So, you started with a small farm, got involved in the mining process and began to earn. Now you are likely to think about purchasing new devices and expanding your farm. At the moment this is relevant, because the cryptocurrency is growing steadily (take a look, for instance, at the BTC growth chart — on 8.02.2021, its value has almost reached $40,000).

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Moreover, BTC and some other altcoins are rightfully considered a reliable means of accumulating and preserving capital, which is especially important during the financial crisis. But how to expand a farm in the right way? What should be considered? Find answers in this article.

Where to start from?

Expanding a farm means buying new workers, so, first of all, you should decide what devices to buy and in what quantities.

Step 1:

Decide what coin you will mine

Remember that ASICs can only mine coins of a specific algorithm. Therefore, if you are planning to purchase ASICs, you first need to decide on a coin. With GPU rigs, this problem will not arise.

Step 2:

Check the equipment specifications

Selecting a coin will shorten the list of potential devices — now you need to familiarize yourself with the specifications of those that remain. Pay attention to the hashrate of the equipment and the level of energy consumption.

Step 3:

Learn more about the spare parts

Focus on those devices for which it will be easiest to get spare parts — in this way you will avoid prolonged equipment downtime if something happens. Also find out if there is a service center in your area.

Step 4:

Take a look at the prices

Mining devices are not cheap, so price can be an important factor. If your budget is tight, consider buying used devices.

Step 5:

Find out the ROI

This is one of the most important steps. Considering the cost of a worker, its energy consumption and hashrate, and the cost of electricity, determine how long it will take it to pay off. It is important to remember about the upcoming switch of ETH to PoS. It will not happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but it must be taken into account, because when it finally happens, ETH mining will turn into staking, and ASICs and GPU rigs will become simply useless.

When it comes to the number of devices, focus on your budget first. In addition, you should decide on the premise. Are you planning to mine at home? If so, then you need to consider the availability of free space for new devices. Alternatively, you can take a look at mining hotels.

What to consider when organizing a farm?

You have finally purchased the required number of new devices. What now? It's time to start organizing your farm.

Ensure power supply

Unfortunately, just plugging your devices into power outlets isn't enough. You should keep in mind the following:

Use different fuses for workers and appliances. Refrigerators, air conditioners, kettles and other devices need electricity only from time to time, but workers in the process of mining consume it constantly. If you use the same fuse, the refrigerator that suddenly turns on can overload it. The result will be downtime of mining equipment and loss of profit. To avoid this, buy a separate fuse for your ASICs or GPU rigs.

Do not load the fuse to 100%, leave 5% or 10% as a reserve. This will also help to avoid overload. To find the value of 100%, divide the wattage by the voltage. For example, the device consumes 900 W and the voltage is 220 V. Dividing 900 by 220, we get 4.09. This is 100% load, and it should be avoided. If we leave 5% as a reserve, the maximum allowable load will be 3.88.

Leave the extra cable and fuse. This will be useful if you would like to make your farm even bigger in the future.

Remember that bad wiring can lead to fire! If in doubt about your skills, hire a professional electrician!

Connect your devices to the network

Using a cable connection instead of Wi-Fi is the most reliable solution to avoid sudden disconnections and downtime.

As for other options (like 4G), they should be avoided. Use either a cable connection or Wi-Fi — the first option is preferred.

Take care of ventilation and temperature

Mining devices consume a lot of energy and almost completely convert it into heat. Therefore, it is crucial to keep the room ventilated, otherwise your devices will overheat regularly.

Start with the simplest thing — place the workers at some distance from each other so that the air flows can move freely between them. Also keep the door of the room (and, if possible, windows) open. Install a fan for better ventilation. Do not point it directly at the devices — it should blow hot air off the equipment towards the exit. Remember that one fan may not be enough. If you have many devices, you will need to purchase several fans. Also consider the fan CFM, which is the number of cubic feet of air blown per minute. Determine the total CFM of your workers and then look for a fan with the same level.

As for air conditioners, they cannot provide ventilation — they can only reduce the temperature in the room. However, there is a more reliable way to control the temperature of devices. The Hive OS system has an autofan function. It automatically controls the fans and maintains the target temperature of the video cards. In turn, the Hiveon ASIC firmware is equipped with a temperature watchdog — if a critical temperature is reached, mining stops.

Reduce energy consumption

Using Hive OS will also allow you to reduce the power consumption of GPU rigs, while Hiveon ASIC firmware will help you to do the same for ASICs. In addition, Hive OS has the Scheduler feature. Using it, you can set up your devices so that they will automatically switch from overclocking to undervolting. This can be useful if your electricity is cheaper at night.

How to manage a large farm?

You have expanded your mining farm, taken care of the temperature regime, and made it as energy efficient as possible. Now is the time to think about ease of management, which is especially important if your farm now consists of a large number of devices.

Hive OS will make managing your farm as easy and comfortable as possible. With its help you can do the following:

Install devices in bulk
Manage up to 200,000 workers simultaneously
Manage workers on a schedule
Use tags to divide devices into groups
Monitor statistics for the entire farm and each specific device
Track the temperature of workers with a heatmap (you will immediately notice if one of them overheats)
Switch between wallets, pools and miners in a second (using flight sheets)
Receive notifications in Discord or Telegram, as well as monitor and manage workers using a mobile app (in this way you will always be aware of what is going on with your farm)

The most difficult step when expanding a farm is deciding on new devices. You must be confident in what you are doing and remember about ETH 2.0. But after the purchase, everything is quite simple. Follow our guidelines and you will have no difficulties with organizing and managing your farm.