I’m new to mining and kind of learning as I go. I’m going to be setting up my first rig with the following components:
Asus b250 mining expert motherboard
intel i3 9100 cpu
3x GTX 1070 founder’s edition gpus(planning to upgrade to 6x)
I would love any suggestions regarding hardware/software, what coins to mine, or anything I should be aware of while building my first rig.
I would suggest getting a good power supply, don’t skimp, don’t undersize. I’ve had great success with EVGA in the Platinum and Titanium, have several 1600,1200, and 1000 watt going with no problems in 3 years. They are also very good with customer service and warranty. I have also tried HP 1200w server PSU’s paired with these but have had issues with the rigs failing to restart properly after a power outage, a rare occurence but there nonetheless. PSU’s run at best efficiency at around 50-70% load I believe, so 3 1070’s runnng around 125 watts each, plus another 200w from system to be safe, i’d start with at least a 1000w gold psu. Or you can go cheap to start and add another PSU and link cable when you add more GPU’s. Enjoy!
Thanks! I’m using two 850W platinum certified PSUs from Mistel. Going to be booting my rig up today. I’m building on an Asus b250 mining expert mobo with has ports for up to three PSUs. Do you think I should hook each PSU up to a different mobo port OR use an adapter to connect both PSUs to one?
You should be able to use the ports on the MB to at least get the rig up and running. It’s been a while but I think BitsBeTrippin did some videos on this board and power supply connections. In the end I believe he just used a PSU connector and did not utilize the additional ports on the MB but I could be wrong. I’d give it a go with the MB ports to get up and running, can always switch if issues.
It is important to get the latest bios and windows drivers from Asus.com directly.
I would suggest using SMOS for an easy setup. (they have specific bios settings in the FAQ for that MB)
Just got finished setting up BIOS, Windows10, and I hooked up my first GTX 1070 and installed the drivers… Now I am at a roadblock.I am trying to determine what coin I should be mining with my GPUs. I have three GTX 1070 founder’s editions (Planning on having 6-8 total). My buddy that introduced me to mining says he is mining Zero, but articles I am reading online suggest that Grin, Zcash, and a few other coins would be the most profitable. Does anyone have any input for which coin I should mine and what software it will require?
you can go to whattomine and based on your card’s hashrate you will see options to determine the mining profitability for your situation.
I’ve been on there but I’m confused when it comes to the hashrates. For example, when calculating ETH profitability, the input is in Mh/s, but when calculating ZER profitability, the input is in h/s.
The GTX 1070 Founder’s edition is supposed to run at 32.5 Mh/s… what is the conversion from Mh/s to h/s so that I can calculate profitability for ZER?
EDIT: I realize this is a very base level question. I am completely new to crypto. I’ve got the hardware part down, but when it comes to software, algorithms, and choosing which coin to mine I am basically clueless 
there really is no conversion. (that I am aware of)
Each GPU hashes at a different rate on each algorithm
From experience, I can tell you, that ETH is your best bet.
(unless you can predict the future value of some other coin that hashes well on NVIDIA GPUs)
The only way to determine actual hash rate for your setup for sure, is to mine on an algorithm for 24hrs and then input that hashrate into whattomine.
Got it. I just read up and realized my question was pretty silly. Hashrate will vary depending on algorithms as you said. Anyways, I really appreciate your speedy help.
Another thing to consider in regards to which coin to mine and profitability is your end goal. Are you selling coins to pay for electric? Are you hodling for future moon potential? Would you rather mine the most “profitable” coin at the moment and convert it into BTC or ETH or? How are you converting/selling your coins? You can utilize MiningPoolHub or others
to mine and convert to BTC or other coins, allowing you to mine the coin most appropriate for your hardware, and convert to the Crypto you actually want to hodl.
i don’t know about your prices but wouldn’t it be cheaper to order some more 1060’s for the price of 6 1070s?
price isnt the only factor its price per hash then you have to factor electric