The Idiot tries GPU Mining

What started as a mild curiosity with spare hardware turned into a deeper look at Ethereum mining.

What started as a mild curiosity with spare hardware turned into a deeper look at the world of mining Ethereum.

In early 2018, work and school had pulled me away from PC gaming. Rather than let the hardware sit idle, I decided to put it to work.

Note: This is a quick-and-dirty account of my experience. No sponsored links.

Why Ethereum?

At the time, the r/ethermining community was active and helpful — exactly what you want when you’re troubleshooting at 2am. Ethereum was also considered the second most valuable coin after Bitcoin, and I figured it had legs.

What You Need

  1. A capable GPU — Nvidia GTX 1070/1080 or AMD Radeon RX 480 or better
  2. A cryptocurrency wallet — a hardware wallet is recommended (buy direct from the vendor). Coinbase works for a software wallet.
  3. A mining pool — solo mining isn’t profitable at hobby scale. Ethermine was the most profitable pool at the time according to Poolwatch.io.

Building the Rig

The mining rig

I started with a single GTX 1080. Over the course of a year, I picked up 5 additional GTX 1070s by watching Craigslist, Letgo, and r/minerswap — never paid more than $280 per card. Buying new cards kills your ROI timeline. Be patient.

More cards meant more supporting hardware. In addition to my existing CPU, memory, and 750W PSU, I added:

The OS

I started on Windows with Ethminer, but Windows loves to interrupt with updates at the worst possible times. I switched to HiveOS and never looked back.

HiveOS dashboard It’s a mining-focused Linux distro with a clean web dashboard showing all hardware stats at a glance.

For getting HiveOS set up properly, I recommend Seth’s HiveOS Tutorial.

Heat & Placement

Properly tuned GPUs still run hot. Put the rig somewhere well-ventilated and away from living spaces. On the upside: during winter, it makes a surprisingly effective space heater.

On Profitability

Two schools of thought:

  • Sell as you go — liquidate a portion of earnings to offset hardware and electricity costs
  • HODL — eat the costs upfront and bet on appreciation

I HODL, but keep an eye on the ETH/USD rate. Your call.

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