Bitcoin Forum

I am looking for a miner for my husband for Christmas. He is very curious to see how the process works. He really isn't concerned about making any money. I was thinking about spending about $100. Thoughts?

best bet is an antminer S3, but thats more in the range of $200 plus youll need a 550W+ power supply.

if you just want something small that wont make any real money - you can get something thats connected by USB such as an r-box or block erupter stick (these are $10-30)

Have u heard about cloud mining ?

avoid cloudmining
1) it wont show him how mining works.
2) he wont have any physical hardware - just an account on a website
3) a lot of different cloudmining companies will be revealed as ponzi schemes in the next few months (PB Mining and cloudminr.io are at the top of this list)

ps: the guy suggesting cloudmining has a perfect example in his sig - a barebones website with no proof of actual hashpower, and forum accounts going around soliciting inexperienced people to join

Don't drag her into money-wasting programs. :) It is full of ponzis and real companies charge fees. Better to mine at home to get better profit. ::) And, she said that he doesn't want to make money but to test it to know how it works. :)


+1. If you are going to buy, check the ratings of the site in this forum. They are many asic scam sites.

P.S. Already posted what I want. See above post. ::)

    ~~MZ~~

Buy him a decent gaming grade videocard. You can mine with a videocard, especially alternative coins. No, its not profitable, but pretty much nothing is, and the process is identical, so good enough for "educational" purposes. And maybe he likes to play games too :).

I got my start in Bitcoin mining with a USB stick miner (the original ASICMINER USB Block Erupter). They are cheap to buy, cheap to run, make practically no money... but who cares because you learn all the principles of mining.

honestly - not a bad idea. Graphics cards generally are not profitable (last I checked my rig of 3x r9-270x cards, mining x11/x13 were making maybe $0.20/day each, at about $0.35 in electrical usage per card) - so it is losing money to run unless you get lucky on altcoin trading on the markets.

in contrast, to be profitable in bitcoin (sha-256) mining, you really need to go big or go home (>$1000 investment) to get a product with reasonable chance of paying for itself over the span of about 6-12 months. For a smaller unit, the S3+ is your best bet, with a coupon (or found locally used) its about $180-220 after taxes and delivery. If you pay reasonably low costs for power usage it can probably come close to ~80% paying for itself over 6 months of useful lifespan.

tldr;

gpu = reasonable cost, more complex (fun?) to optimize and setup, least profitable unless you are really dedicated or a bit lucky, can be used for gaming once the novelty is gone
small USB-connected ASIC = cheap cost, not too complex to setup, will not pay for itself (maybe $0.05 on the dollar), small
S3+ miner = expensive, easy to setup, *might* pay for itself

Kijiji "Bitcoin Miner"

Find an S1 from Bitmain.  Should be $60 max perhasp $80 if they include the Power supply.

Very easy to set-up many youtube videos on how to do it.


Any decent Bitcoin mining company that sells ASIC's(what is required to mine now adays, Application specific intragerated circuit)  only accepts BTC except for spoodilies and their miners are not cheap.  Good but expensive.



Again I highly highly higly recommend kijiji.



I am 100% against the idea of cloud mining or attempting to use a GPU.  The GPU you might not even get hashing fast enought to show up on the pool thus zero payout thus learn nothing.  THe cloud mining you don't get to get your hands on anything which seems is what he wants.  I also have yet to see any sort of payout for my cloud mining adventures.

It is too soon to say.

I have 4 Antminer U2 (combined hashing power 8GH/s) but it has taken me 3 months to mine 0.01 Bitcoins - (this is the minimum amount that https://www.triplemining.com (https://www.triplemining.com) will transfer) - value about €3

I suggest that you monitor https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=875392.0;all (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=875392.0;all) for news about the Technobit "DICE" 160Ghs Entry miner/blockchain personal lottery device. It has 20 times the throughput of my installation.

In the meantime purchase him a Raspberry Pi B+ which it is to be hoped he will be able to use with the Technobit DICE and he can use it for many other projects.

