2022 Guide to Building a Crypto Mining Rig

Building a 6 GPU Crypto Mining Rig is a fun project and a great source of passive income. This guide will help you find and assemble the best crypto mining hardware currently available, to build your very own DIY crypto mining rig. Assembly time for your crypto mining hardware is about 3 hours and this mining rig is currently generating right around around $500/mo of digital currency (in February 2022). The exact amount varies depending on the current market price of the coin you are mining (Ethereum, Monero, Zcash, etc).

Sidenote: If mining isn’t your thing, and you are just interested in purchasing some cryptocurrency as part of your investment portfolio, I personally use and recommend Voyager. Download the app and trade $100 to get $25 of free Bitcoin. Use code JOSWDN to claim your free BTC.

6 GPU Ethereum Mining Rig Hardware Build List

Listed below are the components along with the amount you will need to assemble your GPU mining rig. Once your components arrive, you will want to come back to this guide for assembly and configuration instructions. I’ve included a YouTube video further with complete assembly instructions as well. If you find the guide helpful, give me a follow on my YouTube channel. I post frequently about crypto mining, trading crypto and other cryptocurrency related topics.

5 Minute 6 GPU Ethereum Mining Rig Assembly Video

1x Power Supply – 1200 Watt Gold Rated Power Supply The key here is to have an efficient power supply that will save you over the long run in electricity costs. Look for Gold or Platinum rated (as opposed to silver or bronze). This is the industry standard for rating the efficiency of a computer’s power supply unit (PSU).

1x Motherboard/CPU Combination – What is the best motherboard for mining Ethereum? I’ve listed below my favorite motherboard and processor combo that is compatible with 6 video cards.

MSI Z390-A PRO LGA1151 | Intel G530 CPU

If the motherboard listed above is out of stock or difficult to find, these motherboards will work equally well for a 6 GPU mining rig.  Just be sure to match the motherboard with the correct processor (under ‘frequently bought together’ in the Amazon listing).

• ASRock H81 Pro BTC ATX Bitcoin Mining Motherboard Intel Socket 1150
• MSI Pro Series Intel Z270 DDR4
• Biostar Motherboard TB250-BTC PRO Core i7/i5/i3 LGA1151 Intel B250

6x Graphics Cards 

First Choice Nvidia GTX 1660–   The very efficient Nvidia GTX 1660 can produce a hash rate of 30Mh/s using only 80 watts of electricity and is the best GPU for mining in 2022. It is much more power efficient than most of the AMD cards available on the market. Get one with twin fan design as they seem to run cooler than some of the other models I’ve tested. I put this card in all the rigs I build currently. 

You can also check eBay or find other recommended mining GPU’s in my mining GPU comparison guide or the GPU Price / Performance Comparison Google Sheet (Updated Daily).

A close second choice for a mining GPU if the previously mentioned GPU is hard to find or out of stock, would be the Nvidia GTX 3060TI, capable of 60MH/s at only 160 watts of power. I’d recommend upgrading to a 1200 watt power supply as you will be doubling the mining capacity of your 6 GPU mining rig.

1x RAM (System Memory) –  16GB RAM – You need a fair amount of system memory to mine Ethereum effectively. 16GB should be enough to also mine other cryptocurrencies like Monero.

6x USB Riser Cables –  USB Riser Cables – These are to connect the 6 graphics cards to the motherboard and allow spacing between cards for heat dissipation and are necessary when building a rig with this many GPU’s. I like the MintCell 6-pack sold on Amazon.

1x Hard Drive (SSD)  –  120GB SSD  for installing the operating system and your mining software. Anything 120GB or larger is plenty of space and will also allow the system to use disk space if needed for swap files.

1x Custom Mining Case –  I’d recommend an Open Air 6 GPU Mining Case. I’ve built several of these 6 GPU rigs for family and friends and any of the popular models available for $80-150 work well.

1x Operating System –   I recommend mining on Windows 10, since it has great driver support for all the best mining graphics cards.

Alternatively, you can download NiceHash OS, HiveOS or RaveOS and flash it to a USB 3.0 thumb drive for a very simple mining set up.

Monitor, Mouse and Keyboard set to configure all the software settings, initially. Once your mining rig is configured and running, you can monitor it and the other dozen you build 😉 with remote monitoring software.

Assembling the Custom Ethereum Mining Hardware

1. Scroll up to watch the assembly video that shows exactly how to assemble all the hardware components.
2. Un-package everything
3. Build / assemble the Open Air 6 GPU Mining Case
4. Install processor and RAM on motherboard
5. Plug in all riser cables
6. Place motherboard in custom open air mining rig case and connect motherboard PSU connector (leaving PSU unplugged from the wall of course)
7. Plug in SATA hard drive (or optional Linux on USB stick)
8. Connect all GPUs to riser cables and fasten them to custom case. You might need to experiment for optimal spacing to keep the cards cool.
9. Plug in all power supply connections.
10. Connect mouse, monitor and keyboard and an internet connection (I use a USB WiFi adapter)
11. Check all connections once more
12. Fire it up and install the operating system and mining software (see additional instructions below).
13. Make sure fans are fully functional. Start the mining software, tweak settings for maximum hash rates and let it run!
    

    

Motherboard, Windows and Mining Software Configuration

1. Update the motherboard to the latest BIOS using a USB thumb drive. You can find the latest BIOS for the Z170 SLI Plus motherboard here.
2. Configure Motherboard BIOS with the following settings changes:
   • Settings > Advanced > PCI subsystem Setting: PEG 0 and PEG 1 set to Gen1
   • Above 4G Decoding (cryptocurrency mining) should be set to Enabled
   • OS settings: disable Windows 7, enable Windows 10
   • Save and reboot
3. OS / DRIVERS / MINING Setup:
   1. Boot from Windows 10 USB install media (you can buy it pre-loaded or build your own on the Microsoft website).
   2. Install Windows 10 Pro x64
   3. Install Nvidia Drivers
   4. Install MSI Afterburner and set memory clock to 600, and power to 70. This will give you 30Mh/s per 1070 GPU
   5. Install any system drivers that didn’t auto-install (check device manager)
   6. Rename PC to mining worker name. Something like Minion001, Minion002, etc.
   7. Install Claymore Dual Miner, edit the config file with your Ethereum address and miner name. Drop a shortcut to the mining software .exe file in your system startup folder if you’d like to auto-start mining when Windows boots up. You can find the system startup folder in Windows 10 by going to: Start > Run  and entering ‘shell:startup’.
   8. Disable windows update using this guide.
   9. Set power profile to ‘always on’
   10. Install your favorite remote access software, especially if you plan to have more than one rig to manage.
   11. Fire up the mining rig and rake in those crypto coins!

I’ve received several questions about configuring drivers, adjusting overclocking/undervolting settings and configuring the mining software. Below, you’ll find a very brief 5 min video showing how to implement these 3 important steps in the mining rig configuration process.

Configure GPU Drivers, Overclocking & Claymore Mining Software

Something I’ve done when building out a GPU mining farm, is to do the OS/DRIVERS/MINING setup and then just clone the solid state drive using a 2 bay hard drive dock with offline clone feature built in.

Congratulations! You are now the proud operator of your very own custom built 6 GPU ethereum mining rig. Be sure to also check out our reviews of the best Litecoin mining hardware and Bitcoin mining hardware.

Sidenote: If mining isn’t your thing, and you are just interested in purchasing some cryptocurrency as part of your investment portfolio, I personally use and recommend FTX Global Crypto Exchange (Use FTX US if a US resident)