Is this a good rig?

[Epicblood]

Just wanted to offer my experiences on the linux usb boot aspect, since that was briefly mentioned. I ran that on my rig for the longest time but got sick of having to reformat and reinstall from scratch when the file table inevitably got corrupted from power loss or whatever. I finally caved and used an old platter drive, and things have gone far smoother ever since. The power savings just wasn't worth the reformatting hassle in my experience, plus the usb boot limits your options with updating and installing some packages.

Also, as others have stated, the future is very uncertain right now. I got into mining a year ago but doubt I'd make that same kind of investment in a gpu setup now.

the build I have now is <500 USD after mail in rebates, and I wont have to pay for a lot of it myself (probably) nor do I pay for power

[1713528217]

1713528217

[Meatball]

Ah, just be careful with 'free power'. Someone is paying for it, and they're not always happy if they see their bill shoot up all of a sudden.

[Epicblood]

it's my parents, I dont think they mind

[panda1]

You should get one or two fpga devices to help with paying off your rig.

[Epicblood]

I will be getting a xilinx Nexus board (to see if I actually can figure out how to use one) and then a Xilinx ML605 (both free)

[Zeek_W]

I will be getting a xilinx Nexus board (to see if I actually can figure out how to use one) and then a Xilinx ML605 (both free)

ooo I wouldn't mind either one of those if they were free - even for my other non-BTC related projects.

*prepares to kiss ass*

[Epicblood]

lol,
my dad works there :p

[Zeek_W]

Lucky bugger

[Meatball]

it's my parents, I dont think they mind

Ah...don't be so sure.   A Radeon 7970 can easily use 300 Watts under load, so figure 650'ish watts (or .65 kwh) for that machine running 24x7.  That's 15.6 kwh/day or 468 kwh/month.  If you have cheap power of around .10/kwh, that's about $47/month just in power.  If you live in Cali where it can be .20+ you're looking at near $100/month.

I know my parents would have said something if I jacked their power bill by $100 when I was a kid.

[michaelmclees]

I know my parents would have said something if I jacked their power bill by $100 when I was a kid.

Right.  Whether or not you pay for power is an enormous issue for people.  And if your parents are going to be upset at their annual power bill being $1,200 more than usual, all so that you can pursue some strange electronic currency investment plan, well.... count that as a cost.

The thing that concerns me is, when ASICs come out, the electricity cost disincentive will simply disappear.  At nearly any BTC/$ rate, it doesn't make sense to turn off your ASIC rig, so if the price falls through the floor for some reason, you won't see the difficulty drop like in the past.  ASIC miners with rigs that can't be used for anything other than mining, and use next to no power, will have no reason to turn them off no matter what the price.

[GernMiester]

Click link,
See $80 GPU'S
LOL at ID10T

[crazyates]

Click link,
See $80 GPU'S
LOL at ID10T

Last time I checked, he had 2 7970s. Now he's decided on 6770s? 400MH/s is not going to even put a dent in the cost that it takes to purchase that rig.

[squeept]

If he keeps over-reacting to our suggestions, he's either going to end up with a standard desktop PC or a pad of paper with "GPU" written on it and a fan blowing on it.

[Epicblood]

Sorry, friend wanted to "help"
I'm gunna buy some used 7970s on eBay

[Epicblood]

removed CPU and GPUs as I am going to take the CPU from an old desktop that I don't use anymore, and buy the GPUs on ebay,

[Meatball]

I know my parents would have said something if I jacked their power bill by $100 when I was a kid.

Right.  Whether or not you pay for power is an enormous issue for people.  And if your parents are going to be upset at their annual power bill being $1,200 more than usual, all so that you can pursue some strange electronic currency investment plan, well.... count that as a cost.

The thing that concerns me is, when ASICs come out, the electricity cost disincentive will simply disappear.  At nearly any BTC/$ rate, it doesn't make sense to turn off your ASIC rig, so if the price falls through the floor for some reason, you won't see the difficulty drop like in the past.  ASIC miners with rigs that can't be used for anything other than mining, and use next to no power, will have no reason to turn them off no matter what the price.

Yeah, I mostly agree.  ASIC power consumption is nothing compared to GPU power consumption, but if the network gets huge, you still may need such a huge stable of ASIC machines that there still is some power costs you have to factor in.  Still basically nothing compared to GPU, but I wouldn't say it's non-existent if you need a mini rig just to make any money in the new difficulty levels.

[michaelmclees]

...Still basically nothing compared to GPU, but I wouldn't say it's non-existent if you need a mini rig just to make any money in the new difficulty levels.

But who is going to spend $30,000 only to turn their rig off when it becomes expensive?  I'd be mining at a loss and paying for the electricity in $ until the BTC value went up again, and I can't imagine anyone else who'd do any thing different.

[Meatball]

...Still basically nothing compared to GPU, but I wouldn't say it's non-existent if you need a mini rig just to make any money in the new difficulty levels.

But who is going to spend $30,000 only to turn their rig off when it becomes expensive?  I'd be mining at a loss and paying for the electricity in $ until the BTC value went up again, and I can't imagine anyone else who'd do any thing different.

Depends on how bad it gets.  A mini-rig uses about 1500 watts and is still going to cost $100-$200 a month to run.