Need help deciding - 5870 or NOT ?

[QiVX]

Hey guys,

I haven't been in the bitcoin community for a while due to studies etc.
Last time I was generating Bitcoin was in December where there was all this hype about ASIC.

Reading around, it looks like companies like bASIC pulled out with people's money or something.

Anyways, my rig currently has 3 Watercooled 5970s, all hashing away nicely. (Going to take 1 5970 out as I need to do some work on it)
A great opportunity has appeared for me to buy 2 watercooled 5870s for a great price.
I was wondering if I should invest in these 2 cards, or is there any legit ASIC company out there.

I do know that IF, and yes IF, ASIC does occur, I can always switch to Litecoin.

So what would you people recommend?

At the current rate, it will take me 3/4 of a month to fully pay off these watercooled 5870s (a rig with 2x 5970s, and 2x5870s).
So that will be roughly 2.7 ghash. (Can go higher, not sure how hard to I can push the 5870s yet)

[kokojie]

Dude ASIC has already occured, GPU mining will be obsolete in a few weeks if not days. (depends on the price action)

Though if you have free/cheap electricity, then you can probably keep on mining for a while. The 5870 is great for mining Litecoin though.

[vdragon]

Hey guys,

I haven't been in the bitcoin community for a while due to studies etc.
Last time I was generating Bitcoin was in December where there was all this hype about ASIC.

Reading around, it looks like companies like bASIC pulled out with people's money or something.

Anyways, my rig currently has 3 Watercooled 5970s, all hashing away nicely. (Going to take 1 5970 out as I need to do some work on it)
A great opportunity has appeared for me to buy 2 watercooled 5870s for a great price.
I was wondering if I should invest in these 2 cards, or is there any legit ASIC company out there.

I do know that IF, and yes IF, ASIC does occur, I can always switch to Litecoin.

So what would you people recommend?

At the current rate, it will take me 3/4 of a month to fully pay off these watercooled 5870s (a rig with 2x 5970s, and 2x5870s).
So that will be roughly 2.7 ghash. (Can go higher, not sure how hard to I can push the 5870s yet)

 Those cards pull a nice amount of electricity, but still, do it. Price is high, you will most likely be making money for a while

[sgravina]

If they are really a good price then you can sell them.

I estimate you will burn about 1030 Watts with that system.  You will need a good 1200 Watt power supply.

[Vandroiy]

Take a look around. There are ASICs coming online.

The first ones from Avalon run at 68 GH/s per machine, which are increasing in numbers daily. ASICMiner has just started a >3 TH/s farm.

GPU market flood in 3... 2...

[monsterblitz]

Sounds good, if the price is right & you can use your current rig.

Network hashing rate is just now above the previous high (currently 28.070 Thash/s).  I need to see 100 Thash/s from ASIC's before thinking "ASIC's are here".  That could occur in 2 weeks or 2 months.  Many were posting the imminent death of GPU's 6 months ago.

[QiVX]

Hmm. But would it be worth it if I were to go and mine Litecoin ?

[MKEGuy]

Here is the best answer anyone can give you, IMO.

step 1 - If you have to ask the question, the answer is automatically a resounding no.  Just go buy some litecoins or bitcoins and trade with them - sell some things, etc.   There are other was to make money in bitcoin then just mining.

Your probably going to be stubborn and want more then that.  So - come back to the forums and read, read, and read some more.   Find out everything you know about the various coins and start figuring out which direction YOU woud like to go.  Sure you can consider others opinions but a lot of times you'll find out that they are just that - opinions.  Everyone has one - most of them stink.

Once you have an idea of where you'd like to head with the mining, you need to start crunching numbers.  I'm not going to hand it all to you, but I will say that if all you are doing is calculating max hashrates vs power consumption - save yourself the time and go back to step 1.  There is a lot more to it then that, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or a fool!

This probably isn't what you want to hear - but I think it sums it up quite while.  I think making the blanket statement that getting into mining is just "to little to late" at this point is again either lying or full of poop.

Good luck to you!

[QiVX]

Here is the best answer anyone can give you, IMO.

step 1 - If you have to ask the question, the answer is automatically a resounding no.  Just go buy some litecoins or bitcoins and trade with them - sell some things, etc.   There are other was to make money in bitcoin then just mining.

Your probably going to be stubborn and want more then that.  So - come back to the forums and read, read, and read some more.   Find out everything you know about the various coins and start figuring out which direction YOU woud like to go.  Sure you can consider others opinions but a lot of times you'll find out that they are just that - opinions.  Everyone has one - most of them stink.

Once you have an idea of where you'd like to head with the mining, you need to start crunching numbers.  I'm not going to hand it all to you, but I will say that if all you are doing is calculating max hashrates vs power consumption - save yourself the time and go back to step 1.  There is a lot more to it then that, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or a fool!

This probably isn't what you want to hear - but I think it sums it up quite while.  I think making the blanket statement that getting into mining is just "to little to late" at this point is again either lying or full of poop.

Good luck to you!

I understand what you mean.

Power is not an issue for me. I pay a flat out fee and basically get unlimited electricity.

So I see that Litecoin pays less than Bitcoin, but the reason I post here is to hear people's personal opinions. A lot can change during a space for a few months. And with this release of ASIC there has been mixed opinions. I know there are a lot of threads there etc, but most of them are old and do not relate to the current situation. Like I said before, I've done some research on Bitcoin, but I like hearing other people's opinion's / perspective, because if I go search something up I may be inclined to doing something wrong.

I know that we all make mistakes, but I'd rather have someone tell me what they have done which hasn't done them any good, and instead of going through the same process one person, take it lightly.

Basically what I'm saying to say is, I like to hear people's personal opinions of relating to NOW.

[cdog]

Yes, because good video cards will retain most of their value for 6-12 months, so free power = profit mining BTC or LTC if BTC becomes too hard.