Running an ASIC miner versus a PC

[superskillz]

If I run an ASIC miner, is that like running 10 PCs? What's the electricity usage by comparison?

[Lauda]

If I run an ASIC miner, is that like running 10 PCs?

No. That comparison makes no sense in any context. An ASIC is a specialized chip, while a PC is a general computing one.

What's the electricity usage by comparison?

This depends on the coin that you want to mine, the device that you want to use, etc. Use Google.

[Iranus]

What's the electricity usage by comparison?

All you need to know that mining with PCs is completely worthless.  The damage that it does over time to your PCs outweighs the mining rewards by many times, and pools are unlikely to even let you withdraw the kind of dust that they would be producing.  Not to mention that even if there was no damage or electricity costs, it would take hundreds of years to reach ROI, at today's difficulty.

If you want to mine alts it's okay, but for BTC you need ASICs.

If I run an ASIC miner, is that like running 10 PCs?

It's like running a specialised computer specifically to mine on a certain mining algorithm (in Bitcoin's case, SHA-256).  Nothing to do with PCs and considering how worthless PCs now are for mining, I wouldn't make that comparison.

[superskillz]

What's the electricity usage by comparison?

All you need to know that mining with PCs is completely worthless.  The damage that it does over time to your PCs outweighs the mining rewards by many times, and pools are unlikely to even let you withdraw the kind of dust that they would be producing.  Not to mention that even if there was no damage or electricity costs, it would take hundreds of years to reach ROI, at today's difficulty.

If you want to mine alts it's okay, but for BTC you need ASICs.

If I run an ASIC miner, is that like running 10 PCs?

It's like running a specialised computer specifically to mine on a certain mining algorithm (in Bitcoin's case, SHA-256).  Nothing to do with PCs and considering how worthless PCs now are for mining, I wouldn't make that comparison.

Thanks for the summary. I was specifically wondering about a comparison of the electricity usage of an Obelisk from Sia (https://obelisk.tech) versus just running a computer all day (not even for mining). Is it 10x the usage or a 100x? Just wondering about an order of magnitude.

[achow101]

Thanks for the summary. I was specifically wondering about a comparison of the electricity usage of an Obelisk from Sia (https://obelisk.tech) versus just running a computer all day (not even for mining). Is it 10x the usage or a 100x? Just wondering about an order of magnitude.

In general ASIC miners draw probably 2 to 3 times more power than your normal desktop (1600 watt ASIC PSUs vs 500 watt desktop PSUs). However an ASIC can mine thousands of times faster than a desktop can. For example, the Antminer S9 has a 1600 watt PSU and mines at 13.5 TH/s while a super high end desktop with multiple GPUs might be able to pull off a few GH/s at best.

[superskillz]

In general ASIC miners draw probably 2 to 3 times more power than your normal desktop (1600 watt ASIC PSUs vs 500 watt desktop PSUs). However an ASIC can mine thousands of times faster than a desktop can. For example, the Antminer S9 has a 1600 watt PSU and mines at 13.5 TH/s while a super high end desktop with multiple GPUs might be able to pull off a few GH/s at best.

Thanks very helpful!

[Mike Mayor]

Thanks for the summary. I was specifically wondering about a comparison of the electricity usage of an Obelisk from Sia (https://obelisk.tech) versus just running a computer all day (not even for mining). Is it 10x the usage or a 100x? Just wondering about an order of magnitude.

In general ASIC miners draw probably 2 to 3 times more power than your normal desktop (1600 watt ASIC PSUs vs 500 watt desktop PSUs). However an ASIC can mine thousands of times faster than a desktop can. For example, the Antminer S9 has a 1600 watt PSU and mines at 13.5 TH/s while a super high end desktop with multiple GPUs might be able to pull off a few GH/s at best.

It may also be important to add that asic miners do one thing and one thing only and that is why they so fast at hashing. It's not a multiple purpose processor like in s desktop. It also has shelf life meaning it will eventually cost more to run it then it mines. Though having said that there are a few sha256 altcoins. Oh sha256 is the way bitcoins are mined. Each coin is mined differently.

[NiHaoMike]

It also has shelf life meaning it will eventually cost more to run it then it mines.

The exception are those who have electricity included in rent, hence why "unprofitable" miners still sell for a good amount. There is a point, however, beyond which the miner is unlikely to pay its initial cost in any reasonable time. Thus, the best case scenario is a miner that has already paid for itself and is located where it costs nothing to run nor is it tying up resources that are better used to run newer miners.

All in all, altcoin mining is a lot more attractive for beginners.

[uslfd]

Thank you all for the great answers.

One question, can ASIC can configured to mine different altcoins?

Thanks very much.

[achow101]

Thank you all for the great answers.

One question, can ASIC can configured to mine different altcoins?

Thanks very much.

