PLEASE NOTE: the guide below was written back when Megacoin mining was profitable. I recommend my 6 GPU Mining Rig Guide as it is updated weekly and utilizes current graphics card and build options. Happy Mining!

In this guide, we will cover how to build a Megacoin mining rig and configure it for pooled mining of this popular alt-currency. Starting with the Megacoin mining hardware, we will walk through each step of the process until your rig is pointed at a mining pool and hashing away, keeping the network secure and processing this currencies transactions. But before jumping into motherboards and CPU’s, let’s take a moment to look at the currency.

Megacoin is a crypto-currency that combines the well-known scrypt algorithm and a fairly unique ‘gravity well’ algorithm which fine tunes the ‘mining difficulty’ to prevent certain kinds of attacks on the coin’s network. I found this post in the Megacoin subreddit helpful in understanding some of the advantages the currency has over the other 40+ alt-coins in existence. And, to quote from the official Megacoin website:

Megacoin is a new type of decentralized currency. Not minted or endorsed by any nation, but by users across the globe. Anywhere there is internet, you can send or receive Megacoins. Even in outer space. There are very little rules for Megacoin. To prevent inflation only a limited supply of 42 million Megacoins will ever exist. Megacoins are mined by users at a set rate for decades into the future. You can get Megacoins for free by mining or trading for them on an exchange.

Now that we know a little more about the currency, let’s get started in setting up and configuring a Megacoin miner.

1. Megacoin Mining Hardware

2 GPU Budget Megacoin Mining Rig Tutorial – The budget build guide for a 2 GPU rig will cost under $1,000 to build and usually takes about two hours to assemble. Enter 1,300Kh/s on the Megacoin mining calculator to determine current profitability of this custom build.

4 GPU Megacoin Mining Rig Tutorial – Running four graphics cards in a custom built mining rig will produce about 2,600 Kh/s of mining power. This build will set you back around $1,600. To calculate the current profits, use this Megacoin mining calculator and enter 2,600Kh/s for hash rate.

6 GPU Megacoin Mining Rig Tutorial – If you want to run the most cards on one custom mining rig, this is it. A six GPU rig will give you a blazing 3,900Kh/s and run about $2,400 to build. In theory, the Intel chipset this build is based off of can support 7 graphics cards. However, power use and some hardware/driver issues can cause problems, so we recommend a maximum of 6 cards. Enter 3,900Kh/s on this Megacoin mining calculator to figure out the current profitability of this build.

2. Megacoin Mining Software

By far, the best Megacoin mining software is cgminer, created by ‘ckolivas’. If you’ve successfully built a mining rig and installed all the drivers, This is the software you will want to install. I would recommend downloading cgminer 3.7.2 as it is the last version of cgminer to support the scrypt hashing algorithm.

3. Megacoin Mining Pools

This is a brief list of some of the most popular Megacoin mining pools. Please feel free to add more in the comments as they come online. You will want to point cgminer at the url provided by the pool of your choice.