Ethereum Mining simply to pay for Gaming GPU?

Calibos · 18-04-2021 03:50PM #1

Before I deep-dive researching all this I have a few questions.

I am about to receive my new VR and Streaming gaming PC with a Ryzen 5900x and RTX3090. It cost over 4 grand at the current insane pricing. Thankfully about €1000 of that will be offset by insane S/H GPU prices and I have a spare GTX1080 and RTX2060 to sell.

The ‘hash-rate’ achievable by an RTX3090 with OC’d memory running at 250w is 120??

I really have no desire to continue mining after I’ve paid off the cost of the PC or as close to that as I can while Ethereum GPU mining is still profitable. Running the PC 24/7 (when not gaming) for 6-9 months is as much stress as I’d be prepared to put the card under.

I know that a €4000+ PC would be a terrible investment for a ‘professional’ home miner especially with the uncertainty about how long GPU eTH mining actually has left, but remember I bought it for gaming, not mining and am happy just to see as much of it paid for as possible, I’m not seeking a conventional income stream from it going forwards.

With all that in mind, do I have to concern myself with income tax or CGT at all really?

Wrt CGT, if I convert the mined ETH to Euros straight away upon receipt and simply note the rate on the day of conversion in case revenue come knocking, I really have nothing to worry about wrt CGT liability especially considering the €1270 exemption?

Wrt Income tax, if one can write off the entire cost of the Mining hardware which in my case is a €4000 PC and also write off the mining component of my electricity bills, its unlikely in the time GPU mining has left at such high profitability levels, that I will even be able to mine more than the cost of my PC anyway hence whatever I can earn in the next 6-9 months will be guaranteed to be offset by the PC Cost write off.

So to re-iterate, I’m not mining for outright profit or income, I simply want to pay off my expensive Gaming PC. Do I need to inform revenue at all or can I simply insure tht should they come knocking, I have all relevant figures and paperwork to prove how much I earned and how much the PC cost write off was and a record of how much I earned and when I sold/converted to prove no CGT due either??

Rob2D · 18-04-2021 05:53PM

In a similar position myself. Got a new little Dell XPS with a 3060ti in it for home and a 3090 on Friday that I'm keeping for next year but I'm going to leave it mining at work until then. Basically I'll have one mining at all times when I'm using the other and both at night. Definitely a good idea to take the sting out of the crazy prices right now!

As for the tax man, I haven't decided what I'll do. I'll for sure keep a record of it but TBH I might just hold it, or do something like buy gold or silver instead of reporting it. Or maybe PayPal will let us deposit crypto soon which would be dope.

Oh and FYI, if you try to mine a 3090 out of the box you are liable to kill it!! The GDDR6X VRAM runs insanely hot. When mining it can go to 120c+. At which point the life of the card will start to be seriously impacted. I spent Friday evening taking my Founders Edition apart and replacing the thermal pads and paste to rectify this. Gonna test it in the morning and hope it turns on!

Calibos · 18-04-2021 10:34PM

Thanks for the heads up but I was already aware about the hot memory. The penny dropped when I read it for the first time, "Ahhh!! So thats why everyone is stressing about 3080/3090 memory temps and buying up the world supply of 2.5mm thermal pads!!!"

In fact you'd be surprised how much thought I've actually put into memory thermal management!

Seen a guy on reddit say the thermal pads only dropped him into the mid 90's so he mounted some low profile heatsinks and fans onto the backplate of his 3080 which took the relevent temps down into the 60-70 range. I said to myself I didn't spend big bucks on this gaming rig and making it pretty to go do an ugly mod like that so I started brainstorming. First iteration of an idea was the rear exhaust fan above the GPU in the x16 slot as intake with louvres installed to deflect the cool air onto the back of the card. Then I said "DOH!!". Thats where I planned to mount the 7" Sensor Panel LCD screen I just ordered 10 minutes ago from Amazon!! Then I said to myself, don't dismiss the idea too quick. Why not mount the fan to the outside of the case, mount the sensor panel to the inside on inch long stand-offs and the sensor panel can act as the deflector to direct/duct the intake air down onto the back of the card. Then I realised one could buy for as little as a tenner, black anodized inches long 1 inch tall heatsinks designed for power supplies or LED PSU's and attach to the GPU back plate which would look nearly OEM or certainly blend into the background in an all black component case.

