Mining with a personal pc
Mining with a personal pc
Hello everyone,
I'm just starting out with mining and using a PC I assembled myself. My aim is to earn a bit of money without damaging my equipment. I'm running an Intel I3-8100 quad-core CPU paired with an ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 that's been overclocked to 170mhz on the core and 70mhz on memory. Temperatures are stable around 63°C, and the fans are operating between 60-65%. My question is whether I can push my GPU a bit higher to boost daily profits slightly, and if I should also consider overclocking my CPU. I'm currently earning roughly 0.00006603 BTC each day (about 25 cents). Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to ask for more details about my setup. Thanks all!
Think about it yourself: I earn just 25 cents each day on a PC I built myself, which cost me a certain amount of money. If everything stays on track, I’ll need to wait X days to cover my costs. That means reaching that point would take me 25 times longer than the current rate. Is it worth risking damaging my machine in the process?
Things aren’t as they used to be, and every day I push harder seems to raise the chance of a major breakdown.
Keep it simple—view your setup as an investment for the future. Just accept the daily payout and stay steady.
25 cents a day, running 24/7. $90/year.
Increased noise, wear and tear, just running at stock.
Add a little bit more OC? More noise, more wear and tear.
And the "current" BTC rate is falling faster than an anvil landing on the coyote.
25 cents today will be 20 cents next month, 15 cents after that.
Is that 25 cents/day before or after electricity cost?
Earlier today, I checked my system on the nicehash calculator. Not the greatest test, but in general terms...
After electricity cost, mining is a negative sum.
It's not Jan 2018 anymore.
Avoid mining BTC. Explore other cryptocurrencies instead.
Here are two profitability calculators and additional tips:
Tracking crypto prices is easier with Coinmarketcap.com. For market analysis, I rely on TradingView.com.
Also, don’t use your CPU for mining. It’s extremely wasteful.
Don’t overclock your GPU either. You should lower its voltage or clock speed to achieve the optimal balance between energy consumption and earnings. I haven’t conducted any long-term testing beyond a year, but it appears that the main downside of non-OC crypto mining is fan wear and tear. Fans are usually inexpensive.
Consider the electricity expenses involved in mining. Generally, crypto mining without ASICs uses more power than the current income you receive.
Mining crypto also puts you into trading territory—so brush up on technical analysis to time your sales properly. The crypto market is volatile, offering high risk and reward. Selling your earnings at the right moment can help you either secure profits or limit losses. For instance, BTC reached its peak in January 2018 at around $20,000, but then dropped by 80% and now sits near $4,000. Imagine losing a large amount of BTC last year and seeing it fall to just 20% of its previous value. How upset would you be if your profits vanished like this? What if you’re currently mining at a loss, but next year crypto surges tenfold before crashing back down to similar levels, missing out on potential gains?
Don't focus on mining BTC. Explore other cryptocurrency options. Here are a couple of profitability calculators and another one. For tracking crypto prices, Coinmarketcap.com works well. When analyzing markets, I rely on tradingview.com.
Avoid mining using your CPU. CPU mining is extremely wasteful.
Don't overclock your GPU. You should lower its voltage and/or reduce its clock speed to achieve the optimal mix of energy use and earnings. I haven’t conducted any long-term testing beyond a year, but it appears that the main downside of not overclocking is increased wear on fans. Fans are usually inexpensive.
Consider the electricity expenses involved in mining crypto (without ASICs). It typically costs more power than the current income you receive.
Mining crypto puts you into the trading space, so brush up on technical analysis to time your sales effectively. The crypto market is volatile—high risk, high reward. Selling earnings at the right moment can help maximize gains or reduce losses. For instance, BTC peaked in January 2018 at nearly $20,000, then dropped by 80% and now sits around $4,000. How would you feel if your BTC portfolio fell to just 20% of its peak value last year? What if you’re currently mining for a loss but crypto surges 10x next year and drops back to similar levels, missing out on potential profits?
I don’t pay for electricity; I’ve already factored that in. Since I don’t incur utility costs, I see this as a form of cashback—like paying rent where you live and after accumulating, I’ll withdraw and reinvest it. No downsides there. Although I wasn’t aware that underclocking the GPU is better than overclocking, what would you suggest for optimizing underclocking given my current setup?
Just because you don't pay your bills doesn't guarantee you won't face charges.
The person who does pay would probably see a sharp increase in usage and might start inquiring about it.
If you're not based in Iceland or certain regions of China, energy expenses render mining a losing proposition, and they'll soon follow suit—your safest choice is to launch a bicycle newspaper route.
While BTC just dropped below $4000 today, patience is key; it will gradually approach zero—the scam is now clear, and total surrender is imminent.
If you're uncertain, seek factual data: inquire with AMD about their high-end GPU sales decline, which they attribute entirely to the mining downturn. Or observe the 20% rise in bitcoin short positions despite a 38% plunge in BTC prices during November 2018.
Quick wealth schemes only profit those who designed them originally.
I don’t pay for electricity, I’ve already factored that into my calculations. Because I’m not billed for utilities, I see this as some kind of cash back similar to paying rent where I live. Once I earn enough, I’ll take it out and reinvest it. There’s nothing negative about it. However, I wasn’t sure whether the GPU needed underclocking rather than overclocking. What would you suggest in my current configuration?