Bitcoin Forum

As above really - have between £12-1500 to spend.

Was thinking:

4x 280x Sapphire Vapor.
970 extreme 4,
8gb ram,
Cheap SSD,
And possibly 2x 750w bronze psu's.

The problem is the imminent arrival of scrypt ASIC's. I have registered my interest with Alpha-T but looks like I've missed the first batch.

Obviously computer hardware can be sold on after using it, and I need to factor in cost of electricity here as it isn't cheap in the UK!!

What do you reckon?  ???

#1.  Get your money back from Alpha Technologies now.  They are the first BFL of the scrypt asic mining scene.  People are handing them thousands of dollars for pre-order vaporware.  Companies that fund their dev with pre-order cash = you may/will not (ever) get your hardware in time to make ROI.  Ignore the Scrypt asic hoopla for it - it's virtually all hype and very little substance at the current moment.

#2.  Scrypt Asics will not purely outhash GPUs (yet).  They will certainly do better hash/watt/density, yes, but asics are not repurposable for supporting future algorithms at the hardware level. They are therefore a terrible long-term bet if/when the need may arise to sell back hardware.  I could sell back my paid-off hardware and offset the electrical bill difference easily.  See those AMD cards selling for hundreds above MSRP? Yeah.

#3.  4 280x's is apx 2.8/3mhs.  That should net you at least half a btc a month on middlecoin (and much more on "good" days).  You are only gonna spend a small portion of that on electricity.  It's a good investment.  Go for it.

I haven't sent them a penny! And either way they are only 140 miles from me - I'd make the trip if my money ever went walkies!

Looks good to me - I think I'm in. 4 x 280's is looking favourable over 5 or 6 270's.

Anything else you can add?

Stick with the 280x's.  It's not fun fighting the mainboard / AMD drivers getting 5-6 270s recognized and running.  

Also, use sgminer (http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoinmining/comments/1va8g2/ann_sgminer_400_release/) and try the Cat. 13.4 driver pack / 2.9 SDK combo first.

Thanks for your input. Really helpful.

PSU, what do you reckon - 1 decent one, or two smaller ones?

Better get one decent one.
Also 2GB is sufficient for Linux. if you use Linux you won't even need the SSD as you can install Linux on an USB stick.

If you're only doing it for the profit don't do it. Mining is also a hobby and needs a lot of attention.

No profit in it whatsoever?

I like to tinker with computers, and this will be another reason to be mucking around with them.

Already got a bootable Linux Mint stick, but can use whatever OS - that should keep costs down.

Also regarding the PSU - calculators reckon 1750w - Really??

1750w is too high.
1500W should be sufficient for 4 and you can even undervolt them which is recommended as it safes energy and also lowers temp.

4 280x will give you around 2800khash.
Check out here (http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency/?sha256HashRate=1000.00&sha256Power=500.00&sha256PowerCost=0.1000&scryptHashRate=2800&scryptPower=500.00&scryptPowerCost=0.1000&sha256Check=false&scryptCheck=true) how much you could earn right now. But keep in mind that difficulty changes, the most profitable coins always switch and ofc the price changes aswell.

You will make money, you might also make ROI. I'm just saying that you shouldn't do it purely for the money cause then you should do something else. But its a fun hobby and when you like computers its a nice income for having fun. ;)

lol you are being missleaded in this thread!
Buy 2X 750w comes cheaper then one single 1200w and you can add more then 4cards to that setup!
also you can run those 4cards on about 1200w , even 1000w if you undervolt them.

also Why the fuk would u spend money on setup just for a hobby? wtf? Of course do it for profit!
4X 280x Overclocked will get up to 3200khs with correct settings on air cooling.

Yeah stay away from those scrypt asics for now on, you will be able to mine only specific coins with them and you can get your money back selling those videocards,usually at least 70%!

Thanks to everyone for the input  ;D


That sounds good to me!

80plus bronze ok or look to silver/gold for long term stability? Currently got one an XFX 750w in my desktop, after the first Antec Shat itself in a cloud of smoke! Faulty batch apparently.

Last question (I think) Sapphire 280x VaporX or Gigabyte 28XOC-3GD?

Like you said, scrypt ASIC is coming and it is really risky to get into mining now. You might want to consider purchase Litecoin or any scrypt coin directly?

And see my money fluctuate daily? Or Invest £1200 in something that will bring me a return, keep me occupied and still sell for £7-800 in a year?

What do we reckon?

About single vs 2 PSUs...