So Yeah, I've already put a bit of thought into memory thermal management of a mining 3090

;) Thanks for the heads-up regardless though and watching my back.

Rob2D · 18-04-2021 11:41PM

I got myself a couple low profile heatsinks too just in case!

That guy who only dropped to the 90's probably only put pads on the back side. You gotta do both for the real gains. I had to use almost 3 packs! And that s**t ain't cheap :eek:

Calibos · 20-04-2021 02:55AM

It just occurred to me that extra heatsinks on the backplate is the perfect excuse for a Vertical GPU mount in my case. Initially ruled it out as the PCIe 4.0 Cable extension would block air from the bottom case fans from getting to the heatsinks in the very area they were needed most at the Memory chips surrounding the GPU die.

However, reading more threads elsewhere and there was one guy who said his friend with the same card on an O11 case with Vertically mounted GPU with bottom case fans blowing up front and back of the vertically mounted cards had great memory junction temps without even doing a thermal pad mod. Maybe I was overthinking the Riser cable getting in the way of airflow thing.

So I found the Recommended Thermalright 12w/mk 1, 2 & 0.5mm pads in stock on amazon and ordered some. Your not wrong about the price GPB£70 for that lot (Sizes were 120x120mm for the 1 & 2mm pads and 120x20mm for the 0.5mm only the vrms on one side use the .05mm though)

I'll wait till I get the PC and and do a bit more research on the Lian Li o11 Vertical GPU mount. Will get it from OCUK but in the amazon listing it says its not compatible with 3080/3090's. Have to check if thats just the 3.0 Riser v 4.0 thing or if there is an actual physical fitting issue with those cards.

Anyway, if the Vertical GPU mounting and the new Thermal Pads give me great memory junction temps then its a Win/Win. Solved the issue without uglifiying the GPU, GPU gets shown off in the case more and I get to do the Sensor Panel mod to the rear exhaust fan position without needing to compromise it it in any way to accommodate cooling for the GPU backplate.

Rob2D · 20-04-2021 07:12AM

I used 1.5mm pads for everything. Tests yesterday were excellent! 121.5mH/s and VRAM temps at 78-80c with 90% fan. Left it going in the office all night. Just checked there and VRAM still solid at 80c.

Not sure if I'll put on my heatsinks. Doesn't look like I need them but my god the back plate gets hot. You couldn't keep your hand on it!

unkel · 20-04-2021 07:53AM

Rob2D wrote: »

I used 1.5mm pads for everything. Tests yesterday were excellent! 121.5mH/s and VRAM temps at 78-80c with 90% fan. Left it going in the office all night. Just checked there and VRAM still solid at 80c.

If you're using it just for mining in an office, why don't you take the motherboard out of the case and mount it in an open air frame? You will have far better cooling with the GPU hanging in the air

Rob2D · 20-04-2021 07:57AM

unkel wrote: »

If you're using it just for mining in an office, why don't you take the motherboard out of the case and mount it in an open air frame? You will have far better cooling with the GPU hanging in the air

I have to use it for work now for the next 8hrs! :pac:

unkel · 20-04-2021 08:06AM

It's still the same PC. But my point is, that if looks don't matter, you could hugely improve its cooling by taking it out of the case. Or at least take the card out of the case and use a riser. You can still use the PC as is. Even while you are mining

Rob2D · 21-04-2021 10:02AM

unkel wrote: »

But my point is, that if looks don't matter

Oh but they do!

I can't have people wander into my office and think I use just any old thing at all

Plus there's so much black dust in this factory that anything I leave outside a case would be wrecked. You wouldn't believe the amount of s**t I blow out of the PC's around here every month.

Calibos · 21-04-2021 11:04AM

Jaysus.

Is €11.60 profit for me a day according to Nicehash as of this morning accurate?

Twas even up to €12 per day last night.

