Reply to: Easy way into Zencash CryptoCurrency via Mining Rig?

[mattfx]

Right! I've done it, I've taken the plunge and ordered the rig... Christ what have I done....

6 X 1060 GTX graphics cards
Bioshock 12 PCI-e slot motherboard
Celeron crappy processor
4 GB RAM
6 PCI Risers
6 80mm fans
64 GB thumb drive for SMOS
1000W Modular PSU with support for 8 PCIe outputs

All in was £1850 from Scan. Now I need to go and buy some wood and build my rig frame! Hoping to add a card a month to the setup over time to make it more and more profitable, up until I hit 12 cards.

[mattfx]

Matt

Good job there.

Is that GPU or ASIC mining?
What software does the mining and is it a pool?
Can you choose which coin you mine?
Any economies of scale if you go large, say for example £5k, £8k etc?


I've been offered a proven 7 card 1080ti GPU setup for £8k that will mine on average £1200 worth of coins (paid in BTC) each month using Nicehash (before electric costs). Very tempted but am holding out at the moment. Your proposal would appear to be more profitable on a £ for £ basis.

Sorry Chimp, I didn't see this! PM me next time for a quicker answer

GPU mining using 1060 cards - 1080's are great but the metric you want to focus on is megahas (MH) per watt or in the case of Zen - Sols/watt (solutions per watt).

Software used is SMOS - Simple Mining Operating System. It supports up to 15 GPU's so easy to expand and scale.

Will be part of a pool - I think you need to be in order to use SMOS. 1% fee is standard.

Mining Bitcoin really isn't all that profitable now, I think you'd be better off mining Zencash or Ethereum, putting it on to an Exchange and then trading for BTC if your plan is to buy and hold the main currency. All of my values were worked out using Zencash, I've put it all in an Excel spreadsheet which I can send you if you PM me your details?

[ChimpMaster]

Matt

Good job there.

Is that GPU or ASIC mining?
What software does the mining and is it a pool?
Can you choose which coin you mine?
Any economies of scale if you go large, say for example £5k, £8k etc?


I've been offered a proven 7 card 1080ti GPU setup for £8k that will mine on average £1200 worth of coins (paid in BTC) each month using Nicehash (before electric costs). Very tempted but am holding out at the moment. Your proposal would appear to be more profitable on a £ for £ basis.

[mattfx]

So, I've done the math.

Rig cost: £1800. Power and SMOS costs = £8.50 per week depending on tarrif.

There's three potential outcomes assuming the coin doesn't tank and your rig is up 24/7:

1) Coin value stays at $52/coin and mining difficulty doesn't increase - you break even in week 27, and make £3,500 over the course of the year. Overall you're position is £1,700 up. Not a bad ROI.

2) Coin value increases by an average of $1.60 per week (mean average over time), mining difficulty increases slightly. Assuming you cash out your coins on a weekly basis - You break even in week 21. Overall position £3800 up over a year.

3) You go balls deep - you assume the coin is going to go up based on the same figures as above and you hold everything you mine - You break even in week 17, overall position £7200 up over a year.

Obviously there are a LOT of variables and the only thing I can say for certain is those numbers are wrong, because no-one can predict what's coming. However, an £1800 investment could very easily turn into £7,200 over the course of a year, if the coin just keeps performing how it has been to date. You could then use that ZEN to trade for other coins if you wanted to get on an Exchange and try to do some small time day trading.

Oh, also, this is based on an assumed exchange rate of $1 = £0.73 (this afternoons rate)

Lastly, I have not taken exchange fees into account in my calcs but there will be some. However, these should be minimal.

Anyone interested in me building a rig for them, get in touch. Happy to help.

Edit and last thing; if you weren't in a fiscal position to shell out nearly £2grand on a mining rig, you could purchase on Scans buy now pay in 9 months finance package. This would get you into the currency and see your finance paid off before it's due but PLEASE don't do that without proper consideration and having a plan B to pay for it...

[mattfx]

Aye, the pair of them have asked me to procure them a few of the 1060's through the channel because they canny get them from any of the usual suspects!

I only really play CS:GO, Rocket League and PUBG these days - none of which are enormously graphics intense

[Hobosapien]

Whereabouts on the difficulty curve are those coins being mined though? Surely a bit late to start joining that enterprise if it just gets exponentially more difficult here on in. The miners will end up mining other alt coins that are less likely to return a profit anyway, so more risky the longer it goes on.

I wonder how the gaming market is suffering from the unintended consequences of all the graphics cards being used for mining, so cost of gaming is out of reach. I suppose even XBox and Playstations can be used to mine, making it even worse. Oh well, despite buying loads in the Steam sales I find very few games keep my attention these days, so will stick to Mame and the old classics. So no loss for me if crypto kills off the gaming industry.

[mattfx]

I definitely think it can be profitable with the correct build and coin. Mates have 6 1060 cards in their rigs mining Zen, and reckon they're tugging around £230-250/month profit after leccy costs assuming a $40/coin value. ROI will take them 8 months on the kit. If everything tanks during that time they'd be able to get their coins cashed out and sell the kit and break even. If it goes to the moon they're laughing.

