The Legion 5’s battery life is also impressive; it lasted 7 hours and 13 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test. Choosing the best Ethereum mining laptop is easier than shopping for a gaming rig. You don’t have to be concerned about bells and whistles like high refresh-rate displays, per-key RGB lighting and ray tracing. Your main concern should be choosing a system that mitigates the possibility of your internals getting cooked. My theory is that Acer tested which area of the laptop generated the most heat; their analysis concluded that the upper-left region is the hottest. This arrangement benefitted the Acer Nitro 5 because, as mentioned, it is the only gaming laptop we’ve tested that did not surpass 105 degrees on our gaming heat test. Another advantage the Nitro 5 has is its all-plastic body, which may make it look and feel cheap, but it will take longer to scorch compared to its metal counterparts.
To test a laptop’s endurance, we employ the Laptop Mag Battery test, which surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system runs out of power. Finally, we analyze the laptop’s dimensions to see if it’s roomy enough to endure hours and hours of mining. I, too, never thought I’d be recommending a Gateway laptop in 2021, but here we are. The Gateway brand, a Walmart exclusive, came back to life and surprisingly landed on our list of the best laptops for Ethereum mining. Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing laptops for over 20 years. We test over 150 models annually, subjecting them to a series of rigorous benchmarks that exposes how they would operate in the real world.
- According to the Independent, the power required to support Bitcoin’s blockchain reportedly requires as much energy as the entire country of Argentina.
- My only concern with the Gateway Creator Series 15 is its slim chassis.
- We test over 150 models annually, subjecting them to a series of rigorous benchmarks that exposes how they would operate in the real world.
- Ethereum is upgrading its machine-consensus protocol to a less energy-guzzling process called proof-of-stake .
“What’s the best laptop for Ethereum mining” is a question I often get as a crypto addict and laptop reviewer. Mining may generate a considerable amount of heat that can cause thermal throttling, a drop in hash rates , and most concerning of all, damaged components. The Creator Series 15 — packed with a Core i H CPU, 8GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM — climbed to only 108.5 degrees on our gaming heat test. This Gateway rig is our the second-coolest discrete GPU laptop to date. My only concern with the Gateway Creator Series 15 is its slim chassis.
Lenovo Legion 5
The author of this best page has experience with mining Ethereum on laptops. The unit we analyzed for this heat test comes with a hexa-core Intel Core i7-9750H CPU, 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM. Interestingly, if you peer into Nitro 5’s guts , Acer placed its dual fans on the top-left corner , which some reviewers said might negatively affect cooling. Ethereum is running on the proof-of-work protocol, so the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GPU might not offer satisfactory hash-rate speeds to earn decent ETH rewards. From a personal point of view, you should also consider whether an increased electricity bill is worth the ETH rewards. Look out for ETH 2.0 this year and check out our most energy-efficient crypto page.
This is one of the main reasons why PoS Ethereum (known as Ethereum 2.0) will be more eco-friendly than its predecessor. It’s important to point out that many politicians and environmentalists argue against cryptocurrency mining because of its potentially harmful impact on the environment. It’s an energy-intensive process and utilizes a significant amount of electricity. According to the Independent, the power required to support Bitcoin’s blockchain reportedly requires as much energy as the entire country of Argentina.
What Is The Best Laptop For Ethereum Mining?
I don’t want to bore you to death with crypto jargon, so I’ll keep it simple. Ethereum currently uses a proof-of-work protocol, which incentivizes miners to use top-of-the-line GPUs and output lots of energy. PoS, on the other hand, does not require high computational power, which eliminates the need for elite hardware.
The Nitro 5 is also reasonably priced for a gaming laptop at $1,029. Its battery life is more than seven hours, so you don’t need to keep the Nitro 5 plugged in all the time; you can give your outlet a break. As it stands now, the more powerful your GPU is, the more ETH you can earn each month. If it only lasts one hour on a charge, you’ll have to keep it tethered to an outlet, constantly feeding it electricity. Still, a roomy chassis is preferred for Ethereum mining laptops, so keep that in mind.
Best Laptops For Ethereum Mining 2021
Despite the Blade 15 Advanced being slim and lightweight for a gaming laptop, Razer managed to keep it cool under pressure. According to our heat test, the hottest location on the Blade 15 Advanced didn’t surpass 114 degrees, which is well below our 125-degree average. Razer boasts that it uses cutting-edge materials for its vapor-chamber cooling technology. It efficiently dissipates heat through evaporation and condensation of an internal fluid, which helps the Blade 15 Advanced remain temperate with a thin profile. Although svelte, slim laptops are requested by gamers, they’re not recommended for cryptocurrency mining.
The average temperature of gaming laptops’ “hot spots” is a whopping 124.8 degrees. Thanks to Acer’s forward-thinking thermal engineering and all-plastic body, the Nitro 5 remained cool while its competitors could burn their owners’ fingers off. You can also control the fan speeds and enable cool boost via Acer’s NitroSense utility app. On top of that, the Nitro 5 has a one-inch thick chassis, giving it enough room to breathe. Other than choosing a laptop with excellent thermals, you should also consider purchasing a system with a roomy chassis. A laptop with 0.6 inches of thickness may be attractive for gamers and creative professionals who prefer a svelte powerhouse, but for Ethereum miners, who cares about appearance? The chunkier, the better as a larger chassis is a first line of defense against toasty components; search for laptops that are 0.9 inches thick or more.
For example, I wouldn’t recommend the Asus ROG Zephyrus M GU502 because it climbed to a piping hot temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit on our gaming heat test. Mining on it — and other laptops that are prone to overheating — could ruin your GPU. As mentioned, you’ll need a roomy laptop with excellent thermal performance. The Lenovo Legion 5 — packed with an Intel Core i H CPU, 8GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GPU — is one of the most affordable gaming rigs you can purchase. On our gaming test, the hottest location on the Lenovo Legion 5 didn’t exceed 116 degrees, hovering below our 125-degree average.
The Best Laptops For Ethereum Mining
It’s 0.8 inches thick, which may be attractive to content creators who use this laptop, but it’s a weak spot for Ethereum mining. The Acer Nitro 5 notched only 104.7 degrees on our gaming heat test, which is excellent compared to the other rigs we’ve tested.
Ethereum is not as power-hungry as Bitcoin, but Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum’s founder) agrees that its blockchain could be more energy efficient. Ethereum is upgrading its machine-consensus protocol to a less energy-guzzling process called proof-of-stake .