The greatest part of crypto currency is the ability to directly participate in so many different ways. In comparison to other traditional investments, for instance buying a stock note that you just sit and hold, with Cryptocurrency you have options of buying crypto, using it as a currency, hosting nodes on the blockchain for profit, using platforms like this where you earn with content, wallet staking for interest payments, and finally the Proof Of Work cryptocurrency Mining I will discuss here.
The recent gains in cryptomarket has led to a rush of people joining the crypto space, and thus there has been a huge premiun added to the price of every GPU. Luckily, I was able to make a purchase order direct to a graphics card manufacturer for a large amount of GPUs before sales prices spiked, and I was able to pay full retail, yes paying full retail was a great price! The card model I decided to go with is possibly the most efficient Nvidia card currently being used for mining after is it’s overclocked an undervolted, the 1070ti. The card will run at a rate of about 500sols for just over 100watts of power, and when you have 46 of them, electricity usage matters.
BELOW are most of the parts:
I originally purchased some very nice aluminum mining rig frames that hold 12 Gpu each, but I changed setups after having some issues with crashes and connections. One thing about the 1070ti Zotac Amp Extreme cards I purchased is that they come with a very large heatsink to dissipate the heat. The size of this means the card weighs a whole lot more than an average graphics card. The mining rig frame and use of risers meant that the weight of the cards made some of the connections sit very slightly off and it was causing some issue a lighter average card would not have had.
BELOW is the 12 GPU mining frame with most of the cards installed:
BELOW, it’s not so pretty, but functionally, this setup has worked out amazing and is super stable:
Currently I have 10 cards per shelf, and the rest of cards in the 12 gpu mining frame on top right:
In closing, I can say mining crypto at any level is a great way to add a passive income. My mining mini farm purchase was fairly large first step, but you can buy and start small. The advantage of a gpu miner is that the cards retain a lot of value and have uses other than mining so they are easier to resell when upgrading. When prices of GPUs were at full retail, most cards could be purchased and within 5-8 months make enough to pay for themselves and turn into 100% profit.
If you want to evaluate this from a risk perspective, assume that any decent gpu you purchase at retail price should be able to be resold in the first year for 70%-75% what you purchased it for. So for example let’s take my actual gpu, I paid $500 for each 1070ti. I should be able to sell that as a used gpu anytime this year for $375 minimum. So once I make $125, I have basically eliminated the risk on my investment as I can sell card for remaining $375 still invested. The 1070ti will make anywhere from $3 to $5 a day, therefore, that means after a month and a half, any money I invested is pretty much at zero risk and the annual returns are approaching 100%.
There is one huge caveat right now, there is a shortage of GPU for sale so prices are selling well over retail. You can still buy cards at retail price direct from retailers or factory websites, but you need to constantly be looking for them to catch them when models are listed for sale, as they sell out quickly.
Just a random pic of my best friend, he’s always watching me and this is him when I’m in the kitchen.
Thanks for reading. I have only been on steemit active just a week after making my account last month and have been taking the journey into cryptocurrency mining using my previous computer building experience and a lot of online research. I would like to start planning and posting write ups on all aspects of crypto currency mining from how to start, actual build step by steps, reviews of new mining equipment, etc. This is basically my first attempt at a longer post, so apologies for the likely unpolished product. I’m gonna keep working at it and would appreciate any criticism or pointers, thanks! Glad I found Steemit!