A Detailed and Absolutely Unambiguous Guide to Assembling Your First Cryptocurrency Mining Rig

A few weeks ago I discovered this "guide" on steemit for assembling a Bitcoin Gold mining rig:

https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@cryptofriend/bitcoin-gold-btg-mining-rig-build-blog

Unfortunately this guide led to all kinds of consternation and hair-pulling because the author had assembled what amounted to a possible shopping list of items easily gleaned from browsing Amazon without any thought of compatibility or real direction in how to assemble the components. After three frustrating weeks I finally got my 6 gpu rig up and running, mining Bitcoin Gold successfully (although I'm confident other coins such as Ethereum can be mined as well). I decided to provide step-by-step, frustration-free instructions for anyone wishing to try the same thing. The hardware and OS commands are very specific, so your rig is only likely to work on the first try if you buy the same hardware and follow these steps exactly.

As I stated, I got my initial list of items from the build blog referenced above. I had to make changes so the final list is as follows (with notations on what was changed and why):

1. Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110-D3A
   https://goo.gl/TQXb65

2. CPU: Intel Pentium Processor G4400 (This was changed from the initial Celeron G3930 recommended by the blog because the G3930 is 7th Generation (Kaby Lake) which apparently the H110 chipset on the motherboard doesn't like without a bios update. The g4400 is about the same price but is a Skylake processor).
   https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015VPX05A/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

3. Storage: I think any SSD drive will work but I used the SP S55 240GB SSD:
   https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-240GB-Internal-SP240GBSS3S55S25/dp/B00D4AVS6I/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1511853250&sr=1-8&keywords=sp+s55

4. Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Gray 8GB DDR4 2400 UDIMM (This replaced the Kingston HyperX FURY 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 listed in the blog because it was DDR3 and the motherboard is DDR4 - wouldn't even fit in the ram slot).
   https://www.amazon.com/Ballistix-Sport-Single-PC4-19200-288-Pin/dp/B00UFBZOVE/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1511853586&sr=1-1&keywords=Crucial+Ballistix+Sport+LT+Gray+8GB+DDR4-2400+UDIMM

5. Riser cards for graphics cards: I chose Aitmexcn 6-Pack 006C PCIe VER 16x to 1x Powered Riser Adapter Card as a replacement to the recommended LEAGY 6-Pack USB 3.0 PCI-E Express 1x to 16x Extender Riser Card Adapter because they seemed like better quality from the description. They are indeed pretty nice.
   https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075JD44PJ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

6. Graphics cards: I didn't choose any of the brands listed in the guide, I chose another brand with the same Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB chip, ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 Mini 6GB. The only issue with the "mini" card was that it was shorter than a standard card so it was important to have a support bar midway in the open-air mining rig frame, but I'll get to the later.
   https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IA9FEOO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

7. CPU cooler: I did buy a liquid-cooled CPU cooler as recommended but haven't installed it. The CPU is not doing that much work on a mining rig -- the GPUs in the graphics cards are handling the computations. I just used the stock cooler that came with the processor.

8. Power supply: The guide recommended a range of power supplies from 850w to 1500w. I first tried a 850w PSU but soon discovered I could not power on the rig once I connected more than 4 cards. I ended up with a 1500w PSU just to avoid any power issues:
   https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Toughpower-Modular-Warranty-PS-TPD-1500MPCGUS-1/dp/B00M2UIN6Y/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1511855687&sr=1-3&keywords=Thermaltake+Toughpower+1500W+80+Plus+Gold+Power+Supply

9. Cooling Fans: Rosewill 120mm Long Life Sleeve Case Black Case Fan For Computer Cases, 4-Pack Cooling ROCF-13001
   https://goo.gl/vbuVQC

10. Thermal Paste: Don't need it, comes on the underside of the CPU fan.

11. Aluminum (or other) mining rack large enough for 6 graphics cards on risers: I built my own frame out of extruded aluminum angle lengths I got from Home Depot. However, in the end I probably spent about as much as a pre-made rack you can buy on Amazon, Newegg or eBay. If people are interested I will create a separate guide on creating the frame from scratch, otherwise you should buy any pre-made one that is at least 20" x 16" x 15".

12. Any kind of cheap monitor that takes an HDMi or DVI cable.

---

Assembly

So the first step is to assemble the open-air frame. If you don’t want to buy a pre-made frame, design and assembly tips are here: https://forum.ethereum.org/discussion/6242/rig-case-designs

Once you have your frame ready, put the motherboard in place. If you are drilling holes in a diy frame, keep in mind:

• The board should be mounted with easy access to the i/o ports along one side
• Be sure to use risers, standoffs, or some other method to keep the board from touching metal. Remember that the board flexes when inserting or removing connectors.
• Place the motherboard and the power supply in the frame with the ATX and CPU cables connected before you map out where to drill the mounting holes. (I initially mounted my power supply too far for the 8-pin CPU power cable to reach, so I had to buy an extension.)

