Decision on mining bitcoin?

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Feb 20, 2021
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3
Hello all! I'm new here, and would like to form a great relationship with HardForum and the people within!

I have a few questions about mining bitcoin.

I would like to get into mining bitcoin. I did a little research but would love to hear from experienced users who mine and/or used to mine.

1) Is it worth mining bitcoin?
2) If it's worth mining, what is the best route, custom PC or a prebuilt mining rig?
3) What website is best to join to mine?

I found a website (NiceHash) that has a calculator which shows what I could earn each day/month/year.

The calculator says I could earn around $50/day with around $2.50 electricity cost each day. Is that accurate? That's running 24/7 none stop.

I have (2) identical rigs, each has... 2x 3080's, i7-10700k (4.5GHz), Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Master, 2x32GB Corsair Vengeance Pro (3600MHz), and a Corsair RM-1000W Gold

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!
 
You need special hardware to mine BTC, you're not going to do it with GPUs . Nicehash mines alt coins and can pay you in BTC if you want, if you already have two rigs then, sure, mine away. You can even set up the NH miner to turn off when you're using your rig, so no harm.

Just figure in your power, but those rigs are not power hogs so it should be do-able (depending on your local power costs)
 
1. No, its risky. Huge investment, slow returns. Can be fun if you do it as a hobby.
2. ASIC. Only way. Good luck finding one.
3. Nicehash is your best bet, if per #1 you want to do it as a hobby. Automatically mine the most profitable coin based on your hardware.

When i last did it (3 years ago) Monero was a reasonable option as well, and had really good information/support. But i could also just mine Monero through nicehash for about the same, but also if randomly some other coin gave me huge profits for half a day, i would get those huge profits.
 
$50 a day is pushing it. I would put it closer to $40 with profits dropping as difficulty increases. I can't imagine that you put together rigs like that to do nothing other than mine on Nicehash, so they aren't going to be as profitable when you are using them for their actual intended purpose (whatever that might be).
 
A few things to keep in mind:

1.) You're not mining bitcoin with GPUs and making $50/day in profit, although you might be paid out in bitcoin. You'd be mining ETH or something instead. Nicehash helps you by routing your hashing power to whatever is most efficient at the time / whoever is paying the most.
2.) We're at all time high values for most coins or close to it. When/if prices on coins drop your mining profits will also drop so you want to have efficient hardware to survive slumps. Luckily you have 4 x 3080s which are good cards.
3.) Overall it looks like you spent too much on motherboards, CPUs, memory, etc. when you really just want to buy the cheapest stuff that will work and focus your investment on GPUs. Your CPU, RAM, motherboard, etc. aren't going to be bringing in any revenue in most cases so you don't need to build your miner like a gaming PC.

I'm not sure about your CPU performance with mining Monero, but it might be possible to bring in about an additional $1/day per CPU if you have a good CPU for monero mining. You may have to run miners in virtual machines or tweak settings to prevent it from affecting your GPU mining rates, and it also might be difficult to turn a profit based on power efficiency as well. Generally I would say it's not worth it to put an expensive CPU into a mining rig unless you're using it to play games with during the day or you're prepared for a long return on investment (1-2 years).

ETH mining profits might plummet with ETH 2.0 changes coming in the future, but your 3080s should be paid for by then if you start mining now (hopefully). There are some other coins you can still earn a profit on if their price remains high though, so it kinda just depends on if your cards are going to still be able to earn a profit in 6 months time or so. Nicehash should keep that simple for you, and if your profits tank after a few months you can always sell the hardware, but it's definitely not a guaranteed source of income for all time. More efficient hardware eventually pushes less efficient hardware out of the game and price drops and other things can do so as well.
 
Thank you all for the helpful advice! It's very much appreciated!



You need special hardware to mine BTC, you're not going to do it with GPUs . Nicehash mines alt coins and can pay you in BTC if you want, if you already have two rigs then, sure, mine away. You can even set up the NH miner to turn off when you're using your rig, so no harm.

Just figure in your power, but those rigs are not power hogs so it should be do-able (depending on your local power costs)

What do you mean I need special hardware to mine BTC? As I read, any device can mine (Smartphone, tablet, laptop, PC, etc.), but I could be wrong.

1. No, its risky. Huge investment, slow returns. Can be fun if you do it as a hobby.
2. ASIC. Only way. Good luck finding one.
3. Nicehash is your best bet, if per #1 you want to do it as a hobby. Automatically mine the most profitable coin based on your hardware.

When i last did it (3 years ago) Monero was a reasonable option as well, and had really good information/support. But i could also just mine Monero through nicehash for about the same, but also if randomly some other coin gave me huge profits for half a day, i would get those huge profits.

I've looked into the ASIC (Bitmain), but they're all sold out.

Also, when I compared the ASIC (Antminer S19 and/or S19 Pro Series) with a custom PC at the same price range, the custom PC performs better with a lower power draw.