When I first asked about mining on the boards PC Building forum about 10 days ago user Giblet said his numbers were about €8.50. If those kind of profitability rates hold for a while it'll certainly light a fire under my ass to get the PC finished and mining asap as otherwise I'm leaving a lot of money on the table! Just a week of procrastination would see me miss out on a potential €70. LOL,

Corsair 360mm AIO and 9x Fans arrived from OCUK this morning. Thermal Pads from Amazon should arrive today. PC from PC Specialist.ie arrives tomorrow. PCIe 4.0 Riser cable from Amazon Tomorrow. Coolermaster Vertical Bracket V2 from Amazon arrives no later than the 29th. Will have to wait till the bracket comes before I can see exactly how and where on the backplate I can fit a low profile aluminium heatsink and potentially some Noctua 90mm Fans. Love Noctuas for their performance, reliability and quietness but jaysus are they FUGLY. Thankfully they'll be invisible behind the GPU.

Assuming profitability, I intend to mine the F out of this card for the next year to help pay off the PC but I also need it to look good while doing it and want/need to do everything I can to maximise hashrate while keeping it as quiet and cool as possible as its in the same room I sleep in and I don't want to compromise the cards lifespan too much by letting it run at furnace temperatures for a year. If that means I lost out on 2 weeks profits due to the cost of my mods and the time it takes to do them, then so be it. Better for me and the card in the long run.

Rob2D · 21-04-2021 11:25AM

Calibos wrote: »

as its in the same room I sleep in

No way you're gonna sleep with fans at 90% all night! :pac:

I was just thinking about this card. The temps are absolutely atrocious. During normal gameplay people have reported VRAM temps of like 100c. That's card killing like. Thermal pads mod seems like it should be mandatory even if you never mined it.

The stock pads I took out were a disgrace. And the paste? I've seen similar paste on CPU's that haven't been opened for 10 years. It was bone dry and came off in solid flakes and dust.

Shockingly bad from Nvidia. Especially for a top shelf card.

unkel · 21-04-2021 01:29PM

Calibos wrote: »

Jaysus.

Is €11.60 profit for me a day according to Nicehash as of this morning accurate?

I wouldn't go Nicehash. They take a huge chunk of your revenue and you waste a lot of money on transaction fees.

circadian · 21-04-2021 01:57PM

Yeah and Nicehash installs tons of miners which I'd consider a security risk. I mine on nanopool/binance with TeamRedMiner, not sure if it's as good a miner for Nvidia stuff but it's been well optimised for my card.

Rob2D · 21-04-2021 01:59PM

I use PhoenixMiner on Ethermine.

Calibos · 21-04-2021 02:29PM

When I'm ready to start I'll be pestering ye all for advice!

[EDIT] Jesus H Christ, I just read your posts on the other thread. If only I had started pestering you for advice in January!! :eek::eek:

Calibos · 22-04-2021 10:53AM

Was planning to sell my spare GTX1080 and RTX2060 because insane S/H prices should net me about €1000. When I was checking that mining calculator for my 3090 I also checked out a 1080 and a 2060. Both make about the same as each other and less than half my 3090 combined, but I worked out at the profitability at the time it’d take about 6 months to make the €1000 I could make by selling the cards tomorrow. I figured if what I heard was true and GPU mining wont be that profitable for much longer....well ‘a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush’ as they say. ie. I should probably sell them.

However I more recently read that the dip in profitability might not even happen this year after all and also read that as recently as February profitability was double what it is even now!

So my question is whether it might actually be worthwhile to keep those GPU’s and mine with them instead of selling them. I have spare CPU’s, mobo’s and PSU’s to use them with.

Rob2D · 22-04-2021 10:59AM

Sell them. Invest the proceeds.

unkel · 22-04-2021 11:02AM

Profitability of ETH mining will be hit in July because of EIP 1559, unless ETH climbs a good bit higher. And yes, there is a lot to say about a bird in the hand. That said the value of GPUs is not going to plummet if ETH becomes less profitable, there is a pent up demand for GPUs from gamers and the worldwide shortage of silicon chips is unrelated to the mining boom. There are also other coins than ETH to mine. Some equally as profitable or even more so.

harmless · 27-04-2021 11:02AM

unkel wrote: »

. There are also other coins than ETH to mine. Some equally as profitable or even more so.

Interesting, which ones?
My understanding was that Eth is still the most profitable even if you want to hold other coin most recommend to mine ETH and convert.

