Thats the exact card that i have. Ive never been a fan of the referenced cooler but im glad to hear that its a decent start for ETH.

This sounds good to me, Id like to dabble in a little of both. I currently have a computer i can put together with a R9 290X, would this suffice to start? Im really starting this more for hobby, learning, and plan for growth. If the 290X build won't be worth it, how much money are we looking at to get a decent Ether rig going? Most likely I would just need to buy a bigger PSU and the GPUs.

I know exactly where that is haha, but im down in FL now. I would be able to put together an Ether rig myself (maybe buy 2 390s) but its setting up the software which I dont know, Ill have to look at some guides.

With free power, you think this would be a better route currenty to put money into?

USA, and at my job. I was approved for 4800watts continuos, can get approved for 10k-15k but i dont plan on getting that big.

07731... Thats northern NJ right? I am from south jersey (08234) but currently living in FL.

For right now, I think im going to hold off on anymore bitcoin rigs but am very interested in getting an Ether rig setup but have no idea where to start

Whoops, my mistake. I said "normally" because i ment to put that my upper administration approved it. If i ever have a personal request of my own, then i CANNOT approve it myself, it must go to the Senior SA for approval. I put ~5k monthly wattage on the work order and even that was approved, im pretty sure the 2 S4s that im getting are less than that. But you are correct, it is done solely for personal gain, they understand the power draw and don't ask what its for. It is just something that is available to me, I personally am not worried at all, in my work environment this is pretty common (which is why these work orders exist) especially at a private technical school.

*edit* added a little more to the end.

Not with the S4s but anything newer then yes. I thought i explained in my last post but ill do a tl;dr...

I have already been approved for these machines at their power usage to be used. I run the IT department (on site) and we already have a complete lab pulling way more useless power than i ever will from them. This is coming from a technical school who probably has a 50k+ electric bill a month. I won't lose my job unless i decide to buy about 50 more S4s without telling them or do something insane like that.

Commenting about living the honest way or thinking is all relative. I understand how one would see it that way, but i also understand my reasoning to be valid in that i see it as a perk of my job, an opportunity that is available right in front of me.

Not everyone pays the normal price, im sorry.

Agreed, I would never risk my job for a few miners. We actually have "work orders" for when we want to bring in "outside" equipment that has not been tagged by the district which we want to run off the network... and normally I am the one who approves these work orders. Mine has already been approved, and administration has never questioned a thing ive done. I'm sure it would raise question if I wanted to start a huge mining operation while stealing their energy but thats not my scope at the moment.

On another note, the school also runs a private folding farm for a tech teacher. He does not use it for teaching purposes and its pretty big.

Hello! I'm pretty sure Antminers are the most used hardware now since they seem to be the only company releasing decent hardware now. I too recently got back into bitcoin and was asking this same question. A lot of it has to do with how much you are willing to spend on the hardware, how much you spend for electricity, and then location. Depending on your scope, you can check out rigs like the Antminer S7, S5, etc etc and see what would work for you.

Yes, Living in US, but my rigs will not be placed in my apartment but rather at my workplace. I am a system admin for a school. The school does not have 1 big server room rather is has these smaller rooms/closets scattered throughout the school so im not entirely sure how I would find out what the schools is categorized under. My office is right next to the "main" server room and could probably snap some pics on monday (off for weekend).

Honestly not sure if its 120 or 240, how could i find out? And if everything goes as planned then i will be getting more rigs of more updated gear. And i agree with what your saying about the PSUs, i even wouldnt mind building a GPU rig also for Ether.

Sound & Heat are no issue...and "how much" free electricity... I dont know honestly but these would be placed directly into an already fully functional server room with an AC Unit and proper ventilation (it stays ~65 degrees in their). Not a HUGE room, id honestly even call it "walk-in-closet" sized. I dont want to do anything crazy (yet) and honestly was looking at the S5 but then I realized I had to buy power supplies if i got them and didnt really want this to start off taking up some space and figured the S4s in a clean AIO unit would work better for me (right now). Plus the deal i got on 2 of them was good so i just went for it.


I was also thinking about this, I have a 290X sitting in a box at home and was thinking about Etherium or some other altcoin but would have no idea where to start with those, atleast with bitcoins ive done before and have been following for years now. (kinda)



Yes this is something i thought about a lot. I definitely want to start off small and just build from there. I am not too worried about re-sell value of my current rigs but if i go with something more expensive I would definitely have that weigh more as a consideration. Current plan is to go the cheap used route to get generating, and as i feel more comfortable go on from there.

I was looking at them and almost got one to start but i ended up finding a decent deal on two S4s for a little over $300, they seemed to calculate the best... given you take the power cost out of the equation... They are extremely cheap for a 2THs rig, Given they draw a ton of power but luckily in my case I have access to free electricity and a cool environment for me to place them in. Plus with the "Halvening" happening soon I honestly did not want to invest too much ($500+ would be that "too much" range for me) just because i dont know what is going to happen. But i know i wanted to start mining someway because of the offer of free electric. If it works out, I will most definitely upgrade and add more.

But for just over $300 for two S4 (4THs), and no other expenses for anything else I'm hoping to see them paid off in a few months. Not that i really care if it fails because im doing this more for hobby and just so I can get back into the bitcoin community.

I have no limit of energy use, but I do have a limit on the amount of money I wanted to pay out of pocket to start. I'm more into buying used, older rigs now because they are much cheaper and some still have decent power.

Hello bitcointalk forum!

I am new here, not "really" new to bitcoin. I have been following for a few years now but not so much mining.

My first rig was the BFL Jalapeno (~5GHs one) and after that rig paid for itself quick and things went down from there is when i stopped.

Anyways, I have access to free electric and would like to start mining again! I honestly should of posted here first asking for advice but i got excited and went ahead and was able to get 2 Antminer S4s for really cheap. I did do a little research and hope this is right but for what i could find used and for what i was willing to spend right away (under $400) this seemed to be my best bet.

Im not looking to turn this into a huge mine or anything crazy, just something I can add to my income to basically cover my lunch expenses

Just looking for any advice or information on whats new with bitcoin, From the bitcoin calculators i used with everything at current market price with no fee from electricty looks promising, what do you think? Also im not sure what pools to mine or what all these payout types even mean :|

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME ON READING THIS!