https://ark.intel.com/Search/FeatureFilter?productType=processors&AESTech=true

For Intel, this is a list of processors supporting AES. You can sort by socket, etc so you'll probably be able to find a CPU with the same socket (1156). The next tier up in that generation are the i5s and the i5 650 supports AES (should be compatible with your current Mobo).

I personally wouldn't do it at an electrical rate of more than ten cents per kilowatt. The miner's also extremely loud like a vacuum cleaner, just a reminder. They aren't industrial miners for nothing.

1-2k gets you nothing in the Bitcoin mining market right now. S7s and Avalon 6s are your best option and even those are selling around $1k as of now. You might get better deals here but that is if you can even find them on sale. Cloud mining is risky and I wouldn't suggest it unless it's from a legitimate source like Bitmain's Hashnest. Difficulty's rising very quickly lately too, which changes on a whim but it's just some food for thought.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2017600.0

Literally any CPU that supports AES will do; it is usually listed in the Intel datasheet or AMD, just look it up. You don't want to specifically buy a CPU for mining in most cases though, 99% of the time it is more economical and better to buy a GPU for mining.

I assume that's the Whatsminer unit? If that's it this really belongs in mining speculation in the Bitcoin section but this works too.

At 14 cents per kilowatt I wouldn't take it. The Whatsminer is a huge power hog and with a few difficulty jumps in BTC like the ones we've had recently this miner becomes a paperweight. Does the seller ship the miner now or later? Also an important factor.

Newbie promoting a site that was created just about two weeks ago? Seems a little more than a bit suspicious.

https://www.whois.com/whois/cryptominingking.com

Unless escrow can somehow be established here and someone can prove the legitimacy of the site this seems like a scam site. Would not even touch the site until then.

In my experience there's pretty much no suitable replacement fan for the S9 that provides enough CFM to adequately cool the miner. Best solution to sound is still to put them in a garage or shed IMO. The S9 fans go up to 6000RPM and most alternatives provide maybe half of the ~200CFM that the stock fans do.

With most crypto nowadays, whatever a CPU can hash a GPU can do better. Most "cpu-only" algos are dominated by botnets and sites with coinhive as stated above, and buying a CPU solely to mine crypto does not make sense in 99% of scenarios. You'd be better off just buying GPUs. Ryzen chips like the 1600 or 1700 will probably be your best option for CPU mining.

Miningrigrentals and Nicehash are places where you can rent rigs, but I don't think either of them accept non-crypto payment. Some people sell rig hashpower on eBay but prices there are absurd. Your best bet is to attempt to convert the money to crypto and use one of those services. Other than those two I am not aware of many other legitimate places to rent miners temporarily.

There's places where you can get them around $30 like on eBay used, rip

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GENUINE-Intel-Celeron-G3900-2-80GHz-Dual-Core-CPU-Processor-SR2HV/112714969324?epid=527161346&hash=item1a3e55f0ec:g:5BUAAOSwLEtYimBo

new for ~$35

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Celeron-G3900-Dual-Core-Skylake-Processor-2-8GHz-8-0GT-s-2MB-LGA-1151/322795064954?epid=2254421607&hash=item4b2815ce7a:i:322795064954

They regularly sell for around $30 even new IIRC, just looked on some chinese sites too and saw new/possibly used G3900s for $30 + FS. Always nice to have a cheap cpu in your toolbox for the future in case something fails.

Why would any 'hacker' target Bitcoin for mining? Difficulty on the BTC chain is so high there's no point in doing so, and when the first few mining viruses came out, CPU mining was still not viable. Coinhive is what you're talking about for the second, and it's a Javascript miner. Adblockers can block it IIRC.

What algo are you talking about? The cards aren't bad for some algos but you have also specified nothing about your electrical cost. We're grasping for straws here. For the 280 Equihash is probably your best bet (Zcash). The 7950 is also pretty much the same as the 280.

It's also possible to get a shed or something of the sort and put all of your mining equipment in there. Like gt_addict said, there's no really easy way to make miners quieter. Soundproofing cabinets may work but they are expensive, one alternative that I can pull off the top of my head is this from philipma1957, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlB5LikKeiw&t=47s, which can lower sound a little bit for home mining.

Problem is these coins are infested with botnets mining on them making mining not very profitable in most cases. You'll make some coin but not as much as with GPU mining. Viruses and a couple hundred or thousand ARM /x86 processors hashing away easily beats out any single cpu.

Things always sell for much much more on eBay. It's been like that for as long as I can remember, since I got into Bitcoin a few years ago. There's also people that mine temporarily and return the miners or something of the sort. eBay sellers actually take quite a bit of risk even selling as I think you already know.

You can cause no damage by straight unplugging the miner and it's the most reliable and easy way to turn off miners. You can unplug and replug your miner in as quickly as you can and it'll still run just fine. I turn off all my miners like this, nothing bad has happened as a result of it.

Instead of buying all of these filters and silencers and whatnot that will probably decrease airflow, Philipma's wind tunnel is a great option that lowers noise easily, accommodates several miners and does not affect airflow. Also doesn't cost a lot. One video is found here, the rest can be found on his channel and in a thread in the Hardware section.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlB5LikKeiw&t=92s

Then just switch pools. Antpool gives you less and paying out txs is a feature 99% of pools today have. There's hardly any reason to mine on Antpool anyways when there's better options out there. You're mining on a pool made by a company that is practically destroying Bitcoin for its own gain.

The single to 6 plugs work (had them plugged into an undervolted SP20) but they do get a little bit hot if you're putting a lot of power through em. I would suggest the dual molex connectors whenever possible just for security. If you do use the single plug connectors, make sure the cables aren't getting too warm.

I used to buy ONDA gpus for HTPC builds on Aliexpress a while back and the cards always performed great. Shipped from China, yes, but the packaging was always great and they are still running to this day. They make decent components for decent prices, should hold true for the motherboards as well.