An influx of miners to a new coin will drastically reduce the profitability of that coin.

unkel · 27-04-2021 11:29AM

Ethereum is still top trumps if you have a GPU with at least 6GB of VRAM. You can still technically mine Ethereum with 4GB cards, but the hash rates are low and other coins are more profitable. Which is most profitable, depends on the day. Check sites like whattomine.com and minerstat.com. What can also be much more attractive about mining other coins is the more frequent pool payout. Ethereum minimum payout is typically 0.1ETH (value $250), this can take several months if you have just 1 mid tier GPU

other coins can pay out equivalents of $20 or so

harmless · 27-04-2021 11:52AM

I still can't find any better options than ethermine pool for small setups, payout every 2 weeks once .01 ETH is hit. Once a week for if you hit at least .05. If you don't reach the limits in time it pays out reasonably fast once you do.
The low activity on the blockchain and flashbots have been extremely hard on ETH mining profits but it's hardly surprising. And more to come with eip 1559 in July, could be postponed for a few months though.

27-04-2021 12:30PM

I moved to NiceHash because I wanted to be paid in BTC and have shorter payouts. I was on ethermine before. My 2070 Super get ~40Mh/s so it would take ages for a payout. I didn't like the idea of being tied to it if I wanted to shop around. NiceHash does not sit well with me though. Anything that works this well and has a nice GUI can't be the most efficient for me. Any recommended alternatives? I've paid for the graphics card at this stage so happy out.

Static M.e. · 28-04-2021 12:56PM

Is there a good site to learn more about this?

Could I just leave my work PC running all night and earn passively?

unkel · 28-04-2021 01:16PM

Static M.e. wrote: »

Is there a good site to learn more about this?

Could I just leave my work PC running all night and earn passively?

Youtube, or ask here. As for a work PC, if your employer doesn't mind, then sure, why not.

Don't use nicehash though whatever you do, they take a large part of your earnings

circadian · 28-04-2021 03:11PM

I'm getting 100 mh/s and can't keep up with the Eth inflation at the minute, this is crazy.

circadian · 28-04-2021 03:13PM

Deleted User wrote: »

I moved to NiceHash because I wanted to be paid in BTC and have shorter payouts. I was on ethermine before. My 2070 Super get ~40Mh/s so it would take ages for a payout. I didn't like the idea of being tied to it if I wanted to shop around. NiceHash does not sit well with me though. Anything that works this well and has a nice GUI can't be the most efficient for me. Any recommended alternatives? I've paid for the graphics card at this stage so happy out.

Nanopool has a minimum payout of 0.05 if you add in your email address. I sometimes switch to the Binance pool to top up funds there.

unkel · 28-04-2021 05:21PM

circadian wrote: »

I sometimes switch to the Binance pool to top up funds there.

Tip: if you need to top up funds in Binance, switch to mining RVN temporarily. Quick payouts (100RVN = $15 or so) and can be paid by mining pool directly into your binance RVN wallet

circadian wrote: »

I'm getting 100 mh/s and can't keep up with the Eth inflation at the minute, this is crazy.

And another ATH today. Crazy is right!

circadian · 29-04-2021 07:26AM

unkel wrote: »

Tip: if you need to top up funds in Binance, switch to mining RVN temporarily. Quick payouts (100RVN = $15 or so) and can be paid by mining pool directly into your binance RVN wallet

And another ATH today. Crazy is right!

Not sure how quickly I'd pull in RVN, my card seems to happily hammer Eth and that's about it.

unkel · 29-04-2021 09:00AM

circadian wrote: »

Not sure how quickly I'd pull in RVN, my card seems to happily hammer Eth and that's about it.

Very quickly. What card do you have? Even a single lowly RX470 4GB would bring in a 100RVN payment within 10-11 days or so

Potatoeman · 30-04-2021 02:32PM

If you use nicehash for convenience reasons just be aware that they were hacked during a Bitcoin price spike and are still paying people back. They could have sold at the spike and bought again during the dip in price then just not paid people back at all if it didn’t work out. Wouldn’t leave funds there too long.

Ethereum Mining simply to pay for Gaming GPU?

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