Best Mining Method. What is it?

[The 4ner]

As the title states what is the current best way to mine bitcoin? I am wanting to get into mining for my first time but don't know what type of mining is best at the moment. I don't know how to build a rig but have a friend that can help me with that. We're going to make it a summer project. So, I want you guys to recommend products that will successfully mine through the coming months and increasing difficulty. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks!

Note: I would like to have go up to at least 1 or 2 GH/s.

[Trongersoll]

Sadly, this is a bad time to be starting. The amount of hashing power being introduced at present makes it just about impossible to make a profit. However, if you are looking for a hobby, you can mine with just about any ATI graphics card and the cgminer software. Join a pool and mine away. just remember, the cost of your Electricity will most likely exceed the value of the fractions of a bitcoin you will mine.

You can go here to see what you can expect from various graphics cards: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

You can also buy more efficient hardware on eBay or in the custom hardware section here, but ebay is expensive for what you get and the people in the forums want to be paid in bitcoins. And, either way, you will most likely spend more than you make.

[The 4ner]

Could I mine the most prominent alt coin and exchange them for BTC? What type of mining equipment is needed for mining alt coin?

[firefop]

Could I mine the most prominent alt coin and exchange them for BTC? What type of mining equipment is needed for mining alt coin?

litecoin is about 3 years behind bitcoin... and really isn't ever going anywhere beyond that - when someone gets around to making an fpga or asic for it it will all fall apart.

From a "mine it and immediately sell for btc" perspective it's possibly to make some money there... I know some guys who are doing it - they're all buying 7950s.


Personally I've chosen not to go that route, I've sold off all my GPU and will stick with btc. After 2 years of massive electric bills, constantly fixing issues and dealing with cooling costs and the incessant noise of a gpu farm - I'm done. I'm glad I did it, but am very relieved that asics are available (with more offerings in the works!) and after switching over I haven't lost any hash-rate... but I have lost the fan noise, annoyance of keeping so many machines running and headaches associated.

Really the only way to get into bitcoin mining right now is to throw lots of money at it. If you really wanted to spend between $50000 and $200000 I'd be happy to advised you on the path to getting it going and actually making money off it.

[The 4ner]

Could I mine the most prominent alt coin and exchange them for BTC? What type of mining equipment is needed for mining alt coin?

litecoin is about 3 years behind bitcoin... and really isn't ever going anywhere beyond that - when someone gets around to making an fpga or asic for it it will all fall apart.

From a "mine it and immediately sell for btc" perspective it's possibly to make some money there... I know some guys who are doing it - they're all buying 7950s.


Personally I've chosen not to go that route, I've sold off all my GPU and will stick with btc. After 2 years of massive electric bills, constantly fixing issues and dealing with cooling costs and the incessant noise of a gpu farm - I'm done. I'm glad I did it, but am very relieved that asics are available (with more offerings in the works!) and after switching over I haven't lost any hash-rate... but I have lost the fan noise, annoyance of keeping so many machines running and headaches associated.

Really the only way to get into bitcoin mining right now is to throw lots of money at it. If you really wanted to spend between $50000 and $200000 I'd be happy to advised you on the path to getting it going and actually making money off it.

Pssh if I had that much money I don't think I'd even be interested in Bitcoin ha ha! I'm not interested in a farm just a simple miner so that I can pool mine alt coin but from what it looks like GPU mining is definitely reaching its final days. I'm thinking of purchasing a single ASIC miner as they go for about $1,000. I can spend that much. However, the companies that sell ASIC miners all seem to have bad rep actually delivering their product. If could receive the ASIC within 5 business days I'd definitely go that route and still build a GPU miner to mine any alt coin that might someday be successful.

[The 4ner]

Problem is actually finding a company that will deliver and not put me on a year and a half waiting list -.-

[BitcoinBarrel]

Try to get a used HD ATI graphics card like 6xxx or 7xxx series off craigslist for under $100 and even then you'll need a good power supply, decent motherboard, cpu and ram. Even with a good graphics card you'll be lucky to make .01 per day.

[Amph]

with $0.17 electricity(mine, maybe your is even better), it is easy to make $50(assuming a 110% profit compared to bitcoin, some coin can reach 200%-300%....) net per card(7950) in one months so with a small farm you can reach 300 easily, just keep an eye, on the most profitable coin every time