Bitcoin Forum

I would like to get a mining rig set up but I am new to this so I was wondering if there were any suggestions for a starter rig... nothing too fancy and doesn't need to have a large profit margin or anything because id like to mess around with it for a little bit before deciding to invest any large amount of money. Thank you for your responses

I'm not a miner, so I leave the advice about setting up a rig to someone more knowledgeable than me, but I did want to make sure that you are aware of the risks that ASIC presents to new miners right now.  I'm not saying not to get involved in mining, it could end up being many months before any ASIC get delivered, but there is potential that you could invest a significant sum into setting up a GPU rig right now, and very shortly afterward if ASIC start shipping out the block difficulty could skyrocket and you could find yourself operating at a loss.  You'll have to decide for yourself what the likelihood of that is and if you are willing to take on that risk.

ok that is completely understandable. thank you. I will do plenty of my own research on the topic of ASIC I suppose. Any other suggestions from anyone?

find a cheap ati HD gfx card try mining, if thats what you would like to try :)

block reward halves in less than 2 days now - means miners earnings will halve

There is however value in learning apart from financial reward and if you are thinking of getting into ASIC mining doing some learning on a GPU will help you :)

ok and i was just browsing around and found this product, http://www.butterflylabs.com/product-details/ , with something like that do I literally just plug it into my computer or is that just too good sounding to be true haha

also:
How do the rewards just half like that?

Bitcoin has a total 21million coins, approx every 4 years the reward for mining blocks halves, it is how Bitcoin was deigned
today it is 50BTC
after
<gribble> Estimated time of bitcoin block reward halving: Wed Nov 28 19:20:36 2012 UTC | Time remaining: 1 day, 13 hours, 10 minutes, and 0 seconds.
it will be 25BTC

most of the ASIC devices use a USB connection to connect to your computer, you will then need to install and run mining software on the PC, there will be some effort involved:)
Avalon ASIC is a standalone solution with a NIC and a built in processor to run the mining software etc no pc required

The butterfly rigs are asic machines, but are thousands of dollars definitely not a small investment.   I would look for a used computer with a decent dual core processor and some kind of recent ATI video card.  You will want the motherboard to have pci express connectors, to hook in the video card.  Some good starter cards that you could find used would be 5770, 5830, 5850 varieties.  You will also want a decent power supply probably at least 600 watts.  I haven't mined much recently, but when I was two 5850 running 24/7 generated about .2 btc a day.

The mining forums will have a lot more info available so I would check them out.  I would run guiminer software if you are just getting started as well.

buy an ASIC, it is a good investment, and you can make your money back through mining :)

In about 2 years...

sorry but no
you can buy from bfl from $150

I chose the bASIC at $1069 will do 72Ghash
less than the 1st 2 7970s I bought -$1100 - the pair do 1.4Ghash

a 5770 (for example)
<ozbot> At 200 MH/s, you should earn 0.05849695 BTC/day on average (0.00243737 BTC/hr)
which will halve in just over 24hours

seriously now is not the time to be getting into GPU mining unless its for the learning, the earning isnt there anymore

Right now I have messed around a little bit with RPCminer and bitminter (just on a stock computer) but i still do not know much about the technical side which is what I would like to get into... Not just mine but also to learn. profits would be a nice addition i suppose :) haha so basically not just mine to mine but also know what "mining" technically is and how the whole bitcoin system (blocks/blockhains) operates because I've done some reading but still a little unclear to me and I figured the best way to learn would be through experience.

also if a butterfly rig is as cheap as 150 then where does the huge cost come from that people seem to be referring to quite often. *Thats just me assuming I an buy that thing and plug it into my computer so if thats wrong i apologize haha

Graet, Thanks for clarification.  I didn't realize BFL had those kind of options.  I was only suggesting GPU mining as a way to get more familiar with things.  I stopped any real mining efforts with my 5850's several months ago.  Once the price went back over $7 the difficulty jumped backed up enough to make it unprofitable, but all those coins I mined when the price was down were worth it.

How much power is the 72 Ghash machine pulling?

According to an unofficial bASIC FAQ (https://github.com/XertroV/bASIC-FAQ#power-requirements) it seems to be around 120 W or more.

A lot of people on glbse lost a lot of bitcoins in mining bonds based on that false assumption.

well the $150 rig is USB powered and does ~4.5Ghash/s
the $1000+ ones have different claims depending on maker
bASIC is now up to 72Ghash for $1069+shipping

"cost" is a point of view thing
High income earners would consider $1000 petty cash, low income people consider $1000 a small fortune...

there is a 1.5Thash device BFL offer for something like $30,000 - so maybe people are just looking at that and going "woah expensive"

So the funny thing is that if we heeded advice from August saying "don't get into GPU mining because ASICS are coming" they aren't really slated until middle of January now so whats that? 4 months of potential mining profit (let's say .2 btc a day * 30 days * 4 months = BTC24)  At that rate it's around $288 with a BTC12 conversion rate easily covering the GPU investment if you have a decent PC already.  Now as BFL keeps delaying and rewards get halved the future gets a little murkier but make your own calls on what you should do.

There is hardware for almost any price point:

$150 - The BFL Jalapeno - 4.5GH/s
$600 - The bASIC mini - 36GH/s
$650 - The BFL Little Single - 30GH/s
$1070 - The bASIC max - 72GH/s
$1300 - The BFL SC Single - 60GH/s
$1300 - The Avalon - 66GH/s
$2800 - The Reclaimer - 80GH/s
$29900 - The BFL SC MR - 1500GH/s