Setup costs of secure node: $1,640 (£1,200 on todays exchange rate) + £circa10/month for rented server
Retained value of secure node if currency implodes: Nothing - due to having to hold a 41 coin stake

Setup costs of miner: £1,800
Retained value of miner if currency implodes: £1,000-1,200

The beauty of the miner is if you don't have the upfront readies there to invest, you can purchase from somewhere like Ebuyer on a 0% 12 month finance deal to get your toe in the water. All the parts have a years warranty, so if you cook them they'll be replaced.

These particular friends I don't normally agree with, but they're northern and scrupulous with cash and on this occasion, seem to be on to a decent idea...

If you already have big investment in the coin though, secure nodes make sense; pretty much just compound interest.

[_V_]

I looked at mining at home for a while and decided power costs were too high.

Plus the risk of the difficulty increasing making my rig less profitable before I see ROI worried me.

Something that I did like the idea of though was running the rig in the loft and ducting the hot air into the bedrooms and office to cut down on the gas heating bill!

Snap! I had the same thought. If the earnings on a mining rig === the cost of the electricity, then at least, assuming you are generating alot of heat, you have free heating in the winter.

Maybe someone should invent an electric combi boiler that generates enough coin to offset the electric costs. Bingo, free hot water!

[Snarf]

That will probably fry your pc before too long.

As I understand it, electricity costs here are too much to make mining economical. That's assuming the current BTC price of course, but why not just buy the BTC if your profitability depends on the price increasing.

Unless you have a decent supply of free electricity. I wonder how many server rack at big corps have an ant miner hidden in there somewhere

I looked at mining at home for a while and decided power costs were too high.

Plus the risk of the difficulty increasing making my rig less profitable before I see ROI worried me.

Something that I did like the idea of though was running the rig in the loft and ducting the hot air into the bedrooms and office to cut down on the gas heating bill!

[Hobosapien]

... Unless you have a decent supply of free electricity. I wonder how many server rack at big corps have an ant miner hidden in there somewhere

Set up a January fat club bicycle leccy generator scheme to power your mining rigs and make some coin while all the fatties lose the pounds.

Those servers will all already be mining as of this week, for Intel, now they've convinced the world to patch all the servers/PCs and suffer an 'up to 30%' decrease in performance.

[FrontEnder]

Just for laughs I've been mining BTC using Nicehash for a few days now. Just on my home PC with a NVidia 970 GPU. It's bringing in around $3/day

I tried mining SmartCash and Sia too but I wasn't getting even a $ a day for those.

I've heard you can set up a £100k GPU rig that will mine £13k worth of coins a month. Would be interested in ramping up, even more so if you guys want to team up.

That will probably fry your pc before too long.

As I understand it, electricity costs here are too much to make mining economical. That's assuming the current BTC price of course, but why not just buy the BTC if your profitability depends on the price increasing.

Unless you have a decent supply of free electricity. I wonder how many server rack at big corps have an ant miner hidden in there somewhere

[ChimpMaster]

Just for laughs I've been mining BTC using Nicehash for a few days now. Just on my home PC with a NVidia 970 GPU. It's bringing in around $3/day

I tried mining SmartCash and Sia too but I wasn't getting even a $ a day for those.

I've heard you can set up a £100k GPU rig that will mine £13k worth of coins a month. Would be interested in ramping up, even more so if you guys want to team up.

[bish]

How many payments have you been assigned? On the tracker I have 4 against my node - all sitting at ‘review’ status - with inconsistent periods between.

16th and 17th Dec
...nothing....
3rd and 4th Jan

Node has been up since mainnet went live.

https://securenodes.eu.zensystem.io/nodes/1444/pmts

Seen the disclaimer about payments still being in beta, but seems pretty defective!

The same. Check your wallet you should have received payments #1 and #4 to your stake address.
Its still in beta so they are ironing out the issues. The live date they are aiming for is 15th Jan so hopefully
all the issues should be fixed by then. We're assured that everything is still being recorded on the tracker
server even though payments are not showing on the node.

[finlay1888]

I've setup a number of these securenodes, its pretty easy if you have any sort of linux knowledge. Just started getting the payments yesterday that
have accrued since Mid December.

How many payments have you been assigned? On the tracker I have 4 against my node - all sitting at ‘review’ status - with inconsistent periods between.

16th and 17th Dec
...nothing....
3rd and 4th Jan

Node has been up since mainnet went live.

https://securenodes.eu.zensystem.io/nodes/1444/pmts

Seen the disclaimer about payments still being in beta, but seems pretty defective!

[scooterscot]

I've setup a number of these securenodes, its pretty easy if you have any sort of linux knowledge. Just started getting the payments yesterday that
have accrued since Mid December.

You and I need to talk. I'm without the linux knowledge, I'm a math guy but don't do software.... is there a set of instructions you used?