What is a Bitcoin mining rig?
Definition · Mining rig
The full mining setup: the machine or machines, plus the power, cooling, network and pool settings needed to keep them running around the clock.
Power
A dedicated 220 to 277 V circuit and cable rated for nonstop use
ASIC miner
PSU â hashboards (SHA-256 chips) · control board · fans
Cooling
Intake of cool air, exhaust path for hot air, or a liquid loop
Bitcoin network
Blocks the pool finds join the chain and pay the block reward
Mining pool
Sends jobs, counts your shares, pays to your own address minus its fee
You
Watch hashrate and alerts on the pool dashboard
The name comes from the early 2010s, when people built open frames full of graphics cards. Now the heart of a rig is an ASIC miner, a sealed box with its own chips, controller and fans. More about the box itself in mining machines explained. Scale it up to thousands of boxes and you have a mining farm. The basics of how mining works are in the complete guide.
How do you connect a rig to a mining pool?
On its own, one machine could go years without finding a block. So almost everyone joins a pool, which combines many miners and splits the rewards by work done. Machines talk to the pool using a protocol called Stratum. Setup takes about five minutes:
- 1
Make a pool account
Add your own Bitcoin address for payouts.
- 2
Open the minerâs dashboard
From a computer on the same network, in a browser.
- 3
Enter the pool details
The poolâs Stratum address, a worker name (often
account.worker) and the password the pool asks for. - 4
Check it on the pool
Your worker should appear with roughly its rated hashrate. Add a backup pool if the firmware allows it.
Pools pay in different ways and charge different fees. The pools section of the main guide compares them.
Why donât GPU rigs mine Bitcoin any more?
A good graphics card from the GPU era did about 300 to 450 MH/s. Hereâs what one would earn today against what it costs to run:
One Radeon HD 5870, mining Bitcoin for a day
The earnings bar is practically invisible. Graphics cards moved on to other coins, and for Bitcoin the only rig worth building is an ASIC rig.
What do you need before plugging in at home?
Using Bitmainâs ratings for the Antminer S21 XP as a typical current machine:
3,645 W
A proper circuit
220 to 277 V at up to 20 A, running nonstop. A normal 120 V socket canât do it. Get an electrician.
87.5 kWh/day
The power bill
Every hour of every day. Check your real price per kWh, taxes and time-of-day rates included.
76 dBA
Noise
A vacuum cleaner that never stops. Garages and sheds work. Bedrooms and shared walls donât.
550 CFM
Airflow and heat
Almost all the power comes out as heat. Without a way out for hot air, the room just keeps warming up.
10 to 90% RH
Humidity and dust
No condensation. Dust clogs the fans and cuts airflow.
RJ45
Wired network
An Ethernet cable to your router. Bandwidth use is tiny.
What does one home rig cost and earn today?
One Antminer S21 XP (270 TH/s, 3,645 W) running all day. Revenue is your share of the networkâs blocks, minus an example 2% pool fee.
0.00012194BTC
Expected BTC per day
live estimate, updated hourly
$10.06
Per day in USD
at $82,541 per BTC
87.5 kWh
Electricity per day
3,645 W Ă 24 h
$0.113
Break-even per kWh
after the example pool fee
Find your price per kWh on your bill and compare it to the break-even figure. Then remember whatâs not in the chart: the machine costs thousands and loses value as new models come out, the network usually keeps growing, and the next halving cuts the block subsidy from 3.125 to 1.5625 BTC. Try other machines and prices in the mining profit calculator.
Is a home mining rig worth it?
It can make sense if
- Your power is clearly cheaper than the break-even price
- You can use the heat, like in a workshop youâd heat with electricity anyway
- You have a garage or shed where the noise bothers nobody
- You enjoy the hardware, or want to try solo mining as a long shot
It rarely makes sense if
- Your tariff is near break-even, so a bit of network growth tips it into a loss
- Youâd need air conditioning in summer, paying twice for the same heat
- You live in an apartment or share walls
- Youâre counting on getting the purchase price back
For most households a rig is a hobby with a running cost. Big miners win because they pay far less for power than any home, which is why most of the networkâs hashrate sits in farms.
Can you mine bitcoin without building a rig?
Yes, and for free. In the CloudMineCrypto app you run mining plans instead of a machine: the free plan runs for 8 hours and you can claim it again when it ends, and ads, games, offers and daily check-ins add more. The app works out your estimated rewards from each planâs hashrate and live network data, using the same formula as the example above. Nothing to plug in, no noise, no power bill, and you withdraw to your own wallet, Lightning included.
Mine for free
Free plan
4.7 GH/s for 8 h
Claim it, and claim it again when it ends.
Watch ads
7.5 GH/s for 24 h
Each rewarded ad adds another plan.
Play games
7.5 GH/s for 24 h
Game rewards add plans on top.
Complete offers
7.5 GH/s for 24 h
Partner offers add plans too.
Daily check-in
7.5 GH/s for 24 h
Come back each day for another plan.
Optional boost
Paid plans, for more speed
Much more hashrate for longer, for the fun of it. They usually mine less than they cost, and the price is shown before you confirm.
Hashrates live, updated hourly. Ads, games and offers are in the mobile apps; availability varies. Rewards are estimates and arenât guaranteed.
Good to know: a plan doesnât give you ownership of, or a dedicated share in, any specific hardware or pool. Rewards are estimates, change with the network and arenât guaranteed, and paid plans are an optional boost and usually mine less than they cost. Terms apply.
Frequently asked questions
What does a Bitcoin mining rig consist of?
One or more ASIC miners, a power circuit that can feed them, cooling to get rid of the heat, a wired network connection, and a mining pool account the machines work for.
Can I build a Bitcoin mining rig from a gaming PC or GPUs?
Not in any useful way. A modern ASIC does tens of thousands of times more work per unit of energy than a graphics card, so a GPU rig spends far more on electricity than it earns.
Can I plug a Bitcoin miner into a normal wall socket?
Usually not. A current air-cooled ASIC like the Antminer S21 XP draws about 3.6 kW at 220 to 277 V, which is more than a standard 120 V socket can give. Most homes need a dedicated circuit fitted by an electrician.
How much electricity does a home mining rig use?
One 3.6 kW miner running all day uses about 87 kWh a day, or roughly 2,600 kWh a month. Multiply that by your price per kWh to get the running cost.
Is a home mining rig worth it?
Only with cheap power, somewhere the noise and heat bother nobody, and if you accept that earnings fall as the network grows and at each halving. On typical household tariffs it often costs more than it earns.
Do I need a mining pool for my rig?
In practice, yes. On its own a single machine could go many years without finding a block. A pool combines hashrate and pays you for your share of the work, minus a fee.
Sources and further reading
- Antminer S21 XP specifications (power input, noise, airflow, operating range) · Bitmain (manufacturer)
- Non-specialized hardware comparison (CPU and GPU hashrates) · Bitcoin Wiki
- Why a GPU mines faster than a CPU · Bitcoin Wiki
- Stratum mining protocol · Bitcoin Wiki
- Pooled mining · Bitcoin Wiki
- Mining guide: solo and pool mining · Bitcoin developer documentation
Live figures on this page come from the CloudMineCrypto API or from the public blockchain data services named next to them, refresh on a schedule, and are labelled where they appear. This guide is educational and not financial advice. CloudMineCrypto is not an investment product; rewards in the app are estimates and arenât guaranteed.
Youâve read how it works. Now watch it happen.
Claim a free 8-hour mining plan in the CloudMineCrypto app and see your estimated BTC tick up from live network data. No hardware, no card.