Over the past few years, interest in cryptocurrencies has surged significantly. Not only has the ever-popular Bitcoin grown a lot, but a wealth of other cryptocurrencies have sprung up, including Ethereum, Dogecoin, and many more. Typically, mining cryptocurrency is something that’s done on desktop PCs, and that’s part of the reason GPU prices have skyrocketed over the past couple of years. Couple that with NVIDIA’s attempts to thwart cryptocurrency mining on its gaming GPUs, and it’s quite difficult to build a desktop setup for that purpose right now. As such, if you’re considering investing in a laptop for mining cryptocurrency, we’ve gathered some of the best options you can buy right now.

Cryptocurrency mining is a task that’s almost exclusively dependent on the power of your graphics card (which takes us back to why it’s so hard to buy GPUs right now). Basically, in order to be able to mine cryptocurrency, your GPU needs to perform tasks so quickly that you eventually luck out and win a small piece of cryptocurrency in return. The faster your GPU can perform those tasks, the sooner you’re likely to be rewarded. It’s a lengthy process, and most importantly, it’s a taxing process on your PC and on your electricity bill. It uses a lot of energy and forces your GPU to run at full throttle for long periods of time, which also causes the hardware itself to wear down more quickly.

There’s a good reason why desktop GPUs are more popular for this, though. For one thing, they’re simply more powerful, so they can get much better results. But another important factor is that they can have all the cooling capacity they need. On laptops, you’ll be restricted in terms of cooling capacity, so it’s never going to be quite the same. Still, if you really want to get into cryptocurrency mining with a laptop, we’ve rounded up some great options.

Because it’s so heavily dependent on your GPU, the best laptops for cryptocurrency mining are often great gaming laptops, too. Let’s get into it.

Best overall: Lenovo Legion 5 Pro

We’re picking the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (Premium) for the top spot because it’s both powerful and reasonably priced. Being that it’s a powerful gaming laptop, it’s got the chops to do a decent job at mining cryptocurrency, and it’s relatively affordable all things considered.

To be clear, the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro isn’t the most powerful laptop around, but it’s far from shabby. It’s packing up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, and while that’s not quite the best you can find, it has a whopping 140W of total graphics power (TGP). Not many laptops, even gaming-oriented ones, have that much power for their GPU, so while you might find some laptops with an RTX 3080, that doesn’t necessarily mean they will perform better than this one.

Aside from the GPU, the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro AMD Premium comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, a powerful 45W processor with 8 cores, 16 threads and boost speeds up to 4.4GHz. It’s one of the best CPUs around. On top of that, you can configure the Legion 5 Pro with up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage, so you get plenty of performance and storage space, if you need it. You’ll need to upgrade to at least 16GB of RAM if you want the GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, otherwise you’ll be limited to the RTX 3060.

On the matter of design, the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is up to 26.85mm thick and it has big intake vents on the bottom and under the keys, with four exhaust vents releasing hot air. This should help keep your laptop relatively cool during both gaming and mining sessions, so it’s a welcome feature, even if it makes the laptop a little less portable. On that note, the laptop starts at 5.4lbs of weight.

The rest of the laptop is also impressive if you do want to use it for gaming or other tasks. It’s packing a 16-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, something we don’t see too often for gaming laptops. The resolution is Quad HD+ (2560 x 1600), and it has a 165Hz refresh rate, so this is just a great laptop for gaming and more. It even supports HDR 400 and Dolby Vision. On a less positive note, it does come with a 720p webcam and no Windows Hello support, so you’re missing out on some convenience.

Finally, for ports, we have a very complete setup, as you’d expect for a gaming laptop. There’s no Thunderbolt since it is powered by AMD processors, but you do get two USB Type-C ports (with display output), three USB Type-A ports, HDMI 2.1, RJ45 Ethernet, and a headphone jack, so you’re not missing out on much. This is a great setup that lets you connect almost anything you want.

Best premium laptop: Razer Blade 15 (2022)

If you want a laptop that’s powerful but still sleek and portable, the Razer Blade 15 is a great choice, especially with its 2022 refresh. It’s packing the latest specs, which help make it one of the best laptops for cryptocurrency mining.

