Currently available through NewEgg merchant OutletPC for... wait for it... $300!!! I know it's in high demand but geeze! Talk about price gouging!  Wonder how many fools they will get to bite on paying 5x MSRP for that Mobo lol.

Phil or anyone else mining XMR using a g4500 or g4400 CPU... do you know (or can you easily find out) what hash rate you are getting for only XMR using only the CPU? 

Maybe I am missing something but would like to know at least a ballpark figure for those 2 CPUs so I can compare to the expected hash rates of an i7 5/6800X to see if it makes sense financially.  I'm starting to think it may be better to just try a 4 or 5 GPU rig for my first instead of pushing so hard for 6.  But, this would make it even more important to decide on the CPU, since at least the way I am thinking of it, the x800K CPU could at least come close to mining like an additional 470, for XMR only of course.

Thank Cintronik... I am currently using MinerGate, which at the very least, seems to be a good way to learn for noobs like myself. It has a very easy to use GUI with no coding or command line stuff that I dont quite get at this point. Not only does it allow the same #of cores to dedicate option, but also provides a GPU intensity throttle as well.  I may get into some of the other CPU/GPU mining options down the road if they offer better hash rates though, so good to hear about them.

oh btw, I did find what looks like a pretty good resource for MoBo's that accept 4-6 GPUs:

http://cryptomining-blog.com/tag/motherboard-for-ethereum-mining/

Granted, this is about 5 months old, but at least at that time, there were not really any 1151 MoBo's would do more than 5 GPUs. several ASRock options for 4 or 5 (which i will be looking into) but would have to reconsider 1150 if I really want to have the capability of 6.

So, on the CPU side, I am under the impression that a good one (like 6800k or 5820k) can mine almost as much XMR as 1 of the 470s i have coming.  If you look at the list below, it shows CPUs like a very old i5-3520m providing a hash rate of 438 K/s and a i5-3570k getting 344.  I have not seen benchmarks for any 5th or 6th gen 800k series like I mentioned above but would assume that since they are much more advanced than those 3rd gen CPUs on this list, they should be able to mine XMR in the 500-700 M/s range. If i had to pay the full $400+ for these it might not be worthwhile but since I can get them for $200, it seemed to be a good idea... if they will indeed get around 600.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MI-ic0Os25hgGUImW54sUIjZY_pUNQNa_W8Se5pRGBs/edit#gid=0

Now that I looked up that g4500 CPU Phil mentioned though, I see that it only pulls 65W as compared to the 140W of the ones I was considering, so that obviously should be factored in.

I'm curious... have you or are you able to ascertain what hash rate you are able to get solely from that g4500 mining XMR?  I would like to try to figure out the difference to do an ROI calc but again, I'm also kind of speculating on the capabilities of the 800k's so might be tough. But, even my VERY old i7-2600k is averaging about 100 H/s, so seems as though a current version could get 5-6x that.

I guess my other question would be, if I am dedicated to building a rig capable of 5-6 GPUs, could that g4500 even handle that?  Do you have it running any of your 4-card rigs?

OK thanks... back to the drawing board I guess lol. I will do a search in this forum to try to find some other recommendations.  I think most of the ones recommended for 6 cards in this thread are either out of stock or LGA-1150, so will see what else I can find, but any recommendations are welcome... looking for LGA-1151 to support up to 6 GPU's, preferably around $100 or so.

And another noob-ish question... I'm assuming that all PCI slots need to be Express, not standard (old) PCI.  I have seen some nice looking Mobos with 6- PCI slots but 3 of them are standard PCI.

Thanks again...

thanks for that heads-up xlee!  So, what designation exactly do i need to look for in the Mobo title/specs to know if it will accept more than 4 GPUs?  I thought since this one has 6 PCIe slots that it would work to plug 4 GPUs into them (what else would they be used for, audio cards?)

A few other ASRock boards I looked at also are Z170 but a couple are H97 and then one higher end Z97.  Are these the labels that indicate how many GPU's it can take?