The EVGA Supernova 1300W is a not-too-expensive PSU that you may find interesting.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438011

That's $240, I don't know the prices in the UK

Bronze, silver, gold, platinum has to do with power efficiency, not long term stability. For long term stability, you need to pick good brands and not push the PSU to the limits. Pull only up to 80% of the rated power out of the PSU at 24/7 operation, and even less in the Summer

Perhaps a XFX 850W or some Corsair 750W, or preferably Seasonic

Thanks. Had my fingers burnt with cheaper PSU's in the past - Although being a decent make!

I'll sort the PSU, thats not a problem.

However, Sapphire 280x VaporX or Gigabyte 28XOC-3GD? Is it worth spending the extra £15-£20 on the Sappire card?

Thanks again.

 ;D

Strongly disagree:
#1 Demand for those 1st-3rd gen scrypt asics will be astronomical.  Outside of personal company use, group-buyins, and solo farms buying up thousands of units, the chances of your average miner (you, me etc)  getting units is extremely small.   One could very well hold out for the next 2 years before scrypt asic supply levels out the demand.  Certainly not worth losing out on current profitability by "holding out".

#2 GPUs will (usually) be viable for next generational algorithms, while asics (probably) wont be.  Never buy non-repurposable hardware for the sake of end-game returns.  Look at the btc asics.  Only the very best asics are still viable, everything else is virtually worthless.  GPUs retain innate value and returns from their multipurposibility, while asics grow only to obsolescence and at a certain point, no return (or negative).  

#3 Going fiat to crypto is what is risky.  Cypto could crash tomorrow, and you lose your fiat.. period.  Going the hardware route is your hedge against risk.  Your hardware will not evaporate if crypto crashes.  Now, if one can't mine due to environmental factors or electrical, then fiat is your only option.

So, so far I have:

Gigabyte 970A-DS3 - £40 delivered.
Athlon X2 250 - £25 delivered.
Sapphire 280x VaporX - £250 delivered  (running in my desktop for timebeing)
I'll be pulling A 4gb stick of corsair vengeance out of my desktop, Dont need 8gb anyway.

I also think I should have my hands on two cards tomorrow - One 7950, One 7970 for the grand sum of £320!! We will see though.

Question for now is will a decent XFX 850w Psu with a single 12v rail (70A) be enough to power the three cards?

 ;D

Regarding PSUs - I went the discontinued server PSU route - currently running 4 cards off a single DPS-1520AB at 1440W or something, cost me about 140USD for 5 of them, half of that was delivery from the US to Scandinavia. The rest of the system is running on a somewhat cheap Corsair 400w unit and that is mostly cause I also mine datacoin on the cpu.

5x sever PSU's? Fancy selling me one? Lol. Im in the UK  ;)

I'll look into that, thank you. I've got a couple of old 400w PSU's knocking about, so could possibly use one for MOBO alone.

And offtopic/ Is datacoin profitable then?

Also, how have you converted them to run PCI power cables?

Check ebay for DPS-2000, DPS-2500, DPS-800 , DPS-1520 and Dell Z750P (poweredge 29something PSU). DPS-2500 is a real monster - http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4854652 but unfortunately comes without fans. Got it powering a few Antminer S1 units right now with jerryrigged fans on the side.
As for connecting them  - got a bunch of quality PCIE cables and butchered them on one end :) A multimeter is nice to have but I trusted the internet regarding the pinout and so far it has worked out fine.  
Check http://www.gekkoscience.com/products/server_supply_breakout_board.html and https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=379677.0 for a nicer way of connecting it all. Oh and make sure you do the homework regarding all those model numbers, you want 12VDC, think some of those server PSU can do 51VDC as well and you probably do not want that.


EDIT - about datacoin - I don't know if they are profitable now. I managed to find 2 blocks soloing and about 15 datacoins mining with http://dtc.xpool.xram.co . I find the idea kinda neat , seems to serve more purpose than most of the coins here, somewhat like namecoin I guess. So I think of it as a long term bet and I only have an i5 and some phenom 9xx mining it, not much of a running cost there, electricity-wise.

Thanks for the info.

Found a Dps-2500ab but its 51vdc! Only £44 too - I'll keep looking.

And I've got an I5, and will have an athlon so might have a go at mining it myself. What's the block reward?

Around 9 or 10. Can't check the miners atm, but it was some weirdly uneven number around 10 for both blocks as far as I remember.

Nice one! I've found an IBM 1520 for £34 delivered!

Only thing is it comes with no cables...

Any ideas on pinouts on the above PSU?

Pm'd.