Bitcoin Forum

I just got the newest iMac and it's pretty sweet. It came with a GeForce GTX 660M. I know that's nothing compared to the cards serious miners use, but I work from home and my dekstop is always on...

Now my question is, assuming I don't leave the screen on all day (ie; I dim it all the way down), is it safe to leave a miner like BitMinter running in the background? I've heard of people doing this with their iMacs and coming home after leaving it on while they're out, and their computer is frozen up and requires a restart. One person told me they caused serious damage to their computer because it overheated and stayed overheating for several days.

Macs are notorious for overheating in that kind of scenario.  Maybe you should look into cooling options?  Make sure there is plenty of airflow around the machine and none of the vents are blocked.  Also, reduce your mining intensity, gpu voltage, mem clock, etc.  That should keep heat down.

If you're not careful and don't check the temperature yes it will damage your hardware, the first thing you should do is run it for a couple of hours and check the average temperature to see if you can afford to keep it running, depending on the efficiency of your hardware. A lot people particularly on this forum don't seem to realise you'd be better off just selling services for Bitcoin and earning it another way besides mining because of the damage it can do or the amount the electricity would cost.

Thanks!

Are these levels anywhere near dangerous? Been running my miner for a little over an hour, they seem to be pretty consistently the same...

https://i.imgur.com/WkhZawu.png

I'm doing some pretty similar stuff on my iMac at home as well. But I've left it running for a month, mining coins, and there didn't seem to be any issues. Airflow and whatnot is probably the primary concerns when dealing with the cooling of the device, but for the most part it should be alright. In my experience anyway.

-Wf.

Honestly it's just a waste of power for you to mine with that hardware, and it'll stress the hardware a lot for very little gain.

I don't disagree at all, but for some of us who are just exploring this currency, you have to start somewhere. Once a user is comfortable dropping the several hundred dollars on building a rig, and is ok with the amount of electricity it uses, then they can make that investment, but until then, the iMac (any of the models over the last 2 or so years) aren't terrible for mining a little bit.

Also, I think it all depends on what you consider a successful equipment investment, coupled with the energy costs. When I ran the iMac for a month, I ended up with maybe one BC, and it didn't effect my energy costs at all, so it turned into an overall gain.

-Wf.

Those temps look great. I try to keep my hardware below 65c as a general rule. Graphics cards can and do run safely below 90c. I am personally comfortable with sub 50c for mb/cpu core and  sub 75c for fx card temps for 24/7 use.

I continuously run my Radeon 7850 and the average temperature is 65.

is the energy consumption compatible with the profits?
or do is it someone else who is paying that bill and you just keep the profits ?
just curiosity

I run all night in my sleep and while at work.  My miner is my gaming rig.  Doesnt bother it since I keep temps at 70c or lower.

My iMac gets too hot for my comfort doing GPU mining.

I only run 2 CPU threads on the iMac doing scrypt mining. Not really worth it though.

yeah gpu mining whit imac loads of heat