Shenzhou laptop mining experience

After a few days of hesitation, I placed an order for two laptops, CA5NB and CA5NP, from Shenzhou during the Spring Festival, and started using them to mine. This article mainly records the relevant operations and experiences, and provides a reference for miners who plan to use this laptop for mining in the future.

When I placed the order, the price of CA5NB was 6499 and the price of CA5NP was 6699. As of February 23, the prices of both computers have basically exceeded 7,000 yuan, so if you plan to buy them, you have to consider carefully.

The main reason is that recently in a WeChat group, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin revealed that EIP1559 may be implemented this summer, that is, in July or August. At that time, the income of miners will definitely drop significantly, so this is a relatively large risk. According to the deduction of the previous article, this laptop may be able to pay back in July. If the price of the notebook increases by 1,000 yuan, it means that the payback time will have to be postponed for another month. If EIP1559 is implemented at that time, it will have to be postponed further. In other words, the payback time may be delayed to October or later.

The second reason is that NVIDIA has announced that it may restrict mining on the 3060 graphics card in the future. Most people believe that the specific measures may be restricted in the BIOS. As for whether the computer you buy later will be restricted or not, it is hard to say, but the possibility of no restrictions in the near future is still relatively high. After all, the factory is so busy producing chips and motherboards, and it takes a period of reliability verification to modify the BIOS at will. Therefore, time factors do not allow it. But this is just speculation, and we have to wait for Huang to speak specifically.

Laptop unboxing

Both of Shenzhou's notebooks use Clevo molds. According to the seller, the heat dissipation is quite good. If there is no model sticker, it is basically difficult to identify them.

Before unpacking, check the integrity of the outer packaging to prevent damage, etc. Because this laptop is currently popular, if there is a problem, the seller will basically ask for a quick return so that they can sell it to other customers. However, as a miner, it is better to use an unopened computer to avoid disputes later.

CA5NP packaging

There is still some difference in the outer packaging of the two, and users can see the product information from the label on the side.

Back up the system to drive D

3. Connect to the Internet, download the mining software and Sunflower remote control software, and set them to start automatically at boot time.

For example, there are multiple mining software and kernels recommended by F2Pool. Here we take F2Pool as an example. The address is: https://www.f2pool.com/tools

It is normal for the overclocking prompt to fail. This is mainly because the power consumption and fan are controlled by the computer's built-in software, and the mining software cannot set them.

4. Set up the fan

Select the automatic mode and set the offset, which is usually around 50%, or a little larger. Then adjust it according to the mining situation, so that the graphics card temperature does not exceed 70 degrees, usually around 60 degrees. If necessary, you can use external fans to dissipate heat.

After waiting for a few seconds, the computing power is as shown in the figure. The author's laptop has good heat dissipation and overclocked to 1250. Actual users can adjust it according to their own computer performance and the graphics card temperature. It cannot be forced.

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Mining software comparison

There are many mining softwares at present, and they are also rich in functions. The main functions are as follows:

1. Provide mining kernels . Generally, these software include multiple mining kernels. Currently, the more famous N cards such as nbminer are one of them. Of course, some people use claymore kernel or Phoenixminer kernel. The software gives users choices.

2. Overclocking function . Although the overclocking setting parameters of each software are the same, they may eventually bring some differences. For example, after the open source miner and the easy miner are set with the same overclocking parameters, the GPU frequency of the easy miner will be higher than that of the open source miner. It is not known whether there is any impact at present.

3. Group control function , used for unified management of multiple devices, providing convenience for miners.

At the same time, the author finally compared the half-day mining data of Open Source Miner and Easy Miner. At present, the number of submissions of Open Source Miner is slightly smaller than that of Easy Miner. The mining fluctuations of both are relatively large. Under the same parameters, the local computing power displayed by the same kernel of the two software is the same, and the local computing power is very stable. The local computing power number will hardly change. Of course, if the user is not interested in pumping, he can also use the original kernel for mining configuration (the original version also has pumping). Generally, miners can remotely control and monitor the computer at any time in Sunflower, which is also a more convenient choice.