are many reasons why one would want to build a mining rig today, you should have asked if he can endure and continue mining even if bears strikes unexpectedly, if one can't get ROI back in few months they can in one and half years

Okay lets go slow and easy.

1)what is your power cost?

10 cents full cost for a k-watt? = too high
 6-9 cents full cost for a k-watt? = meh okay not terrible
4-5 cents full cost = good
2-3 cents = you will make money very good.

2) how much cheap power do you have? a single 30 amp 240 volt circuit is more than enough for a 6k investment.

3) room size.

4) noise tolerance.

let us know the things I asked.

People here on BTC  Talk can be liars and bad. Many will try to hurt new miners as they see them as competition.

I say if the new guy is polite and sincere lets help him.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=64507 

this is my trust page my trust page is one of the best ones on BTC as I effort to make profits for all in any country as long as the people act fairly decent.

Read trust pages for people talking to you. It can help you somewhat.

I regretted not building a good mining rig in 2017 even after bear market started, I knew someone who build is at the time and he kept gathering the Ethereum in his wallet, today he is a big boss in mining and he owns many more rigs now, the fact is continue mining even in bear season because no season lasts forever

@ op this is solid advice mining coins is like the tide it comes in and goes out.

So true, it's another way of holding coins, just make sure you mine the best coins and hold them if there is bear market, they will eventually turn gold some day, I've been mislead for many years too, when I saw 10$ profits from mining turned to 2$ I started using them to laugh but I was the one who don't understand

I mine coins for profits and for the fun of it, now it's more than a hobby, it's still a good time to buy graphics card and mine if you can get at fair enough price target, my own target is 100 days of mining at this profit season and if bear market comes after I know that have already make back most of my invested cash back, the rest will be on fun mode hehehe

Here we are again. People thinking of buying over-inflated priced GPUs like the 1660s when ETH POS was initially launched last year with a full move away from PoW thinking they'll make all their money back GPU-mining. I'm going to put this super easy.

$400, 1660 SUPER(MSRP was 230~)( plus you can't even buy these anymore there not in production). Will make about $1 - $1.50~ a day(accounting for a full system setup at 200w with a single 1660s@30mh/s, 2.5 ETH BR). That's a 400 day ROI. We're in a Bullmarket, Bull markets don't last. This is the third Crypto bull market I've been in. If you/he puts that in a good project he'll easily make $100-200 in just a couple of months.

Did I ROI?

Yes, and well beyond it now. However, As I said I mined during the bear market and suffered a lot of set-backs and pain. The Black-swan flash crash of 2018 and then in 2020 basically wiped me TWICE. In 2020 I just about gave up on everything but I worked at my normal job and held, kept mining. Last year I purchase 588's for around $65 a piece on Auction from liquated mining farms.

So my question WHAT ARE YOU going to do when your mining AT A LOSS because a 'flash-crash' or markets tanks for sometimes months on end? I saw it at the end of 2018. I'll probably see it again at the end of 2021.

Gtx 1660 super has 6gb VRAM, before that 6gb VRAM runs out it will take 3 to 4 years, you are bewitched if you failed to get your ROI back in this period of time even if you can only get 0.80$ from gtx1660 super mining 24 hours a day, what about those asics that are only given access to 4.5gb memory?? Before that time comes you should have get 2x your ROI or even 3x, do some math

Now it's GPU vs ASIC, you can earn ROI faster with Asic miner if you go with the fastest ones but once the become obsolete it's the end, you will have hard time trying to sell compare to graphic cards, GPUs can still be used for graphics work and also gaming so you can sell them easily in future

You able to buy asics right now?  Be uase unless you pay outrageous or buy old outdated...all modern asics are sold out for a few months minimum.  Only a little easier to find gpus. 

$6k should of bought eth or btc last year with it.  Now is the absolute worst time to be buying any mining hardware.

Thank you for all the replies! Really helpful


1) Power costs in Argentina are 3 cents a k-watt aprox, but with inflation going higher and higher I believe we'll be in 2 cents later this year.

2) I don't know if I understood this question correctly, but the cheap power available is basically all that we want (at least until the power system crashes and we start to have a lot more power outages, but this probably will not happen until one or two years from now). Thinking in the long-term, we know we should invest in solar power better sooner than later.

3 and 4) I don't know the exact measures of the place, because I've only been there once, but I'd say it's 50mt². Noise also wouldn't be a problem because It's like a "second house" in the back separated from the actual house.


Phil, I've been in the forum for probably a week now and I find your posts super interesting and based in real knowledge. Didn´t know about the trust pages, I'll be watching that for sure. Thank you for the help!  :D

In my situation, living in Argentina, I think mining is never a loss. Electricity is cheap and no government is going to change that until it's absolutely necessary (not yet).

