Help me get started :)

[Cloudy]

Hi im new here i just started getting into mining today. I was wondering if anyone could help me start mining and create my own pool. Right now im using guiminer v2011-05-01 but i dont know if thats the best.
my computer specs are
AMD FX 6200 six core
XFX Radeon HD 6870
16 GB ram

Im good with computers and stuff just not mining

[Cloudy]

why noot i wanna start a giant pool then mabye i can make some coins?. i think my computer is pretty good

[sippsnapp]

Hardwareguide, here you get to know how much mhs your gpu will bring, most probably.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

Bitcoin software:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Software

I like the pheonix miner for gpu mining very much.

Here you get the latest qt-wallet, the most widely used wallet i guess:
http://bitcoin.org/
Downloading the blockchain may takes a while...


Here you can find a comparison of miningpools and payoutstructures:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools

There is also a peer to peer pool (decentralized miningpool)
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/P2Pool
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=18313.0

If you decide to solomine, i like eloipool very much indeed, the second pool software i would suggest is ecoinpool but the setup may be difficult for linux novices,+

I hope this was helpful, rgds---

[sippsnapp]

why noot i wanna start a giant pool then mabye i can make some coins?. i think my computer is pretty good

I suggest you to forget the idea to host an offical pool on your home connection.

[Cloudy]

ok thanks i joined this pool called slush's pool but im pretty sure this slush guy will be making all the profit. Is it better to solo mine?

[Akka]

ok thanks i joined this pool called slush's pool but im pretty sure this slush guy will be making all the profit. Is it better to solo mine?

No, Slush take only 2% (I think). That's barely enough to cover the costs for the pool.

Solo mining makes next to no sense for you. You would probably never solve a block with your single GPU. In a pool you get a steady income.

If you like gambling, then solo mine. You will most likely receive nothing, but you have a tiny (and I mean tiny) chance to get 50BTC.

[sippsnapp]

With 1 gpu the difference should be to small to be recognized (no guarantee tough)
Solomining would require you to have a pool running 24/7, if thats no problem,you still face to probelm that ~300mhs could take you ages to find a block.
I  suggest to choose a pool wisely, maybe mine on different pools if the payoutstructure allows that.

IDK slush but as i know he has a good reputation, but i know graet whos running ozcoin.in, i honestly think hes a good guy.
I also like eligius and eclipse mining but idk very much about the guys running the pools.

Beside that you could look into p2p pool.

[Cloudy]

ok sweet so slushs pool is good?

[Akka]

ok sweet so slushs pool is good?

It's OK. Easy to setup. A good beginner choice.

Also don't expect to make a killing. With your GPU you will roughly get 0.1 BTC a day.

To show you the solo point again, this would also mean, on average, that you would need 500 days to find a block, solo.

[Cloudy]

about how much $ is .1 bitcoin? and is there any way i can speed up the mining process?

[Cloudy]

so the more people that mine bitcoins the less everyone makes?

[sippsnapp]

about how much $ is .1 bitcoin? and is there any way i can speed up the mining process?

~$1 and no unless you get more computers a lot more computers. and it will be halving soon so yea GPU mining is dead.

Well, as op only has 5~ posts he maybe is entirely new to the whole scene, so maybe explaining why gpu mining could be dead eventually would be a nice thing.

As i understood the current state, there will be asic miners released soon (eventually) which come with a much higher hashrate and lower energy costs that the existing devices (most gpu).
I say eventually because, nobody yet could tell me when (exctly when) the asic devices will be available for direct order (not preorder).
Of course there are threads questioning the asic announcements.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
EDIT:
This is the most recognized asic merchant/producer http://www.butterflylabs.com/

[Akka]

so the more people that mine bitcoins the less everyone makes?

Basically that's true. The reward is the same, no matter if 1 person or 1.000.000 persons are mining.

By the questions you ask, you should probably read the links posted by sippsnapp. (https://en.bitcoin.it and http://bitcoin.org/)


You will have a lot less questions after that.

Also good: http://www.weusecoins.com/questions.php

[Cloudy]

ok so i have 3.8 mhash s is that pretty good or no?

[Akka]

ok so i have 3.8 mhash s is that pretty good or no?

You should have 200 m/hash.

You are probably mining with you cpu.

Here you find a real well beginner guide to bitcoin: https://www.coindl.com/page/item/242

[Cloudy]

oh yea i didnt know i wasnt supposed to use my cpu. i switched it back to "bart" whatever that is and im at 230 mhash s. is there any extra flags for my card that will make it go faster?

[sippsnapp]

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

Scroll down till you reach your card model, there are possible miner settings listed.
You, of course can try on your own to optimize the settings.

[Cloudy]

my graphics card isnt showing up on the list just barts and my cpu

[kwoody]

"Barts XT" is AMD's codename for the Radeon HD 6870; your graphics card. Turks = 6670, Juniper = 67xx, Cayman = 69xx etc. So when you select Barts, you're using your graphics card. Try downloading a GPU overclocking utility like Sapphire TriXX, you should be able to push an additional 100mhz out of your GPU's core clock without making any adjustments to voltage. As for extra flags, try these:

-v         <--- this enables vectoring
-w 128  <--- this assigns a workload of 128

You should see 300mh/s after these changes. (OC + flags)

[Akka]

Be careful with Overlocking. Don't destroy you card for 50 Cents extra a day.