I know i need to look for LGA-1151 since that is the CPU i decided on, and 6 total PCIe slots... but what other easy way is there to tell what boards will support 6 cards?

Thanks!

I really admire both of those companies for giving that Veteran discount... I think a LOT more companies should be doing this but at least nice that those 2 do...

Thanks Rocky... I am very happy with deciding on those 2 MSI 470's and am actually grappling with getting 1 more to put into my initial build.  And thanks for the input on the socket issue and reference to that Mobo.  It does look like a good one for a nice price but as you say, unfortunately out of stock and I really wanna get this thing at least mostly built next weekend.

So, I think I have decided to just go with the more recent CPU (i7-6800), which of course, requires a 1151 MoBo.

I am leaning heavily towards this one:

ASRock Z170 Extreme3 LGA 1151 Intel Z170 (currently only $100 after $10 off and $30 rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157672

The thing I like about this one is that it has 3 PCIe x16 slots and 3 PCIe x1 slots... so, if I use 3 GPUs for my initial build, I can just use the 3 x16 slots and avoid using risers until if and when I decide to bump this rig up to 4, 5 or 6 GPUs.  I think this Mobo was recommended somewhere in this forum (maybe even this thread) but if anyone sees any issues with it for what I want to do, please let me know.

For RAM, I am leaning towards these ($69), which have great reviews and appear to be fully compatible with my MoBo and CPU of choice:

G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Intel Z170 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231884

I've also decided on an open build on this, which was also recommended in this thread ($42): assuming there will be no issue with the MoBo fitting but a bit concerned about the PSU.

DIYPC Alpha-DB6 Black Acrylic ATX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353001&ignorebbr=1

For PSU, I'm looking at this for $110 ($30 off regular price).  Even though this says Intel 4th gen compatible in the description, I read in at least 4-5 questions and answers on the newegg product page that it is indeed compaitble with the Inel 6th gen CPUs, so should be good there. The thing is, I think i can only support up to 5 470's with this, so if really wanna be able to go up to 6, I guess i would need the 1000w version but that is unfortunately $45 more, so not sure what I will do there.

EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 220-G2-0850-XR 80+ GOLD 850W Fully Modular
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438018&ignorebbr=1

Any feedback on any of these components would be appreciated. Hoping to get my order placed tomorrow if all goes well

So, I get what you're saying about maximizing profit-per-rig. Indeed, if you are able to afford them, rigs with 4-6 cards in general should be more profitable than say 2 or 3 2-cards rigs because for every rig you build, you have a bunch of fixed costs, such as MoBo, PSU, RAM, casing, etc.

Also, your further argument makes a ton of sense as well, at least on the surface. If 390's really do get 50% more hash rate than 380's, and their total cost (including power draw) is less than 50% more than a 380, then certainly your best ROI (all else being equal) would be to load your rig with 390's vs 380's.

I have not researched any of the 300-series cards so can't say much about the other factors, but speaking for the 480 vs 470 issue, it does not seem to be nearly as significant difference in HR as you describe for the 300's.  best I have been able to tell is that a decent average for a 470 is mid 20's untweaked, and maybe pushing 30-ish if tweaked.  But, the 480's only seem to get nominally higher hash rates... maybe a couple Mh and that's it (from what I have read).  AND... here's the other thing to consider... at least for the 400's, the 480's run around $50 higher cost per unit vs 470's.  BUT, in addition, they also pull 150W vs 110W on the 470.  So, they cost 20% more initially and cost 36% more to run... meaning, they would really have to be somewhere in the neighborhood of providing 25-30% more effective HR vs a 470 to make any sense financially, and I don't think they are more than +10% at this point... especially given the fact that the 470s seems to be a lot easier to overclock than the 480s.  And, this is not even considering that you would also need to get a larger PSU to support 6x150 (900) vs 6x110 (660), which would further reduce ROI.

Now, if the 480's were providing the 50% bump over 470s as in your 300 example, it would of course be a much difference story because providing mid-to-high 30's HR would indeed give you a better ROI, even accounting for the extra initial costs and electricity.

