Does mining software work ?

[amartin99]

hello
I was reading about a year ago that mining soft don't work
guy said that it's a race and that soft miners are way to slow to ever win

im wondering what if I where to join a pool
would it matter then how slow I am so long as I am helping some wouldn't I still earn a little ?

I have never done any mining myself
but I do run an RDP business and I could setup miners on like 30 servers running at a low % of CPU so as to not bother my clients
I sure wouldn't win any races but if im right and in a pool every little bit helps then it should be worth giving a try
if I got some results I would consider devoting servers to it fully

any thoughts ?

[-ck]

One does not mine with computers any more. Computers just act as controllers for running dedicated mining hardware called ASICs.

[amartin99]

how expensive is the hardware ?
and how much bandwidth dose it need ?

[leowonderful]

One does not mine with computers any more. Computers just act as controllers for running dedicated mining hardware called ASICs.

Dangit ck, why you always post before me??! qq
As ck said (dangit man!) computers are dwarfed by ASICS. You won't make anything with the server running cpuminer even for a whole year. You won't lose money and you wont earn any (If at all anything happens, YOU WILL LOSE. BIG TIME.).
If you even remotely want to mine with an ASIC now, try to find some usb miner like the Gekko Compac or Block Erupter or even an Antminer USB. That's the place to start now. It's hard to even get shares now with even top notch gaming pcs.

[leowonderful]

how expensive is the hardware ?
and how much bandwidth dose it need ?

That really doesn't matter, because even if it was a 50 core Xeon server, it wouldn't be anything. Pool mining with that will make you lose money in one of the dumbest ways possible besides gambling. ASICs have taken over bitcoin and it's still a wonder how people have not figured this out completely yet.

[amartin99]

yea that's pretty much what I learned a year or so ago
I was going to buy some USB miners then but they guy said he had some better ones coming out in a couple weeks
the more I chatted with him the more I felt it was over my head
and out of my price-range

but even now I have clients buying RDP and putting miners on them
then I saw this CPU mining sections and wondered if id been miss informed


anyway so back to the USB miners
how much do they cost
and how hard is it to join a good group

is it practical to throw $200-300 into this and hope to earn some BTC ?

[welshy82]

id get a old antminer s1 to get ur bearings with mining once you feel happy upgrade

[amartin99]

ok so where do I buy one of them
and what should I expect it to cost ?

[welshy82]

there pritty low cost but do need a psu , you could even try with a antminer u3 60gh

have a look on  ebay  not to sure where abouts you are from

[amartin99]

im in canada
and have no idea what any of these terms mean hehehe

[os2sam]

ok so where do I buy one of them
and what should I expect it to cost ?

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


That list doesn't have the Avalon 6

[welshy82]

these are from the uk

[amartin99]

whats the Mhash stand for ?

im guessing any of these with a USB com port would be something I could just plug into my computer and it would work of my computers internet
how much bandwidth do they use ?

[welshy82]

im not sure m8 to be honest never moniterd bandwith but i cant see it using loads

[amartin99]

what about this  http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Antminer-S7-12-HOUR-BITCOIN-MINING-CONTRACT-4730-Gh-s-10-SHA-256-4-73-Th-s-/371558243197?hash=item568298db7d:g:GFcAAOSwx-9WuHpi
guy seems to be renting them for $1 an hour

is that a good investment ?
I got to wonder if it gives the lease a consistent return then why dose he rent them
why not just use it himself

[notlist3d]

what about this  http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Antminer-S7-12-HOUR-BITCOIN-MINING-CONTRACT-4730-Gh-s-10-SHA-256-4-73-Th-s-/371558243197?hash=item568298db7d:g:GFcAAOSwx-9WuHpi
guy seems to be renting them for $1 an hour

is that a good investment ?
I got to wonder if it gives the lease a consistent return then why dose he rent them
why not just use it himself

I would not, contracts.... he makes more then he would just running.   So your overpaying.

Just buy straight coins if you want to purchase.   If you want to mine look at getting a miner.

[amartin99]

yea I figured he must be charging more then the expected intake or he would just run it for himself
I was looking at another one (buying) for $80
but it uses 350 wats of power
add up in a hurry
so im thinking this would be a good test not to see if I make a profit from him but to see what intake there is from his miner
then consider if it is worth buying one myself

[notlist3d]

yea I figured he must be charging more then the expected intake or he would just run it for himself
I was looking at another one (buying) for $80
but it uses 350 wats of power
add up in a hurry
so im thinking this would be a good test not to see if I make a profit from him but to see what intake there is from his miner
then consider if it is worth buying one myself

What is your electricity price? This is a big thing you need to know, that I base a lot off of.  Also difficulty... hard to predict lately so know that going into it.

But tell us more about your setup your thinking and prices, we might be able to help tell if you have a chance of ROI.

[amartin99]

honistly im not sure what the power costs here
but I try not to even leave a 23 watt light on hehehe

I was planning to get a USB flash drive miner
now im wondering if they are to outdated aswell

[Amph]

at this point without a <0.05 electricity cost it's not profitable to mine bitcoin with any asic, even s7 is struggling nowadays

i want to advice to you also, that there are better profit to bemade in the altsection, for the time being

otherwise you can wait for the next asic gen, and grab one at launch where they have the maximum profit, liek it was for the s7