Bitcoin Forum

Just got my 2nd graphics card in and with them slightly overclocked +90 Mhz I'm getting 500Mh/s.

Is it worth trying to solo mine at this point or should I wait until my new coolermaster case arrives so I can crank the overclock higher?  Or wait even longer for my new motherboard and 3rd graphics card to come in?

Cheers

It depends why you're mining. Do you prefer a steady small income? Or do you prefer a small shot at $825?

how patient are you?  if you can wait 135 days to solve an average block, then it may be.

Well, I would basically like to first recover the cost of the 2nd grphx card I just got and the new case on it's way.  After that I'm looking at a 2nd system with triple crossfired cards.  But I didn't think 135 days was the wait time.  That's a little long, however, it seems more profitable to make $825 in 4 months than to keep pooling at the rate I'm going now.

I found a few calculators out there but they all give different results.  Is 135 days the average time if running at 500Mh/s?  Or just in general?  How is this calculated when taking the difficulty into account?  Sorry about all the math questions but it would be nice to be able to figure out my odds (I know luck is a variable in the math)...

Also, if I solo mine, is it possible to shut down the computer for a bit or does it HAVE to run non-stop until it finds a block?  I found sites with people arguing both sides of this one.

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

amount of hashes needed = 1379223.4296725*2^32=5.92371952432034349056*10^15
hashrate in days = 500*10^(3*2)*60*60*24=4.32*10^13
amount of days needed = 137.12313713704498820740740740741

I would not solo mine with 500Mh/s, why not using a pool? So you would get a regular income instead of waiting for the BIG BANG which eventually never happens.

Thanks Duffman!  That link is exactly what I've been looking for!  You suck Google! LOL

I have been in a pool since I started last week.  The payout hasn't been what I expected from what I read before I started, but I think it has to do with the recent jump in difficulty.  I was just wondering if it was worth it and I wasn't 100% sure so I thought I'd ask for opinions.

Thanks guys! :)

The recent difficulty increases have really made it unattractive to start mining now.  The heydey of mining may have passed in my opinion and whats left is corporate mining.

I wouldn't mine solo unless I had >2Ghash/s and free electricity.
ATM I have 0.8 Ghash/s, pooled mining is the best solution, 2% fees isn't really a lot.

Try http://arsbitcoin.com/

they have no fee

this is very true , however if many smaller miners do leave then perhaps there will be a decrease in difficulty .   i know i would rather have more than 1 coin a day with what is here but it wont happen at this rate and will only be worse later on.


Jen

id go for pool mining, try the pool in my sig its quite good!

Pool mining reduces your variance.  Many pools are no-fee, so in my opinion, pool mining is the way to go for now.

Agreed on joining a pool. I'm using Wuked's mineco.in, which is a smaller pool, and the variance isn't that big of an issue. The longest wait was 3 days to solve a block.  But it pays out all 50 BTC + transaction fees. 

One of the blocks took 11 minutes.  So its also entertaining.

If you decide to stop after mining 100 days solo with no results, then the variance has a measurable loss compared to a pool.

Totally your choice tho.  If you know you are going to leave the miner running 24/7 for a few years then go for it.

The same if you decide to stop after mining 50 days solo having mined a block.

How long you plan to mine shouldn't be a factor in your decision. The factors are precisely the same whether you mine for five minutes or five years.

i suggest pool mining

I also suggest pool mining man :)

warning though, that is an average.. you really should look at some of the percentiles.

some people will find a block in 30 days, but some wont find one in 300 days


there was a calc, i cant find right now, that lets you put in all your numbers and shows you the 10percentile and the 90 percentile as well as the average.. it will make you think a bit more about solo, especially if you are pessimistic liek I am


edit here it is (http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/old_calculator.php)

50% find one in within 95 days, but 95% find one within 410 days, that means 5% dont find one for more than 410 days.. grief and that is with 100% uptime.

But even with lower hash rate, mathematically it is possible for some one to get one within a week right? I mean its unlikely, but possible, like winning the power ball. The more I read the more it just seems like a crap shoot.

yeah you can get lucky.. many have, steve gibson of security now got a little lucky finding his block within a week. Dont recall his hash rate but it wasnt something so high that he should have found one in a week.


So yeah it is a crap shoot... I was just looking at it from the other side of the coin. Sure you are just as likely to find one in a week, as someone is to sit there for 2 years and not find one at all.

Are you one of these spammers which are the reason we are stuck in the newbie section?

your link goes to a baffling page about using hydrogen for bit coin.

it says exactly nothing about power per coin.

you nick is the same site, that the post links too.

and there is absolutely nothing at all on your site about bitcoin or using hydrogen for bitcoin or the energy of producing a bitcoin.

why shouldnt I report you as a spammer? What is your goal with these posts? Do you actually offer fuel sells for computer systems?

Thanks for all the replies guys.  I think I will stick to pooling.  When I get my second rig up and running, I might have it run solo for a month or two and see what happens before I throw it into a pool.

Cheers!

As for now, 1500 Mh/s is not worth to solo mine :P