Bitcoin Forum

I dont give a shit about electricity
I dont give a shit if used or not
What GPU gives the best ratio
Is it the 5850?
If it is, are there any alternatives as 5850s are hard to find.

7970

Overclocked 7950... can be had for $220 if you sell game codes.

does everyone basically buy their cards from newegg?

I do..sales+coupon are hard to beat. You can try NCIX...once in a blue moon they have great weekend deals. As mentioned above..selling the game codes is a bonus. 7950s ftw.   I got .33BTC for one of my coupons..
 My first bitcoin sale..that BTC is going into a physical paper wallet and im putting it on my wall.  8)

Mmm maybe.

7770: ~200Mh/s @ $105 = ~1.9MHs/$
7850: ~300MH/s @ $160 = ~1.9MHs/$
7870: ~400MH/s @ $220 = ~1.8MHs/$
7950: ~500MH/s @ $290 = ~1.7MHs/$
7970: ~650MH/s @ $400 = ~1.6MHs/$

A major factor is your side costs. If you've got a budget of $3,000, you would only be able to buy ~20x 7770s, as this would require 3-4 computers to run them. 4 motherboards, 4 CPUs, 4 PSUs, 20 risers, etc. all add up very quickly. You might be more interested in buying 6 7970s, and fitting them all only one motherboard, with one giant PSU. You're looking at one computer rathen than 4, and roughly the same speed.

The other thing is deals. Obv, if you can find a 7950 for $220 rather than $290, than it's more profitable.

My end suggestion: Plan on building one rig: 1 MB, 1 CPU, 1 RAM, 6 risers, and everything else. Then take your remaining budget and split it up between buying the fastest 6 cards you can afford, and a PSU big enough to power them. If you've only got a $800 budget, then get 6x 7770s, and a 700W PSU. For a $1,200 budget, then you might be looking at 6x 7850 and a 1000W PSU. If it really is $3,000, then go for the 7970s and a nice 1400W PSU.

Money isn't a problem, I got almost $30k, however my goal was to just get 1 ghash/s for around $500. Would it be better to buy the most expensive cards possible? I thought gpu mining was almost obsolete and it wouldn't be wise to invest so much in it. I just wanted to spend a few hundreds bucks and mine for fun instead of having my laptop that I use for school run 24/7 mining 30 mhash/s.

Never use a laptop to mine - unless BTC jumps to $500K at the current difficulty.  Not worth killing a laptop for 10-20c/day

GPU Mining will probably be dead for anybody paying electricity in 2 months, maybe sooner.  If you want a new video card just buy a few nice ones (locally to avoid ship times), and start mining today.  Waiting on extenders to be shipped (even within the US is 3 days loss of mining) and when earnings are counted in days left that's a lot.  Once Avalon gets batch 2 & 3, BFL ships Batch 1, and ASICMiner upgrades to 50TH it's game over unless BTC compensates to $1500 or something ridiculous like that.

Shhh! keep it a secret... 1.5GH/s for $500

5830: ~260-300MH/s @ $90 = ~2.9-3.3MHs/$

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&LH_Complete=1&_nkw=ati%205830&_mPrRngCbx=1&_udhi=99

 ;)

For every $550, you'd have to buy a new MB/CPU/PSU/etc. With 7970s, you only have to buy a MB/CPU/etc every $2,400.

Is gpu the only thing that matters? Because I'm pretty sure my dad can get as many free junk old computers from his workplace as he wants.

Pretty much yes for mining other cryptocurrencies. For BTC, no since ASICs are out there now even if scarce.

You would need a PCIe slot, enough room inside the case for the GPU, and a PSU that can power it. You can throw a GPU in just about any comp that fits those criteria.

Some guy is offering me his 3x7970 rig for 4 bitcoins. Is that a good deal? Seems like a fair price to me. However he says I have to put it in escrow until he ships it rather than when I receive it.

if you can find them go for 5850s, they run for $100-$150 each, and each will do a minimum of 370kh/s, average of about 385kh/s and the good ones will do 403kh/s.

Escrow is good. For both parties.

I know but he wants to be paid the moment there's tracking.

I smell the musty tang of mom's basement.

I would get some new cards, coz old 5800 series has been working for years and it's no longer covered by warranty.
with the current AMD Promo and some weekend deals, AIR, you can end up with some really decent 7800 or 7900 ;)

Then there is no point in escrow as I am pretty sure you would receive a stash of bricks if iphis conditions.

Any excuses not to use escrow should be seen as a scam attempt. Legitimate reasons or not, that's how it is. An excuse you will often hear is "I need the cash now''. Well, he wouldn't get the cash anyways if no one is buying, isn't he?

Yeah and all those old junkers will have multiple PCIe slots and decent power supplies..  DOUBT IT!
stop wasting you parents money (electric) kid..