How about the Rockminer New R-Box?  The old ones are much smaller, about 35GH/s, but the new ones are about 100-110 GH/s and will cost you around $75.  That's enough hashrate to get noticeable payouts, unlike a GPU or small USB sticks, and should be within budget, although you'll need something for power. 

If that's just a bit expensive, an antminer S1 is cheaper and higher hashrate, but less power efficient (you can probably get one off ebay for $50 or less).  If he's good with electronics he might enjoy getting an S1 and hacking it to run at lower power, as quite a few people on the forums have done.

--
novak

I'll agree with S1's for BTC mining,very robust & easy to use & very cheap on ebay  ;)

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313&_nkw=Antminer+S1&_sacat=0

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=355387

For altcoins like Litecoin/dogecoin,get a Gridseed 5 chip miner,also easy to use & robust  ;)

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_sop=1&_geositeid=0&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEFSRCHX%3ASRCH&_nkw=Gridseed+5+Chip&rt=nc

http://zoomhash.com/pages/cgminer-for-windows

Do not buy miners from Zoomhash or any other vendor,thier prices have not changed to reflect the current value of these miners.Ebay is about the only place they are listed at their current true value.

Be sure powersupplies/cable & USB cables are included for the Gridseeds & you'll need a PC powersupply for the S1 like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028

None of these will make a profit currently,unless BTC goes to $1000 or so each,but he can learn with them & if he wants he can sell em & move up to better miners  8)

buy a used S3 with PSU
this is a real small miner and relativelly cheep.
does not make much money and you need to have lots of them
to make real profit together with low electricity
but as a starter its good
also comparing the previous generation of Bitmain miners still holds their prices,
so reselling it would be an option if you opt out of mining sometime.
Also can be used as a cloth dryer in the winter time and its not so loud
for indoor use.
Try buying from the market place of this forum with escrow preferably.
basic computer knowledge is needed off-course.
Enjoy

A good idea but zero chance she'll find and S3 with PSU for $100.  Cheapest I have seen is $300 without PSU.

Definitely the Antminer S1 with a nice CPU (Power Supply Unit).

Doable (second hand / on Ebay) for under 100US$... (prob. around 75US$ for both).

Want to get started on the right foot?

Buy an AntMiner S1, why?  Here's why:

• There were originally $6,000 a piece
• They used to power over 25% of the network at some point
• Most remaining miners had them and maybe even still use them
• They're un-shrouded, it lets you see the miner's appearance
• It's a lot more consistent than the S3
• It resists shock a lot better than the S3
• You can get them for less than $100 now
• You will learn most about mining with the S1 than any other miner

Cons is the heat the produce if you live in a hot area and are power extensive.

Alternatively, I recommend a USB miner like U2 or anything from BitFury's decent.  They are cheap to buy and operate, and many even don't need a controller nor a PSU...

Yes good point I suggested this as I always believe


 that the pleasure of a cheep purchase is soon forgotten
what remains is qualtiy...not my words 
Robert L. Drake since 1943

This...

You can get a 35GH/s unit for ~ $40 or the 100GH/s unit for ~ $85. And they both use about 1 watt per GH/s. This is really your best hash speed relative to power consumption that you'll see in the sub-$100 price range. The S1 runs at least 1.5, probably closer to 2 watts per GH/s.

The S1 is a lot easier to get than the New-Rox for bitcoin noobs.. :(.

It's not to make a profit.. it's to understand mining.. IMO the S1 is amazing for this, cheap, very reliable, I've had 4 running for a year zero failures and it's hashrate is still decent they'll get payouts.  400Watts so you get an idea of why making a large mining operation probably is not the best idea unless it's uber massive.

used s3! with s1 you lose money with the electric bill. s3 is easier to sell.
need more than 100$ ;)

Maybe a usb miner or two, just for fun. Part of the fun of mining is learning and doing your own researches which he will get to do later on.

Bitcoin miner might be nice but I would say go with a scrypt miner if you really want to learn. Gives more options to test different coins out and playing markets and what not. Can probably get a gridseed blade for around 100 now and that is more than enough to mine some of the crappier coins out there.