Really cool how you guys are able to build your own platforms for these rigs. It just wouldn't be worth it for me as I don't have that natural aptitude. It would take me so long to even try to build something like that it's just more worthwhile for me to purchase something outright, but I admire that skill-set... just something I've never had.

I finally pulled the trigger on my first 2 GPU's... went with the MSI RX 470 4GB at $200 each.  Actually ended up getting them from Amazon as they had the same price as NewEgg but I have Prime so I will get them quicker through Amazon.

I'm now really leaning towards an open build on 1 of the sub-$100 ASRock Mobo's. What I am grappling with now is whether to go LGA1150 or 1151, socket-wise.  I'm assuming that both RAM and PSU will be relatively similar in cost & performance no matter which I go with (correct me if I'm wrong), so it's really down to which Intel processor I want to go with... between the 5820K & 6800K... (price difference for me is only $21)

I have looked at a few benchmarking sites and there doesn't seem to be a dramatic difference in overall performance.  Wondering if anyone here has experience with either.  I know a lot of people build with the cheapest possible CPU, but since I will be mining a lot of XMR with this rig, my impression is that a higher-end chip should add a decent amount (maybe 500-700) to my hash-rate. Trying to figure out if there would be any real advantage hash-wise to getting the 6800 over the 5820.

ahhhh... ok... now it makes sense, thank you!  So basically, if I want to fit my rig into something like an ATX tower, this Mobo would not really be an option as I would imagine the risers would make it impossible for everything to fit?  Maybe this is another sign to opt for an open air design... like built on a platform as someone else posted in this thread previously.  Seems like it's gonna run at least $200-300 more to get into a large chassis for this. Will have to do some more thinking on that part but I think it's time to pull the trigger on those MSI 470's :-)

thanks Rocky, I appreciate your input!  Maybe you can explain something to me about that ASrock MoBo you linked.  That was one that I was originally looking at but it only has 1 PCIe 3.0 slot, correct?  The other 5 appear to be the smaller PCIe 2.0 slots.  Don't those MSI 470's require the longer 3.0 slots?  Not sure what Im missing but doesnt seem that board could handle more than 1 470.

Thanks for posting your 4-card rig details FullZero! that looks like a great setup but not sure I can justify a $160 case AND a $150-$200 MoBo at this point... UNLESS, I am pretty confident I will go to a full 4-GPU setup eventually.

I still need to look deeper into the case options, but wanted to ask a clarifying question about the 2 MoBo's you are using...

Is really the only (main) difference between the 2 that the $60 more expensive Z170 has the 1151 socket (Intel 6th gen & up), while the Z97 has the 5th gen and lower 1150 socket?  Seemed like the only notable difference to me but not 100% sure.

The other question about MoBo's I have is this... these 2 that you ASRocks that you have listed seem pretty high end. The original ASrocks i was looking at were around half the price of these... as listed below:

$77 ASRock H97 Pro4 LGA 1150 Intel 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157511&cm_re=ASRock_H97_Pro4_LGA-_-13-157-511-_-Product

$100 ASRock Z170 Extreme3 LGA 1151 Intel Z170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157672

I thought I had read that people had built 4/5-GPU rigs with these, but I am a bit confused how this is possible because it looks like they only have 3 of the long PCI slots (called PCI express?), while the 2 MoBo's you listed obviously have 4.  Since it looks to me like at least the 470/480's I've been looking at require the long PCI slots, how is it that people could get 5 GPUs onto one of the MoBo's with only 3 of those long slots?  I'm guessing here but maybe some of the lower end GPU's only require the smaller PCI slots?

Other than the PCI express vs PCI slots, are there any other notable advantages (for mining) of these 2 OC MoBo's vs the 2 cheaper ones I have listed?

Finally, thanks to all of the valuable info in this forum, I believe I have narrowed my GPU choices down to the following 3 RX 470's.  I have opted for the slightly cheaper 4GB versions, since feedback indicates there is no real advantage (at least mining wise) in paying extra for the 8GB versions.

