Bitcoin Forum

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Considering mining with my 2x 6950, as it is now after 4 months off mining will have paid off one card.
Worried about component degradation, fortunately most components in warranty.

Live in sweden ordered from Germany, according EU law the Warranty holds and incase of warranty dispute shipping is resellers responsibility atleast 1 year, maybe 2 years(?)

Pro's with mining:
Electrity is transformed into "free" heat, Sweden get's cold in winther.
I'm getting one 6950 "free" (ofc speculative).

Con's

In worst case scenario I end up with dead components and low value BTC/usd ratio.
^^^^ electricity bill + dead/worn out components
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I'm considering mining with 2x 6950 and according my calculations if the price of BTC holds and electricity does not rise in cost I would in 4 month have paid off one of the 6950. (200euro profit).

Now 4 month of running 24/7 mining has following cons:

Component degradation:

GPU: I have 2x brand new 6950 sapphire Dirt 3 edition dual fan, these both are under warranty however I guess it depends how the reseller sees on noisy worn out gpu fans, it's a serious well respected retailer so I'm hoping they have proper warranty support.

Motherboard and cpu, my phenom II 965 should be well in it is 3 year warranty period with atleast 1 year left.
I have 2 identical 4 PCI-E motherboards neither with warranty but I got them cheap.

Memory: Also brand new with good warranty.

Case Fans: I have a HAF 932 with beatiful low noise BIG fans, however I don't want to wear them out so I have ordered cheap Arctic coolin 3euro 120mm fans. Most likely I will put in side panel 2x 120mm 400rpm AC fans + 1-2 140mm 500rpm Scythe fans with 120mm plugs.
My main concers is that the 120mm fans won't be as effective as the BIG HAF side fan but my GPU's have one of the best coolers on them as is.

On top I'm going to put 2x 120mm AC 400rpm fans also on front same thing.

PSU is XFX Core 850w, built by Seasonic, quality PSU with warranty.

Well, check into the warranty, some are voided if you Overclock, but as long as you manage the heat the cards should last a long time....but that's tough with 6950s they put put alot of fucking heat

That's for sure, I tried running 3 HD 6950s with stock coolers in a case (fulltower with decent airflow) - let's just say that didn't last more than a few minutes, even with the fans @ 100%...  It might be possible with better coolers, but I would go with an open air setup if possible. 

As for component degradation - if you buy products with warranties from companies that produce quality items, you shouldn't need to worry about it.  If you can maintain a safe temperature, and refrain from overclocking too much (specifically overvolting) then your components are going to last at least as long as the warranty and should easily pay for themselves over time.

lets grossly overestimate that mining will take about 1/2 of your cards life away... that said, an average card will last 6+ years without dieing... even in 3 years time, most miners, being the computer geeks they are (my self included) will have new gen cards or at least be preparing for that upgrade anyways... so my advice is mine away... when they die, its just god telling you to upgrade :p

I typically use "Aggression = 7" parameter and GPU load is 96-97% procent, this way the hash rate do not drop too much and the GPU is much more stable and degrades slower. It's the same as using a fixed framrate at 50HZ in gaming, GPU is much less stressed and performance very consistant.

This would make me cringe. 50 fps in any first person shooter is terrible. I know the eye can only percieve 23ish frames per second but still, you can tell a difference. But back ontrack.

Do you have any proof the GPU degrades slower at only 96%?

Another thing is see how long your warranty is, and send the card back in faulty real close to your end of warranty. It depends on your integrity. A "mysterious" component malfunction could also be sent back for a warranty. Like, kill your fan by preventing it from spinning and let the card melt itself.

If you can RMA (return materials authorisation) for a failure under warantee, then you're fine.  Failure outside of the time limit will be the problem.  Running at stock speeds will make a random component failure less likely, but even then you might have a fault.  Running hotter increases the chance of frying your GPU-RAM or GPU.  Fans tend to last a long time, but they do fail (I replaced a fan last month because the bearings failed - then as good as new).

Motherboard components - not especially relevant as BTC is more GPU focused.