Bitcoin Forum

So here is what I purchased:
http://doxcade.com/store/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=168

http://www.amazon.com/Litecoin-Bitcoin-Miner-1500kH-mining/dp/B00CCTSM98/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1366000061&sr=8-11&keywords=bitcoin


3x 7970 for  1500KH/s @ $2400+shipping.
What do you all think? Is it a rip off or did I make a good investment? How many BTC/LTC can it generate? I'm new to mining.

why didn't you build it yourself? Its not that hard to put 3 cards in a mobo.

Why oh why do people buy first and THEN ask if they should have bought what they bought.  ???

I could have, but how much money would I really have saved? And what is more important, time or saving money considering this thing probably pays for itself in a few months and I have 6 months to pay (I used credit)? My goal was to get into mining ASAP with the least time investment. Considering I could build it myself it would also mean it would cost in terms of time which could be spent mining.

The next one I probably will build myself based off this one if I need a next one.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QPv0
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QPv0/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QPv0/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Sempron 145 2.8GHz Single-Core Processor  ($35.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX  AM3+ Motherboard  ($98.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($41.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 80GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($29.99 @ Compuvest)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (3-Way CrossFire)  ($269.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (3-Way CrossFire)  ($269.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (3-Way CrossFire)  ($269.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF XB (Black) ATX Desktop Case  ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 900W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply  ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1236.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-15 06:38 EDT-0400)

You would have saved over $1000. Can you cancel your order?

Holy hell, I'd be willing to to build you the same rig and get it ready to mine with instructions for $1500.

You got chipped my friend.

But.......Hmm this is a good idea. I should compete with this guy. I can build a much better rig cheaper.

Why does your description say 7950? But the op 7970?

Because I based my build on what he actually purchased (based on the product descriptions that he linked), not what he thinks he purchased.

Because he's customizing it with 7970 and overclocking. It could be hype but I cannot cancel my order because it's ordered on credit and not everyone will accept my credit. If I cancel my order and no one else takes my credit then I just can't mine until I have the cash in the bank (and I'm broke).

Long story short, my credit is not good enough to order any other way. Buying individual parts and building it myself might be cheaper but it might not be possible and since this order went through and I don't have to pay for 6 months it's not going to make a difference. -$1000 for 2 month mining advantage is what I'm paying for. On top of that if I really had to I could probably sell the rig and get most of my money back or give it back to him for a refund.

So you're saying you think I'm gonna receive a product other than what I purchased? I'll just open it up and see it's not what I purchased and get a refund so I don't see the incentive for that. Also on the site you can customize it with the 7970 which I did.

I don't know if I should stick with the 7970 for the marginal gain in hashing or go with the 7950. What say you? He's claiming I'll get 2000 kH/s. For my first foray into mining I don't see how it's so bad, as this probably wont be where it ends. This would be my reference build, what I'll probably end up doing is building my own based on the reference build but I have some concerns.

How hot do these things run? How many maximum video cards can I put in? How much electricity can my home which is old take from running these things 24/7? How many realistically can a person run at a time in an average house with aging wiring?

If it's clearly profitable, I don't see why I wouldn't build 4-5 of these 6 months from now but at the moment there is too much I do not know and I don't have the money or time to experiment until summer.

I was just going by the components that were listed on the Amazon page, which lists 7950s. If you and the vendor agreed to upgrade the machine to 7970s, you should certainly expect to receive that, and I don't see any reason you wouldn't.

2000 KH/s is not unreasonable to expect from 3x 7970s. Heat is definitely a concern, though. 3x 7970s generate a good bit of heat, and that case may not handle it.

Profitability is hard to guess, because it really depends on how much the difficulty will increase as more and more ASICs come online and all the GPUs that are currently mining BTC get switched over to LTC. Chances are, eventually the machine will pay for itself. But unless you took difficulty increases into account, it probably won't pay off as quickly as you think it might.

Anyhow, if you're actually getting a turnkey mining solution with 3x7970s that does 2000 KH/s, it's probably not that bad of a deal. A 3 GPU gaming machine from a boutique PC vendor would have had the same kind of markup.

Is there anything I can do about the heat? We don't have air conditioning and with the electric bill of running this device air conditioning will probably be very expensive.

How long do I have before the difficulty increases in your estimation? Are we talking weeks? months? I figure it would take 3 months to pay for itself.

You can take it out of the case and point a box fan at it.

Difficulty adjusts ever 2016 blocks. For litecoin, that seems to be about every three or four days, and the difficulty goes up by about 10% each time it adjusts. (Based on recent adjustments.)

If that rate of increase continues, difficulty will go up around 100% each month. Double the difficulty in a month means half the return. Four times the difficulty in two months means one fourth of the return. Etc.

It's probably more realistic to expect full ROI in six to eight months, and then maybe another few months of profitability before the difficulty is so high that the return is less than the power cost.

Of course, if BTC and LTC go stratospheric again, you'll pay off sooner and stay profitable longer.

When the difficulty is too high what can I do then? Will I have to buy another rig like this with whatever profits I get from this one or would I have to do serious research and go on a quest for something more exotic?

Yes more exotic, and it is ASIC.  ;D

The difficulty is already rising and it's going to get worst in the future. You could try mining LTC.

the profit exemple used today's difficulty and a price that may not come back for quite some time.

I thought Litecoins are immune to ASIC? Basically I'm interesting in LTC because I know it's too late for BTC.

I'll build my own ASIC when the time comes.

You should be able to make a good $329.17 per month at current difficulty and price.

However, for the $2400 price tag, your purchase is definitely not worth it. You have to account for both electric costs and the heat for AC, which will be quite significant (it will heat up an entire room pretty fast).

In the best case scenario you would break even in ~10 months, which would have been only 4-5 months if you had built a rig yourself.

In general, if you want to buy a PC, you must buy and build it yourself. Ever notice how expensive prebuilt desktops and laptops are? They are A LOT more expensive then they really are worth.

getting 666kh/s out of 7970's isnt that easy imo.

10 months is a while, but building it myself means I couldn't start for 2 months so that would mean 7 months from now vs 10. Then it also depends on what happens with Litecoins. Do they end up on MtGox? How much will that influence the rate that I break even? What will the difficulty be 2 months from now? .

Ultimately 10 months from now I'll probably have to buy a new, build or upgrade anyway or perhaps even before that.

If all the GPUMiners leave BTC for LTC you may never see a ROI since that prebuilt is way too expensive.

That does not justify the $2400 price tag. It's basically the same as cutting your efficiency by 50%.

What would I have to build in the chance that all the GPUMiners leave BTC for LTC? I'm assuming if I waited and went with a cheaper build it would be too late and all the GPUMiners would already have left. I figure in the next 2/3 months they'll still be on BTC giving me a chance to mine LTC before having to upgrade. If I make $350 a month minus the electric bill, if I don't break even after 5 months I'll still be able to sell the rig and get my ROI that way.

In a couple months I'll be in a position to sell this rig and build a new one. What do you suggest I build 2 months from now?