$200 MSI: this one is my current favorite, maybe just because of the look lol. Weird thing is that unless Im crazy, this was $260 a few days ago, dropped to $250 yesterday, but is now $200 at newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137024&ignorebbr=1

$210 Saphire Nitro+:  I was leaning towards this one before the price dropped on the MSI above.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202229&cm_re=radeon_470-_-14-202-229-_-Product

$200 Gigabyte:  currently my 3rd choice, mainly because it does not have any user reviews on NE yet.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125896&cm_re=radeon_470-_-14-125-896-_-Product


Now, aside from asking for recommendations among these 3 (or others I might be missing), I wanted to ask specifically about this "back plate" issue that has been discussed here as causing both space and heat issues.  I am not really sure what this is referring to as I haven't even seen a GPU in front of me for about 4 years.  Do any of the 3 I listed have this?

Thanks again! Hoping to pull the trigger on at least the MoBo & GPUs by tomorrow

Thanks for that clarification Joblo!  I have been using MinerGate on my 2-3 PCs for about 2 weeks now and really like it because of the ease of use. I'm having trouble getting it to recognize my old NVidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti, which i will need to get resolved before investing in a GPU mining rig, but I have a note in to their support so...
 if
My main plans are to mine for XMR and Ether... probably holding the majority of what I mine (esp for XMR) so if I understand you right, Nicehash would really no be a good option for me to try since it automatically converts/pays out it BTC, correct?

Great thread here guys... really fascinating stuff!  Probably especially since I am specifically looking to build a GPU rig to mine XMR and Ether, so I have read and seen a lot of great nuggets within this thread to both educate me and further pique my curiosity!

So, before asking a few questions, I want to see if I have at least gleaned a reasonable understanding of expected hash-rates for these 2 coins... mainly in reference to RX 470/480's since it seems like those are the 2 most commonly used/mentioned, and also what I am considering for my rig.

XMR:  looks like around 700-800 H/S per 470/480?  based this partially on Phil's latest 2-card rig with 1 470 & 1 480 but also remember seeing similar rates posted elsewhere.  Is this pretty close?

ETH/ETC:  is 20-25 MH/S un-tweaked about standard for Ether mining? have seen this a few places... ~50 for a 2-card rig and ~100 for 4-carder.  Is this about right?

Now to some questions:

1- Is there a notable difference between the 470 & 480?  seems like 480's cost more and draw more wattage, so trying to figure out what kind of hash-rate bump to expect to help with ROI calcs.

2- Is there a notable difference between 8GB & 4GB?  I looked at the specs between the MSI 470 8GB and the Saphire & Gigabyte 4GB... but cannot really discern what the difference might be in relation to hash-rates.

3- Regarding CPU mining... my understanding (and experience from using MinerGate on a couple PCs over the past 2 weeks) is that CPU mining is effectively useless for Ether but still reasonably decent for XMR, especially with a current CPU.  My old 2nd gen i7-2600K even gets about 115 H/S, and I have seen on the spreadsheet below that more recent CPUs can pull out 400 or more... and this is an older list.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MI-ic0Os25hgGUImW54sUIjZY_pUNQNa_W8Se5pRGBs/edit#gid=0

So, the question is, for the screenshot that Phil posted about his new 2 card rig on page 7... was that 1.58 KH/S purely from your 2 GPU's?  Or does that also include some CPU-based hashes?  if the latter, what CPU are you running this with and about how much HR would you say is attributed to it?

I am curious about this mainly because I can get Intel chips at about 50% off, so really wondering if I get something like a 5th or 6th gen i7-x800K processor, if it could contribute reasonably (like 400-600 H/S for XMR) to my mining operation.

4- Phil at one point was looking at the Rosewill Thor V2 chassis. Ironically, I had put that exact one into my NewEgg cart a few days before i read this thread (on sale for $80) but didnt compelte checkout in time so its still in there but now at $130!  But... did I read right that that case did not work for your 4-5 card build?  if that is indeed true, what would people recommend for a 4-5-6 GPU build?  Is there any chassis that can handle that config? 

