Mining rig

A mining rig is a computer system used for mining bitcoins. The rig might be a dedicated miner where it was procured, built and operated specifically for mining or it could otherwise be a computer that fills other needs, such as performing as a gaming system, and is used to mine only on a part-time basis.

Tips

• Motherboards with on-board graphics (also referred to as integrated graphics) often are either problematic or unusable when more than one GPU card is installed. Choose a motherboard with no on-board graphics.

Typical Configuration

The following component list might be used to help in building a new rig. To minimize shipping costs, components from the same supplier were preferred over compenents from the least expensive source.

Bill of materials - dedicated miner (entry-level), single ATI 5830

Component	Description	Source	Amount
Chassis	n/a	n/a	n/a
Power Supply	Rosewill Green Series RG530-S12 530W, 80 PLUS Certified	NewEgg	$49
Motherboard	Foxconn M61PMP-K AMD	NewEgg	$45
CPU	AMD Athlon II X2 250	NewEgg	$60
Memory	2GB DDR3	NewEgg	$12x2
Graphics card	Radeon HD 5830	NewEgg	$110
Case Fan	n/a	n/a	n/a
Storage	Western Digital Caviar 80GB	NewEgg	$21
Media Drive	DVD Rom Drive	n/a	n/a
Keyboard, Mouse and Display	n/a	n/a	n/a
Total			$309 + s/h/t

Bill of materials - dedicated miner (midrange), single ATI 6950

Component	Description	Source	Amount
Chassis	n/a	n/a	n/a
Power Supply	Rosewill Green Series RG530-S12 530W, 80 PLUS Certified	NewEgg	$49
Motherboard	Foxconn A88GMX AMD	NewEgg	$80
CPU	AMD Athlon II X2 250	NewEgg	$60
Memory	2GB DDR3	NewEgg	$12x2
Graphics card	Radeon HD 6950	NewEgg	$243
Case Fan	n/a	n/a	n/a
Storage	Western Digital Caviar 80GB	NewEgg	$21
Media Drive	DVD Rom Drive	n/a	n/a
Keyboard, Mouse and Display	n/a	n/a	n/a
Total			$477 + s/h/t

Bill of materials - casual miner (multipurpose), single ATI 5970

Component	Description	Source	Amount
Chassis	n/a	n/a	n/a
Power Supply	Tuniq Ripper PSU-RIP1000W-BK	NewEgg	$130
Motherboard	MSI 870-G45 AMD	NewEgg	$70
CPU	n/a	n/a	n/a
Memory	2GB DDR3	n/a	n/a
Graphics card	Radeon HD 5970	NewEgg	$600
Case Fan	n/a	n/a	n/a
Storage	SATA drive	n/a	n/a
Media Drive	DVD Rom Drive	n/a	n/a
Keyboard, Mouse and Display n/a

Bill of materials - dedicated miner - rack mount, dual ATI 5970

Component	Description	Source	Amount
Chassis	IPC-4370S 4U	P-Link Computer	$85 (incl s/h)
Power Supply	RS850-AMBAJ3-US	Amazon	$150
Motherboard	MSI 870-G45 AMD	NewEgg	$70
CPU	AMD Sempron 140	NewEgg	$38
Memory	2 * 1GB Kingston DDR3-1066	NewEgg	$26 (for both)
Graphics card	Radeon HD 5970	NewEgg	$1,200
Case Fan	Scythe Ultra Kraze 3000	NewEgg	$13
Storage	Kingston 30GB SSD	NewEgg	$76
Media Drive	DVD Rom Drive	n/a	n/a
Keyboard, Mouse and Display n/a
Total			$1,658 + s/h

Bill of materials - dedicated miner tower, three ATI 5970s

Questions remain for this configuration, as far as -- do the GPU miners work with this configuration without alteration? Does the PSU need additional cabling to accommodate all 3 5970s?

Component	Description	Source	Amount
Chassis	CoolerMaster HAV X	NewEgg	$200
Power Supply	Antec HCP-1200	NewEgg	$300
Motherboard	MSI 890FXA-GD70	NewEgg	$200
CPU	AMD Sempron 140	NewEgg	$39
Memory	2GB DDR3	NewEgg	$21
Graphics card	3 * Radeon HD 5970	NewEgg	$1800 ($600 × 3)
Storage	Kingston 30GB SSD	NewEgg	$76
Keyboard, Mouse and Display n/a
Total			$3236

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See Also

• Mining Hardware Comparison