0 electricity and ISP costs, large facility paid for. Is mining still lucrative?

[cryptexlab]

I have access to a large facility and a constant supply of electricity for essentially free.

power consumption is not an object.

I have contemplated establishing a BTC mining center.

I have a good understanding of BTC and crypto, but I want some input on expected hardware needs/costs and realistic profitability and at what scale.

If you can assist me with this information Id thank you VERY MUCH 


non US operation

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[notlist3d]

I suggest locking thread.  Its down at bottom left I believe.

You already have a topic about this here - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1059891.msg11368971#msg11368971

[jonnybravo0311]

I suggest locking thread.  Its down at bottom left I believe.

You already have a topic about this here - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1059891.msg11368971#msg11368971

Well, ck locked down that one and tossed it, so OP is left with this one now.

I have access to a large facility and a constant supply of electricity for essentially free.

power consumption is not an object.

I have contemplated establishing a BTC mining center.

I have a good understanding of BTC and crypto, but I want some input on expected hardware needs/costs and realistic profitability and at what scale.

If you can assist me with this information Id thank you VERY MUCH 


non US operation

So...

You've got free power and no costs whatsoever besides hardware.  Are you in a datacenter setup with cabinets and rack mounts, or are you more free-for-all with whatever you decide to do?

If in a more professional datacenter setup, I'd suggest the SPXX gear (Spondoolies SP10, SP30, SP31, SP35).  The BitmainTech gear would also fit the bill, but you're going to face some trouble with both the hardware itself (PSUs, dead boards, overall build quality) and the software (firmware is flaky, doesn't work with all pools).  That being written, I had good luck with the later batch S2s.  Also, there's the ancient CoinTerra stuff.

If it's a looser setup, then you can always get some S3s, S5s, SP20s, Tubes.  All of them require at least an external PSU... some also require a computer running the software (a Raspberry Pi works here).  This approach is a bit more geared towards the "home" type miner, but can certainly be fit into a professional farming setup.

My advice would be to get some standard datacenter racks, some good PDUs, some network switches, a couple machines to proxy things, a bunch of network cabling, and the rack-style datacenter hardware I suggested above.

Get as much gear as you can.  If you can afford it, try to get at least 1PH/s of gear and run your own private pool.  Then, rent out that gear on places like MRR, NiceHash, Mintsy.  Mine your own pool primarily and fall back on the rental sites when the price is right.

You can thank me "VERY MUCH" with BTC.  You can find my donation address in my profile (hint, click on my user name.  The address starts with 1DevLdog...)

[notlist3d]

One thing you will want to make sure of is starting slow.  Data centers do keep servers cool.

But there is a BIG difference in server and asic gear.   So if you do have a data center add gear to it slowly or you might find out you cannot take the heat.

[jonnybravo0311]

One thing you will want to make sure of is starting slow.  Data centers do keep servers cool.

But there is a BIG difference in server and asic gear.   So if you do have a data center add gear to it slowly or you might find out you cannot take the heat.

Great point.  I neglected to mention cooling in my post.  Bad things can happen when you don't take care of the necessities...

[trendax]

I have access to a large facility and a constant supply of electricity for essentially free.
power consumption is not an object.
I have contemplated establishing a BTC mining center.
I have a good understanding of BTC and crypto, but I want some input on expected hardware needs/costs and realistic profitability and at what scale.
If you can assist me with this information Id thank you VERY MUCH 
non US operation

What you can achieve will depend on the particulars you left out: Budget, location, climate, security of facility, degree of your skill and competence in hands on computing and networking?

To keep it simple let's assume it's already got some security and because it's a large place, you can't do it all yourself so we're prepared to hire some good technical contractors.

1. If it's not already sorted. Get your internet connection. A typically business package with guaranteed up/down is best. Preferably a fibre connection.
2. The facility structure might determine this but we're going to assume we can house a minimum of 20 full size racks. Plan this out with an electrician. You will need a decent amount of power to run a configuration like this. The racks shouldn't cost to much to buy and install but you will need some basic servers and comms equipment: proxy servers, routers and switches, and technicians to set up it all up.
3. Cooling? This is another deal breaker.. Let's assume we're in a closed building so let's order in two or three large units and pay someone again to install them.
4. Now we're set. Let's order the miners!! Now depending on where you're mine is will probably determine who your order from. If you order from far away, you're going spend more on shipping and wait longer, therefore order from the closest. I would only choose from Spondoolies or Bitmain as they tend to have the best products in my opinion.
5. When your miners arrive get them installed ASAP. Pay people to help and work all night if you have too, just get them running and returning on the investment.
6. Given you only have 20 racks your probably don't need to hire full time staff but you should pay for some decent monitoring software something that will alert you when miners stop working.. which they will..
7. If you live far away from the mine. Think about moving closer. I spend a fortune on petrol driving back and forth to my mine.
8. As soon as you start mining, start planning how you're going to get rid of the miners, mining equipment depreciates faster than you think. You will need to find a way to sell off your equipment and replace each unit within a 3-6 month period.
9. Don't be afraid to go big!! If you have a good budget, power consumption isn't a big deal and the facility can support a decent supply. Buy as many miners as you can!

 

[crazyivan]

What do you mean power consumption is not an object? If you put inside 1000 S5 miners, power consumption ll go through the roof and someone will notice it, unless you have your own hydro power or similar.

[notlist3d]

What do you mean power consumption is not an object? If you put inside 1000 S5 miners, power consumption ll go through the roof and someone will notice it, unless you have your own hydro power or similar.