The biggest reason for that is that the Razer Blade 15 (2022) is now equipped with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, which is NVIDIA’s best laptop GPU right now It has a 105W TGP, so it’s not quite on the same level as the laptop above in the regard, but the rest of the specs still make this a fantastic GPU overall, and if you want to mine cryptocurrency, it’s still a solid bet.

The rest of the specs are similarly impressive. This is also one of the first laptops to include Intel’s 12th-generation Alder Lake processors with a hybrid architecture, so it’s going to be very powerful for tasks other than mining, too. It has up to a Core i9-12900H, which has 14 cores (6P + 8E) and 20 threads, plus boost speeds up to 5GHz. You can also get it with up to 32GB of RAM (upgradeable to 64GB) and a 1TB SSD (with a free M.2 slot for expansion).

To keep all that running as cool as possible, the Razer Blade 15 uses a vapor chamber cooling system and dual fans that help the Blade 15 maintain its maximum performance for as long as possible. The laptop is under 17mm thin, so it doesn’t have as much space for a beefy cooling system, and that’s also why the GPU has slightly less power. Still, this should do a great job of keeping things running smoothly for extended periods of time.

Internals aside, the Razer Blade 15 offers a few configuration options for its 15.6-inch panel. You can get a Full HD (1920 x 1080) panel with a 360Hz refresh rate, a Quad HD (2560 x 1440) panel with a 240Hz refresh rate, or an Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) option with a 144Hz refresh rate. For cryptocurrency mining, your choice shouldn’t matter much, but each one of these may be best suited for other use cases. A higher refresh rate may be better for esports, but a higher resolution is best for productivity, for example.

One other thing the Razer Blade 15 does right is its webcam. It’s one of the few gaming laptops you’ll find that’s packing a 1080p camera above the display, so you can reasonably use it for streaming, video calls, and more. Plus, it supports Windows Hello facial recognition, giving you an extra layer of security and convenience.

Rounding things out with ports, the Razer Blade 15 is very well equipped, too. It’s packing one Thunderbolt 4 port, one standard USB Type-C port, three USB Type-A ports, HDMI 2.1, a headphone jack, and a full-size SD card reader. The only thing some might have wanted to add is Ethernet, but this is still a very complete setup and there’s not much reason to complain.

Right now, the Razer Blade 15 (2022) is in the pre-order stage, and it will begin shipping on February 22nd.

Most powerful laptop for mining cryptocurrency: MSI Raider GE76 (2022)

If what you really want is the most powerful, beastly laptop you can buy right now, then the MSI Raider GE76 is probably your best choice for cryptocurrency mining. Just like the Razer Blade 15, it’s already packing the latest hardware for 2022, but everything is cranked up to 11.

First off, the GPU inside the MSI Raider GE76 is kind of incredible. It’s packing the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, which is the latest and greatest in terms of laptop GPUs. But on top of that, the GPU can use up to a whopping 175W of power, making this by far one of the most powerful laptops, period. The laptop includes a 330W charger, so it can keep that power-hungry GPU running at full throttle.

Aside from the GPU, of course, you get up to an Intel Core i9-12900HK processor, just like the Razer Blade 15. That means you get 14 cores, 20 threads, and up to 5GHz boost speeds, so performance is certainly not something you’ll be missing here. Plus, it comes with up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM (upgradeable to 64GB) and a 1TB SSD. It’s just a powerful laptop all around.

To make the best of all that power, the MSI Raider GE76 uses a phase-change thermal pad for the CPU, plus it uses MSI?s Cooler Boost 5 technology. There are six heat pipes running through the laptop for cooling, plus two fans with large air intakes on the bottom and exhausts on the back and the sides. The laptop is 25.9mm thick, so it certainly has more space to accommodate an effective cooling system.

Aside from performance, the MSI Raider GE76 packs a large 17.3-inch display with a 16:9 aspect ratio. There are a few configuration options available, including a Full HD (1920 x 1080) display with a 360Hz refresh rate, a Quad HD (2560 x 1440) display at 240Hz, or an Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) option with a 120Hz refresh rate. These options help you choose based on your specific needs or preferences, but it doesn’t make much of a difference for cryptocurrency mining. What we will say is that Full HD on a screen this big probably won’t look that good, so unless you’re into fast-paced esports, the other options might be better.

Something else the MSI Raider GE76 gets right is that it’s packing a Full HD 1080p webcam, so you can use it for video calls or even streaming without having to worry about the picture quality. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support Windows Hello facial recognition, nor is there a fingerprint reader to make up for that.

