Using a gaming rig as Bitcoin miner?

[burnt1ce85]

A high end gaming machine could cost around $2000. Can it be used as a Bitcoin miner when it's not in use to recoup the cost of purchasing the gaming rig? Has anyone done this with any success? I know cost is directly related to the cost of energy to run the gaming rig and the performance of the rig. I would like to know if buying a high end gaming machine is a worthwhile investment if i turn it into a bitcoin miner machine when it's not in use. Most of the time my current gaming computer is off and not in use which is a potential waste because it can be used as a bitcoin mining machine.

What do you think?

[Vod]

A high end gaming machine could cost around $2000. Can it be used as a Bitcoin miner when it's not in use to recoup the cost of purchasing the gaming rig? Has anyone done this with any success? I know cost is directly related to the cost of energy to run the gaming rig and the performance of the rig. I would like to know if buying a high end gaming machine is a worthwhile investment if i turn it into a bitcoin miner machine when it's not in use. Most of the time my current gaming computer is off and not in use which is a potential waste because it can be used as a bitcoin mining machine.

What do you think?

See the bolded part.  No, it is no longer an investment.  Maybe a year ago yes but not anymore.    So to answer your poll YES, use a gaming machine as a miner, but don't buy the gaming machine as an investment.

I bought a nice system for $1500 - latest i7 processor and 7970 card.  I use it for bitcoin mining when I am not gaming, but I certainly won't expect to make my money back now.

1) Bitcoin reward is halving in less than a month.
2) Specialized hardware miners are coming out in months that will make graphic card mining insignificant.

[Kuusou]

If you are looking to buy a gaming rig in order to play games and it's going to be worth the money to you even without mining for Bitcoin then buying is is perfectly okay. Don't forget that many times playing a game while you are mining is not going to go over all that well either.

If you are looking to buy a  gaming rig to mine and make the money back then no. Even at current rates that's not reasonable. You are going to be spending a lot of money on non mining parts and then using your graphics card to try and pay all of that off. Even with one of the really good cards it's going to take you years to pay that off assuming you didn't buy anything for specific mining needs..

And now you have to keep in mind that in another two weeks the amount of money being made mining will be cut in half. And shortly after that the ASIC mining rigs will hit the general population and the difficulty will go up high enough that no on with a small time rig utilizing GPUs will be able to stay in the mining game without actually losing money. Now is not the time to invest in normal mining rigs. It's go big and go in for the long haul, buy ASICs, or don't do any mining at all.

Mining with your gaming rig to make a little extra on the side and not attempting to make a profit overall though, that will be worth it for a bit longer.

[Stephen Gornick]

Maybe a year ago yes but not anymore.    So to answer your poll YES, use a gaming machine as a miner, but don't buy the gaming machine as an investment.

Even that advice might not be good.   After the halving, the break-even on electricity is likely going to be under $0.10 per kWh.  So unless you pay under $0.07 per kWh, even with "free" hardware (as you bought it for gaming), you either won't make any money or will lose on each and every bticoin you get.

A high end gaming machine could cost around $2000.

There are (and will continue to be ) a lot of really nice used GPUs on the market.  You'll be able to get a high end gaming machine for much less.

[burnt1ce85]

Okay thanks guys. I get the general feeling that bitcoin mining may not even be feasible because of the cost of electricity.

However I do live in Toronto where cost of electricity is 6.3 cents per kw/hr which is relatively cheap.

[TheN33k]

I have a mid end rig, and I mine 24/7 when I'm not gaming. I get like 200Mhashes which amounts to around .1 BTC/day. I think there are cards that work well for gaming and also BTC, check here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

[Stephen Gornick]

However I do live in Toronto where cost of electricity is 6.3 cents per kw/hr which is relatively cheap.

So a gaming rig mining with that price of electricity might give you a few (tens) of dollars profit per month (after the halving occurs).  But as soon as ASICs ship (as soon as next month), even $0.06 per kWh won't be good enough.

[joshblum87]

its probably not worth it, as the coins get harder to mine over time.

[Jaw3bmasters]

Mine some other crypto currency with GPU.

Bitcoin is no longer kids play.

