I just started.... What's your recommendation?

[Bitconian]

Hey there

I'm new in this BTC world and I'm kinda lost. I hope you can help me sort this out

This is what I do:

           * I got ATI 5830. I got around 290 Mh/s
           * I use the wallet from http://bitcoin.org/ with a pass-phrase
           * BitMinter for mining https://bitminter.com/

but now, reading all these posts I don't know if I'm using the right programs or doesn't matter.

what pools do you recommend? I saw that BitMinter is in the Top Ten (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=106417.0) but is there any better?

I read https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104664.0 and it's great but still more doubts, like is better DGM, MPPS, PPLNS, etc....??  Better to "Pay Tx reward" or to "Pay orphans"? is it worth it to pay Fees if you get more mining for that?

And also I saw that there are different wallets... is it better or safer the others than the one from bitcoin.org? like Armory? Coinbase? Electrum??

Sorry for the long post, folks I hope you can help me out

Thanks everybody for your time and support  
Bitconian

p.s.: and if you got time and willing to help more    
what do you think about the new ASIC machines? like https://www.btcfpga.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=58
   would it work as promised?

[BobbyJo]

I would recommend:

POOL-  ECLIPSE MINING CONSORTIUM  (0% FEES).  To be honest they are much the same and it wont affect your pay out that much.

MINER-  Depends on your level of computer knowledge.  If you want a GUI then use GUI miner.  Otherwise there are a number of options using command line.  Again, I dont think there is that much difference (try comparing miners using your hardware at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

WALLET-  I wuld recommend either the stock wallet or Armory.  Armory has loads of features and can be used to create a very secure offline wallet with paper back ups etc.  It may seem complex at first but have a go and youll see its fine.

You could also consider using Pyramining to make your BTC work for you.  Links in Sig!

[Bitconian]

Thanks BobbyJo for the answers.

Appreciate it
B.

[Shadow383]

Use the flags -v -w 128. That'll immediately bump your hashrate up 40% or so 

[SgtSpike]

DON'T use guiminer!  It is significantly slower than BitMinter and cgminer (up to 10% I've seen in some cases).

BitMinter is a great pool, especially for newbies or people who don't want to mess around.  I've been mining at it for months with their miner, namely because I hate messing with flags, batch files and perfect syntax, and I enjoy a good gui interface.  BitMinter is perfect for me, and I get just as much MH/s as others report with some of the best command-line miners.  It is really nicely optimized.

The wallet from bitcoin.org is just fine.  There are better options out there for different use-cases (such as lite clients that don't bog down your computer so much), but there's no reason the default Bitcoin-QT client won't work just fine for you.  I use it.

[Bitconian]

thank you both SgtSpike and Shadow383

Shadow383: using the flag where? BitMinter?

[SgtSpike]

thank you both SgtSpike and Shadow383

Shadow383: using the flag where? BitMinter?

He was talking about guiminer, which again, I wouldn't recommend using!  It is old and slow compared to BitMinter and the other mining software out today.

[Nancarrow]

Everything you're doing is fine.

Well, not really, because apparently the ASIC revolution that's just around the corner is going to make all GPU mining a waste of time, electricity and money. But for now (probably until the new year) mining with a GPU is okay.

It doesn't matter a great deal which miners you use or which pool you're with. I haven't used BitMinter myself but they seem as good as everyone else. As far as the reward method goes, I prefer PPS because it has the lowest possible variance, and it's the only method I can actually understand (and I'm a maths tutor ). But my understanding is that all the other methods eventually give you the same expected return. They just have a bit more variance, which means that in the short term, say a couple of weeks, your returns might be significantly higher or lower than you expect, but over the long term it all averages out.

Which wallet program you use doesn't really affect your mining. I use Electrum because it's 'thin' - no huge blockchain eating up my time and disk space - and because it has a passphrase to determine a 'seed' with which you can regenerate your wallet keys even if you formatted your hard drive. That's nice because it basically means you store your bitcoins IN YOUR BRAIN. I gather Armory also does something like this. But if you don't mind waiting around for the blockchain to catch up, by all means stick with the official bitcoin client.

what do you think about the new ASIC machines? like https://www.btcfpga.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=58
   would it work as promised?

There's no doubt that ASIC machines ARE going to come on to the market sometime, and once they do, GPU mining is dead - there's no way it'll pay back the cost of electricity. But I'm a bit skeptical it's going to happen exactly when all these press releases keep saying it will. 2013 Q2 - almost certainly. 2013 Q1 - probably. 2012 Q4 - I don't think so.

[Shadow383]

thank you both SgtSpike and Shadow383

Shadow383: using the flag where? BitMinter?

He was talking about guiminer, which again, I wouldn't recommend using!  It is old and slow compared to BitMinter and the other mining software out today.