I am trying to be smart about this so would ideally like to do an initial build with probably a pair of MSI RX 270 8GB GPUs, but would also love to be able to build it in a way that I could just add 2-3 more cards, after confirming expected profit margins.  Not sure if this is even possible due to space limitation concerns that I keep reading about, but would REALLY like to build to accommodate more than 2 cards if needed in the future, as even a bit of extra initial expense would certainly be less than building a full 2nd rig.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and info!

Thanks Mugatu, that's not bad considering how cheap those cards are. Still though, I think for me it would make more sense to go with more powerful GPUs, but still looking for Monero experiences with 470/480's.

That's a nice looking rig gooduser173... so, if I understand correctly, you were getting 30 MH/s running the R9 390 alone, and now 50 MH/s after adding the RX 470?  So, logically you could say that the RX470 is giving you about 20 MH/s, correct?  This seems to be in the ballpark of what I have seen for Ether mining with 470's on a few other threads here... about 20-25 with no tweaking and possibly closer to 30 with tweaking.

I looked up the specs on that 390... does that thing really pull 275W??  If so, what would be the upside of using that vs 470/480s that pull only 110W?  Sure, it is getting 50% more hash rate, but it is also consuming well more than twice the power.  Don't get me wrong, I am not criticizing your rig at all as I know you already had the 390 but if starting from scratch like I am, wouldn't it make more sense to build a rig as follows:

3x 470's:  consumes 330W and produces 60 MH/S

vs

1 470 & 1 390:  consumers 385W and produces 50 MH/S

Just trying to understand all the nuances of this before making a purchase.

Also, still hoping to find some hash rate experiences/estimates for 470/480's with a 5th or 6th gen Intel i7 x800K chip for Monero specifically.  Something like this table at the link below would be great but as you can see, this version is relatively old as it does not have any of the recent hardware I am looking to benchmark included:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MI-ic0Os25hgGUImW54sUIjZY_pUNQNa_W8Se5pRGBs/edit#gid=0

Hello… I am new to the altcoin scene and am trying to ascertain if I can make a reasonable profit by building a decent GPU rig.  I have been researching components and plan on posting my proposed set-up here in detail before pulling the trigger, as I would like to get opinions from experts before putting down that kind of money.

But, before posting that detailed systems mockup, I wanted to see if there was any way of obtaining hash rate estimates for a handful of GPUs that I have been looking at.  I have found what appears to be a good profitability calculator at coinwarez but I only know 2 of the 3 required pieces (watt usage & electricity rates) and have not been able to find a good source for expected hash rates.

Before listing the GPUs though, I wanted to mention that I plan on using MinerGate… probably on a Windows 10 build… and at least for now, mine primarily Monero & Ether.  I know that there are other alternative miners but I they seem a bit too technical for me to easily use. I have been running MinerGate for over a week just on my 3 PCs and like the easy to use interface.  However, if there is a dramatic difference in productivity, I would be open to considering alternate miners.

CPU:  my current desktop has an old 2nd gen Intel i7-2600k processor. When I mine Monero with 7 or 8 cores on this machine, I usually pull about 115 H/s. Note that this machine does NOT have a qualified GPU in it, so my results are solely from that old processor.  This is right in line with the benchmarks below, but this is obviously a very old list so doesn’t have any of the more recent hardware.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/t_usoLpWsHq7K6-PeYXigCw/htmlview#

When I try to mine Ether on this PC, the results are abysmal… most likely because I believe that mining either at decent rates is much more GPU-dependant than Monero.

I can get Intel processors at ~50% off, so I was originally looking at am i7-6800 for about $220 but then I realized that would require an 1151 socket as opposed to the more common 1150, so I may opt for the i7-5820K for about $180 instead. The benchmarks don’t seem to show significant difference between these 2, so thinking saving $40 here and another $40 on a cheaper MoBo may be the way to go.

