Bitcoin Forum

Anyone here using a old pc to mine crypto ?

All into binance pool
I’m looking to get a the smallest, silent yet powerful unit to just be plugged
In to the power using and mine away for years possibly


I tried to set up claymore which didn’t work properly as I didn’t know how to
Then I tried nice hash didn’t work


Can anyone help me out ?

Ref the pinned topic at the top of this section (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2415854.0) - mainly point-3.
PC's have not been able to mine Bitcoin since late 2013. They can however be used to mine crap coins (altcoins) but discussion of them is not for here. The altcoin sections are here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=160.0)

It doesn't work the way you want, and I don't know exactly the hardware of a regular silent PC  :D
If you have weak GPU, it doesn't make sense to mine, you'll waster energy and not profit

But it's better if you take some time and read more about the mining situation today

The easy way to do is: install nicehash, let it run all the benchmarks and mine with the most profitable algo for you

If you want to maximize profits and make a better strategy, research more

For example, Claymore hasn't been updated for a while, so you have to use another miner, and there's plenty to choose, Phoenix Miner for example is the most popular
You can use linux based OS for mining, like HiveOS or SimpleMining, it's solid stable, better than windows

So, take some time to read this forum, and there's good youtube channels to learn more, like Bits Be Trippin, red panda mining, voskcoin or son of a tech

Yeah I place 1 card and 2 card pcs in offices in New Jersey.

Send me a pm if you want  more details.

Please note my main  account is philipma1957

With pc is not possible for long term leaving because it will crash and also you need do some maintance like dust cleaning change paste etc.
Asic will be suitable for that. you just plug it and forget for long time.

Here are some 2 card miners in an office.
My friend rents an office floor.  He sublets 80% of the floor to a company and keeps 20% of the space for himself.

So they share the power bill.

he pays 20% they pay 80%.

So if the bill is 1000 usd he pays 200.   This gear uses 800 watts or 20 kwatts a day or 600 kwatts a month. kwatts are 17 cents so .17 x 600 = $102 but he pays 20% or only  

$20.40.  We split coins  so 230 mh x .06 = $13.80 a day to split or $6.90 each a day

the 3 normal sized pc's here is a link to one of them

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265162526087?   My version of this one has 2 cards in it.


 the other have diy cases

https://i.imgur.com/e7Fo3cl.png

wrong.  my 3  pc units run for months on end no maintance .  When coins were  hot they earned as much as 40 usd a day they are down to 14 usd a day.

MY cost is zero since they are paid off.
My partners cost is 22 usd in power.

I net 210 a month

He nets 210-22 = 188 a month

The coins  could drop  another 50% and I would net 105 a month and he would net 105-20=85

But buying a cheap pc to do this is hard to do.

I know where to buy a prebuilt with a 3060ti new with a warranty for 1200 which is okay enough it earns  57 x 5 = 2.85-3.00 a day

it burns 5kwatts a day 1 dollar at 20 cent power so you net about 2 a day

If you want quiet you probaby don't want to mine. Noise is the byproduct of cooling necessary to keep
the equipment at a reasonable temperature.

Besides that, tower PCs can usually handle 2 GPUs inside the case. More requires risers and the case
becomes irrelevant. Some cases can't fit the largest GPUs so measure before you buy. A PSU upgrade
is often needed.

You can even build a fairly decent dedicated mining rig, if you want, depending on the number of PCIe slots
on the mobo.

So 3 months straight without any reset or crash?

Yes . Also my friend is in the office every week mon to fri.

So hard reboot is easy.

Smos is very trouble free software once it is dialed in there is not much to do.

I have 25 smos rigs and 2 windows rigs.


We have a barber shop with three small rigs in the back room this is another cheap power deal.

And my garage has 2 rigs
My partners base mentioned has a rig.

And the farm has 20 or 19 rigs that are bigger.

They dont need a lot of work and they are not loud.

We will grow the farm to 30 plus rigs.

And we have a few more offices we will add to.

Can you share what smos is that? If it is running 3 months without any trouble i would like to try.

If you are planning on having the GPU inside an enclosed case and you want it to be quiet (not silent) then you can get away with 1 GPU. If you want more than 2 then forget about it. Even with high flow silent fans one of the GPUs will overheat (the 2nd GPU) and you will need to increase your airflow or open up the case to get proper ventilation.

You can’t do this in an office. You will have an important meeting and people are going to be wondering why is his PC so damn loud. It’s not professional. ASICS you can forget about. Those are as loud as a vacuum cleaner pretty much.

I think he can do well with a big case,not normal one with 2xRTX 3060 ti and set the core clock -200 and fans not very loud at 50%.He can do that if he manages to get one OMEN PC desk or the likes(which I doubt they are common in the office) but anyway even with one such card which can fit in a normal Midtower case is Ok to start mining at the low level the OP wants.

If he goes for lower cards what's the point of doing this anyway?

Silent and powerful? Rtx3080 and 3090 fits the best 🤔 but extra cooling will require fans which will increase noise I believe, but honestly if you can go for mid powerful GPUs mostly Nvidia cards they are silent when mining, I use 3 gtx1660 ti and they are quiet unless you OC the fan speed.

In a work office it won't work because of the way HVAC is set up. Most of the time, there is a HVAC temp control in the middle of the office somewhere. Usually office rooms don't have their own temp control because it would be too much wiring and everything.

If he has a few GPUs and even if they are silent, that room is going to be way too hot. People are going to question why his office is hotter than the rest of the rooms. And if his office is closer to the HVAC control then it'll think that its too hot and the AC will run longer and the offices far away will be freezing cold.

It works fine it is under 850 watts for the six cards. Two amd 5500 xt
Two nvidia 3060 ti
A amd 5700 with an amd 5500

They total 240-245 mh.