Also, my goal is not to have a lot of dollars, my goal is to have a lot of BTC, ETH, LTC or any DeFi. If I have $2000 today I can only buy 1,20 ETH, but if I mine, I'll probably have three times that in a year. If the bear market comes I really don't care, my bet is that people in the future will go full crypto so their value will be a lot more.

okay you want a gpu rig to start.

You want gpu's
You want motherboard
you want psu
you want ram.

My spanish is rusty but I will give it a stab do you have a store that sells computer gear.?

I think this is my only "fear" about this investment. Let's say I buy the new Antminer of 100THs next June (I won't)...when will it be the best time to sell it? What is the average useful life for a brand new ASIC miner?

Yes, in Mercado Libre (our Amazon in Latinamerica) I've been finding 3060 ti for $900. I know that's expensive but that's all there is. Even if I find good deals in Ebay, with the shipping and all it'd be about the same price that I can buy it here.

Our actual plan is

1) GPU for start
2) Reinvest our earnings to buy ASIC for BTC and sell GPU if GPU mining goes away.
3) Get more ASICs for BTC and try to have them updated

Please tell me if you think that makes sense!

Personally I feel 5700xt could be a great choice. Runs flawless on unix based os running phoenixminer

well 900 is high but you do have very cheap power.  so if eth drops and you just keep mining it with your power cost it will just take longer to work out.

Get 2 cards. for 1800
 evga are good.
get a mother board like this

https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-885338841-motherboard-asrock-h110-pro-btc-para-criptomineria-13-gpu-_JM#position=47&type=item&tracking_id=ff1d1a98-d627-4e34-807e-49bd16f09717

risers like this

https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-902454595-riser-pci-e-16x-a-1x-ext-x-usb-60cm-mineria-v-009s-rig-_JM?searchVariation=71559772903#searchVariation=71559772903&position=2&type=item&tracking_id=8a809aee-1ce4-4a43-abb3-48ec8fb04f4a

What does VRAM have to do with it? ETH is going PoS long before 6GB memory. On top of that Network Dif will increase the "ROI" when the new 2GH/s ETH ASICs have been unleashed to regular buyers this June this year. Those ASICs have 8GB memory.

The Name of the game is "buy low, sell high" Same goes for Crypto-mining when in bear markets pick-up GPUs/ASICs during Bullmarkets cashout coins turning into $$$$. People eating up GPUs and ASICs at insane prices are not thinking what happens in a year. They only see the $$$(greed) of now.

Throwing in my own $.02, I've got to agree. Avoid buying hardware right now being it's all market up 50%-100%. Invest in DeFi.

Maybe worst case, go for 50% DeFi and buy a rig with a card for the other 50%. See which one gets you further in the next 3-6 months. Eth will be on it's way out soon and something else will need to pick up where it left off. There doesnt seem to be anything obvious on the horizon, so wait for the hardware prices to cool off, then buy the hardware if you insist on a mining rig

At op you have 2 - 3 cent power mine just don't get a lot of cards.

IF COINS GO UP YOU HAVE 2 CARDS MINING THEY MAKE MORE.

if coins go down cards are cheaper add 3 cards with the money you held back..  Then you will have 5 cards.

So you flatten your risk a lot this way.

Any one telling you any other advice is disregarding your cheap power. Which allows you to flatten risk and make a profit. If coins go up or go down.

Thank you! And what about the power supply? What should I buy if I have 2 gpus or 4?

this psu will work for a 2 or 3 card 3060ti rig


https://www.bestbuy.com/site/seasonic-focus-gx-850-850w-80-gold-psu-full-modular-fan-control-in-fanless-silent-cooling-mode-10-yr-warranty-black/6414265.p?skuId=6414265

Phil, can you walk me through the power on this?  A co-worker just got 3x 3060 Ti and built a rig.  He said the board took two of the 8 pin connections, and the riser took a 6 pin.  So do we need to find PSUs that have SIX 8 pin outputs for VGA?  His was a 1000w PSU so it had 6, but this seasonic only has 5.  I'm not sure I'm following this correctly? 

Assuming I'm setting up, as you know my goals, three 3060 Ti on an Onda board. 

well argentina is decent price of electric so i think build gpu rigs is safer than buying asic

first build base rig cpu,ram,ssd,mobo,riser,case,psu here :
monitor 18.5" 55$
cpu intel g4400 40$
motherboard gigabyte fintech b250 12gpus 90$
ram 8gb ddr4 2400 30$
ssd 120gb 50$
psu antec high current pro 2x1000w 500$
pcie riser 009s 5$ x
DIY case 25$
base cost 850$ , then you got 5150$ for 12 gpus 429$@ each
on gpu side you can buy rtx 3060 6gb 280$ which is dont release yet, when came out, you better hurry to grab them