Are you interested in mining casually on your stationary computer but don't really know how to get started? Here is a guide on how to make the most out of your small-time setup.

1. Find a decent GPU - This is a whole science on its own. What miners usually go by is the time it takes to earn back the cost of the GPU versus the profit it is expected to make mining from the moment its purchased. whattomine.com is the best source to go by when it comes to these calculations. As of right now, your best option would probably be the GPU you can get a hold of, as the bull market sends the price of Ethereum up almost every day.

2. Find the most profitable coin for your GPU setup - The reason we mention Ethereum as the go-too coin to mine is because it is currently the most profitable for most people. The ASIC mining factories in Mongolia and Iceland are currently dominating the Bitcoin market so you will most likely not be able to get into that market currently. Another crypto people with lower end GPUs should consider is Ravencoin (see link for pros and cons of that particular coin), although your best bet should really look into the most profitable coin on whattomine for your setup and sell those coins and buy the ones you are the most interested in with the profit. This way you can diversify your crypto portfolio to a large extent.

3. Find a way to overclock your GPU - There are guides online for what settings are the best for your particular GPU when you are mining. One *very* important thing to remember is that the overclocking you do for a GPU when you want to mine crypto is completely different from the one you do for gaming. In other words pre-OC cards do not have the right settings for a mining setup. The easiest way to do this is by downloading the MSI Afterburner for changing the settings on your card. Afterburner download

4. Find a miner and a mining pool - There are several options out there. I myself use gminer. If you are not very tech savy the instructions might seem complicated at first, but its really nothing more than connecting your wallet to the miner and connecting to the mining pool with some copy-pasted text. Guide to set up Gminer

5. Consider using Linux or decreasing the applications running on Windows - Windows is good for a lot of things, but when it comes to mining Linux is superior due to its lightweight approach. Due to Linux not running a heavy system in the background, you can overclock your GPU further on Linux, resulting in a higher hashrate and faster mining. If Linux is not for you then you can try to uninstall as many background programs as possible on windows.