So, the question here is, approximately what hash rate could I expect from the i7-5820K (or similar)?

GPUs:  So, I have primarily been looking at are of the RX470 variety…

MSI 8GB @ $240  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137025&ignorebbr=1

Saphire 4GB @ $210  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202229&cm_re=radeon_470-_-14-202-229-_-Product

Gigabyte 4GB @ $200  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125896&cm_re=radeon_470-_-14-125-896-_-Product

These all seem to be similar in specs but seems like the 8GB may provide a bit of extra processing power… not real sure though.  But they all seem to pull 110W.

Can anyone provide estimated hash rates for these for mining both Monero & Ether?  Even if you are not using MinerGate, any actual user data would be helpful at this point.

Finally, I also would consider other GPUs if they have a better power-wattage-price ratio. To that end, I saw these recommended somewhere:

EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 @ $120  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487025#close

These are half the price and half the GB, but will they also only produce approximately half the hash rate?

Any hash rate data for the GPUs I mentioned above (in relation to XMR or ETH/ETC), or any other highly recommended GPUs would be greatly appreciated!  Also, I assume these rates would be scalable… meaning that if a single GPU produces a XMR hash rate of 600 H/s, then 2 would produce 1200 and 3 would produce 1800?

My intention is to get a MoBo that supports 5-6 GPUs, but only buy 2-3 at first to make sure it is profitable once up and running.  If it is, then I would possibly add another 2-3 GPUs to maximize that profit.  I do realize that returns will diminish at some point, but if I cannot easily convert to mining other altcoins at a profit, I will just transform this system into my new main PC and sell the extra GPUs.

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Yup... RubberDuckie is 100% correct... it's all about the money! I will just talk about the US since that is where I am located... Since most of the big poker rooms are based outside the US, the US government does not get a cut of those billions and that just will not ever be acceptable by this or most other world governments. This is 95% or more of why governments have issues with online gambling.

Yes, their primary BS reason is the it "protects" consumers, but this is complete and utter BS. Firstly, the % of people that get addicted to gambling and ruin their lives is minimal, and for that small minority, then can EASILY find many other alternatives to online poker or other types of online gambling. To be honest, there may be a very slight incentive towards online because of the ease of use (convenience of not leaving your home), but again, for the people with true gambling problems, going outside of their house to find their fix will rarely be a problem.

In fact, if you really think about it, for the overwhelmingly vast majority of gamblers, online gambling is actually MUCH safer than casino-based or any other out-of-your-home variety, and here's the reason why...

Let's say you wanna go to a casino to gamble. At minimum, you have to get in your car and drive. At maximum, you have to fly somewhere and then drive. In both cases, the travelling TO this location is much more risky than gambling at home. AND... the return trip in many cases will be significantly more risky because most people will have consumed at least marginal amounts of alcohol at the casino.  Furthermore, there are numerous additional inherent risks inside the casino. One is that you could get robbed or scammed while there. Another is the damage that breathing in all of that 2nd hand smoke will do to your body. I personally also have severe smoke allergies, so playing poker in most casinos is not really an option for me.

Talking about casinos... of course, they are also very influential in the battle to shut down online gambling, at least here in the US but probably elsewhere as well.  That's because they at least perceive that they are losing a large chunk of revenue to online gambling. I say perceive because I have yet to see definitive proof that this is true, but as long as they perceive it to be true, they will most certainly fight (usually by "influencing" governments) to shut down online gambling.

So, it's a very tough battle to win because there is so much power and money going against it.  It really sucks because there are very few poker sites that still support US players.  Hopefully, PokerStars can get legalized in my state again and soon, because options are getting very limited for players here.

Thanks to all who have provided some valuable information here!  I went ahead and opened a coinbase account yesterday. Had a bit of trouble getting their ID Verification tool to work but finally was able to get it done via their mobile app. I subsequently purchased my $60 max of BTC using a debit card, then transferred them to Bittrex where I bought my AEON :-)  I like coinbase and what if offers but the drawback of course is the ~3% fee and that pesky $60 daily limit.  I know there are higher limits with bank accounts but I didn't want to wait the 5 days so used a debit card.

