[Newbie] Mining for BitCoins

[Pezikrypt]

Mining for BTCitCoins

Pezikrypt: "My name is Pezikrypt, and I am a newbie."

BCT-Support Group: "Hello, Pezikrypt."

Pezikrypt: "This is my story..."


August 2012
I'm your typical college freshman, going to school full-time and looking to many money by any means (legally) necessary. I just couldn't keep a job for more than a month while going to school, so after my second job I just stopped looking for the remainder of the semester. I'll be looking for one come start of the second semester.

September 2012
I found out about BitCoin one night when I was playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3). I was eavesdropping, and I decided I'd throw it into Google and see what I found. I found this website, and decided I would creep browse through the forums.

At the time I was using a Toshiba Satellite laptop, and those are horrible! I decided that I would get a desktop. (This won't happen until late December 2012.)

December 2012
It's December now, I was browsing Craigslist and found someone selling a desktop for $100. I emailed him and told him I was interested. Well, the emailing continued to go back and forth for approx. 12 days. (12 Days of Christmas, anyone?) Ironically enough, on Christmas day (later that evening) I met this individual by the local USAF Base. I was prepared to give him five crisp twenty dollar bills, and instead he only took two of them. I was shocked, but he said he was sorry for keeping me waiting and that it was, after all, Christmas.

I did not argue, for I saw no point in it. I offered him the money, he refused it.

In exchange for two (instead of five) crisp twenty dollar bills, I received the following:

• x1 eMachines ET1331G-05w Desktop Tower (Inside the tower it has a CoolerMaster CPU Cooler and a ATI Radeon HD 5450 GPU)
• x1 eMachines 1366x768 (60Hz) 19-inch Monitor
• x1 eMachines Keyboard
• x1 Microsoft Mouse
• x1 (BRAND NEW) NETGEAR N900 Wireless Dual Band USB (Wifi) Adapter

TODAY
I registered on BTC, and here I am. I guess you can call this my introduction, but this doesn't mean my thread is over. I still have much to discuss.


I'm mining at 1.2Mhs/sec with the GPU on this computer, I still have (at the time of writing) ~3313 Blocks Remaining on my Wallet (which I installed using - bitcoin-0.7.2-win32-setup). My miner consists of this installation... (guiminer-20121203)

I plan on building my own rig in the coming months...

Here are the parts I plan on buying... (Of course, before purchase I will check for any upgraded parts.)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU:  AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor  ($185.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler:  Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM  Liquid CPU Cooler  ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard:  Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX  AM3+ Motherboard  ($124.62 @ NCIX US)
Memory:  Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($105.97 @ Compuvest)
Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card:  Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card  ($297.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case:  Corsair Vengeance C70 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($114.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply:  Corsair Professional Gold 850W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply  ($179.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1199.52
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-30 16:28 EST-0500)

As you can see, this is not a Dedicated Mining Rig, I plan on using it for light entertainment purposes. But, when I am not on it, it will be mining.
I plan to make upgrades in the future, hence the Motherboard (for dual-XFire) and the PSU (850W).


I plan on using my BitCoins for personal use; upgrading and obtaining more hardware. Electricity is free for me, so I need not worry about that. (The Military pays for all housing-related luxuries (water, electricity, heating/cooling)... Also, it's free for me at my school. It is a constant 68 in my dorm room, so I won't mind a little heat from my future rig.

What are your opinions, thoughts, comments, suggestions, etc?


Pezikrypt: "My name is Pezikrypt, I am a newbie, and this is my story."

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[lassdas]

Hello Pezi and welcome to the Bitcoin-World.

I plan on using my BitCoins for personal use; upgrading and obtaining more hardware.

You should be aware that you probably won't make a lot of coins at all.
With a single one of those 7950 Video-Cards, you might get something around 500-600MH/s,
at current difficulty that would net you <0.1BTC or ~$1.3 per day.
Taken into account that you plan on using that machine for entertainment too, it'll be even less, that's less than a dollar a day. It'll take you like forever to upgrade to anything. 