The omen had two 1080ti sold them in the fall and added two 3060ti

The room is far from the ac thermostat it is cold as ice. He used a 1500 watt space heater set to 900 watts. He now burns the gpus

In the winter the room is too cold.

In his case it is next to perfect.

I have been doing gear in his place for six years. Key is 900 watt max and quiet.

simplemining.net

first month is free

2 bucks a rig monthly after that.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1541084.0  this is his thread.  I have 25 rigs with him

I'm surprised no one mentioned watercooling yet. I am waiting for gear to convert my 3080s to watercooled ones, hope this will allow me to lower mem temps at least 10C.

Hard to get a new hybrid from evga.

But if I do I will put them in a back room of a barbershop.

I would do 1 hybrid 3080 per rig.

Very likely i will never.get access to these cards

I chose custom ekwb blocks, 7 card rig should come out quite nice and quiet. If I had 3090s I'd consider adding watercooled backplates to them as well.

Most of my rigs are watercooled. Including 3070s and 3080s.
Old Stuff 1080s / 1080tis / 2080s too.
If you want to keep it very quiet you will need lots of radiators.
Or you put the radiators outside.

I've just started compiling this rig, only 3 3080s so far. I was calculating radiators basing on 240mm for each card with fans on one side only, sure that will be enough? Also, I can put radiators outside but that'll require additional ~3-4 m of tubing with about 1m elevation. Distilled water+10% antifreeze (as biocide and anti-rust agent) as a coolant, waterblocks connected in parallel. Not sure if 2 pumps will be enough for such a setup. Any advice?

I had them with soft tube and they leaked.

I had never a leaking softtube. But i use only https://geizhals.de/ek-water-blocks-ek-tube-zmt-schlauch-a1091953.html?v=k&hloc=de.

they look nice.

Same tubes I ordered.

The question is not how to cool. Its how much noise you want.
I run 4 x 3080 Suprim X on 1 x 360 Radiator. With Kaze 3000 Fans.
https://geizhals.de/alphacool-nexxxos-monsta-360-white-special-edition-35435-14193-a901781.html?v=k&hloc=de

This keeps the 3080s under 60 degrees. If you want it quieter you should go for 2 Rads with other
Fans. I prefer bigger fans - 38mm - to get more pressure.
I can run the 3080 Suprim X on 110 Mhs ETH, watercooled.

For the CPU i have

https://geizhals.de/arctic-alpine-12-passive-acalp00024a-a1871633.html?t=alle&plz=&va=b&vl=de&hloc=de&v=k#offerlist

So only 3 fans overall.

I run Corsair AX 1500i with it. But for more 3080s you should go for a mining power supply.
Dont forget to use PCI-E Risers! Molex will be overloaded if you connect more than 1.
My 3080s take around 44 Watt of the PCI-E.
I use a quad sli board and 1 pump. So overall its very compact.

You can check the power usage of the PCI-E with HW-info! (and you should do it ...)



Overall 1.1kw for 440 MHs/s ETH. 3070s are better but you need more.

Thanks for the info.
What are your fan speeds and mem temperature readings? With air cooling I never managed to get memory temperatures below 80C, getting 101-102 Mh/s. This rig (when fully  complete) will be running on 2x1300W EVGA PSUs just because I have them, next one will be on server power supply again. Instead of quad sli boards I chose a ek-pro manifold, can hook all 7 cards to it.

PS For years I use Molex with my risers, 2-3 per cable. No issues whatsoever.

Fan speed is always full power. Mem temperature depends on water temp. When it was
very hot here in germany i was over 100. But never throttled.
Have the EK-Pro manifold here too. But was afraid of the throughput.
When you have lets say 70 L per minute and you connect 7 GPUs you have only 10 L per GPU.
Because i use server rigs i stayed with 4 for safety.
If i were you i would use https://geizhals.de/ek-water-blocks-ek-xtop-revo-dual-d5-pwm-serial-a1351867.html?v=k&hloc=de for 7 GPUs. Ohterwise could lead into problems.
I put always 2 GPUs on 1 Molex row. But can only tell to avoid this on the 3080.
Because i have Suprim X i needed a lot of PCI-E. These have 3 x 8 PIN.
I love it compact and 7 or more really call for trouble. 1 Suprim X can take up to 440 Watt on
other algos. And who knows what comes in the future...

For 7 GPUs you need over 2000 Watt power supply for ETH.
Running such a beast on mtp needs up to 3100 watt just for the gpus.

Dont forget to send some pics.
I really liked to build my 3080 rig.

Dont forget to buy a bunch of

https://geizhals.de/alphacool-eiszapfen-g1-4-schnellverschluss-mit-schottverschraubung-17367-a1697375.html

these help much.

Building it card by card will allow me to collect enough data for comparation - temperatures, flow etc. So by the time I buy 4th card I will already see (hopefully LOL) bottlenecks and ways to overcome them. Like, at the start I will have 420mm radiator with 3x140mm fans cooling 3 cards, if I don't like the temperatures I'll connect a spare 240mm rad I already have and see what changes, etc.


Duly noted, thanks.


Just checked (more out of curiosity as I know my cabling is okay). Connectors on both sides aren't even warm.


Sure will, once I finish it. Or I might start a topic when all watercooling stuff arrives and I equip 3 cards I currently have, then report progress as I go. It would be really interesting to see pictures of your rig too, especially with comments on various components etc. Probably as a separate topic, too.


I bought these  - https://koolance.com/qd3-ms10x16-bk-quick-disconnect-no-spill-coupling-male-for-10mm-x-16mm-3-8in-x-5-8in-black (there are matching female connectors too, of course). This was my first concern - I wanted each card to be serviceable without the need to dismantle the entire system. Yes, these couplings are great.