Finally, in terms of ports, the MSI Raider GE76 is possibly the most complete laptop on this list. You get one Thunderbolt 4 port, one standard USB Type-C port, three USB Type-A ports, HDMI, mini DisplayPort, RJ45 Ethernet, a headphone jack, and an SD card reader. We can’t imagine there’s anything else you could really ask for, so this is one of the most versatile setups you can get.

Like the Blade 15, the MSI Raider GE76 is up for preorder, but you’ll have to wait a while before it ships.

Powerful 15-inch laptop for cryptocurrency mining: ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15

If a 17-inch laptop is a little too big for you or if you love laptops that have that typical “gamer aesthetic”, then the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15 delivers the goods in terms of performance and looks. It’s almost as powerful, but it’s smaller and it has a lot going on with its design, too.

For mining performance, the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15 is packing up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU with a maximum TGP of 130W. That’s a lot of power for a 15-inch laptop, especially being able to allocate 130W to the GPU, so this is certainly one of the best options for cryptocurrency mining at this size. ASUS is working on an even more powerful version in the near future, but for now, this is still a fantastic choice.

The same applies to other performance aspects of this laptop. The Strix Scar 15 comes with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, a powerful 8-core, 16-thread CPU with boost speeds up to 4.6GHz. That should get you plenty of performance for just about any kind of task, including content creation and gaming if you want to get into that later. It also comes with up to 16GB of RAM (upgradeable to 64GB) and a 1TB SSD, so you have a solid machine all around.

For cooling, the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15 has a pair of fans with 84 blades each, four heatsinks, large exhaust vents on the sides and the back, and a wide filtered air intake on the bottom to make sure everything keeps running cool. The CPU is cooled with liquid metal, which should also help lower the overall heat inside the laptop. The laptop is up to 27.2mm thick, so it has plenty of space for its cooling system to do its job effectively.

Moving on from its internal specs, the ROG Strix Scar 15 also has a couple of great display options. This is a 15.6-inch panel with a 16:9 aspect ratio and you can get it in a Full HD (1920 x 1080) configuration with a300Hz refresh rate or a Quad HD (2560 x 1440) panel with a 165Hz refresh rate. These options aren0t as impressive as some other laptops on the list, but they’re far from a bad experience.

If you’re wondering about the webcam, there’s a big catch with this laptop: It doesn’t have one. There’s no webcam at all here, no Windows Hello, and no fingerprint reader, which is easily the biggest downside of this design.

As for ports, you get one USB Type-C port, three USB Type-A ports, HDMI, and a headphone jack. That’s a pretty capable setup overall, though it’s not as impressive as some of the other laptops on this list. There’s no Ethernet or an SD card reader, and the HDMI port is using version 2.0b, so it’s not terribly impressive, but it gets the job done.

Best 16-inch laptop for cryptocurrency mining: OMEN 16

HP’s OMEN brand is very well known in the realm of gaming laptops, and the OMEN 16 is a great option if you want high-end performance. The OMEN 16z, specifically, offers more GPU power, which you’ll appreciate if your goal is mining cryptocurrency.

With this laptop, you’re getting up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU with 8GB of GDDR6 memory. HP doesn’t make this information widely available, but the GPU has a TGP of 115W, so it’s still a very powerful machine overall and it can handle heavy workloads like cryptocurrency mining. It’s not the most powerful laptop out there, but it’s pretty good considering the price you’re paying.

The OMEN 16z is the AMD-powered variant of this laptop, and it comes with up to a Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, packing 8 cores, 16 threads, and boost speeds up to 4.6GHz into one of the most powerful laptop processors out there. The Intel version comes with up to an Intel Core i7-11800H, but considering that maxes out with an RTX 3060 GPU, we’d recommend going the AMD route. You can also configure the OMEN 16z with up to 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.

Keeping the setup cool is OMEN’s Tempest Cooling, though HP isn’t very specific about what powers it. There are two fans inside and three exhaust vents – two on the back and one on the side – plus a large intake vent on the bottom. Large heat pipes run across the interior to transfer heat away from the CPU and GPU, too. Given it’s 22.mm thick, there’s quite a bit of space for airflow inside the laptop and things should run smoothly for longer periods of time.