$50 a day is pushing it. I would put it closer to $40 with profits dropping as difficulty increases. I can't imagine that you put together rigs like that to do nothing other than mine on Nicehash, so they aren't going to be as profitable when you are using them for their actual intended purpose (whatever that might be).

They will be dedicated mining rigs. Running 24/7 365.

When I ran the calculator at NiceHash (2/23/21), it showed that I would Profit $57.65 each day. At that price, I would return my investment by the 4th month.

Yes, I understand that this number fluctuates by the day, but every time I check, it's never under $50 profit.

A few things to keep in mind:

1.) You're not mining bitcoin with GPUs and making $50/day in profit, although you might be paid out in bitcoin. You'd be mining ETH or something instead. Nicehash helps you by routing your hashing power to whatever is most efficient at the time / whoever is paying the most.
2.) We're at all time high values for most coins or close to it. When/if prices on coins drop your mining profits will also drop so you want to have efficient hardware to survive slumps. Luckily you have 4 x 3080s which are good cards.
3.) Overall it looks like you spent too much on motherboards, CPUs, memory, etc. when you really just want to buy the cheapest stuff that will work and focus your investment on GPUs. Your CPU, RAM, motherboard, etc. aren't going to be bringing in any revenue in most cases so you don't need to build your miner like a gaming PC.

I'm not sure about your CPU performance with mining Monero, but it might be possible to bring in about an additional $1/day per CPU if you have a good CPU for monero mining. You may have to run miners in virtual machines or tweak settings to prevent it from affecting your GPU mining rates, and it also might be difficult to turn a profit based on power efficiency as well. Generally I would say it's not worth it to put an expensive CPU into a mining rig unless you're using it to play games with during the day or you're prepared for a long return on investment (1-2 years).

ETH mining profits might plummet with ETH 2.0 changes coming in the future, but your 3080s should be paid for by then if you start mining now (hopefully). There are some other coins you can still earn a profit on if their price remains high though, so it kinda just depends on if your cards are going to still be able to earn a profit in 6 months time or so. Nicehash should keep that simple for you, and if your profits tank after a few months you can always sell the hardware, but it's definitely not a guaranteed source of income for all time. More efficient hardware eventually pushes less efficient hardware out of the game and price drops and other things can do so as well.

1) Would it be better to run all (4) 3080's on one rig, and get a more powerful PSU around 1600 watts? Just to free up my second rig for gaming?

2) My electricity runs at 11.3¢/kWh. I believe one 3080 pulls around 320watts at full load (I could be wrong).

3) Also, I believe you are correct on the CPUs. They would pull around $1-2 each day on top of the 3080's.
 
Thank you all for the helpful advice! It's very much appreciated!





What do you mean I need special hardware to mine BTC? As I read, any device can mine (Smartphone, tablet, laptop, PC, etc.), but I could be wrong.



I've looked into the ASIC (Bitmain), but they're all sold out.

Also, when I compared the ASIC (Antminer S19 and/or S19 Pro Series) with a custom PC at the same price range, the custom PC performs better with a lower power draw.



They will be dedicated mining rigs. Running 24/7 365.

When I ran the calculator at NiceHash (2/23/21), it showed that I would Profit $57.65 each day. At that price, I would return my investment by the 4th month.

Yes, I understand that this number fluctuates by the day, but every time I check, it's never under $50 profit.



1) Would it be better to run all (4) 3080's on one rig, and get a more powerful PSU around 1600 watts? Just to free up my second rig for gaming?

2) My electricity runs at 11.3¢/kWh. I believe one 3080 pulls around 320watts at full load (I could be wrong).

3) Also, I believe you are correct on the CPUs. They would pull around $1-2 each day on top of the 3080's.

1.) So you're using one of the rigs for gaming? It would probably be best to move 3 x 3080s into one rig for mining and keep one 3080 in your gaming rig. But when you're not playing games that gaming rig is idle and could be used to mine as well. Also, since you spent the money on those power supplies and motherboards already it might be better to just keep them instead of losing money reselling them and buying a 2000 watt PSU or something. Do the math and see which option is best. Every GPU that is in your gaming rig is probably going to be idle / not mining at 100% when you're using that computer, so that's lost revenue. But buying more power supplies or something is also a cost and it needs to pay off to make sense.
2.) Power efficiency is very important when it comes to making a profit. I recommend lowering the power limits/undervolting the card and possibly underclocking to keep it stable. Some people run cards as low as at half power and it looks like people are running 3080s at around 65% power or around 220 watts and reducing clocks by a few hundred MHz. If you were to reduce power by 40% for example and only lost 5% of your maximum hashrate, you would probably be much more profitable. Your revenue would decrease by 5%, but your power costs would decrease by 40%, leading to lower costs, and your net income would probably increase substantially.
3.) Get your GPUs setup and mining first and then once you have a baseline figure for your GPU hashrates, start playing around with the CPUs and see if you can get a setup working where they can earn you $1-2/day without affecting the GPU mining. But each day you don't mine with those 3080s is about $40 wasted, so focus on the highest earning equipment first.

