New to mining, looking for advice.

[SameSong]

So I have been checking out these forums getting some information and gathering some test data to figure out if mining could be a viable addition to a few of my current projects and so far I have had some pretty legit results while farming LTC. Considering I am currently using nVidia in my main tower, my next project however was to be an AMD HTPC. I am beginning to think I should order an extra AMD GPU to go into my main tower (alongside my GTX 670).

So my thought was to order my HTPC parts along with an extra AMD card for the current setup either to mine BTC or LTC.

Opinions?

Current results with my GTX 670 using cudaminer.exe for LTC.
https://i.imgur.com/ayIVRkZ.png

I get about 175-185 kHash/s

My results with GTX 670 have proved to be slightly erratic ( spiking down to about 159-169kHash/s on occasion )
Is this normal, my OC may be slightly unstable?

[jtmart007]

If you wouldn't mind swapping over to AMD you could fetch a 7950 for your GTX 670 and get about 600khash with bout the same power draw and maybe less heat.

Currently, the cuda-mining will be erratic and you'd only notice issues from OC'ing if your drivers crashed or if you were getting hardware errors while mining shares/blocks. For now though, that is what you will get with a 670.

[SameSong]

I was considering selling my 670 and picking up AMD, but I LOVE my 670. So I would rather not, however if I could make it financially viable to swap to AMD for mining to finance a new nVidia card down the road, I would be more than willing to make the leap. If I do switch to AMD LTC is still more viable to mine? I was thinking of grabbing a 7870 or 7850 to mine BTC while mining LTC on 670, would this be inadvisable?

[GerMG]

why not bitcoin mining?

[SameSong]

BTC proves poor results in my current (nVidia) configuration, which is why I'm considering the leap to AMD on main tower. Trying to determine if I should keep the nVidia card for mining LTC, and adding an AMD card for mining BTC. Or if I should go all out AMD and mine just BTC or LTC?

I will have a new HTPC w/ 7850-7950 soon (mining BTC most likely). Just trying to figure out what I should do with my current rig.

[Murf]

Keep it as is. Since you love your Nvidia. Swapping it out will probably not make any difference in terms of payoff.
 BTC vs LTC on 7950 hardware seems to be equal in terms of payout. I prefer BTC so i got an 7950 just a couple of weeks ago.
(yes yes new to forums. Been lurking around.)

[go4gonzo]

I'm relitivly new to BTC mining.  I've been doing it for a couple of months and doing alot of research before investing in a "mining rig" and buying/selling BTC. 
So I'm going to give you a snapshot of my mining operations  as a normal, probably majority consumer and new to the bitcoin idea.

When I first started out:
- Bitminter as my mining pool.  ( I found them to be easiest when starting out, and fee 1%)
- Coinbase as my "bank" aka e-wallet for storing my BTC (this is also where I transfer real money  so I can buy and sell BTC.
- I use GUIminer as my mining tool (I've used Bitminter's mining tool and cgminer, but couldn't get same results...I'll explain later)
- My "mining rig":
AMD A8 APU which has a Radeon HD 7550 or something.
16GB DDR3 1866 OC RAM
128GB SSD and 1 TB backup drive
NO dedicated FX card

This yielded me roughly 55-58Mh/s which is EXTREMELY pathetic.  But that rig was not meant for mining.  It is a Photo editing computer, but it was all i had to get started.

Now 4 months later I just recently built a dedicated mining rig.  It's built for expandability and places for many fans which is important if you want to keep those GPUs cool when hashing.  I will explain and provide cost, equipment, setting (overclock), and flags I use in GUIminer to show you what I'm getting now and what I plan on upgrading to in the future.

Rig:
COOLER MASTER HAF 912 ($59) Simple, plenty of room, not all light-up and showy, plenty of fan options.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

ASRock MB-970EX4 Socket AM3+ ($99) (bought because it has 3 PCIe 2.0 x16 slots for 3 GPUs)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058HUQJ0/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 600W ($65) (good, inexpensive, strong enough for 3 GPUs)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028

AMD Sempron 145 Sargas 2.8GHz ($38) (because you don't need a strong CPU for mining  )
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888

G.SKILL NS 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 ($19) (because you don't need much RAM for mining)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231395

Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 GHZ edition (inexpensive, moderate hashing, small, new architecture) 208-214 Mh/s (I'll explain more)

Old HDD I had lying around ($0)

So for $380 I have a great starter rig that I can add 2 more GPUs or better ones down the line.

Now let me explain my GPU overclock settings in MSI Afterburner:

Core clock: 1125
Memory: 525 (the lowest setting because you don't need it to be any higher and it won't make a diff in hashing power)
power: -2
fan speed: 55%
These setting yield 208-214 Mh/s

So in the next couple of paycheck I'm going to purchase 2 more 7770s, which in theory should get me a total of 624 Mh/s.

If you have any questions let me know.  Also, if someone wants to add their opinion, I'd like to learn more. thanks.

[momo694]

Just my .02. I dont think the 7770s is a good choice for your next cards. I think it would be worth the money to step up to a 7850,7870,7950 or 7970 they all have more than double the hashing power as your current card. i have a 6950 and it is getting around 400mh, but those are nearly impossible to get ahold oh.

[SameSong]

I think I have a good idea of the hardware I will acquire for this project. My main concerns were the feasability of keeping my nVidia card for mining LTC while I get my BTC miner configured. Most likely I will sell my 670 and grab a couple of 7850s or 7870s along with my low power HTPC build. All depends on what kind of LTC generation I see this next month while acquiring parts on the testbench.

[bitcoinindia]

Why would someone who can dig money, sell his device to make money. This seems to be counterintuitive.
 

[SameSong]

It does indeed, however the 670 hardly nets enough results to prove viable. If I sell it I can purchase 2x7850s and have a much more efficient mining rig.

[go4gonzo]

Just my .02. I dont think the 7770s is a good choice for your next cards. I think it would be worth the money to step up to a 7850,7870,7950 or 7970 they all have more than double the hashing power as your current card. i have a 6950 and it is getting around 400mh, but those are nearly impossible to get ahold oh.

I'll look into the  7850,7870,7950 or 7970. But your probably right. thanks! 

FYI I don't pay for electricity atm.