Question from a Newbie about Mining Machine a friend offered me!

[BIT4BRAIN]

Just realized that I can post on other sections:


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=165123.msg1724162#msg1724162


anyone think this is a good or bad deal?

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[glendall]

I'm pretty new to mining (besides a 2 week stint in 2010/11   so take my advice with a grain of salt.

You could get cheaper/more performance from buying new video cards. However they will take a lot more power (roughly x5 this amount).

So basically it boils down to whether or not you live in a place with cheaper power, I think.  This math you have to look at is that hashing rate versus the hashing rate of 3 video cards versus the price of power in your area.  Totally off the top my head as a ball park figure I think one PC with video cards supplying 1.5 GH/s would be somewhere around a 800W- 1000W total system drain but this is a total bar napkin-based estimate.

[CoolIT]

I was also thinking it's too expensive and that a well built gpu miner can reach the same hashing power or more for half the price...


But, 85Watts operation would be the selling point.

My GPU miner cost me about 350$ (all used parts)
2x Radeon 6950
1x Radeon 5570
1x Radeon 6570

I am hashing away at about 905Mhash, but this is running on a 700W PSU.
(Not sure what the actual power usage is but I guaranty you it is easily triple that measly 85Watts.)

For a newbi that can build a pc, the above is cake. You can be lazy and run Windows XP/7 with Guiminer.


The answer is, it might be worth the extra price depending on how expensive your electricity is.
You might need to do a google search on your location and electricity cost.