Is mining altcoins profitable with free electricity?

[Bizmark13]

I live in a place with free electricity. My original plan was to mine bitcoins using a used Antminer S1. However, I soon realized that the noise created would be too much.

Does anyone know if it would be profitable to mine altcoins such as Darkcoin with free electricity? The answer seems obvious but the problem is - I'm currently using a laptop from 2004 so I'll need to build my own dedicated mining rig.

What would be the best way to go about doing this? Could I simply buy an old Pentium 4 computer and stick a graphics card or two inside and mine profitably with free electricity? Or would I be better off buying a computer with a newer processor and attempting to mine CPU coins?

[moko666]

even if you have free electricity you will need investment for hardware
also try mining new altcoins because they can give you good return with low mining power

[bathrobehero]

It'd be definitely profitable but you'll have to do a lot of research. The easiest would probably be to start with looking into scrypt ASICs.

Where do you live if you don't mind me asking?

[Bizmark13]

even if you have free electricity you will need investment for hardware

This is true. If I already had the hardware, I wouldn't be asking this question.

also try mining new altcoins because they can give you good return with low mining power

This is really a hit and miss strategy. It could work, or it might not. Mining Dogecoin back in late 2013 before it hit any exchange would have been very profitable.

It'd be definitely profitable but you'll have to do a lot of research. The easiest would probably be to start with looking into scrypt ASICs.

Where do you live if you don't mind me asking?

New Zealand. The only scrypt ASICs that I've seen around here are Gridseeds although I've seen some go for as low as $10-20 used.

[Bombadil]

Anything is profitable with free electricity, just the ROI date will change
I'm in a similar situation, electricity included in rent.
I mine only as a hobby though, any crypto I collect is playmoney so I don't care about BTC/fiat value.

My bet? Try with a small rig first, used AMDs or brand new nvidia 750tis. I only have 2x 750tis, but they're loads of fun :Dn
If you like it and are seeing at least some ROI, you can upgrade even more

[lucasjkr]

Forget GPU's, even for Scrypt coins... There's ASIC for scrypt now, has been for a long time. Far better price/performance ratio. If your electricity is truly free, then eventually you'll break even... But if it's not really free, only free til someone notices, you might need to rethink that.

[cramved]

If you have free electricity then you could mine with the computer that you are posting on and make profit not much but it would be better than nothing as you have no cost.

[Bombadil]

Forget GPU's, even for Scrypt coins... There's ASIC for scrypt now, has been for a long time. Far better price/performance ratio. If your electricity is truly free, then eventually you'll break even... But if it's not really free, only free til someone notices, you might need to rethink that.

Lol, there are other algos out there, making me more than an ASIC for SHA or Scrypt would. Not going to tell which or what, else you all will be mining it and I'll get none ^^

PS: GPUs are more fun because they're adaptable. With a Scrypt ASIC, you're stuck to, well, Scrypt and the coins that still use it are going out like flames on candles. GPU will keep up with new algos, which an ASIC can't.
It's the OPs choice of course, but if you want fun, don't pick ASICs

[adaseb]

Your best bet is to get an S2,S3, KNC Jupiters, DragonMiners, etc. Basically any hardware that is from 0.8-1.2Gh/W which is very cheap.

You can make money with GPU also but its cheaper and faster with SHA256 ASICS.

[boki15]

Do not buy ASICS before you really know you need and want them.

Instead of investing money in new hardware, buy POS coins or if you want to mine, rent at nicehash. You can rent 10TH if you want and see how it turns out, but never invest money into something you have never did before.

After you used nicehash, traded coins on exchanges, you will see what you really need or not. Mining AltCoins isn't that fun like many write, you have to start early and in 99% of cases, the earlier you dump, the more you make. After some time you realize that there is not really much sense in doing this with every coin. Probably at this point everybody starts trading.

If you still want to buy an ASIC, buy bitmaintech's S5 for ~ $ 350. On your place I would invest this money into POS coins (ie. Orbitcoin), uprising stars like DASH or BTC itself as it will hopefully start going up soon.

[atp1916]

Electrical charges are fatal to most ROI calculations these days.  

In other words, your ROI would be slow and quite laborious...but you would actually ROI in the end.

I would honestly just buy bitcoins and maybe set up a smaller scrypt asic just for fun.

[lucasjkr]

Forget GPU's, even for Scrypt coins... There's ASIC for scrypt now, has been for a long time. Far better price/performance ratio. If your electricity is truly free, then eventually you'll break even... But if it's not really free, only free til someone notices, you might need to rethink that.

Lol, there are other algos out there, making me more than an ASIC for SHA or Scrypt would. Not going to tell which or what, else you all will be mining it and I'll get none ^^

PS: GPUs are more fun because they're adaptable. With a Scrypt ASIC, you're stuck to, well, Scrypt and the coins that still use it are going out like flames on candles. GPU will keep up with new algos, which an ASIC can't.
It's the OPs choice of course, but if you want fun, don't pick ASICs

Sure would enjoy a hint... pM me maybe? my lips will be sealed!

[wmtomlinso]

if I were you, i would buy a couple of Zeus scrypt asics.  You can get the 30 Megahash Zeus Thunder used for only $150 or so.  It pulls a 1000 watts, and they run really well.  simple to set up and use.  i think they're loads of fun.  If you have to start paying for power, you can underclock them at around 290 to 300MHz and they use less power.   Then you need to be mining the most profitable coin at all times.  Thats the hard part - tons of research and reading.  or a subscription to smarterhash.  Hint: mine monacoin 

[peteycamey]

mining altcoins is not profitable currently. you can still mine and keep the coins and hope that prices and market value increase.

[onedayillberich]

I've read a bit about mining and it's aroused my curiosity. From what I understand the more popular a coin becomes, the harder it is to mine, but the easier it becomes to sell. A catch 22 situation.

I also read a lot about the rate of return being less than the cost of electricity, if I think about it my annual power bill might be $1,000 and I leave my PC on 24/7.

Granted my GPU would be idle most of the time. Assuming my GPU consumed 100W when busy, that would equate to 867kWh per year. At .20c per kWh, that's an extra $175 annually in electricity costs.

So to break even, you would want to mine enough to cover that plus enough to recoup the cost of any hardware purchased.

I'm curious to hear from anyone who's actually tried this using consumer grade equipment. Ie. Recent PC with decent CPU, ~8Gb RAM, Single discreet GPU, purchased for under $1,500.

Did you make any $$$?

I myself have an older Core 2 Duo @2.8GHz, 4Gb RAM, original GPU fried, so I put in a GTX 750. Once I've set myself up, I'll report back here