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Calcimator

Mining Rig Build Calculator

Calculate total build cost, hashrate, power requirements, and efficiency for a custom GPU mining rig.

About this calculator

Building a GPU mining rig means totaling up a dozen small component costs and checking whether the resulting hashrate and power draw make financial sense, and this calculator does both halves in one pass. The build cost is a straight sum of GPUs (the dominant line item, tracked separately as a percentage of total spend) plus motherboard, CPU, RAM, PSU, frame, storage, and one PCIe riser per card. On the power side, it adds a flat 100W system overhead — covering the CPU, motherboard, fans, and boot drive, which draw far less than the GPUs themselves — to the combined GPU wattage, then applies the standard PSU sizing rule of running a power supply at no more than 80% of its rated capacity for safe, efficient, long-term operation; dividing total system draw by 0.80 gives the minimum PSU wattage that satisfies that headroom.

Hashrate is simply per-GPU hashrate times card count, and dividing that into total power draw yields efficiency in megahashes per watt — the figure that matters most for long-run profitability, since electricity cost scales with power draw, not with the sticker price of the rig. Monthly electricity cost assumes the rig runs continuously (24 hours a day, every day), which is realistic for dedicated mining hardware but will overstate cost for a rig that's shut off or throttled part of the time. Cost per megahash divides total build cost by total hashrate, giving a hardware-efficiency figure useful for comparing this build against ASIC alternatives or other GPU configurations.

Inputs

Results

Total build cost ($)

$5,560.00

≈ 6 smartphones

Total hashrate (MH/s)

720

GPU cost ($)$4,800.00
Other components ($)$760.00
GPUs as % of build86.3
Total power draw (W)1,600
Recommended PSU (W)2,000
Monthly electricity ($)$115.20
Cost per MH/s ($)$7.72
Efficiency (MH/W)0.45
How to Use This Calculator
  1. Enter GPU model count and individual GPU hashrate and power consumption.
  2. Set motherboard, CPU, RAM, PSU, frame, SSD, and per-GPU riser costs.
  3. Input your electricity rate ($/kWh).
  4. Review total build cost, GPU cost vs. other components, and total hashrate.
  5. Check the recommended PSU wattage, monthly electricity cost, cost per MH/s, and efficiency (MH/W) to gauge the rig's value.

How the result changes with Number of GPUs

Number of GPUsTotal build cost ($)Total hashrate (MH/s)
3$3,130.00360
4.5$4,750.00600
9$7,990.001,080
15$12,850.001,800

What each input means

Number of GPUs
Number of GPUs in the rig. Common configurations: 6, 8, or 12 GPUs.
GPU price each ($)
Cost per GPU card.
GPU hashrate each (MH/s)
Mining hashrate per GPU in megahashes per second for your target algorithm.
GPU power each (W)
Power draw per GPU at the wall while mining.
Motherboard ($)
Mining motherboard with enough PCIe slots (e.g., B250 Mining Expert).
CPU ($)
Budget CPU — mining is GPU-bound so a Celeron/Pentium suffices.
RAM ($)
8GB is sufficient for most mining OS setups.
PSU ($)
Power supply unit cost. May need multiple PSUs for large rigs.
Frame/case ($)
Open-air mining frame.
SSD ($)
Small SSD for the mining OS (120-240GB is enough).
PCIe riser per GPU ($)
USB PCIe riser cable cost per GPU.
Electricity rate ($/kWh)
Your electricity cost per kilowatt-hour.

What each result means

Total build cost ($)
Complete hardware cost for the mining rig.
GPU cost ($)
Combined cost of all GPUs.
Other components ($)
Motherboard, CPU, RAM, PSU, frame, SSD, and risers.
GPUs as % of build
What percentage of total cost goes to GPUs.
Total hashrate (MH/s)
Combined hashrate of all GPUs.
Total power draw (W)
Estimated total system power including GPUs and system overhead.
Recommended PSU (W)
Minimum PSU wattage with 20% headroom for safe operation.
Monthly electricity ($)
Estimated monthly electricity cost running 24/7.
Cost per MH/s ($)
Hardware investment per megahash of hashrate — lower is better value.
Efficiency (MH/W)
Hashrate per watt of power — higher is more efficient.

How this is calculated

Worked example, using the default values

  1. Identify Input Parameters
    4 parameters
    Number of GPUs = 6, GPU price each ($) = 800, GPU hashrate each (MH/s) = 120, GPU power each (W) = 250 = 12 input(s) provided
  2. Calculate Total build cost
    Total build cost = totalGpuCost + motherboardPrice + cpuPrice + ramPrice + psuPrice + framePrice...
    5560 = $5,560
  3. Calculate Total hashrate
    Total hashrate = numGpus * gpuHashrateMH
    720 = 720
  4. Calculate GPU cost
    GPU cost = numGpus * gpuPriceEach
    4800 = $4,800
  5. Calculate Other components
    Other components = round((totalBuildCost - totalGpuCost) * 100) / 100
    760 = $760

Engine last updated . Checked against 3 independently-derived tests — how we verify calculators. Built by Paul Gunder, a software engineer, not a licensed financial, medical, or legal professional.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the calculator add a flat 100W of system overhead on top of GPU power?

The CPU, motherboard, fans, and boot SSD in a mining rig draw comparatively little power next to the GPUs themselves, so rather than modeling each component's individual draw the calculator adds one fixed 100W allowance to the combined GPU wattage to approximate the rest of the system's consumption.

Why is the recommended PSU wattage higher than the rig's actual power draw?

It divides total system power by 0.80, which is the standard rule of running a power supply at no more than 80% of its rated capacity for safe, efficient, long-term operation. That means a rig drawing 1,600W at the wall gets a 2,000W PSU recommendation, giving 20% headroom rather than running the PSU at its ceiling continuously.

What's the difference between cost per MH/s and efficiency (MH/W), and which matters more?

Cost per MH/s divides total build cost by total hashrate, telling you how much upfront hardware investment each unit of hashrate costs — useful for comparing this build to buying an ASIC instead. Efficiency (MH/W) divides hashrate by power draw instead, and matters more for long-run profitability since your ongoing electricity bill scales with power draw, not with what you paid for the rig.

Does the monthly electricity estimate assume the rig runs all the time?

Yes — it multiplies daily kWh (total system power × 24 hours) by 30 days, which assumes continuous 24/7 operation. That's realistic for dedicated mining hardware left running around the clock, but it will overstate your real cost if the rig is powered off or throttled for part of the time.

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