Bitcoin can technically be mined on CPUs, GPUs, smartphones, etc., but it's not profitable anymore for anything except ASICs, and even then it's usually only the most recent ASICs that are profitable. The power costs far outweigh the income earned in bitcoin so unless you have free electricity (college dorms or a virus installed on other people's hardware or something) you will lose money unless you have efficient hardware. Because everyone else is using highly efficient ASICs you can't compete with GPUs or CPUs anymore when it comes to efficiency. That's why when you mention GPU mining everyone assumes you would be mining ETH or something similar (you can plugin your hardware into whattomine.com to get an idea of the most efficient thing to mine at any given time, and nicehash.com will automatically route your hashing power to the best algorithms for you).
 
What do you mean I need special hardware to mine BTC? As I read, any device can mine (Smartphone, tablet, laptop, PC, etc.), but I could be wrong.

You can mine on nicehash and get paid in BTC, but you are not mining it. If you actually want to mine BTC you'll need an ASIC
 
1.) So you're using one of the rigs for gaming? It would probably be best to move 3 x 3080s into one rig for mining and keep one 3080 in your gaming rig. But when you're not playing games that gaming rig is idle and could be used to mine as well. Also, since you spent the money on those power supplies and motherboards already it might be better to just keep them instead of losing money reselling them and buying a 2000 watt PSU or something. Do the math and see which option is best. Every GPU that is in your gaming rig is probably going to be idle / not mining at 100% when you're using that computer, so that's lost revenue. But buying more power supplies or something is also a cost and it needs to pay off to make sense.
2.) Power efficiency is very important when it comes to making a profit. I recommend lowering the power limits/undervolting the card and possibly underclocking to keep it stable. Some people run cards as low as at half power and it looks like people are running 3080s at around 65% power or around 220 watts and reducing clocks by a few hundred MHz. If you were to reduce power by 40% for example and only lost 5% of your maximum hashrate, you would probably be much more profitable. Your revenue would decrease by 5%, but your power costs would decrease by 40%, leading to lower costs, and your net income would probably increase substantially.
3.) Get your GPUs setup and mining first and then once you have a baseline figure for your GPU hashrates, start playing around with the CPUs and see if you can get a setup working where they can earn you $1-2/day without affecting the GPU mining. But each day you don't mine with those 3080s is about $40 wasted, so focus on the highest earning equipment first.

Bitcoin can technically be mined on CPUs, GPUs, smartphones, etc., but it's not profitable anymore for anything except ASICs, and even then it's usually only the most recent ASICs that are profitable. The power costs far outweigh the income earned in bitcoin so unless you have free electricity (college dorms or a virus installed on other people's hardware or something) you will lose money unless you have efficient hardware. Because everyone else is using highly efficient ASICs you can't compete with GPUs or CPUs anymore when it comes to efficiency. That's why when you mention GPU mining everyone assumes you would be mining ETH or something similar (you can plugin your hardware into whattomine.com to get an idea of the most efficient thing to mine at any given time, and nicehash.com will automatically route your hashing power to the best algorithms for you).

Thank you so much for the advice and information provided!

I was thinking about just buying another 3000 series card for the second rig, and use the other 4x 3080s for mining. Could you recommend me a good quality 2000w PSU at a reasonable price? PSUs prices get very expensive once you pass 1200w. Also, would it be cheaper/better to run say... 2x 850w or 2x 1000w PSUs instead of a single 2000w?

Also, I never thought about under-volt or under-clock the GPU. If I could save around 40% on power consumption, with only a 5% decrease in profits would be great! I'm gonna try to configure the 3080's the best I can for the best outcome.

Again, thank you!

You can mine on nicehash and get paid in BTC, but you are not mining it. If you actually want to mine BTC you'll need an ASIC

Oh, OK. So for me to mine Bitcoin itself, I would need to buy an ASIC? I didn't know that, I thought any custom PC could do it.

Thank you!
 
Thank you so much for the advice and information provided!

I was thinking about just buying another 3000 series card for the second rig, and use the other 4x 3080s for mining. Could you recommend me a good quality 2000w PSU at a reasonable price? PSUs prices get very expensive once you pass 1200w. Also, would it be cheaper/better to run say... 2x 850w or 2x 1000w PSUs instead of a single 2000w?

Also, I never thought about under-volt or under-clock the GPU. If I could save around 40% on power consumption, with only a 5% decrease in profits would be great! I'm gonna try to configure the 3080's the best I can for the best outcome.

Again, thank you!



Oh, OK. So for me to mine Bitcoin itself, I would need to buy an ASIC? I didn't know that, I thought any custom PC could do it.

Thank you!
You can mine Bitcoin on PC but it won't be profitable.
 
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