Bitcoin Forum

Hi all
 I am looking for a teacher/ mentor, some one willing to help a simpleton out.
I am not a programmer nor very experienced with computers.
I am willing to share a percentage of what ever I mine with those who can and are willing to help me get this set up and running.

 First the equipment I have is a Dell GX-240 with windows xp pro,
hope to use this to run what ever software I may need on it as a host type computer.
I also have two ASIC Block Erupter Cubes, one Avalon mini (60 gh/s) and one Antminer S1.

One of my roommates left me with some stuff and just figured out what they are and what they are used for.
 I have been searching around this and a few other forums trying to figure how to set this up.
But I am at a loss and it has been over a month now of searching reading and more searching and reading.
Yes still clue less. A simple step by step instruction may be in order?
So any and all help is and will be appreciated.

It sounds little strange, friend left you ~1000$ machine just like that? If someone buys such machines he know what he is doing (hope so :P)
It will be hard to explain everything to you through internet

Yes he skipped out a while ago and I had to wait to claim what ever belonging he left behind.
 One has to start some where.
I may be better off selling this equipment but I would like to know how to set it up so that if it comes down to it I can at least show some one how it works. Much easier to sell that way.

#1 install a new OS. WinXP is no longer supported. This means no future vulnerability will be fixed by microsoft, no more patches, nothing. If you spend 5 more minutes to do anything on a WinXP machine, you wasted 5 minutes of your life. This might be different if you keep it offline, but for mining this is not possible.

After you got your new Operation System working come back and search for mining software (cgminer etc.)

Thanks I will try that next. Now what about a different operating system such as Linux?

The OS is not your problem.  Just search for guides and you should see how to run them easily.

Besides google where might one search for these guides? I have tried quite a few forums blog ect.
And there does not seem to be a simple step by step guide that I can find??

First, I would throw a Linux distribution on that machine.  Ubuntu 14.04 is a good choice for beginners.  Once that was completed, I'd look through the forums here to find out information on the hardware you've got.  I don't know much about the Avalon and Block Erupters since I don't own any.  I can tell you, however, that the Antminer S1 is a stand-alone miner.  You just plug a network cable into it, plug it into a power supply and off it goes.

Links for you to check out:

cgminer - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.0
bfgminer - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=626361.0
Dogie's S1 setup guide - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=355387
Dogie's Block Erupter setup guide - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=352658

Hopefully somebody that knows more about the Avalon Mini can post a relevant link for you.

Thanks jonnybravo0311
 Is it fairly easy to format the hard drive and wipe it clean so I can install the new os on it??

Very.  The installer should walk you right through the whole process.

Great at least a starting point. Still a lot to learn.

The OS is not your problem.  You're fine using the Windows XP that came with the computer for the time being since your hardware is almost outdated.  Any downtime you have is money lost.

Install either CGMiner or BFGMiner
Create an account at a well established pool - BTCGuild, Bitminter, Elegius, etc
Make sure the miners are detected by Windows
Launch your batch file and mine

If you need help with any of those individual steps you should specify where you are getting stuck.

there's a mining support forum (and multiple forums about mining) -- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=40.0

this forum is more for "bitcoin" beginners....

Are you paying for electricity?

Those bits of kit are reasonably juicy and will cause a fair amount of heat.

Do you have a mining account on any pools?

The cubes and the Avalon will need a host machine and software configuring whereas the the S1 will only need a PSU and a network connection to mine.

Electricity = 0.0752 kwh Canada eh.
No mining accounts yet still researching to find a couple of safe ones.
I am hoping to use the old Dell with window xp pro as a host machine.
Still not sure which software I need for this project.

or you can sell the miner and just pay for bitcoin. Then just hold it, and see it grow.

Either CGMiner or BFGMiner should work fine as long as you can get the devices to be detected by the OS.  It's probably 32 bit XP, so you'll need 32 bit drivers for the devices.

If you can't find those for the devices, maybe it's necessary to spend $20-$30 and do a clean install of Win 7 64 bit then.  Or you could go Linux for free if you know how to use it.

S1 miner requires nithing apart from a network connection and 5mins config - well worth doing that first so that you can get mining - BTCguild merge mines NMC as well as BTC. potetially you could earn 0.005 per 24hrs on BTC with just the S1 and sell the others for BTC.

At current difficulty, 180 GH/s would bring about 0.005382 btc at 0% pool fee. But, please note that difficulty would go up (could go down as well tho) every 2016 blocks and the number of bitcoin you get would go down.

Still not sure which "version" of CGMiner or BFGMiner to down load. From what I have read and may not understand if the newest version will work on an older operating system like windows xp pro.
Never used Linux. But like the idea that it is an open source free ware. Seems a little safer than windows.

still stuck at mining or no?

update us on where you are at.

Hate this newbie status. Yes still stuck not sure of which version of software would work with windows xp pro 32 bit. CGMiner or BFGMiner??

Before you can try to use the software you need to know if the OS recognized the hardware.  If the OS (win xp in this case) doesn't see the hardware the miner program is irrelevant.  You can also PM Ckolivas or Luke-jr and both of them would be happy to let you know if mining is possible in XP.

Thanks a bunch did PM both just a while ago. Now Wait for a reply and do more research on pools.

I`m looking into mining as well. Once I buy mining hardware, I have my eye on the bigger pools cause I read up on getting paid on error`s or work already completed.

And the odds to find a block is quicker I heard. I feel like in some sense its a monopoly... all the smaller pools are going to slowly be smaller since they wont get that many blocks like the bigger pool does.

Your expected mining revenue would be the same (before pool fee), though the variance will be smaller if you join a larger pool.

just get a easier plug and play bitmineter installed for now. and then learn cg miner while your mining.

Not sure about biminter? They seem to have some issues, not sure I would trust them.

cgminer works with xp anything. The only limitation is more than 8 identical devices without identifiers can't be run on XP cos it can't tell them apart. That's an XP operating system limitation though, not a cgminer one.

Great I only have four units. Still overwhelmed about the actual set up process.  :-\