While some may argue that the cryptocurrency gold rush has tapered off a bit recently, there are still plenty of reasons why you’d want to buy the best mining rigs and mining PCs that money can buy.
If you invest wisely, it means you can still make a decent amount of money from mining, but which is best for you?
Before we get into our list of the best mining rigs and best mining PCs, we should explain some key differences between the two types of hardware.
The best mining PCs, are desktop computers that can also be used for other day-to-day tasks, such as working on and gaming. Meanwhile, mining rigs are specially-designed for one purpose only: to efficiently and effectively mine crypto currencies such as Bitcoin.
This means you won’t be able to use a mining rig for other tasks, but it does mean you’ll be getting the very best mining results thanks to the best mining rigs being designed to eke out the maximum return when running.
However, if you’re weary of spending money on something that can only mine, then buying the best mining desktop PC is the way to go, as it means you’re also getting a top PC to do other things with as well, though your mining returns won’t be quite as good.
If you still want to build your own mining rig or PC, check out our guides on the best mining GPUs, best mining CPU, best mining motherboards and best mining SSDs to help you get started.
Shark Mining is a well-regarded company that makes some excellent pre-built mining rigs. Its Shark Mini is a compact rig that comes with four GPUs. The base model comes with four NVIDIA GTX 1070 GPU’s or you can upgrade it for more power to 1070 Ti GPU’s, which could net you an extra profit, and you can also add a touchscreen display for keeping an eye on the rig. Shark Mining estimates a profit of $600 a month if you mine ZCash, and up to $400 a month with Ethereum if you use the base model. With a processing power of 1800 H/s, the Shark Mini can mine 55 different cryptocurrencies.
The Alienware Aurora R11 Gaming Desktop is an excellent choice for a gaming desktop PC, and it’s also one of the best mining PCs money can buy, thanks to the powerful components inside, including Intel’s i7-10700KF processor, which offers 8 cores with 16 threads for multitasking. Crucially, it also has an NVidia GPU installed as well. There’s loads of space in the eye-catching chassis for upgrading when you need to, though with all Alienware products, it’s pretty expensive.
The Bitmain Antminer S17 Pro has some of the best advertised performance specifications, and comes with three different modes for advanced mining: normal mode, low power mode, and turbo. While the ASIC comes with a top hashrate of 56 TH/s, you will need to run it in the lower modes at times to help prevent overheating. Even still, the S17 Pro is one of the more efficient ASIC miners out there, with a Power Efficiency of 93.88±10%. However, because of its high specs, it is currently out of stock, and we await for Bitmain to restock the model and advertise a new price.
Application-specific integrated circuit chips (ASICs) differ from other mining rigs as they don’t utilize GPUs to do the mining, which means price and power consumption is reduced. They can also solve Bitcoin blocks faster, which means they are definitely worth looking into. The Antminer D3 is an ASIC miner from Mineshop.eu is a good mid-range miner that has a hash rate of 19.3 GH/s (Variation of ±5% is expected). While the power consumption is high at 1200 W, it does claim a 93% efficiency rating, making it definitely one to consider if space is at a premium.
This is another fantastic gaming PC that also doubles as a versatile mining PC. Thanks to its powerful components, you’ll be getting some good returns when you put it to mining, and the excellent cooling system of this PC means it can run for long periods of time without overheating – or getting too noisy. It’s another expensive outlay, but one that could quickly pay off if you mine wisely.
Whatsminer has another entry in this list of best mining rigs, this time with its Whatsminer M21S mining rig. This is an ASIC miner, with 52TH/s (+/- 5%) of cryptocurrency processing power. This model includes a built-in web management portal for ease of use. While it is an expensive rig, the build quality and potential profit makes it a very tempting choice if you’re serious about mining.
The Dell G5 Gaming Desktop is a brilliantly put together PC that’s on the compact side for a gaming PC, and attractive, while also being excellent at making profits when mining for cryptocurrencies. However, it is expensive, and some reviews mention cooling issues. On the GPU side, it features an RTX 2060 Super.
The Corsair One has been among the best gaming PCs ever since it came on the scene a few years ago, and the Corsair One i160 only takes things to the next level with Nvidia Turing graphics and Intel Coffee Lake Refresh processors. If you have the budget, then this is a brilliant mining PC, as it combines some of the latest, and most powerful, gaming tech, which in turn gives you phenomenal mining performance. If you also like to game, then this is a brilliant, but expensive, purchase.
Read the full review: Corsair One i160