A $0 real world Chia setup

[Mastermind007]

I wanted to share a real world Chia setup. I wanted to prove that with no new hardware expensive you can setup a very functional Chia farm with parts you probably have setting around.

All the equipment listed was what I had setting on a shelf collecting dust. I guess it pays to be a pack rat

Setup is a two system configuration consisting of a full node and a harvester only node.

The full node:
This is an old Acer laptop. I install a small SSD sometime ago and it runs Windows 10 very well.
Intel P6100 @ 2.00GHz 2 cores
8GB RAM
120GB SSD
This system does not do any harvesting and absolutely no plotting.

The harvester:
This is a NEXBOX T9 (mini PC) Most are using as TV boxes.
Intel ATOM 5x-Z8300 @ 1.44GHz 4 cores
4GB Ram
64GB Built-in NCARD drive
Attached to the USB3.0 port is a Probox 4 bay enclosure with 4 3TB Seagate HDD’s (Plot Storage)

Both systems are running Windows 10 Home (latest release)
I have a total of 62 plots that are assigned to the harvester.

I have a separate plotter as it requires a little more that these system can provide, if you want to plot more that one every couple days but that is another story.

Both systems use very little CPU and RAM usage. The biggest thing to watch is the communication time when proofs are found. You have 28 second to send the proof to the timeload. Otherwise it gets rejected and you make $0. Ideally you want it less than 5 seconds to be safe. You can check this by setting you chia debug log file to INFO level. Look for lines that list the number of proofs found and what the send time is on that line in the log.

With the above mentioned setup my proof response times are under 1 sec. Once in awhile one will take close to 2 seconds but still acceptable.

So with hardware that most people would consider junk by todays standards, I was able to setup a nice little Chia farm.
Start raiding your hardware storage and build you a nice Chia farm. Or would that be called a farmette

[Potato_Power]

Thank you for all the info! I would like to get into chia farming just for something to try, but I don't have any spare stuff laying around. I might try to see if any relatives or neighbors have any stuff they don't want or use.

[Mastermind007]

Yep, Start raiding garages and attics for hardware.

[Mastermind007]

Thank you for all the info! I would like to get into chia farming just for something to try, but I don't have any spare stuff laying around. I might try to see if any relatives or neighbors have any stuff they don't want or use.

If you haven't watched it yet, checkout the excellent video tutorial Sarah put together. She covers all the basics to get you up and running once you get some hardware.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8346

[OneOfThePetes]

I bought a brand new 2 TB SSD for Chia, and used some hard drives I had laying around...

After plotting for what seemed an eternity, Chia told me it would take 23 years to be successful, so I upgraded my laptop's storage instead!

[Mastermind007]

I bought a brand new 2 TB SSD for Chia, and used some hard drives I had laying around...

After plotting for what seemed an eternity, Chia told me it would take 23 years to be successful, so I upgraded my laptop's storage instead!

With 2TB you can get roughly 20 plots. The 23 years is an educated guess at best on winning a block if you went solo. Now as with any game of chance you could win a block the first day of mining but not very likely. Unless you have a ton of plots, going solo now with the net space so high, you odd of getting struck by lightning on a clear sunny day are better.

Going the pool route you would get about $2.00 a month give or take. Also keep in mind that using an SSD for the final plot location is a waste of the drive. You only need SSD or NVMe for plotting. Once the plot is created you move it to a traditional HDD as it does not need the speed when being harvested. Now you can also plot using a HDD it will just be very slow.

There a many Chia profit calculators out there so you can get an idea of how much HDD space you need to make X amount per day/month.

I have 98 plots / 9.9TiB and I am use the Prohashing Pool. I have like a 2.5 year expected time to win. Playing the odds and the pool is a safety bet.