Hardware requirements for Ethereum mining
Table of Contents
Making some basic supplies a source of passive income
The word mining originates within the context of the gold analogy for cryptocurrencies.
Simply put, Ethereum mining is the process of maintaining the Ethereum decentralized distributed database or ledger through solving complex mathematical problems in order to confirm transactions to the rest of the network by including them in blocks — hence its importance.
Why should you make the effort to mine Ether (ETH)?
Nowadays, ETH is the second prominent cryptocurrency in the world after Bitcoin.
You can buy Ether with cryptocurrency exchanges, but mining is considerably a lot more profitable.
- You’re valuable : being an active member of the blockchain, mining makes you contribute to the stability and enforcement of the network.
- It’s an easy way to get Ether (ETH) : mining is more guaranteed than trading and has better cost investments to start obtaining cryptocurrency.
Ethereum Hardware overview
Ethereum mining is considerably a lot of more profitable than mining other altcoins (alternative cryptocurrencies).
Using the Ethash algorithm, powerful GPUs are essential. In order to make some profit, you need to have the right gear at the right price.
Before assembling your core equipment, you will need different components first :
Motherboard :
An effective motherboard for a mining rig will allow up to at least 6 graphics cards but you can start with less for your first rig.
Make sure it’s compatible with the deployment of multiple GPUs.
– ASUS Prime Z390-A Motherboard LGA1151
– ASUS Prime Z390-P Motherboard LGA1151
CPU :
Since all the wokload for mining will be executed on the GPUs, you can just take any processor generation that are compatible with the 1151 socket.
We recommend buying
– Intel Celeron G3900 2.80Ghz 2M LGA1151 2C/2T Skylake
Power Supply Unit (PSU):
Your choice depends on how many GPUs you’re going to handle for your Ethereum mining rig. Any PSU with at least 1000 Watts is recommended like the digital power supply
– CORSAIR HX1200i 1200 Watt, 80+ Platinum Certified
RAM :
Efficient Ethereum mining won’t require much RAM, so just get a cheap DDR4 Stick of 4 GB. Just enough to run your OS. You can get something like the Patriot Memory
– Viper Elite Series DDR4 4GB 2133MHz
Storage :
An SSD would be your best choice, even a 100GB could be enough to hold your
operating system and your mining software.
– Kingston 120GB A400 SSD 2.5” SATA
GPU :
Unlike Bitcoin mining, Ethereum mining can be done with a Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) only. Your choice will depend on 3 factors, Vram size, Hash rate and Power consumption. You can also use the website miningbenchmark to check different GPUs and how they perform.
As time goes on, and people solve more problems hence creating more blocks on the chain, the difficulty of these calculations will increase. In order to keep up with the competition you will need a very powerful and efficient GPU. We recommend buying several ones like :
AMD :
– Sapphire Radeon Pulse RX Vega 56 8GB
– MSI AMD Radeon RX 580 ARMOR OC 4G
– Sapphire Radeon Nitro+ Rx 580 8GB
NVIDIA :
– EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 SC 8GB
– ASUS Dual GeForce GTX 1070 OC 8GB
– Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 G1 8GB
Miscellaneous :
Installing these GPUs will require more components such as PCIe slots which can be found here :
– PCI-E Riser Express Cable 16X to 1X
Power cables to ensure your GPUs are fully functional
– PCI Express Power Splitter Cable 8-pin to 2x 6+2-pin
With all of this set up, you’re ready to mine Ethereum.
Upcoming Changes :
Ethereum is a whole sector of the crypto-industry, which employs tens of thousands of people. Coins are the energy feed of the ETH network – they are needed for all internal operations (transactions, smart contracts, IEO, ICO, etc.).
However, you might want to switch mining altcoins if Ethereum decides to fork as an answer to the new ASIC miners, or if they go ahead and migrate from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake.
To know more about the mentioned topics above, you can check out some of our other articles :