For your components you will need these power connectors from the power supply:
1 ATX 24 pin
1 CPU 8 pin
1 molex 4 pin (for the case fans)
1 SATA connector (for the SSD)
12 PCIe 6-pin (6 for the risers, 6 for the gpu cards)

The riser card pack will come with 6 SATA to PCIe adapter cables. Depending on your power supply, you may need some Y cable adapters to create more SATA connectors.

Once you have the motherboard attached to the frame and the power supply set in place (don’t plug the power supply into an outlet yet), plug in the 24-pin ATX power cable:

and the CPU 8-pin power cable:

Insert your CPU into the slot on the board. Here is a link to help get it seated properly, but basically there id a yellow triangle on one corner of the CPU, just make that matches with the triangle on the motherboard:

It’s ok to install the CPU cooling fan that came with the CPU. You could install something beefier like a liquid cooler but because this is a mining rig the CPU is not going to be doing the bulk of the work and probably won’t run hot.

Insert your memory (there is a notch to prevent you from putting it in incorrectly or from putting DDR3 memory in the DDR4 slot):

Mount your SSD on the frame

and attach a SATA cable from the board

to the SSD. Also attach a SATA power connector. If you built a diy frame you won’t have a bracket to mount the SSD, I used this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074TGQ2LK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Mounting the graphics cards is pretty straight forward, you will put them all on the top rack inserted into the riser cards and resting on the support bar that goes across the middle of the frame. A PCIe 6-pin power cable goes into the top of each card and another one into the connector on the riser. A USB cable connects each riser to the motherboard with a little “mini” board at the other end going into the PCI slot:

Connect your monitor to the graphics card in the first (main) slot. This is also the only full size card slot on the board. Connect your keyboard, mouse and network cable.

Double-check everything and then plug your power cable in to the power supply. If your power supply has it’s own switch move it to the “on” position. Depending on the power supply, when you first switch it on it will either start and the shut off and then start again and stay on, or it will start/stop start/stop and then stay off. If it stays off you will need to “jump” the power pins on the motherboard to mimic a power switch. Leave the power switch on the power supply on and look for these pins on the motherboard:

briefly short these with a flat-head screwdriver to get the rig to power on. Be careful to only touch those two pins and don’t short them longer than it takes for the board to start up.

---

Configuration

Assuming your rig starts up, immediately hit F12 to go into setup because you will need to change some values. First, under Power, set “AC BACK” to “Always On”:

Next, under Peripherals, set “Mining Mode” to “Enabled”:

When you switch to mining mode, it may disable CSM support, so under Bios make sure “CSM Support” is “Enabled”:

You will need a bootable usb drive with the Ubuntu (or Xubuntu) 16.04 LTS installation iso for the next step. You can download it here:
http://mirror.us.leaseweb.net/ubuntu-cdimage/xubuntu/releases/16.04/release/xubuntu-16.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso

To create the bootable installation USB drive you will need to use Rufus on Windows or DD in Linux:

Rufus (Windows) - https://rufus.akeo.ie
DD (Linux, Mac)- https://askubuntu.com/questions/372607/how-to-create-a-bootable-ubuntu-usb-flash-drive-from-terminal

Insert the USB drive into one of the free USB ports and click “Save and Exit” in the bios setup screen. The rig should reboot and startup from the install disk. Follow the instructions on the screen to install Xubuntu. After Xubuntu is installed you should have access to the internet though your Ethernet (LAN) connection. Enter the following commands to setup your mining rig for mining (for more detailed info go to https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@lifipp/tutorial-or-how-to-set-up-and-configure-your-mining-rig-on-linux-nvidia-cards).

In a terminal session:

: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
: Password: [enter your password to enable sudo]
: sudo apt-get update
: sudo apt-get upgrade -y
: sudo apt-get install nvidia-cuda-toolkit -y
: sudo nvidia-xconfig -a --cool-bits=28
: sudo nvidia-xconfig --enable-all-gpus
: reboot

After rebooting, in the web browser download this file:

   Zec.miner.0.3.4b.Linux.Bin.tar.gz

from this GitHub site:

https://github.com/nanopool/ewbf-miner/releases

Unzip the file and extract the directory to your desktop. In the directory edit the start.sh file to include a line with the mining pool of your choice in the following format:

./miner - - server [pool server name] - - user [your coin address].[worker name] - - port [port number for the pool server] - - pass z

example:
./miner -- server us-west.pool.gold -- user GfT6JKoYcT3ztpsrerUSrKCEHpFD4pxcWe.Worker1 -- port 3044 -- pass z

While in the Sec.miner.0.3.4b.Linux.Bin directory, right-mouse-click and choose “open in terminal.”

In the terminal window type:

: sudo chmod +x miner
: Password: [enter your password to enable sudo]
: sudo chmod +x start.sh
: sudo bash start.sh

You should see something like the following with all 6 GPUs listed:

Congratulations, you are mining!