ASIC Mining vs. GPU Mining

The age old question dawns again, “Should I build a GPU rig, or just buy an ASIC miner?”.

There are key advantages that one has over each other, but which one you decide is more enticing, is up to you.

I’m personally a GPU believer, however I’ll do my best to present you with unbiased data, so you can decide which option is best for you.

ASIC Mining

ASIC(Application Specific Integrated Circut) miners are machines that are created specifically to mine. They can’t do anything, other than mine specific cryptocurrency algorithms.

Unlike GPU’s you can’t get them from any PC hardware store. You can only obtain them used, or directly from the manufacturers… This means that the prices on the units tend to be incredibly high.

Pros

• Stable, almost never crash.
• Come completely built.
• Easy to setup.
• Easy to maintain.
• Take up less room.
• Efficient.

Cons

• Expensive original investment
• Can easily be replaced by a newer and better unit.
• Incredibly loud.
• Little/low resale value.
• Can only mine one, or a few predetermined algorithms.
• Typically, you’ll need to purchase a unit from China.

GPU Mining

I see GPU mining as the safest way to enter the scene, as the components have great resale value and you can build a rig as cheap, or expensive as you want(at the expense of how much you generate).

A GPU is a consumer item, while an ASIC machine is a commercial/industrial piece of hardware. Each blockchain that has ASICs on it’s network is ultimately controlled by the ASIC manufacturers. I personally don’t support ASIC creators, as the original idea of crypto(satoshi’s vision) is to create a completely free, open, and uncontrolled blockchain environment.

Pros

• Adjustable investment cost.
• Incredible resale value.
• Not easily replaced by newer and better rigs.
• Quiet.
• Typically have a faster ROI(Return Of Investment).
• Can easily obtain all parts within the U.S./Canada(no dealing with China shipping BS).

Cons

• Take up more room.
• Have to be built by yourself.
• Much less stable.
• Use a lot more electricity/Create more heat.

In Conclusion

It seems, It all really comes down to the trade off trio of “ease of use/setup vs. investment risk vs. personal morality/belief”. I’d rather spend the week or so of learning how to configure and setup my rig and have less risk, opposed to having an easy plug-and-play solution, with greater financial risk.