[tvall]

so, would it be worthwhile to build a "gaming rig" (I ain't much of a gamer) and use it for password cracking and bitcoin mining in its spare time? lots of people have wpa handshakes they want cracked, so you could use that for the majority of your profit, if any, and hope bitcoin helps too, right?

Even if mining isn't too profitable, it helps strengthen the network. If i had the hardware, I'd mine until it started to become a negative profit. breaking even is good enough for me.

[tvall]

so now i need to find another excuse to get my gf to let me buy some expensive hardware....

[Jaw3bmasters]

so now i need to find another excuse to get my gf to let me buy some expensive hardware....

Just be her bitch for awhile.

She'll let you buy anything after all the things you'd allowed her to do to you.

Or you can say the 2012 bug is near and a new rig is essential.......

[Gabi]

2000$ for a gaming machine??? 1000$ are more than enough!

The next month ASIC will arrive and then GPU mining will be useless. Yeah you can then mine things like litecoin but i dunno how profitable it will be...

[HDSolar]

You can always mine other coins with the rig after the ASIC.  I would say just maintain you want a gaming rig first and a mine second and not the other way arround.

[DanielleEber]

Okay thanks guys. I get the general feeling that bitcoin mining may not even be feasible because of the cost of electricity.

However I do live in Toronto where cost of electricity is 6.3 cents per kw/hr which is relatively cheap.

Also, you should factor in that in the winter you need to heat your house anyway, so the waste heat from your computer helps offset your other heating bills.  In the summer in warm climates, this has the opposite effect.  You can end up paying electric rates to run the computer, and then even more electricity for air conditioning.

[nfhiggs]

Just curious - to all the people that said its not worth it because the payout rate is about to be cut in half, and ASICs are coming online:

The rate has been cut in half but the bitcoin value has more than quadrupled AND the promised low cost ASIC machines have not materialized. Has this changed your opinion about using gaming rigs for mining?

[Slingshot]

 If you care to mine then do it! Even if you don't make hardly any bitcoins, or even if you lose money doing so. At least you will have gained a lot of knowledge. And no one knows what a single bitcoin will be worth in 1, 2, 5, or 10 years! There can only be a max of 21 million. So figure out the math if this really catches on!

 Today  I want to dive head first into mining Litecoins by purchasing a MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card.

 or maybe a SAPPHIRE 100352-3L Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card.

 But will it be worth it? I don't know. Maybe Litecoin's will catch on. Maybe not. Just one of those video cards above with the guiminer-scrypt miner will absolutely blow away any CPU mining for Litecoins. For bitcoins one must use those ATI Cards as CPU mining for bitcoins is truly ancient history. But if the price of bitcoins continues to rise up then even now it may pay to mine with those fast ATI cards above. Maybe only pennies a day, but so what. That may grow into a tidy sum down the road. Or not!

 Even on my quad core Intel PC I can only muster 15 khash/sec  (kH/s) mining Litecoins. But with a 7950 card, or even a 7850 card I suddenly will be in the Litecoin game, instead of just doing a hobby.

 Yea, I gave up on mining Bitcoins simply because getting any ASIC hardware will be a very long wait, and these cash up front deals and hope for the best just don't cut it to be blunt! Too much risk there, and a very high cost. I would rather just buy bitcoins for that high a price and sit on them. But as the price rises week after week it sure does become hard to pull that purchase trigger. Hence mining.

 Litecoin's have a big plus going for them too, at least in my own opinion. [They are verified much faster. And many a merchant in the future may very well demand that over taking 20 to 60 minutes to verify bitcoins! Of course maybe processing speeds will greatly increase down the road, but how long will that be??? There much easier to mine too. And there can only be a max of 84 million Litecoins. So there! Anyway that's my thoughts.

 Already I finally purchased my first 2 bitcoins. It was a hard sell too. I kept waiting for a price drop but finally I bit the bullet and pulled the trigger two weeks ago at about $47 each. A week later those two coins shot up 50% in value. Today, 15 days after purchase they have almost doubled in price at $87.80 See https://btc-e.com/ for the latest bid/ask trading prices for bitcoin and litecoin, in various currencies.

 Us newbies have a lot of catching up to do. But don't give it up before even trying. At least tip your toes in the water and get them wet.

 Heck, the best % return on any investment for myself this year (so far) is buying those two bitcoins.