The hard drive in a mining rig needs to store the operating system and the mining software on it. Since the rig we’re building is going to be running Windows 10 and mining software, we don’t require a lot of storage on our system. A simple, bottom-line solid state hard drive will suffice. Here are a few options – similar to the RAM, pick the cheapest one you can find from a reputable manufacturer.
SanDisk SSD Plus 120GB
More expensive, but from a name that’s been in the business a long time, is this SanDisk 120 GB solid state hard drive. It holds twice as much as the cheaper hard drives, but that isn’t necessary for a mining rig.
However, if you’re planning on using the computer build for anything else during or after your Ethereum mining, this could be a better long-term choice.
This SanDisk hard drive comes with a 3 year manufacturer warranty.
Silicon Power 60GB MLC Solid State Drive
This isn’t a real big name in the industry, but it comes in at the cheapest, and seems to be readily available. That could make it a good choice for your mining rig. It comes with a 3 year warranty which is the same as the name-brand options, and has decent reviews.
With a SATA III 6 Gbps interface it allows for fast boot times and application loading. It uses Bad Block Management to prolong the lifespan of the drive.
Customer reviews have little bad to say about the product – a few users report drives coming with bad sectors or arriving dead, but in reality all of the name brand drives have this issue too. So long as the company stands behind their warranty, and as long as this is cheaper than the name brand solid state drives, it’s a good option.
Drveo X1 Series 60GB SSD
This solid state drive is about as cheap as they come for a mining rig build. It’s a highly rated hard drive, and it’s fast – 500 MB/s read and 90 MB/s write speed. It’s build with Hyinx MLS memory that will last longer than other solid state components without slowing down.
For a mining rig, it’s reliable, and fast, and most importantly cheap! It is large enough to hold the operating system and mining software, and it will keep costs low so that you can pay back the mining machine faster.
The Drevo X1 series hard drive comes with a 3 year manufacturer’s warranty.