This is all based on my research of the subject. There is no guarantee of profit in crypto mining. The market can crash along with the resale value of the equipment as the used market gets flooded with cards. As more is mined and more people join. The return on hashrate decreases.
The important factors are memory speed, cost of the card and power usage. Which GPU is best varies on local electricity cost. If electricity is cheap. A more power hungry card with a higher hashrate is better. Generally, a slightly lower hashrate and lower electricity cost is better.
The Radeon Rx 470/570 are popular options based on cost, hashrate and power usage. All the AMD cards are getting hard to find and the prices are going up partly due to their popularity in mining. An Rx 580 will do better but uses more power. Based on current prices and availability. You will likely have to get the Rx 580.
If you want to maximize efficiency. You would overclock the VRAM as high as it will safely go. Then underclock and undervolt the GPU to as low as it will go without impacting performance. As performance is focused on VRAM speed not GPU speed. This would minimize power consumption.
When building one mining rig. You maximize potential profit by running as many cards as you can in one box. To minimize the cost of necessary supporting components. The idea is one case, one motherboard, one CPU, one PSU, &c. Running as many cards as possible.
CPU speed doesn’t matter. Get one that uses as little power as possible. Expansion slots matter. The more PCIe x1 through x16 slots the better (check the manual that all can be used at the same time). Interface speed doesn’t matter. You can use extension ribbons with x1 to x16 adapters for mining. Be sure they are designed to provide power. A large case which can handle numerous cards is a good idea. Perhaps 11 to 13 slots for
Cooling will be critical. With all those cards packed close. You will want blower style cards to exhaust heat out the rear and customize the fan speed to boost fan speed and lower temps. There will be too many, too close to use regular recirculating fans. The case will also need a lot of high volume fans to supply cool air. This thing will be loud. So, you want to keep it out of areas you spend time in. Some people put them in the garage or crawlspace. As they generate a lot of heat. They can increase your power bill a lot more if your AC is trying to cool them. On the other hand, heat, dust and spider webs becomes more of a problem.
If you custom build a case with a high CFM blower and furnace filter. That would solve dust problems and reduce heat. When stored in a garage or crawlspace. Plus allow you to space the cards out.
Power efficiency matters. If you are loading up a case you will likely want a 1500w to 1600w 80+ Platinum or 80+ Titanium PSU. When you are using 1 kWh to 1.5 kWh. A 2%-3% difference in power usage makes a big difference.
You need to calculate your potential energy usage, cost of power and cost of parts to see if there is profit potential. Keep in mind. Next month or next week the market for your crypto currency you’re mining can crash. There is a lot of risk. In a few months Ethereum went from around $10 to around $350. I can't picture that sustaining itself.
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