A mining rig is a professional and powerful computing configuration set up specifically for mining digital currencies, most frequently those using Proof-of-Work consensus, such as Bitcoin or Monero. Mining rigs, as opposed to the regular PCs, are meant to carry out just one job: solving complex mathematical puzzles used for validating the transactions in the blockchain. On the other hand, miners are rewarded with the generation of coins and payment of small fees.
A mining rig is nothing more than a few graphics cards connected to a basic motherboard, or several ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits), which are solely designed for mining. The more powerful the rig is, the faster it can compute the calculations and the greater the opportunity of winning the rewards.
Mining rigs are not only dependent on a constant supply of electricity but also on proper cooling and regular maintenance. To begin with, mining produces a lot of heat and rigs are often stored in the ventilated rooms, warehouses, or containers that have fans or industrial cooling systems.
Over the years, mining difficulty went up and rigs also transformed from hobby setups into the optimized and professional-grade equipment. Currently, the mining rigs are playing the major role in the PoW networks, providing the computing power to the areas that are far off, which makes the network secure and decentralized.