Bitcoin Forum

Hi everbody,

i want to start mining and came first here for downloading mining software and to collect first knowledge about mining and pooled mining.
I use currently a 27" iMac with OSX 10.6.8 (maybe the last good and prof. macos version) with a ATI Radeon HD 4850 built in.
Just checked out the Diablo miner this morning and (suprise) i am running into my first (openCL related) problems :-)

So maybe the forum can help me a little, and once i became a more experienced miner so i can start help other newbies.

I am from south germany and i work as a programmer. My age is between 35 and 40.

Kind regards
-pminers

Welcome to the forum but... what problem are you having?  :D

I wouldn't recommend using that particular platform for mining. The video card isn't nearly powerful enough and being that the system is an iMac (fully-integrated monitor setup if I recall ?) it would be nearly as bad as attempting to mine using a laptop.

If you are serious about mining, you can build a small system with a proper mining video card (ATI HD 5770 minimum) and upgrade from there once you get situated.

~DonShrents

We had serious issues using iMac for heavy duty simulations.
I too wouldn't recommend using a such an high-value/low capabilities platform over the duty it is designed to take.

Hallo pminers,
es gibt auch ein deutsches Miningunterforum :

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=60.0

wie die meisten schon angedeutet haben wird deine HD 4850 nicht sehr viele Bitcoins generieren ,
dabei aber sehr viel Strom verbrauchen und der iMac hat mit Abwärme sowieso ein paar Problem -
Ergo : Mit deiner aktuellen Hardware und den jetzigen Strompreisen , ein nicht so lukratives Geschäft.

Grüße

Tb;ydlG (Too bad , you didn't learn German ) :

I introduced him to the german miningforum and told him that mining on his iMac is a bad idea like the previous posters already pointed out.

Thanks for all the replies.

My problem with diablo was that opencl 1.1 wax required in the newest version but opencl 1.1 is only available with macosx 10.7 or above.
So i downloaded a older version of diablo which supports opencl 1.0 and now it runs on my gpu with approx. 50 MHash/s.

The only remaining question (so far): Does i get overheating problems with the graphic card/imac (means: is there a risk for a hardware damage)?

I know now that the HD 4850/imac is not optimal for mining but its the only hardware i own. My goal (for now) is just to get in touch with bitcoin and mining.

The next step:

If i know how it works maybe i will buy hardware dedicated to mining.

What will here be a good and cost effective solution?
From my point of view it needs nothing than a really good graphic card (or two).
So a cheap mainboard with a cheap cpu, linux and, lets say a ATI HD 5850 (160 EUR on ebay for a used one) will do the job?
A complete entry level system (mainboard, cpu, ram, gpu, midtower, harddisk -> with (partly) used components) maybe is between 250-350 EUR?
What can i expect with this system as a monthly revenue for mining? Is it better to mine alone or as a pool member?
What do you think?

Thanks
-pminers

50mhash/s is fine for that graphic card

as far for investing in mining, getting graphic cards? No. No more. ASIC is the future. http://www.butterflylabs.com/products/

Hi pminers ,
i went to this site  :

http://bitcoinx.com/profit/index.php?hashrate=314&cost=300&electricity=0.25&power=150&months=3.0000&decline=0.50&blockcoins=0

and calculated your profits with an overclocked ATI Radeon 5850, german electricity costs and without counting in the additional Hardware.

You will generate 0.1172 BTC Coins per 24h at these conditions.
These will net you ~ 3.3 BTC per Month.
Power cost per 24h: 0.90 USD
Revenue per day: 1.29 USD

Calculations as per Today's difficulty which will go up and Today's price which varies.
So it is not that profitable.

In the next Months your revenue will decrease by a large percentage when specialized Asic Mining Chips will hit the Market.

then maybe its a good idea to order a butterfly jalapeno?

3500 MHash/s for 149$ sounds good :-)

Is this company trustworth (e.g. will they deliver what they promise?)?

Does anybody know what for a host system (hardware, os) is neccessary to run the jalapeno (or other butterfly asic products)?

Thanks
-pminers

Yes it's a good idea

I have no idea. They delivered the FPGA but about the ASIC, i can't tell you i'm sure they will deliver... probably yes, but dunno

Any OS wich support an USB  :D

Just pre ordered one  :)

BFL products may just make mining so not profitable if every body can mine @ 3.5 Gh/s or more. Mining is difficulty will just sky rocket beyond profitability.

damn son, laying it down