I don't see it either.  Having access to and getting tons of free watt's are two different things.  And when you put a few thousand watt's worth of asic gear they might not be as nice about your gear, unless amazing cooling.  Asic data centers vs regular data center's just are a huge difference in cooling.  Servers don't require near what asics do.

[jonnybravo0311]

What do you mean power consumption is not an object? If you put inside 1000 S5 miners, power consumption ll go through the roof and someone will notice it, unless you have your own hydro power or similar.

I just went with the situation as presented by the OP.  He wrote that the electricity is "essentially free".  That could mean any number of things like, "I get $0.01 or less rates" or "I own my own hydro power plant".  As posed the OP basically says, "forget all of those other factors like power and cooling and space and just tell me how to setup a mining farm".

[LordPaco]

Asic data centers vs regular data center's just are a huge difference in cooling.  Servers don't require near what asics do.

What makes you say this? A Datacenter that uses 1MW of power for work will also produce 1MW of heat no matter how the electricity flows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_thermodynamics

EDIT: Narrowed down for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_law_of_thermodynamics

[mavericklm]

Asic data centers vs regular data center's just are a huge difference in cooling.  Servers don't require near what asics do.

What makes you say this? A Datacenter that uses 1MW of power for work will also produce 1MW of heat no matter how the electricity flows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_thermodynamics

EDIT: Narrowed down for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_law_of_thermodynamics

miner farms are much much power concentrated, power hungry than normal data centre!
a miner doesn't have a harddrives or a video card, riser cards, etc....

[notlist3d]

Asic data centers vs regular data center's just are a huge difference in cooling.  Servers don't require near what asics do.

What makes you say this? A Datacenter that uses 1MW of power for work will also produce 1MW of heat no matter how the electricity flows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_thermodynamics

EDIT: Narrowed down for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_law_of_thermodynamics

Have you been in a regular data center?   I suggest it if you ever get a chance they keep it cool.

But look at a asic data center they have to get exhust out of there.  They use evaporation cooling when they can instead of AC.

Just put a S5 next to a server that uses about the same watts.  You will see the difference in how the units deal with heat.

[mavericklm]

much better: compare sp3x with any other same size(2u) unit in a normal data centre!!!

[LordPaco]

The difference is in the density of the installation. Bitcoin miners can or usually are burning more watts per square foot of space for obvious reasons. A building that is consuming 1,000,000 watts will have to dissipate 1,000,000 watts worth of heat. You will find you can pack 1,000,000 watts of miners into a much smaller space than you could with enterprise level server equipment, making it seem like it makes more heat. But the amount of heat they will generate compared to each other power usage being equal will be identical due to the first law of thermodynamics. You can't get more energy (in this case heat) out of a something that is using the same amount of energy for work. Energy cannot be created, only moved. What you are suggesting means we could build a perpetual motion machine with bitcoin miners.

Proper datacenters will have redundancy in both power and climate controls, not to mention a higher level of current communication equipment ($$$) that is not even thought of in a bitcoin mine. If the datacenter was designed to support XYZ watts of equipment running, it will be designed to support XYZ watts of climate control. It matters not what electronics it is running.

[jonnybravo0311]

The difference is in the density of the installation. Bitcoin miners can or usually are burning more watts per square foot of space for obvious reasons. A building that is consuming 1,000,000 watts will have to dissipate 1,000,000 watts worth of heat. You will find you can pack 1,000,000 watts of miners into a much smaller space than you could with enterprise level server equipment, making it seem like it makes more heat. But the amount of heat they will generate compared to each other power usage being equal will be identical due to the first law of thermodynamics. You can't get more energy (in this case heat) out of a something that is using the same amount of energy for work. Energy cannot be created, only moved. What you are suggesting means we could build a perpetual motion machine with bitcoin miners.

Pretty much this.  A miner is far different in power consumption than your typical enterprise class server.  Yes, 1MW is 1MW as we can't get away from the first law; however, looking at rackspace and density, a cabinet full of SP3X will produce far more heat than the same cabinet full of Dell Poweredge because that cabinet of SP3X is running full tilt burning those kW at 100% of the time, whereas those Dell servers are very likely not.

[notlist3d]

The difference is in the density of the installation. Bitcoin miners can or usually are burning more watts per square foot of space for obvious reasons. A building that is consuming 1,000,000 watts will have to dissipate 1,000,000 watts worth of heat. You will find you can pack 1,000,000 watts of miners into a much smaller space than you could with enterprise level server equipment, making it seem like it makes more heat. But the amount of heat they will generate compared to each other power usage being equal will be identical due to the first law of thermodynamics. You can't get more energy (in this case heat) out of a something that is using the same amount of energy for work. Energy cannot be created, only moved. What you are suggesting means we could build a perpetual motion machine with bitcoin miners.

Proper datacenters will have redundancy in both power and climate controls, not to mention a higher level of current communication equipment ($$$) that is not even thought of in a bitcoin mine. If the datacenter was designed to support XYZ watts of equipment running, it will be designed to support XYZ watts of climate control. It matters not what electronics it is running.

I still say a asic data center is much differrent then a regular data center.  Regular data center normally uses AC.   Asic use evaporation and fast exhaust to get riid of the hot exhaust.

Granted yes  its more electricity per square foot.   But the two are built very different since the asic data center accommodates for the extra electricity.

[nvaler]

go ahead set it up if u have free access to free electricity