The display on the OMEN 16z is a 16.1-inch panel, and it comes in the typical 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s not a very impressive display in its base configuration, but you can upgrade to a Quad HD (2560 x 1440) panel with a 165Hz refresh rate, so if you want to use the laptop for gaming, that’s a solid option. But going with the base Full HD/60Hz model can save you some money if you really just want the power of the GPU for mining cryptocurrency.

If you care about webcam quality, the OMEN 16z is unfortunately not a standout. It comes with a 720p camera that’s not all that great, and there’s no Windows Hello support either – not even through a fingerprint reader.

One area that the OMEN 16z has fully covered is ports. You get one USB Type-C port (Thunderbolt 4 in the Intel model), three USB Type-A ports, HDMI, RJ45 Ethernet, a headphone jack, and a full-size SD card reader. All your needs are pretty much met here, so there’s not much more we could ask for.

Best 17-inch laptop for mining cryptocurrency: Alienware x17 R2

Alienware’s second iteration of the x17 laptop has a large display and plenty of power, but it still manages to be relatively compact. It’s a beastly laptop with advanced cooling that should keep its components running cool, plus it has a pretty unique design.

This is one of the most powerful laptops you can find for cryptocurrency mining, featuring an incredibly powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with a whopping 175W of power. That’s as much power as the MSI Raider GE76, but now packed into a slimmer chassis. You can still expect things from this GPU, though, because Dell also has some impressive cooling (more on that in a bit).

In addition to the powerful GPU, you can get the Alienware x17 with up to an Intel Core i7-12900HK, a 45W processor with 14 cores and 20 threads, plus boost speeds up to 5GHz. Both the GPU and CPU are the latest and greatest from their respective companies, and on top of that, you get up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM and up to 4TB of SSD storage, making this one of the most capable laptops on this list.

Even with those insane specs, the Alienware x17 is just under 21mm thick, so you might be worried about its cooling solution, but there’s nothing to worry about here. Dell is using its new thermal interface called Element 31, which has already proven itself in the first-gen Alienware x17, to keep the CPU and GPU as cool as possible. On top of that, there are somehow four fans inside this chassis, with large intake and exhaust vents keeping air flowing so everything running cool. Plus, there are plenty of heat pipes drawing heat away from the major components of the laptop, too.

On the display front, the Alienware x17 is packing a 17.3-inch panel in the typical 16:9 aspect ratio. Right now, the only configurations available are in Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution, either a 165Hz or 360Hz refresh rate. You can save some money by going with the former, but the latter is naturally better if you also want to play games, specifically esports titles.

The webcam is unfortunately not impressive, being that it’s yet another 720p sensor that’s not going to look amazing for video calls or streaming. On the bright side, though, you do get Windows hello facial recognition support, so you’re not missing out on convenience.

Rounding things out with ports, the Alienware x17 doesn’t cut any corners on that front, either. You get one Thunderbolt 4 port, one standard USB Type-C, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, mini DisplayPort, RH45 Ethernet, a headphone jack, and a microSD card slot. Even among gaming laptops, this is a very impressive setup, and one of the best on this list.

Like other laptops that are packing Intel and NVIDIA’s latest hardware for 2022 is available for preorder, but it should start shipping near the end of February.

Best compact laptop for cryptocurrency mining: Razer Blade 14

Want something extra compact that still has the power to mine cryptocurrency? Look no further than the Razer Blade 14, one of the most impressive 14-inch laptops out there, being both slim and powerful.

With its 2022 refresh, the Blade 14 now comes with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU, and it can allocate up to 100W of power to that GPU. Of course, that’s not quite on par with the large, thick laptops we’ve seen on this list, but it’s far from a bad card. It’s NVIDIA’s latest and greatest, and with 100W of power, it can do a lot.

That’s not the only part of the laptop that’s been upgraded, though. The Blade 14 also now comes with AMD’s Rzen 9 6900HX, and it’s one of the first laptops to feature AMD Ryzen 6000 series processors. This 45W CPU has 8 cores, 16 threads, and it can boost up to 4.9GHz, making it AMD’s most powerful laptop CPU right now. Additionally, you get 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD with the Razer Blade 14, so you’re getting a solid experience overall.

