Alright you got all that done, great work! Now we are just going to go through some of the unique challenges you will face with running a mining operation.
-Electrical concerns
A mining rig uses a lot of power. Depending on the coin you are mining and how many cards you are running. Putting it on a circuit you are running a bunch of other things on virtually guarantees issues. Because you will quickly exceed the rating of the circuit and pop the breaker. You can pull a max total of 1800 watts on a 15 amp 110 volt circuit. If you happen to have a 20 amp you can pull 2400 watts max. If you are planning on running a lot of cards a dedicated circuit is probably best. We have both managed to get away without doing that at this point. You can find information for calculating electrical requirements here https://www.thespruce.com/calculate-electrical-circuit-load-capacity-1152739
It should be noted that many people do some pretty dicey things that while may arguable work are a pretty bad idea.
I have seen examples of people holding breakers in the ON position with sticks. Or just running extension cords to power rigs. I believe these definitely fall into the category of asking for problems.... Doing stuff like this may work for a while but definitely will be a great risk of fire. If you need a extra circuit, many resources can be found online for how to install them. I would however only attempt this if you are proficient at doing things such as this as electricity can kill you, cause nervous system damage. Know exactly what you are doing or just don't.
I think some of the biggest pitfalls to avoid would be failing on the installation and setup. Nothing could be worse than taking that risk with all that money only to hook it up and have it go poof.. Some tips to avoid this are
- Take it slow
It's easy to get in a hurry and try and get your rig running, in part this is to be applauded as downtime is not your friend. But taking the extra time to make sure everything is wired up right is definitely worth the extra time. Processor installation involves placing the processor in the socket, if you try placing it in not oriented properly you can damage the processor and or socket. There is tons of documentation online you can refer to if your unclear.. Once again know exactly what you are doing, don't chance it. - Failure to realize the amount of heat involved. A six card rig will produce a lot of heat. You are going to need some place with adequate airflow. When you first start observe your card temps, I would say pushing them above the low 70c range is a bad idea. Change something to make them cooler, add a fan etc.
- There is much conjecture online about how to adequately power your risers. Most people steer clear of the molex to sata adaptors as they can burn if the wattage is to high passed through them. You may not have another good option at times but to use this method
I have been using them for almost a year without issues, because my power supply came with the cables for them, to do it another way i would have had to buy a bunch of other cables and that gets expensive really quick. That being said they work for me because of a few factors.
In your bios limit the pcie to gen1 this means it will at max pull 75 watts through the riser. It should be noted that this is still more than sata is rated for sata's rating is only 54 watts. If you are nervous at all about it take a clamp multimeter and use it to see what you are pulling through the riser while mining.
This has worked for me because the cards I am running are pulling most if not all power through the 6 pin power connector. I am running 1060s. I am even running 2 off one string of cables I would not go 3. You will need to do your homework if your in doubt, a direct six pin connection to the riser is pretty much foolproof.
- Storage of crypto
It seems there is always present in the world people who would rather steal from others than work themselves. There are alot of hacks and exploits out there that target gaining control of your key files. Just recently there was a hack involving using google's dns service to target people using my ether wallet. I'm going to say the only pretty foolproof method i've seen to prevent some of the sophisticated attacks is the use of cold storage. This means your keys are stored offline. You can view your balance on most cryptocurrencies by just entering your address into the currencies block explorer. You then only need to access your keys when sending crypto. Hardware wallets offer the greatest amount of security as then the require verification on the device before sending thus allowing you a chance to stop a malware from changing or corrupting the address... We both use the ledger nano s. It should be noted that ordering one from anywhere but directly from the manufacturer should be avoided as it will open you up to receiving a hacked one.
You should also be wary of third party cables as a device can be embedded in them to intercept all the data passed through. I use the one that came with my wallet exclusively. The wallet I ordered directly from ledger in france. The biggest security risk is usually alway the user. Don't be the one to fall for any of the many scams, if it sounds too good to be true it most likely, it is no one is going to send you more crypto for sending them some. Or using a "special miner or application" that promises a unrealistic hashrate will almost always be a scam to steal hashpower or coins.
I hope this helps you on your journey to crypto riches,
Be smart, Be safe.