Bitcoin Forum

Hi everyone!

I'm fairly new to Bitcoin, and I was hoping to get some advice and perhaps some tips.

First off, I have been thinking about investing somewhere in the neighborhood of 100$ into a GPU or somesuch. I had been hoping to get advice on whether/what to buy, and what would be involved in doing so. I should state that power concerns are not necessarily a concern; I'm living in a college dorm and do not pay utilities.

Right now, it's going very slowly. I have an ATI Radeon 4300/4500 GPU in my 4 year old desktop, and it's been OK (somewhat) for gaming up till now but it's only getting 6.8 Mhash/sec running GUIminer on Slush's pool. (Also, can anyone tell me if if this is the expected hashrate for this kind of card/what I could do to raise it?)

I'm very interested in becoming involved in the Bitcoin economy, and, like I said, am intrested in investing in somewhere in the neighborhood of 100$, if someone could give me advice.

Many thanks, and I look forward to being part of the bitcoin community!

Bitcoin mining by itself should be seen as a way of transferring your wealth if you don't have any option to get it with conventional currencies, not as a method of getting rich off mining equipment, with the cost for everything ( including electricity ) you won't be making a profit any time soon, do the math and be careful also 6.8 Mhash/sec is terrible, I only get around 400 Mhash/sec and mining still goes incredibly slowly.

I have read that it is possible to buy certain GPUs and get return on investment within several months. I had been hoping to solicit some advice in this department.

Also, as you said, my current rate is pretty bad. Should I expect more from my current graphics card (Specs above) or is it a lost cause?

Thanks!

You can see hardware performance numbers here:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

A $100 GPU won't get you much mining power in return.  Here is a calculator for you to figure out how long it will take you to get your money back:

http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/

Almost lost cause, don't bother much to tweak it more. That statement is true some time ago, but as for now with the reward halving and the advent of ASIC's, you'll be lucky to get your investment on GPU's back in 1 year without factoring in wear and tear.

You need more "horsepower" than you have got now. Last winter, I had about 3GH (not really that much) but at that time I calculated that my ROI would be better off if I'd sell all my mining gear. The upside to my mining experience was that I learned quite a lot. Welcome!

If you are looking to profit from bitcoin, you may want to look beyond mining.

My angle is this:

The ATI Radeon 5830 has one of the best Hash-to-price ratios of any GPU. I can buy one on ebay pretty cheaply (Max: 70 bucks), or if you fine chaps have other places, I'd be very interested to hear them.

The 5830 clocks between 220 and 300 MHash/sec, meaning under current market conditions, I would make between 14 and 20$ a month. (Between 1 and 1.4 BTC per month)

Yes, over the short run, difficulty is set to rise, but so is the exchange rate. Though nobody's really sure about either of those, short run.

Long run: Yes, ASICs will arrive on the market eventually. They've been suffering some self inflicted pain this week, but they'll show up eventually - within 3-4 months, and at that point, I've made back most if not all of my startup cost, and am more than content to make money over the top after that even if the amounts do decline.

I might be a newbie, but I'm not expecting to be rolling in money - I've done my research, I'm not someone who heard about bitcoin last night on the news.

So: Does this make sense to you guys? Should I go for it? Are there holes in my plan? Is there any better card to buy, or any place to go to get it cheaper?

Many thanks.

TwigsVii, it looks like you know what your doing. I only dissuaded you because many new peers start out thinking that their home gaming systems are going to make them rich.  If you just want to try it out and can risk your investment, then it might be fun.

Cheers.

Better idea:  Go to work, earn money, and use some of that money to buy bitcoins.

Bitcoin mining is a specialized industry, just like gold mining, and unless you really work at it for a long time and stay ahead of the curve, you'll lose.

You could always mine other coins, like litecoin. But you're right, with ASIC's right around the corner so the mining landscape will be changing.

IMO, gotta start somewhere. I originally took up mining just bitcoin. But once I managed to understand that configuring for other coins was easy. However, make sure you do MUCH research regarding backing up and keeping your wallet secure.

Oh and patience above all. With the card you are going to get, mining will NOT be fast.

Best of luck with whatever you decide.

What makes you think that the exchange rate is going to rise in the short term?

This or offer services for Bitcoin directly (for example on the forum). You're a student, anything with practical application someone would pay for?

Sounds good, go for it.