Much like the larger Razer Blade 15, the Blade 14 is impressively thin, and to make up for that, it’s using a vapor chamber cooling system to help bring temperatures down. This should allow the GPU to make the most of its 100W TGP, and you can also count on dual cooling fans with 88 blades each to keep airflow going, with two exhaust vents on the back getting rid of hot air inside the machine.

Beyond its internal specs and performance, the Razer Blade 14 comes with a 14-inch display and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The high-end models (which is what you want if you’re planning to mine cryptocurrency) come with a Quad HD (2560 x 1440) panel and a 165Hz refresh rate, which is a solid offering for gaming. There’s a more affordable version with a Full HD (1920 x 1080) 144Hz panel, but you’d have to sacrifice GPU power, which doesn’t make sense for mining.

One thing the Razer Blade 14 gets right is the webcam, since all the 2022 models have been upgraded now. It comes with a 1080p camera so you look great during calls or meetings if you ever need to take them, plus you get Windows Hello facial recognition support, too. That’s not something you see often on gaming laptops, especially at this size.

Finally, the port setup on the Blade 14 is also solid. Being that it’s powered by AMD processors, there’s no Thunderbolt support, but you get two USB Type-C ports, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, and a headphone jack, so it’s a fairly well-rounded setup, especially for a 14-inch laptop.

The 2022 model isn’t available to pre-order just yet (at writing time), but pre-orders will open on February 10th, so there’s a good chance it’s available by the time you’re reading this. You can find it below.

Best for the budget-conscious: MSI GF65 Thin

Buying laptops on a budget isn’t a fantastic idea if you want to mine cryptocurrency since it requires a lot of power, but if you really want something at a reasonable price, the MSI GF65 Thin might be your best option. This isn’t the latest edition, but it’s packing a solid GPU, and that’s what matters the most here.

That GPU is an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, and while it’s obviously not quite as powerful as the other laptops on this list, it’s still a solid graphics card. It can use up to 75W of power, which also isn’t impressive compared to higher-end laptops, but it’s also far from a bad GPU. While it won’t get you the best results, it’s a solid way to get started and see what you can earn.

With the MSI GF65 Thin, you’ll be making some sacrifices on the CPU side, which is acceptable considering that’s not the most important performance aspect here. You get an Intel Core i7-10750H, which is a 45W processor with 6 cores, 12 threads, and boost speeds up to 5GHz. It’s not the latest and greatest, but it’s still very far from a slow processor, and it’ll do just fine for the majority of tasks. Aside from that, you can get up to 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, a solid balance of specs for its $1000 price tag.

While the GPU isn’t as powerful as some bigger laptops, MSI is still bringing its A-game when it comes to cooling. This laptop features the company’s Cooler Boost 5 design with two fans handling airflow and a total of six heat pipes moving heat away from the core components of the laptop. There are also three exhaust vents pushing hot air out from inside the laptop so everything keeps running smoothly.

In the display department, the MSI GF65 Thin is fairly basic for a gaming laptop, but it’s still solid. You get a 15.6-inch panel and it comes in Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate. It’s still pretty good for gaming, and if your goal is to mine cryptocurrency, then it does the job perfectly fine.

As you could probably see coming, the webcam is one of the downsides of the laptop, and it does come with a 720p camera. That’s usually one of the first components to be sacrificed when looking at affordable laptops, so there are no surprised here. Windows Hello support, whether that’s through facial recognition or a fingerprint reader – is also nowhere to be found.

To finish things off, let’s talk ports. The MSI GF65 Thin comes with two USB Type-C ports, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, RJ45 Ethernet, and a headphone jack. Despite having Intel processors, there’s no Thunderbolt support, but that’s not uncommon with gaming laptops in this price range. It’s still a solid setup overall, and it covers all the basic needs and then some.

That sums up our recommendations for the best laptops you can get for cryptocurrency mining. We chose the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro for the top spot for its combination of a powerful GPU with 140W of total graphics power while still having a very reasonable price point for those specs. It’s also a beefy laptop with a cooling system that should do its job quite well. But if you want to make the most out of your investment, then the MSI Raider GE76 or the Alienware x17 R2 are definitely your best options, packing the latest NVIDIA graphics and a massive 175W of power you can’t really find anywhere else.

Looking for good laptops for something else? We have a list of the best laptops in general if you don’t care about mining cryptocurrency. And if your needs revolve around portability and working on the go, then maybe you’ll like our best 5G laptops list.