Bitcoin Forum

Just wondering if I can utilize my old PCs to start mining cryptos. But not sure where to start for those old types of equipment. Need advice.
Here is some small information about the equipment I have in my storeroom:
What I'm looking for? Which GPU should I buy for each PC? I mean which one will support with them. Also, you can suggest any CPU mining coin.

1. Quad-core 2.9, Intel G41 mainboard, 8 GB RAM, 1 GB internal graphics
Which GPU best suits this one for mining? (if any)

2. Core 2 Duo, Intel G31 mainboard, 4GB RAM, 1 shared graphics
Which GPU best suits this one for mining? (if any)

3. Core i5-650, H-55 mainboard, 4GB RAM, 1 GB onboard graphics
Which GPU best suits this one for mining? (if any)


Thanks in advance for your valuable time.

You are in the wrong part of the forum. You can't mine bitcoin with cpu or gpu. You need to ask in the ALT Coin part of the forum here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=160.0

CPU mining is a thing of a past and even if people who indulge in CPU mining in this time have modern and powerful CPUs (Ryzen, Xenon, etc.) to make it any profitable.
Anyway, can you mention the proper model number for the motherboard you have and the CPU model for the first one?
It'll help to better assist you.

If you got a newish GPU for those computers you could mine with it.

Your computers by themselves if mining anything  (if they could) would cost more in electricity than what they could mine.

Anything like a gtx 1060 6gb or better could mine. Go to a website like whattomine to check out the differences.

You can mine on them and earn some coins on monthly basis, your computers are old but not useless considering the specifications you posted above.
Read this article for more details and I hope you shall get some useful information there https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Amp/CPU_mining

Thank you for assisting. The mode is MSI g41m-p25 (ms-7592).
Here is the MSI link for mainboard specification https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/G41M-P25/Specification

So, you are saying any GPU would fit with my PCs? I can buy cards like GTX 1050ti or GTX 1070.

I would not bother with those weak specs. It would not net you much hashpower and would not net you much profits either. Mining takes time and energy, you would probaly be better of not to or just buy some of the coins that interest you.

You can start it on experimental basis but it will not profitable for you through CPU as now power GPU are needed due to high cost of electricity and more difficulties in mining.

Besides some cpu coins you could check out crypto that need to be mined in your browser like jsecoin.  Your electricity bill will probably be higher do.

JSECOIN price is dropping, better try BANANO they also use browser mining, and if you have a good GPU you can mine though folding it will yield you 100 to 1500 BANANO, maybe in the future, it will be 100 times worth just like Nano, you'll have nothing to lose.

Actually there are still significant number of coins to be mined by just utilizing your existing equipment though I cannot tell you which is more profitable or not, I think it would be better if you would do an extensive research to find out which coin actually fits your mining equipment and satisfy your needs. Imho.

Consider buying RTX 2060. Yes, they are more expensive, but they are more efficient and can be sold in the future. 1050 will be useless trash. I dont know the cost of electricity and other nuances, so you will have to perform a simple calculation by yourself

If you want to mine, why don't you choose POS?

People who use 6 video cards minyut $ 50-100 Your computers look like a parity. Perhaps something can be minted on them. But I'm sure the electricity bill will be much more than a profit.

A lot of good advice above.

CPU mining is a good place to start without needing to buy new HW like a big GPU.
All your CPUs listed can run cpuminer-opt with varying levels of optimization.

You won't make any money but you can get some experience before you invest
in serious hashpower.

Make sure your CPUs are clean and make sure your cooling is adequate. CPU mining
is one of the most CPU intensive applications in existence, and things get pretty hot.
This goes for GPUs also.

Avoid laptop PCs due to heat and accelerated battery wear, and avoid gimicks like
browser mining and Android apps.

Use a trusted miner application and a real desktop CPU.

Here's my answer for you

you have a lot of choices but remember you will feel there was a lot of decrease in its performance caused by you are using the old motherboard. When you are using GTX1070 but the performance of that GPU will be the same as the performance of the lower series of  GPU just like 1050 when you are using it on the latest MOBO.

Choose it wisely and here's the list.
GT 1030, GTX 1050 Ti, GTX 750 Ti, Rx 460, Rx 550, GTX 1060, 1070 , RX 470, RX 480

This old PCs use of mining thing always stirring in my mind, too. But as far as I understand, mining is a kind of pro work for the time being. But staking is good. :)

If you have been mining for a while, then it's not that difficult to manage or to setup a new mining rig. It's a steep learning curve just like it's with anything else. The more you do it, the more you learn and the better you become at it.

i wish i have those equipment to start mining in my bedroom, medium sized CPU will support to mine middle term coin with low medium level of difficulty. But the thing is electricity bill in my country are way too expensive, since government always rise the price of national electricity. you are lucky to start mining soon, and hope you find the right and potential coin to mine

You can use your old computer to start mining if only the computer is still powerful else you would waste your electricity without getting any return from it

If you want to get a maximum from your old computer, what are you talking about masternode set up? You will easily make from your computer a server and after that you can get also a good profit. (Instead of byuing hardware, you will invest into a cryptocurrency, to have enough coins for a setup)  :)

Ya,according from my research an old model of pc has more need power supply than new model and it cost too much so for overall even you can get profit from your old pc it will still small profit at all coz you are using a highly cost power of a computer.

If you just want to learn how to mine, sure.  You can use any of those CPUs to mine coins.  Turn one on, set up a bitcoin wallet, download awesome miner and point it at nicehash and/or mining pool hub.  Then start tinkering with it.  It'll take years to mine enough to actually get a bitcoin payout, though.

You can probably use most any of that w/ a GPU or two.  Depends on how many pcie slots/lanes each has available....but GPU mining most any alg requires very little from the cpu.  Really just need enough CPU & RAM to run the OS.

If you ever get to the point where you want to spend a little money and build a proper mining rig?  Buy a used MoBo designed for multiple GPUs & mining.  It's just less of a PITA.

It cost more electricity to mine crypto and that's being so far from the efficient in the electricity. Not only less efficient and consumes a lot of electricity but that will waste our money by buy a new model of VGA but we can't make it too go all of its performances. small profit and long ROI and it's not worth to try.



POS needs a lot of money to get decent amount and only a big players will become a winner. I prefer MN rather than POS but when it comes to the medium POS coin and it's still worth to try.

recycling old PCs is a good idea, especially yours that are still more or less up to date.
For GPU mining anything above 1050Ti will work, although hasrate is low
These setups would be aiming for low dif. coins

But there is also another type of mining you can use your PCs for - proof of stake, you can use them to install wallets and run proof of stake mining... great with older pcs and no need for better GPUs
good luck