Not saying you shouldn't do it, but do it for fun, not for the money.

[Pezikrypt]

I was thinking of changing the Motherboard to this:

Motherboard:  Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD7 ATX  AM3+ Motherboard  ($164.98 @ NCIX US)

The PSU to this:

Power Supply:  Corsair 1200W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply  ($299.99 @ Newegg)

And eventually having a total of 4 of these:

Video Card:  Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (CrossFire)  ($297.98 @ SuperBiiz)


That's what I plan on doing with the BitCoins, the whole reason why I am doing this is just as a hobby. Something to do, for like you said, for fun.

[Blazr]

I know you're probably building this rig mainly for entertainment/gaming purposes, but just to make sure you're aware, soon ASIC mining devices will hit the market, and when they do, GPU mining will be dead, expect a 20-40x decrease in mining income (very likely more) once they hit due to the increased network difficulty.

Here are some of the ASIC manufacturers, as you can see, these devices cost much less $ per MH & use much less watts per MH, they are currently only available on pre-order though.

http://www.butterflylabs.com/products/
https://www.btcfpga.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=58

[lassdas]

Well, as i said,
if it's the plan to upgrade to that new MB/PSU/4cards with the coins you get from the first card (a dollar a day), it'll take a hell of a lot of time.
Not to mention that the difficulty will skyrocket once the first ASICs ship, then  you won't even get a dollar a day with 4 of those cards, you'll only make pennies a day.

Nothing wrong with doing it for fun, especially if you buy that hardware anyway to please your gaming needs.

[Pezikrypt]

Here are some of the ASIC manufacturers, as you can see, these devices cost much less $ per MH & use much less watts per MH, they are currently only available on pre-order though.

http://www.butterflylabs.com/products/
https://www.btcfpga.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=58

I've been watching these manufactures for awhile now, and I don't plan on pre-ordering any hardware. Thanks for the links though!

I plan on making a few purchases once they come out, because I've also read of the new 8XXX Cards being more powerful than these/or on par with.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Islands_%28GPU_family%29

I could be wrong, as I am still learning, but that's what I've heard about the new and upcoming GPUs. We will just have to see which ones are released first.

Well, as i said,
if it's the plan to upgrade to that new MB/PSU/4cards with the coins you get from the first card (a dollar a day), it'll take a hell of a lot of time.
Not to mention that the difficulty will skyrocket once the first ASICs ship, then  you won't even get a dollar a day with 4 of those cards, you'll only make pennies a day.

Nothing wrong with doing it for fun, especially if you buy that hardware anyway to please your gaming needs.

That's true too, and good thing it'll only be a hobby. (I don't realistically plan on purchasing upgrades solely off of BitCoins.)
I'm not one who gets frustrated easily, and I'm also very patient. I just sit back, watch and learn.

My ultimate plan, even though my future-rig isn't a dedicated miner, is to obtain a dedicated mining rig. I am going to get more active in this community, since this will, after all, become my hobby.

[DeathAndTaxes]

It is unlikely the 8000 series will provide significantly improved performance.  

You seem to not be getting the scale.  Average GPU might be 3MH/s per W and 1 MH/s per $.  This hasn't changed all that much since the 5000 series cards.  Some cards are slightly better, some worse but for example there is no GPU (current or future) which is 10 MH/s per W or 10 MH/s per $.  

The average ASCI is in the ballpark of 100MH/s to 1,000 MH/s per W and 20MH/s to 60 MH/s per $.  It isn't slightly better, it is the difference between a flintlock rifle and a minigun.  Lets say super optimisticly (and horribly naively) the 8000 series GPU are twice as efficient.  It isn't going to matter. It would be like 2 flintlock mustkets against a mini-gun. Even with free power it may takes years (potentially decades) to recoup the hardware cost (assuming the hardware lasts that long).

[Pezikrypt]

Then it seems I will have to invest in a Dedicated ASIC Mining Device.

[DarkLegacy]

Then it seems I will have to invest in a Dedicated ASIC Mining Device.

It really isn't that worthwhile since you may be waiting years before you get your investment back