How to choose ASIC for mining?
Cryptocurrency mining is not only the large corporations business. With every year more independent miners can acquire powerful equipment and mined cryptocurrency right at home. Right now there are about 20,000 different cryptocurrencies, and this number continues to grow, which open even more opportunities for miners.
Usually mining requires processors or graphic cards, but ASIC miners far exceed them in productivity. They are more computationally powerful and can process much more data per unit time. They are also energy-saving and are estimated by hashing power or hashing rate (Hertz per second), or Gh/s, Th/s or Mh/s. Those with ASIC miner highest hashrate are currently rated as terra hashrate.
Let’s delve into details of what the ASIC miners are, which are the most reliable and which are the most powerful and profitable.
ASIC miners are machines specifically designed for cryptocurrency mining. They specialize in performing a specific type of computing.
Needs to be said that ASIC miners are irreplaceable tools in cloud mining and mining pools, as they are designed specifically for carrying out complex calculations required for production of cryptocurrency. Cloud mining allows users to remotely rent mining equipment and additional computing power. And mining pools combine the processing power of a large number of users to increase the chances of solving blocks and receiving rewards. Good ASIC miners are particularly useful in these cases because they are much more efficient and powerful than CPU or general-purpose GPU.
What you need to take into consideration to choose the most profitable ASIC miner:
- The overall performance. The best ASIC miners are the most productive. They don’t need to focus on optimizing miners for thousands of cryptocurrencies. As a result, ASICs are often tens or even thousands of times more effective for mining than graphic cards.
- Energy efficiency. The high energy efficiency of ASIC miners means that a plummeting cryptocurrencies prices does not increase energy costs. This type of miners can be an excellent alternative to mining systems based on graphic cards. Everyone will find something for themselves in any price segment. Not all ASIC miners are massive 3000 W machines — Jasminer X4-1U, for example, consumes only a few hundred watts, but outperform graphic cards in performance and, most importantly, in energy efficiency.
- Amount of the occupied space. Cryptocurrency miners using graphic cards need a lot more items in order to be at an equal income level as the good ASIC miners. These devices are stand-alone and only need to be connected to the Internet for a proper mining process. They do not require the purchase of other components — motherboard, RAM, SSD, CPU cooler or GPU risers. The power supplies are usually included in the kit and are the size corresponding to ASIC power consumption. It can reach several thousand watts, so it is very important to choose safe power supplies.
A few important tips to remember when choosing which ASIC to buy
ASIC miners are usually configured to perform only one type of calculations that uses the algorithm for the cryptocurrency. So it is impossible to mine cryptocurrency on other algorithms. This makes them less versatile than graphic cards and processors.
Resale cost is also lower because ASICs are used only for cryptocurrency mining and are not used by gamers or professionals.
In addition, they are usually much noisier than graphic cards based mining machines.
ASIC miners weigh a lot — usually several kilograms. So if you want to put your ASIC on the shelf, make sure it can handle this load.
ASIC miners must have a stable Internet connection for its job. Most of them do not have WiFi, only Ethernet connection via router. Data transmission is unlikely to be large, so even a standard category 5 Ethernet cable is enough.
The main risk when buying ASIC miners is their service lifespan. Usually we estimate it at 3-5 years. Until that time, more energy-efficient ASIC miners may appear on the market, allowing other miners to continue to extract cryptocurrencies for 5 years or more.
Manufacturers also often sell ASIC miners on pre-order without warranty of delivery time. They can (and often do) postpone the expected delivery date several times and if you decide to buy ASIC — consider such delays. Also check the terms of delivery on the store site: make sure that the seller is reliable, so that you do not fall for the tricks of scammers.
Top 2 most powerful ASIC miners
1) Whatsminer M50S
Whatsminer M50S — one of the strongest ASIC miners that does not require a separate host or software.
This mining equipment supports a maximum input voltage of 240 volts and a minimum input voltage of 200 volts. This is one of the best machines for Bitcoin mining, which also offers a 180-day manufacturer guarantee.
— Hashrate: 126 TH/s (+/- 5%) (depends on cooling)
— Power Consumption: 3276 W
— Temperature: WhatsMiner M50S works best at temperatures from -5 to 35°C
— Power supply: WhatsMiner M50S consumes more energy than the AntMiner S19 series, and converts electricity to Bitcoin less efficiently. The M50S produces about 83.0 dB of noise during operation
2) Antminer S19 XP
Antminer S19 XP — the newest Bitcoin miner from Bitmain. The downside is high voltage power. Power supplies are included, so you do not need separate equipment.
— Hashrate: 140 TH/s
— Power Consumption: 3010 W
— Power Consumption: S19 XP consumes 3010 W at room temperature of 25 C / 77° F.
— Temperature: this miner works best within a temperature range of 5 to 40°C. The dry basement is certainly the ideal place to install mining equipment.
Of course, there are dozens of different ASIC miner offers on the market. We talked about only two examples, but the market is not limited to them. Each miner can find a machine to their liking, wallet and the capacity of the electrical network.
Before buying an ASIC, make sure that your power grid will be able to hold the voltage. You should also buy a cable for the stable Internet connection, because the ASICs itself cannot connect to WiFi.
