Bitcoin Forum

Alternate cryptocurrencies => Mining (Altcoins) => Topic started by: strangerhacks on May 03, 2014, 08:27:08 AM



Title: Old hardware mining (CPU & GPU)
Post by: strangerhacks on May 03, 2014, 08:27:08 AM
I used to buy old broken computers, fix them up, and sell them as working for a small profit but after setting into my new career path I haven't had time to continue with this hobby which has now left me with close to 25 computers/laptops/macs sitting in my basement that are mostly perfect working computers, just old and no use to me so I'm wondering what kind of use I could have for all of these with mining altcoins.

I was going to set aside an area in one of the garages and hook up all of the computers to run 24/7 altcoin mining with both cpu and gpu at once but I'm not big on the knowledge for this or what's needed for each one.

The property is run entirely on solar and wind so hydro usage doesn't matter at all, I can leave them all on without making a dent in it but I don't know what kind of programs I can use for CPU mining or GPU mining, I would like to do both at once and then maybe run a portable air conditioner to cool the garage all summer so over heating shouldn't be a problem either.

What kind of restrictions would I be looking at for types of CPU's? Some of them are as old as Pentium 4's with onboard graphics, others have some older Radeon GPU's, small old Radeons, around 128mb at most, the majority are 32mb and 64mb gpu's, both Nvidia and ATI. Most of them are Intel based CPU's but I think three or four of them are AMD, I also have a bunch of old Mac's I would like to do something with along the lines of altcoin mining. There's G3 iMacs, G3 iBooks, G4 PowerBooks, G5 iMacs, eMacs, MacBook, some MacBook Pro's, and I also have my ASUS G75 running right now and I have three 27" iMacs running too so I am mining some altcoin with those but I would like to put all of these old computers to use since they're just sitting there anyways and hydro doesn't matter.

It would be nice to have them all sitting there, AND doing something but I don't know what to look for when it comes to both Intel and AMD CPU mining, as well as both Nvidia and ATI GPU mining. What kind of restrictions are there for these old computers? How far back can I go before a CPU or GPU won't be supported to mine altcoins? What would be the best all around mining program that would perform well for all four types of mining I would be aiming for.


Title: Re: Old hardware mining (CPU & GPU)
Post by: JulianSS on May 03, 2014, 08:53:28 AM
.. I'm wondering what kind of use I could have for all of these with mining altcoins.

None, unless you are Edison himself and don't give a f.. about electricity price.


Title: Re: Old hardware mining (CPU & GPU)
Post by: thresher on May 03, 2014, 12:10:59 PM
I don't do this regularly, i've done it just to check it out.

When mining x-11 on my i7 3632qm,  I get roughly 20khs a thread
When mining x-11 on whatever cpu is in the other laptop I tried it on I get roughly 20 khs a thread (I've left this one on for days and the laptop didn't blow up, but I don't care if it does, as i'm assuming you don't)

People seem to be getting more (i'm probably doing something wrong), there is probably much more efficient coins to mine (bytecoin threads seem to always pop up), but do you want to change the pool on 25 computers every day, or just leave it on something more stable.

I'd do it for the hell of it since you have free power.


Title: Re: Old hardware mining (CPU & GPU)
Post by: strangerhacks on May 03, 2014, 08:18:39 PM
.. I'm wondering what kind of use I could have for all of these with mining altcoins.

None, unless you are Edison himself and don't give a f.. about electricity price.
You didn't read at all huh? I said our property is entirely supplied by solar and wind, we don't pay for Hydro and our energy supply is always more then used so it doesn't matter how many computers I have running, it won't make a dent in our hydro supply.

When mining x-11
What's x-11? Is it like Scrypt or something or is that a mining pool?


(I've left this one on for days and the laptop didn't blow up, but I don't care if it does, as i'm assuming you don't)
You got it, they're just sitting there taking up space so why not take up space and mine at the same time right? And they're out in the garage so if they break who cares, just sweep the floor and toss it out.


but do you want to change the pool on 25 computers every day, or just leave it on something more stable.

I was going to set it up on a MultiPool so it'll automatically switch between cryptocurancies with a back up MultiPool so it's always mining Scrypt. I'm going to look into this X-11 thing though, would it be more efficient for older hardware?


Title: Re: Old hardware mining (CPU & GPU)
Post by: SpeedDemon13 on May 04, 2014, 07:26:54 AM
What part of the world do you live in to get electricity on the super low? The Pacific Northwest of the US?


Title: Re: Old hardware mining (CPU & GPU)
Post by: Amph on May 04, 2014, 07:55:12 AM

When mining x-11
What's x-11? Is it like Scrypt or something or is that a mining pool?

it's a "new" algo(well not new anymore) that put the consumption of a gpu to 50%(the reason for this is because the algo isn't optimized yet) compared to scrypt, and you have also less heat


Title: Re: Old hardware mining (CPU & GPU)
Post by: Minerist on May 04, 2014, 06:50:19 PM
Wow these people can't even read 1 post fully


Title: Re: Old hardware mining (CPU & GPU)
Post by: brioche on May 04, 2014, 08:13:29 PM
The property is run entirely on solar and wind so hydro usage doesn't matter at all, I can leave them all on without making a dent in it.

For the Hyperopia (Farsightedness) community members.