New Algorithm, GPUs Back on Top

With the recent updates in Monero, some are probably feeling like they are left "holding the bag", so to speak. Monero developers have forked the project to a new algorithm, CryptoNightV7, to specifically combat these new ASICs released on the market. While these miners can still be found in the product listing at Bitmain, they are all sold out. For those who did purchase these machines, the biggest Cryptonight coin, Monero, has refused to allow the ASICs to be allowed on their networks. While this is a big hit for this particular model's future, the show is not over for the X3 miner.

Monero, of course, was not the only cryptocurrency that utilized the CN algorithm. XDN, BCN, and KMD all use the same original CN algorithm as well. As of now, those are all still able to be mined with the new CryptoNight miner. If you have one, or are in the process of acquiring one, it's not all for naught yet. In fact it is still quite profitable with the currencies that remain, though it may be about 86 days if current rewards hold before you make the ~12,000 USD to cover the original price of one of these machines. They did claim to do 220,000 h/s @ 500w so they certainly could have made a nice chunk of Monero, and they will certainly continue to be effective if the remaining coins stay with the original CN algorithm. Oh, and don't forget the new coins that spawned in the wake of the official fork. There will always be something to mine with these, though there may be some trouble turning them into any tangible gain.

Why the Change?

Some argue that ASICs are beneficial for a network, and help protect the network with their substantially cheap and powerful operation. Most of the individuals who put in their time and effort for Monero (and likely many of their die-hard fans) feel otherwise. Long story short, Monero is anti-ASIC and wants to be as decentralized as possible.

They have a lot of great points. ASIC manufacturers will test these ASICs and usually just sell the coins and stunt any potential growth. Many new ASICs and new ASIC companies are scams from which people rarely see any goods or money back. Even legitimate ASICs have cons, as they tend to centralize mining power in the hands of select few and inside friends of the ASIC developers. Don't think for a second that ASICs are flawless or inherently good, because that would be folly and ignorance.

The Monero developer team and community are obviously committed for this to continue to be a project of which we all have at least some ability to play a measurable part in it's maintenance and security. It's not just about the centralization, but about keeping the project open for participation and as fairly distributed as possible. As these ASICs were introduced to the market, GPU and CPU miners alike found that their share rates and rewards were dwindling in comparison to what the new machines were producing to the point it wasn't profitable anymore. The machines were only in testing at the time. It was crushing everyone except the ASIC testers and lucky few operators. As such, many miners are thankful for the measures taken to help keep the mining power as decentralized as possible. Thus far, the implemented change has been effective thus the difficulty and rewards are returning to normal and profitable numbers for many different chips, GPUs and CPUs alike.

We can continue to monitor the markets for the near future to see if we have a positive change in the markets as less ASIC operators will be able to mine and dump XMR compared to the other CN coins listed above. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest bit if Bitmain continues to produce and sell CN ASICs, to in turn only take certain CN coins for future batches much like how they take BCH for most of the SHA-256 ASICs now. Seems like standard operating procedure for them, and why shouldn't they as long as the machines do their job and manage to get a decent ROI, right? It may be slightly immoral, but it isn't illegal and makes profit for both parties.

Regardless, it was a no-brainer move for Monero. They don't get much benefit from the extra hashrate when the hashrate is all centralized and generated by a small finite set of machines which are pretty consistently unattainable for most and industrial in nature. They get plenty of security from those who already participate in the network, being one of the stronger alternative cryptocurrency networks behind Ethereum and ZCash and having been around for even longer.

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What is the best set-up to mine Monero now?

For miners looking to beef up their Monero mining operation, the ASIC option is no longer there but that should also be no surprise for those who follow that project. It seems that the new algorithm didn't change much in terms of hashrates on the mining front, which is quite a promising sight to see. As such, the playing field is back to normal and mining Monero profitably is becoming a reality once again for the average miner. Vega 56 and 64s are definitely the top performers, making ~0.0125 XMR/day. Considering that RX580s are making ~0.005 XMR/day, it might be a good time to stock up on some Vega cards if you were planning on building more Monero mining rigs. They certainly seem to have the best ROI based on the current numbers for all of the GPUs.

If you were planning on building a rig today despite the market for the past month or 2, good on you; you clearly believe. Hardware prices are still a bit high right now, though they are coming back down to earth along with the crypto prices. GPU prices are mostly the only category left to return to it's previous price points, but that is nearly the whole cost of the rig anyway. To keep it simple, I'll just list the essential parts out now, and explain why later.