So, if I understand correctly... it may not be a good idea to keep the AEON I purchase on Bittrex in my wallet there?  Sound like coinbase may be a safer place?  But I only see 3 wallets there... BTC, ETH & USD, so maybe I am confused on this piece.  I intend to eventually keep the majority of the BTC that I accumulate in my Blockchain wallet, so not at this point, a bit confused on the most reliable wallet for altcoins... other than Ether, which has a wallet available on coinbase.

Thanks again for all the help... I feel like I am at least getting a bit of traction now... but still a ton to learn of course.

Thanks Darkstar... that helps a lot!  So, I went ahead and opened a Blockchain wallet.  And, I also may have solved the way to add my initial BTCs.  One of the sites I play poker on has the option to withdraw poker funds directly to bitcoin, so this might be a good option for me.

However, just to make sure I am understanding this correctly... when I choose the Cashout via Bitcoin option, it asks for my Bitcoin Address.  I am right in assuming that this is the very long alpha-numeric sequence that I got after opening my Blockhchain wallet?  On the Blockchain site, I believe this is called "Wallet ID"... it's the number that appears on your login screen.  Is this the correct number to copy and paste into Bitcoin Address field on my poker client's bitcoin cash-out screen?

Hello everyone... I apologize in advance as I am sure these noob questions have been asked many times, but I could not find all the answers using the search function of this site.  if there happens to be a noob FAQ or How To somewhere that addresses these questions, I would be happy if someone could direct me to it.

I am very new to the cryptocurrency scene but have been trying to educate myself over the past few weeks or so. I was originally (and still may be) interested in getting into mining altcoins, eventually via GPU rigs... but in the last few days, have become more interested in purchasing altcoins outright.

Til now, I have only mined via the MinerGate web tool. I have 3 PC's dedicated to mining Monero (for about 5 days) and AEON (for 1-2 days) but of course, this is very slow (especially because my desktop apparently does not have a GPU capable of mining)... hence my consideration of eventually building a GPU rig.

Anyway... Let me start with a specific purchasing example to make it easier to explain...

This morning I decided that I wanted to purchase a nominal amount of AEON.  Through a few searches I determined that it was mainly traded on Bittrex.  So, I opened an account there and logged in, but I cannot figure out how to load funds to may account, so that I would be able to purchase AEON coins outright.

So, my first question would be, it Bittrex indeed to only or main place to purchase AEON?  It seemed like 95% of it's volume takes place there, but if there is a better alternative, I would be happy to hear it.

The next question of course would be how do I deposit funds into my account there (or on other exchanges)?

At this point in time, I have no BTC and no altcoin (other than the fraction I have mined through MinerGate). Nor do I have any kind of wallets whatsoever.

Do I have it right that pretty much all Altcoin purchased have to be done with BTC?  If not, what are some reasonable methods used to purchase altcoins?

If indeed I really need to have BTC in order to purchase AEON and other altcoins, what are my best options for purchasing BTC?  I have heard paypal is not great, so what would be recommended?

Then, my final initial (kind of an oxymoron i know lol) question would be about wallets.  It seems like BlockChain.info offers probably the best bitcoin wallet at present, so I plan on opening one later today.  However, I am not clear if there is a need to have multiple wallets if I will be dealing in multiple altcoins. 

For instance, let's say I get a bitcoin wallet from Blockchain and figure out how to actually get BTC loaded to it.  From there, how would I proceed to purchase AEON?  Do I also need to open a specific AEON wallet?  Meaning, is a unique wallet required for every unique altcoin that I purchase?  Or, is there either 1 wallet that can handle all BTC and altcoins?  Or, other alternatives to managing this?  It would seem to be crazy if there were unique wallets required for all altcoins, but I am a noob, so...

Anyway, thanks for any direct advice or references to existing resources that address these questions!