I have been getting asked why I mine Monero with Macs instead of building out a typical Ryzen mining rig like most folks in the XMR scene. For me, it’s a mix of experience, efficiency, and just knowing how to make the Apple ecosystem work for me. I spent nearly a decade working for Apple, so I know these machines inside and out. That alone gives me an edge when it comes to setting up and managing multiple devices across my homestead. I can remotely access any of them from my main Mac without jumping through hoops, which makes monitoring and tweaking my mining setup pretty simple.
Efficiency That Makes Sense for Solar
The big reason though is efficiency. Apple Silicon, especially the M1 and M2 chips, are beasts when it comes to performance per watt. My M1 and M2 Macs average around 2,700 to 3,000 hashes per second while pulling about 20 to 30 watts of power. That’s insanely good. In fact, they’re way more power efficient than something like a Ryzen 9 5900X, which might pull over 120 watts just to get five times the hashrate. When you do the math, the Macs are still ahead on efficiency by a long shot, and when you’re powering everything with solar like I am, that makes a difference. The more hashrate I can squeeze out of every watt, the better.
Easy to Stack the Macs
These machines are easy to find on resell sites like eBay. You will have to make sure it's a good vendor, but that's pretty easy to figure out these days. Also, I would trust any used or refurbished Mac over a refurb PC any day, but that's just me. My latest one that got added yesterday to the farm came from Newegg, which makes me want to go look at their site directly to see if I can get them for the same deal there, and maybe pay directly with crypto instead of having to buy an eBay gift card first. But I'll look into that for another time.
That's another thing too that has me diving into the XMR mining ecosystem instead of collecting more DOGE/LTC ASICs. When trying to use eBay gift cards, they don't let you purchase 'virtual currency miners', which is really a bunch of bull, but is what it is. So that's another reason to shift my focus to CPU mining. It's way more decentralized than ASIC mining anyway.
Resale Value and Flexibility
Another thing that makes Macs ideal for my setup is the resale value. Let’s be honest, most mining hardware turns into junk after a few years. Try reselling any custom build and you’ll see how much value they lose, and quickly. It's like comparing a used Toyota with a used Ford. The Toyota is going to hold it's resell value way longer than any Ford will.
Same thing with an older Mac Mini with an M1 chip still holds decent value and has a ton of use cases outside of mining. It’s not locked into being just a miner, and that flexibility makes me feel better about the money I’m putting into the hardware. Actually, not only am I mining on each machine, but I am also running trading bots on each one for the Hive internal market, thus providing some automated liquidity there as well. So they are doing double duty essentially. I also have plans for some automated tasks in the greenhouse with a Mac Mini, and will be mining there as well! So they are extremely versatile while also being light on the power usage. My little solar rig in the greenhouse will be able to handle it just fine.
Considering More Raw Hashrate
Now, I’m not saying I’ll never build a Ryzen box. I’ve been toying with the idea, especially now that MoneroOcean supports merge-mining with XMR and XTM among others. That kind of extra earning potential makes me want to throw more raw hashrate at the pool. But for now, with free solar power and a bunch of ultra-efficient Macs already running, it just makes sense to keep expanding the fleet. I can plug in more M1 or M2 Minis as the solar array grows, and they’ll keep doing their thing quietly and efficiently without needing a bunch of babysitting or producing a crap ton of heat, I already have ASICs that do that. That and again, it's the compatibility thing with the rest of my network. I am a go with what works kind of dude.
Why It Works for Me
My little Monero Mac mining farm works for me because it’s simple, clean, and uses what I already know. If I need to fix something, I pretty much already know how to fix it, if not, I know the Apple Support site inside and out, haha. I’ve already been living in this ecosystem for years, and with the way the Apple chips are performing, there’s really no rush to switch gears. It’s not about chasing some theoretical maximum hashrate. It’s about building something sustainable, efficient, and easy to manage. And that’s exactly what the Apple Silicon chip gives me. It's virtually plug and play once you have the computer setup and the mining software installed. After that, it's going to just going to work those calculations and earn that beautiful private coin!
Until next time....
Be cool be real, and always abide my dudes!
Nothing said is financial advice.
This is for educational and recreational purposes only!
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