There are multiple options for running an Nvidia GPU mining rig to mine cryptocurrency. You can use Windows or multiple flavors of Linux. I tend to use Ubuntu for most of my Linux needs, and so I used it for my rig as well. Initially I wanted to use a completely headless install with only a CLI system. I didn’t see a need for X. That didn’t work out because the Nvidia driver and the customizations required to overclock the GPUs required X.