Mining Rig: ASIC Miners, GPU Rigs, and Running Costs

A mining rig, also called a crypto mining rig or mining machine, is a computer that is built or set up to mine cryptocurrency by running a proof-of-work hash function repeatedly. A Bitcoin mining rig today is a single ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) machine, while a GPU (graphics processing unit) rig links several graphics cards in one computer.

Proof of work is the system Bitcoin uses to add new blocks of transactions to its chain. Each hash a mining rig computes is one guess at a valid block, and the Bitcoin miner whose guess succeeds adds the block and collects its reward.

A mining rig is rated by its hashrate, which is the number of hashes it computes each second. Bitcoin mining rigs are rated in terahashes per second (TH/s), and 1 TH/s equals 1 trillion hashes per second. A rig’s second key figure is its power draw in watts (W).

Why Are Bitcoin Mining Rigs Built on ASICs, Not GPUs?

An ASIC Bitcoin mining rig is built around chips designed for one task: computing SHA-256, the hash function Bitcoin uses. The Antminer S21 XP from Bitmain, an ASIC manufacturer, is one example of a current Bitcoin mining machine. The S21 XP is a single box measuring 449 by 219 by 293 millimeters and weighing 18.7 kilograms, and as of October 2026, Bitmain rates it at 270 TH/s.

A Bitcoin ASIC can generally run only SHA-256, so it can mine only coins that use that algorithm. The S21 XP’s spec sheet lists three such coins: BTC, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Bitcoin SV (BSV).

A GPU rig is a crypto mining rig built from a motherboard, several graphics cards, and a power supply large enough to feed them. A GPU rig is used to mine coins whose hashing algorithms suit graphics cards.

Bitcoin was mined on graphics cards in the early 2010s, until ASICs overtook them because ASICs are faster and use less energy for each hash. GPU Bitcoin mining has not been practical since then, and a gaming PC or a computer full of graphics cards cannot compete with an ASIC rig on Bitcoin today.

No mining rig, ASIC or GPU, can mine Ethereum today. In the Merge on September 15, 2022, the Ethereum network permanently replaced proof of work with proof of stake. Under proof of stake, the Ethereum network is secured by staked ETH instead of proof-of-work mining, so the Merge ended Ethereum mining.

What Does a Mining Rig Need to Run?

Setting up a Bitcoin mining rig means putting four things in place: a power supply at the voltage the spec sheet names, cooling, a network connection, and, in most setups, a mining pool. Each of them has to be ready before the rig does any useful work. Without a pool, a rig is set up for solo mining, which means it looks for whole blocks on its own.

Cooling removes the heat that a mining rig produces. Bitmain’s Antminer S21 XP is rated with inlet air: Bitmain gives its power draw with air entering the machine at 25 °C and its noise at full fan speed, which points to fans as its cooling. A fan-cooled rig like the S21 XP needs a steady supply of cool air in the room where it runs.

A network connection links a mining rig to the source of its work, which is usually a mining pool, and carries the rig’s results back. The rig has to stay online the whole time it runs. Bitmain’s S21 XP connects to a router or switch through an Ethernet cable.

A mining pool is a group of Bitcoin miners who combine their hashing work and split each block reward in proportion to what each member contributed. Pooling turns rare, large rewards into smaller, more regular payouts. To join a pool, you open the rig’s web interface in a browser on a device connected to the same network. There you enter the pool’s server address, which is called a stratum URL, and a worker name that identifies the machine in your account with the pool.

What Does It Cost to Run a Bitcoin Mining Rig at Home?

A Bitcoin mining rig costs money every day it runs, on top of its purchase price. As of October 2026, Bitmain lists the Antminer S21 XP’s power draw at the wall as 3,645 W. Power draw at the wall is what a machine pulls from the outlet. Bitmain marks the 3,645 W figure as typical, measured with air entering the machine at 25 °C and a tolerance of plus or minus 5%, so real draw varies between machines.

A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is 1,000 watts used for one hour, and it is the unit on electricity bills. Running all day, the Antminer S21 XP uses 3,645 W multiplied by 24 hours, which is 87,480 watt-hours, or 87.48 kWh a day. US Energy Information Administration data put the average US home’s electricity use at about 10,791 kWh a year in 2022, or about 29.6 kWh a day. One S21 XP therefore uses about three times as much electricity each day as that average home.

The US Energy Information Administration put the average US residential electricity price at 18.16 cents per kWh in August 2026. At that price, one Antminer S21 XP costs about $15.89 a day in electricity, or about $477 over 30 days. To estimate your own cost, multiply 87.48 kWh by the price per kWh on your bill.

As of October 2026, Bitmain’s spec sheet for the Antminer S21 XP calls for a supply of 220-277 volts (V) at 20 amperes (A). That range means the machine does not run from a standard 120 V US outlet. Before a rig runs at home, an electrician should check whether the home’s circuits have the capacity for a load that never switches off.

Almost all the electricity a Bitcoin mining rig draws ends up as heat. An Antminer S21 XP at home therefore warms the room it runs in around the clock.

As of October 2026, Bitmain rates the noise of the Antminer S21 XP at 76 dBA at full fan speed. A dBA reading is a decibel measurement weighted to match how the human ear hears loudness. At 76 dBA, the S21 XP is louder than normal conversation, which measures about 60-70 dBA.

The S21 XP’s 76 dBA sits between two levels named by the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Sound at or below 70 dBA is unlikely to cause hearing loss, even after long exposure, and long or repeated exposure to sound at or above 85 dBA can cause hearing loss. Bitmain does not say at what distance it measured the 76 dBA figure, so the comparison is approximate.

What a Bitcoin Mining Rig Cannot Do on Its Own

Owning a Bitcoin mining rig is not the same as receiving BTC rewards. As of October 2026, Blockchain.com, a network data provider, estimated the Bitcoin network’s 7-day average hashrate at about 1,010 exahashes per second (EH/s). One EH/s equals 1 million TH/s. A 270 TH/s rig such as the Antminer S21 XP is about 1 part in 3.7 million of that total.

Bitcoin adds a block about every 10 minutes, or 144 blocks a day. At the October 2026 network hashrate, a single Antminer S21 XP mining Bitcoin on its own would expect to find a block about once in 71 years on average. That long wait is why rigs join mining pools rather than rely on solo mining.

Network difficulty is a number that sets how hard it is to find a valid block, and Bitcoin recalculates it every 2,016 blocks, or about every two weeks. When more hashrate joins the network, difficulty rises and the same rig’s share of the rewards shrinks.

A Bitcoin block reward is the newly issued BTC in a block, called the block subsidy, plus the transaction fees in that block. Rewards are paid in BTC, so their value moves with the BTC price, while the electricity bill moves with the price of power.

A Bitcoin mining rig’s hardware is fixed the day it is bought, while newer generations need less power for the same work. Energy efficiency is measured in watts per TH/s (W/TH), and a lower figure is better. A spec sheet may print the figure in joules per terahash (J/TH), which is the same number, because one watt is one joule per second. As of October 2026, Bitmain’s figures put the older Antminer S19 XP at about 21.5 W/TH and the Antminer S21 XP at about 13.5 W/TH, so the S19 XP draws about 59% more power for the same hashrate.

A Bitcoin mining rig supplies the hashing work. The network’s hashrate and difficulty, the block reward, and the BTC price decide what that work is worth, and the price of power decides how much of that value goes to the electricity bill.