The same rules apply for cgminer, diablominer etc 

[Bitconian]

cool

thanks everybody. I will stick with BitMinter for now.
And I'll try Armory and Electrum.


Thank you all!  

[scooterking]

More like Jan-Feb 2013 at least for production to pick up.  if you pre-order one now at butterfly now, you won't even get it until December.

Scooter

Everything you're doing is fine.

Well, not really, because apparently the ASIC revolution that's just around the corner is going to make all GPU mining a waste of time, electricity and money. But for now (probably until the new year) mining with a GPU is okay.

It doesn't matter a great deal which miners you use or which pool you're with. I haven't used BitMinter myself but they seem as good as everyone else. As far as the reward method goes, I prefer PPS because it has the lowest possible variance, and it's the only method I can actually understand (and I'm a maths tutor ). But my understanding is that all the other methods eventually give you the same expected return. They just have a bit more variance, which means that in the short term, say a couple of weeks, your returns might be significantly higher or lower than you expect, but over the long term it all averages out.

Which wallet program you use doesn't really affect your mining. I use Electrum because it's 'thin' - no huge blockchain eating up my time and disk space - and because it has a passphrase to determine a 'seed' with which you can regenerate your wallet keys even if you formatted your hard drive. That's nice because it basically means you store your bitcoins IN YOUR BRAIN. I gather Armory also does something like this. But if you don't mind waiting around for the blockchain to catch up, by all means stick with the official bitcoin client.

what do you think about the new ASIC machines? like https://www.btcfpga.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=58
   would it work as promised?

There's no doubt that ASIC machines ARE going to come on to the market sometime, and once they do, GPU mining is dead - there's no way it'll pay back the cost of electricity. But I'm a bit skeptical it's going to happen exactly when all these press releases keep saying it will. 2013 Q2 - almost certainly. 2013 Q1 - probably. 2012 Q4 - I don't think so.

[Bitconian]

thank you both SgtSpike and Shadow383

Shadow383: using the flag where? BitMinter?

He was talking about guiminer, which again, I wouldn't recommend using!  It is old and slow compared to BitMinter and the other mining software out today.

The same rules apply for cgminer, diablominer etc 

Are these also GUI or command line?
1.Deepbit           3927 GH/s
2.50BTC           3651 GH/s
3.BTC Guild   2651 GH/s
4.Slush's     1973 GH/s

[chorchonga]

Those are not mining clients, they are mining pools.

Edit:  More info for clarification:

Mining client: the program that runs on your computer to mine

Mining pool: a group of people that work together, with the right kind of client that allows collaborative mining, to mine blocks

BitMinter is a pool that has its own browser-based client to mine.  Your last post was about pools, whereas earlier in the thread, the discussion was about mining clients.

[Bitconian]

Those are not mining clients, they are mining pools.

Edit:  More info for clarification:

Mining client: the program that runs on your computer to mine

Mining pool: a group of people that work together, with the right kind of client that allows collaborative mining, to mine blocks

BitMinter is a pool that has its own browser-based client to mine.  Your last post was about pools, whereas earlier in the thread, the discussion was about mining clients.

oh, my bad!  I thought we were talking about the same

thanks for clarifying it

Edit: I was about to join 50BTC.com (a pool) but it says that I need poclbm-GUI miner (a client), right?  So, do I need both?

[Klober]

Those are not mining clients, they are mining pools.

Edit:  More info for clarification:

Mining client: the program that runs on your computer to mine

Mining pool: a group of people that work together, with the right kind of client that allows collaborative mining, to mine blocks

BitMinter is a pool that has its own browser-based client to mine.  Your last post was about pools, whereas earlier in the thread, the discussion was about mining clients.

oh, my bad!  I thought we were talking about the same

thanks for clarifying it

Edit: I was about to join 50BTC.com (a pool) but it says that I need poclbm-GUI miner (a client), right?  So, do I need both?

If you go with 50BTC.com, or pretty much any other pool there is, then you will also need a mining client. BitMinter has the advantage that you can sign up and just use their mining client which makes things easy. That's not to say that it is necessarily better - it is just easier to get set up when you are new to Bitcoin mining.

If you decide to go with 50BTC.com you can use any mining client you like. Personally I'm a fan of DiabloMiner. I've tried several of them out there (DiabloMiner, CGMiner, BFGMiner, BitMinter) and DiabloMiner has consistently given me the best performance with my 6850s and 6990s. Note that I recommend you do the same and decide for yourself which miner you like best.

Something you will also want to keep in mind is that even the best pools can have downtime and you want to be prepared for that. Most of the latest miners allow you to setup backup pools that your miner will automatically switch over to if it loses communication with your main pool. For this reason you will want to have accounts with at least 2 different pools. This way if your main pool goes down for whatever reason your miner will switch to your backup pool and continue earning you Bitcoins. Much better than losing out on that time waiting however long for your main pool to come back online!