• A G4400 Pentium Processor
• At least 4GB DDR4 RAM
• AMD Vega 56 GPUs
• 6-pin pci-e GPU risers (tons on Amazon)
• An open-frame, ventilated custom case, or plans for your own case
• A server power supply with a breakout board to plug in GPU cables (ParallelMiners is a good place to find these if they ship to you)
• A motherboard, depends on how many cards you want to run.
• Something to use as a hard drive, USB flash drive, HDD, SSD, if it plugs in and functions properly, should work fine.

No matter how big you go, you can go ahead and grab yourself a G4400 Pentium processor. It will handle everything you need it to at an attractive price point.

4GB of RAM is basically the standard for a mining rig. I like to use 8 GB sometimes, but only because I re-purpose my old machines that survive their time mining. None of the mining programs/algorithms require more than 4 GB of RAM, so that's a fine amount for our purpose.

You don't have to use server power supplies, but let me explain to you why you should. Regular tower power supplies are mostly cheaply made. Not to say that they are all bad, but many of them are just not built to be under high demand all the time as is necessary for mining. Server power supplies on the other hand have the latest technology at much more affordable prices. They are designed to run 24/7 with no down-time. They are designed to be as efficient as possible. They happen to be cheaper sometimes as well. Only problem is that not all of them can run on a standard 100-110v outlet and require a 208-240v circuit to power on, but many can run at a slightly diminished capacity on a standard outlet. Also, you can get as many 6-pin or 8-pin plugs as you need so kiss your ATX jumper cables goodbye. Platinum and gold rated premium power supplies at regular price after a break-out board and enough 6-pin cables and a 6-pin to ATX motherboard adapter to power your rig. Best bang for your buck especially considering power is your biggest expense in mining.

Cards will eat the majority of the machine budget, but the more the merrier for the GPUs. Vega 56s aren't really cheap, $700 USD is a pretty good price at the moment. You can easily fit 13 cards on some motherboards, so that would be the upper limit for a reliable and relatively trouble free set-up experience.

The motherboard is the next real piece of importance, and this really all depends on your goal for your machine. If you are planning to add more cards and this is just a basic start with a few cards, may as well get the ASUS B250 Mining Expert motherboard. It will handle plenty of extra cards, more than any other board on the market right now and potentially more in the future with BiOS updates.

If you just want to build a 6 card rig with no plans of adding any more cards, something that has 2-3 pci-e 16x slots (long thin ones that you would normally put your GPU) and 3-4 pci-e 1x slots (tiny little ones that mimic the beginning of it's big brother 16x slots) would be perfect. There are lots of them on the market, most are in the low $100 USD range. Slightly cheaper, and plenty of case options if you don't want to build your own.

Some people like to build 8 card rigs, if you are interested in going that route, it appears to be best to just get the B250 Mining Expert with the current price point of the various boards. Only real added benefit is that you can easily find and buy the 8-card open-air cases, they become increasingly harder to find as the number of cards increases.

Quick Extras on Mining

No matter how you build it currently, the only way you will be seeing a decent ROI is to be in a situation that you can both pay for the miner up front and for the costs to run it out of pocket for up to a year to sit on the mined coins. The market appears to still be testing/finding it's bottom, and mining is already a cut-throat small margin business. Tuning the cards to be as efficient as possible, and finding ways to reduce costs are essential to continuing to profit and potentially build your hashrate. If you were to have to sell your coins to pay for running costs it would still be a pretty decent return when the market turns up again. If you are having to sell your coins to pay for the hardware as well it's just not going to be a fun or exciting experience, and you might just want to invest in the coin itself instead of mining.

That being said, the best time to get into mining is when the market is down and hardware prices start showing the effect of lowered demand. For the first time since December new motherboards that are excellent candidates for mining rigs can be bought for reasonable prices, in some cases nearly 50% less than just February. If you have the know how or have the resources, it may be a viable investment option if you want to get into cryptocurrencies on a more intimate level. If you don't have the know how, there are companies that will house your miner for you... for a fee, of course, so maybe not if that is you.

Anyways, it's never too late to get into mining. It can be tough at times but as long as people are still using these currencies, miners will still be making some decent coin while providing a vital service to an increasingly large population. While mines usually run at a profit, many will continue to run at a slight loss due to the potential gain in a bull run or a pump which we should all know by know can by quite large and unpredictable. That being said, mining is not for everyone and whether mining is a sound investment or not is a different topic entirely. Just remember that this is still a form of prospecting. Sometimes the prospects, or coins, do not pan out or return little value. Please do not expect to build and run a rig and get crypto-rich over night (unless you find a nice Verge-level exploit and manage to execute it and get away with it, or get in early on a big new coin). It doesn't usually happen that way, though many do get lucky. Finally, never invest more than you can afford to lose.

Built a rig recently? Leave a comment or pictures below!

Have questions about building a rig? Leave a comment and I'll happily reply when I can.

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Thanks for passing by, as always
RedCar

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