I’ve been hobby mining Monero since 2013, mostly using discarded hardware that I acquire in my work as an IT guy. I keep a close eye on my performance per watt to make sure the hardware I’m running is at least breaking even, if not generating a (small) profit. I recently got a new laptop for work and thought I’d see what the Monero mining performance was like. I was pleasantly surprised by the performance per watt that I got.

It’s a Dell Latitude 7xxx with the following specs:

- Intel Core i5-8350 CPU @ 1.7Ghz (4-Core)
- 16GB DDR4-2400 RAM

That CPU is the star of the show. It has 4 cores but since it only has 6MB Cache, only three cores are used during mining, since each core needs 2MB cache for optimal performance of the RandomX PoW. Running XMRig 5.5.1 under MX Linux in text only mode, I get an average of ~1550 h/s while only drawing 34 watts. That gives me ~46 h/watt. Compare that to my next highest performing machine, a 16-core Intel Xeon server that gives me 5500 h/s at 270 Watts for 20 h/watt, and it’s clear that Intel's Mobile CPUs offer an amazing performance to watt ratio for CPU mining.

With a currency that is still mine-able via CPU like Monero, you could get a pretty efficient mining setup going if you could acquire a these low-power CPUs while keeping your hardware costs low. With my local power prices, I’d make XMR 0.05/mth if I mined with this laptop 24 hours a day. The combination of high performance with low power usage makes this class of CPU ideal for Monero mining.

I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes out for more late-gen Intel Laptops when I'm picking up electronic recycling. I'd love to see what a Core i7 or i9 could do.

Referral Links:
BlockFi
Celsius Network
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