Bitcoin Forum

I just started today and I am using Guiminer and I joined a pool called BTC Guild.  I am just using a laptop that I use for gaming with a GeForce 445m graphics card.  I can tell this is worthless as it takes hours to get .0000001 BTC. On one of the guild pages it shows who got the most share for each shift and I get 2-10 while others get millions.  How do they do it, and what, if anything can I do to increase my output to actually get something someday.  I was also wondering what people thought of the $279 5Gh/s box from butterfly labs.  How long after you order do you get it and is it worth it?  At current prices, you only need 3 bitcoins to make back your money.

I guess my question is....how do you do this effectively, or am I just late to the party and there is nothing left to do?

Thanks

i have the same question :O hoping some one can answer

Do not orded from BFL. Even a snail could ship the units faster than them, do not expect your order to arrive before Christmas. Consider buying gpus instead, but make sure you do research for some hours before you invest.

Radeon 7950 cards have the best output:cost ratio. You should be able to get 600+ khash/s per card.

Also it's usually more profitable mining alt currencies than it is to mine BTC. Look to coinwarz (http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency) or coinchoose (http://coinchoose.com/) for a guide of the best coin to mine. For instance WorldCoin (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=204894.0) (pools listed here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=206904.0)) currently has a profitability > 400% of BTC. Mine it and convert it to BTC at mcxNOW (https://mcxnow.com/exchange/WDC).

So no real way to get an ASIC machine right now?

Depends a bit on what you're looking to do. BFL is still a gamble. They've shipped some demo units but haven't started full shipping yet. To give you an idea of what sort of a wait you could experience, some people ordered last June and don't have their units. I ordered in November and certainly don't have mine.

Mining with a desktop with a GPU has plusses and minuses. On the one hand you can mine Bitcoin or alt coins with it and can always resell the GPU. On the other hand it is possible that it won't be very useful for Bitcoin mining in the not too distant future. The only reason it is still profitable is because the price has seen a drastic increase. I'll probably buy another GPU or two but I also have open slots in miners that are already running.

Either way, make sure to do your research and make a good decision. There is risk either way.

just get some 7950´s. its not sure when BFL deliver their units ;)

Yeah, even if you order the unit now, you could be lucky to get the unit before fall.

Some people have been backordered at BFL for close to a year, so even if they started shipping (in large numbers) today (which they aren't), it would be several months before new orders processed through.

MINE DEVCOINS.

They are merge mined with Bitcoin, so you get both
They release 5,000 coins per block instead of 7 like bitcoin
They are going up in value
They should be 10 cents, but are 20 per 1 penny
They have been worth $10 each over a year ago

I think you should mine something else instead of bitcoin, since its so damn hard

To answer to the question of hoew people get millions of shares:

They either use multiple rigs with multiple HD 7950's or they use FPGA clusters, or they went the smart way and either ordered an ASIC Chip driven mining rig from Avalon or ordered just the chips in a group buy and assembled a rig themselves.

As far as my research in the custom mining hardware subforum (mining-> hardware -> custom hardware, if you want to look it up here in the forums) goes the cheapest way to get hands on a fast mining rig that has a speed of several GH/s is to enter a group buy for the avalon chips and then take one of the offers from people that offer to assemble them into a mining rig for a small payment. If his design works with the projected costs there is one offer that would use 20 chips (which would result at something like 5GH/s+) and cost inlcuding the chips would be somwhere between 2.5 and 3 BTC. I am currently looking to get that money together and try it.

In my view getting into GPU mining at this point in time is not worth it. Only do it if you get them really cheap and have low electricity cost or if you already own the graphics cards. Otherwise look into getting enough money to buy in on ASIC rigs. But as was mentioned: Don't go with BFL rather look at Avalon for complete rigs or just the chips.

Hi everyboby.
I am new in the block.

Welcome.

The big problem with Bitcoin is that they can be mined with ASIC's - custom hardware - A lot of people ordered these ASICs from thrid party companies - essentially golden geese. They did this expecting the company to design, make and then sell to them these "golden geese"  for the same bitcoin they intended to mine.

As expected, these people are still waiting for their golden geese to turn up and you can read their ridiculous antics and complaints throughout this forum - just search "BFL ASIC".

In the present situation, if I started mining now, I would buy a bunch of GPU's off ebay, mine Litecoin and use them to buy bitcoin on the btc-e exchange.