Crypto 1 - The mining plan

Installment 1 of my cryptocurrency mining experiment. 

I have decided to tiptoe into the world of crypto currency mining. It is something I've been thinking about for a bit and with some guidance from mindminer I'm going to start creating a mining rig. 

To begin with I created a list of what I think (at this point) are the components that would go into creating and managing a mining rig and the generated coins. 

I plan to create a blog entry for each of the components. I suspect some of them will have multiple blog entires particularly as I learn more about them over time. Note they are in no particular order. I will write the blog entries as I investigate the various subjects. 

Hardware 

• Video Card - The computational engine (graphical process unit GPU) for generating the coins
• Motherboard - The circuitry that brings all the pieces together 
• Processor - The central processing unit (CPU) that is more flexible than the GPUs and manages the OS
• Memory - Where active computations are stored (Note this is separate from the GPU memory)
• PCI Extender - Cabling and circuitry that allows multiple GPUs to be physically mounted away from the motherboard for cooling and space requirements
• Power Supply - Converts the 120 VAC from the wall socket into the lower DC voltages required by the computer's circuits
• Rack/Case - Holds and protects all the bits and pieces 
• Hard Drive - Longer term storage of data than the memory
• Cooling - This thing will generate heat and that has to be managed

Software 

• Operating system - The OS is software that manages the computer and provides interfaces for humans
• Drivers - This allows various components to work with the operating system. My primary concern with the drivers for the GPUs
• Tweaking software - The performance of processors can be pushed somewhat beyond their ratings by adjusting various parameters. This is software that assists with that process
• Mining software - This is the software applications that will actually perform the mining
• Remote monitoring - Due to the noise and heat I'm not planning on having the machine in my living space so I would like to be able to remotely manage it

Crypto Currency

• Choosing the crypto currency to mine - There are multiple currencies out there each with their own characteristics. Choosing what to mine is a significant part of the process
• Wallet - A place to keep your currency
• Exchanges - Places to exchange between currencies

This is all I have for now. As I get into it I expect I will discover important parameters that I left out.