Bitcoin Forum

I have just received an S5. I know absolutely nothing about the different types of mining pools, and after some researching it looks like it would take a lot of time to fully understand them all.

On that note, what pool can you recommend to an average Joe with an S5?

Everybody's going to have different opinions, so let me be the first to give you one :).

-ck/kano (the guys who wrote the software that your S5 uses to mine) run kano.is (http://www.kano.is).  Straightforward, no-nonsense pool.

P2Pool.  I've run my own node (http://104.131.12.128:9332/static) for over a year.  It's nice and decentralized, and has treated me very well.  Some people have reported issues with S5s on p2pool.  Others have reported they work just fine.  One of the miners on my node uses an S5 and it works just fine.

Try solo mining (http://solo.ckpool.org) because why not?  It's risky, but what if you hit?

If you want to rent your gear out to people, try Mining Rig Rentals (http://www.miningrigrentals.com/register?ref=10151) (yes, that's a referral link... feel free to not use it).  I use that service and have had great success both renting out my own gear, and renting other's gear.  Also, you can try NiceHash (https://www.nicehash.com) / WestHash (https://www.westhash.com) (no referral links there).

Hope this helps.

Use this : http://nodes.p2pool.co/

example = http://minefast.coincadence.com/
user = Bitcoin address
password = nothing

when P2Pool find a block, you will be pay automaticly ... without manual withdraw or minimal amount.

Ideally, OP would want to run his own p2pool node.  However, your suggestion is valid if they don't want to bother with the hassle and just want to point that S5 to an existing node :)

I'm currently pointing to - stratum+tcp://stratum.antpool.com:3333

This doesn't mean I'm solo mining right? This is pooled mining and I have to pay 1% fee or something...

Should I also include stratum+tcp://stratum.antpool.com:25 + :443 ?

What if I pointed to solo.antpool.com instead? Would that be solo mining?

LOL... you ask us for recommendations, then you come back and tell us you're pointing to antpool.

No, you are not solo mining pointing your S5 to stratum.antpool.com:3333.  Ports 25 and 443 are only there in case you've got some kind of network problems preventing you from hitting their standard stratum port.

solo.antpool.com is not solo mining either.  It's the same pool as stratum.antpool.com.  What they mean by "solo" is absurd.  Most every pool works like they describe their "solo" pool.  There's nothing magical about it.

Now, in my opinion I don't particularly like antpool.  I mentioned some choices in my first post... here are some good reputable pools that I recommend:

p2pool - because I mine here and like it
kano.is - run by the guys who wrote your mining software
bitminter - DrHaribo is always on here and responds on the pool thread regularly
slush - pretty much the first pool ever
MRR - great way to remotely manage your gear (I have used it for over 7 months).
nicehash/westhash - rental site that is PPS for 3%.  A lot of times you can make more than expectations due to higher demands for rentals.

Whatever you chose avoid Chinese pools
You can read the forum carefully and decide - the most important is to whom you trust and that is completely up to you

I'll echo johnnybravo's comments, especially the one to not use antpool (and all Chinese pools for that matter).

I have all my miners pointed to MRR to start.  When they're not rented, I split my hash between ckpool and NastyPool - a p2pool instance with a custom front end called NastyPoP.  This front end attempts to pay miners more evenly, which reduces variance and helps stabilize payouts for smaller miners running on standard p2pool. Check my sig for links to read for more info, and also read the thread Johnny has going about the comparison between NastyPoP/NastyPool and standard p2pool. 

I also recommend to always use at least two different pools.  First reason is obviously failover in case one pool goes down.  The other reason is to even out luck, and have two sources of income in case one pool happens to have a bad luck streak.