No. ASIC stands for Application Specific Integrated Circuit. They are, as the name implies, Application Specific. The circuitry in an ASIC is designed only for performing one hash function, so unless the altcoin uses the same hash function as the ASIC is designed for, then you won't be able to mine different altcoins with an ASIC. It's important to note that most altcoins do not use the SHA256d hash function that Bitcoin uses.

[Xavofat]

Thank you all for the great answers.

One question, can ASIC can configured to mine different altcoins?

Thanks very much.

No. ASIC stands for Application Specific Integrated Circuit. They are, as the name implies, Application Specific. The circuitry in an ASIC is designed only for performing one hash function, so unless the altcoin uses the same hash function as the ASIC is designed for, then you won't be able to mine different altcoins with an ASIC. It's important to note that most altcoins do not use the SHA256d hash function that Bitcoin uses.

Also, because some coin developers believe that ASICs contribute to centralisation, many of the newer coins attempt to be ASIC resistant.

Some of these attempts have not been successful (for example, there is now an ASIC for Litecoin's mining algorithm, Scrypt), while some coins have succeeded (so far, Ethereum has).

So if you want to mine with your GPU, you should mine an altcoin which is ASIC resistant.  You could even use Nicehash as well.

[Mike Mayor]

It also has shelf life meaning it will eventually cost more to run it then it mines.

The exception are those who have electricity included in rent, hence why "unprofitable" miners still sell for a good amount. There is a point, however, beyond which the miner is unlikely to pay its initial cost in any reasonable time. Thus, the best case scenario is a miner that has already paid for itself and is located where it costs nothing to run nor is it tying up resources that are better used to run newer miners.

All in all, altcoin mining is a lot more attractive for beginners.

I hear what you saying but eventually even using free electricity will cost more then you make. For example let us say you have 1000watts worth if mining machines and your landlord is fine with that. You add another 1000 and the landlord tells you to please try not use any more. There you have reached the limit. No such thing as free anything. You can't have like 10kw of machine running because they were the first ones made. No landlord will allow it without putting the price up. So ya eventually scraping them is the best thing to do or using them as a learning device or perhaps get in very very early with sha256 altcoins. Bit good luck with that seeing as you can rent massive hashrste for a few hours just after the coins oqunh which makes keeping older minder complete counter productive. Plus there is still the heat they generate.

However.. to increase the shelf life people in cold countries can use them instead of heaters and pay less then running a heater. It still runs at a loss but now it's a heater not a miner. I think having some miners as house hold heaters is really cool idea and so hitech and totally geek. Everyone will.envy you Or simply as a decoration or reminded of the old days of mining.

[NiHaoMike]

The exception are those who have electricity included in rent, hence why "unprofitable" miners still sell for a good amount. There is a point, however, beyond which the miner is unlikely to pay its initial cost in any reasonable time. Thus, the best case scenario is a miner that has already paid for itself and is located where it costs nothing to run nor is it tying up resources that are better used to run newer miners.

All in all, altcoin mining is a lot more attractive for beginners.

I hear what you saying but eventually even using free electricity will cost more then you make. For example let us say you have 1000watts worth if mining machines and your landlord is fine with that. You add another 1000 and the landlord tells you to please try not use any more. There you have reached the limit. No such thing as free anything. You can't have like 10kw of machine running because they were the first ones made. No landlord will allow it without putting the price up. So ya eventually scraping them is the best thing to do or using them as a learning device or perhaps get in very very early with sha256 altcoins. Bit good luck with that seeing as you can rent massive hashrste for a few hours just after the coins oqunh which makes keeping older minder complete counter productive. Plus there is still the heat they generate.

However.. to increase the shelf life people in cold countries can use them instead of heaters and pay less then running a heater. It still runs at a loss but now it's a heater not a miner. I think having some miners as house hold heaters is really cool idea and so hitech and totally geek. Everyone will.envy you Or simply as a decoration or reminded of the old days of mining.

Hence the "not tying up resources for better miners" part. If the limit is, say, 2kW and you already have 2kW of miners, you'll have to remove at least 1kW of miners to add 1kW of newer miners.

A friend of mine actually did use an Avalon 4 as a heater. She was sharing a house with one or two others, so her effective electricity cost was 1/2 or 1/3 the usual rate. She was used to hot weather and liked her room much warmer than most people do. One of her friends sold her a Bitcoin miner and provided help on setting it up. The net result was that she had a machine that kept her warm and helped pay for her medical school expenses.

A college student today would be much more likely to go with altcoins after considering that the really profitable miners are really expensive and really noisy, GPUs have many other uses, and GPUs resale better. Not to mention that "winning" is no longer "paying back the full price of the miner that has no other uses" but rather "getting a meaningful discount on a PC that would be bought anyways".

[khaled0111]

you can use https://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator to compare witch is better to mine and what pc's configurations, it depends on many parameters to calculate bitcoin earnings.