If you had 10 grand to start off with...

[mlouca]

If you had 10 grand to start off with how would you construct your mining project. How many and which kind of motherboards, graphic cards, cooling systems would you guys go for. Would you spend the whole 10grand on multiple components?

[Atroxes]

Step 1: Buy reading glasses

Step 2: Find comfortable pillow for back

Step 3: Read 50 "mining rig or invest" posts on forums

Step 4: ??¿

Step 5: PROFIT  

[Genrobo]

I would personally buy enough mining rigs to pull 10 Gh/s
And invest the rest in BTC directly.
10 seems to be a very solid number recently.

[bcpokey]

If I had $10,000 I'd buy $10,000 worth of bitcoins and then send them to 1KtzPMokNekE5pjzqaDsdf6fEr77Utn3eA

Just sayin...

[Littleshop]

I would do about $5400 in mining rigs and $4600 in bitcoins.

I would 3x build dual 6990 machines for a total of about 4.8 GH. 

The 6990's may not be the best m/h per dollar but their resale value will be ok even in a year.

[um0rion]

Id buy 7x rigs that could mine at 1.8 ghash/s each, and one that could could do 1.2 ghash/s. Total is just about $10k.

Im giving this estimate using partial info... But if you can use pci-e extenders to put 6x video cards on a MSI 890fxa-gd70 motherboard, then my numbers are correct. 13.8 ghash/s should make its costs back in a little over a month (probably more with difficulty increases (but price might jump too)). After that, just a ridiculous amount of $$ coming in.

[minerX]

Don't forget about having enough power where you are going to place the rigs.

[mlouca]

Id buy 7x rigs that could mine at 1.8 ghash/s each, and one that could could do 1.2 ghash/s. Total is just about $10k.

Im giving this estimate using partial info... But if you can use pci-e extenders to put 6x video cards on a MSI 890fxa-gd70 motherboard, then my numbers are correct. 13.8 ghash/s should make its costs back in a little over a month (probably more with difficulty increases (but price might jump too)). After that, just a ridiculous amount of $$ coming in.

i actually looked into this!! Funny thing is i got discouraged because you need to have a cooling system for the cards. i went for a 7 slot motherboard and was buying 7 6990 only to find out that the water cooling block that needs to be put onto each card wont fit on the motherboard because there isnt enough space between each card!!! angry

[bcpokey]

Id buy 7x rigs that could mine at 1.8 ghash/s each, and one that could could do 1.2 ghash/s. Total is just about $10k.

Im giving this estimate using partial info... But if you can use pci-e extenders to put 6x video cards on a MSI 890fxa-gd70 motherboard, then my numbers are correct. 13.8 ghash/s should make its costs back in a little over a month (probably more with difficulty increases (but price might jump too)). After that, just a ridiculous amount of $$ coming in.

i actually looked into this!! Funny thing is i got discouraged because you need to have a cooling system for the cards. i went for a 7 slot motherboard and was buying 7 6990 only to find out that the water cooling block that needs to be put onto each card wont fit on the motherboard because there isnt enough space between each card!!! angry

You know what's even harsher than not fitting on the motherboard? The fact that the power draw for 7x 6990s is about 2,500Watts, which is greater than any single PSU can handle, and also draws more amps than any single household circuit can provide, let alone the power through the motherboard would almost definitely destroy it. Doomed from the outset.

[mlouca]

Makes more sense to get two motherboards that support 4 slots each and pick up 8 total 6990s with one water cooling system for both. I read online somewhere a guy bought a 200$ fridge and build around it. he broke off the door and he covered the components with it. it must have been no more than 4x 5 feet

[Littleshop]

Makes more sense to get two motherboards that support 4 slots each and pick up 8 total 6990s with one water cooling system for both. I read online somewhere a guy bought a 200$ fridge and build around it. he broke off the door and he covered the components with it. it must have been no more than 4x 5 feet

A $200 fridge does not have anywhere near the cooling capacity required.  It would trap more heat then it would expel. 

Water cooling is the way to go for multiple 6990's.  I would love to see that heat used for something, like to heat a small apartment buildings hot water.

[bcpokey]

A single water cooling solution? Not sure what you mean by that. 8x 6990s will put off about 3000Watts of waste heat. Even a 480 radiator can't handle that. With 18 push/pull 3000RPM high static pressure fans on each, maybe 3 GTX360s could handle it (at ~10C delta).

Water cooling for mining isnt' a very cost effective way to go anyway though. Would be cheaper to build 4 rigs running 2x 6990s, and cool probably about the same (each 6990 waterblock is ~$150).

[Jaime Frontero]

the truth is - and really, it's not a slam - if i had ten grand to invest, and didn't have a total handle on how to construct and install a mining cluster, without having to ask anybody a thing, i'd buy Bitcoin and let 'em sit for a couple of years.

if you spend ten geezers without the kind of experience that'll let you put all your parts together in one day - and start mining in 24 hours - you'll lose one, and maybe two difficulty levels.  it's all down hill from there.

my rule of thumb is that anything i buy must pay for itself during the difficulty level i bought it in.

if you can do that, you shouldn't be asking for advice.

again - this is only an observation, not a condemnation.  and i wish you the best of luck.

[Crs]

With 10k I would invest in fpga mining. If bitcoin has a future, then that future is related to fpga or something similar that uses less power than pcs with gpus.

[Litt]

I would go and buy the entire amount in bitcoins as it would yield the most profit. I'll leave the tedious mining to the rest who shall remain.

[RaTTuS]

Spend 2k on GPU,
Spend 6k of coins,
spend 2k on beer

[max in montreal]

buy the coins, wait a while and cashout when the proffits are there to buy the machines...

[um0rion]

If you look at the bitcoin calculators, and my post earlier about what $10k spent right will get you, at the current difficulty you could mine at a rate of 1 block every 1 day, 13 hours.

$10,000 at $14/coin = 714.29 BTC

For this Ill use my number of 13.8 ghash/s for $10,000 of computer hardware.

At an imaginary 1,000,000 difficulty rate, you would earn 1 block (50 coins) every 3 days, 14 hours. For simplicity, ill ignore difficulty increases since I already raised it to a million. You would generate 714 BTC in about 50 days. After that, you could still sell your hardware, or continue to earn coins. I dont know why you all keep pushing the "buy coins outright" model.

After 2 months:

"Buy coins" method would yield someone 714.29 BTC.
"Buy hardware" method would yield ~714 coins, $10,000 of hardware, and the ability to generate more coins.

[kr105]

I dont know why you all keep pushing the "buy coins outright" model.

After 2 months:

"Buy coins" method would yield someone 714.29 BTC.
"Buy hardware" method would yield ~714 coins, $10,000 of hardware, and the ability to generate more coins.

^ This.