Newbie mining question

[babylon_n_ting]

I have two fairly low spec computers which run 24/7. Neither has a dedcicated graphics card.

If I have them both running as CPU miners connected to a mining pool is this likely to generate many Bitcoins?

[ixfinito]

It is not possible to do any meaningful mining with CPUs, that's why most good performance video cards from AMD are out of stock. Not even nVidia seem to have what it takes in this bitcoin world. I suggest you read all those boring, but informative new guides to get a hang of it.

Here's a link to a page with some mining calculators which you might find useful. Good luck.

[babylon_n_ting]

Thanks,

I left both my PCs running overnight using Guiminer connected to slushpool. However, even after running all night, they were still showing the message saying that they were connecting.

As I'm new to Bitcoin, could anyone tell me what thins means and why it takes so long to "connect"?

[superweb]

Thanks,

I left both my PCs running overnight using Guiminer connected to slushpool. However, even after running all night, they were still showing the message saying that they were connecting.

As I'm new to Bitcoin, could anyone tell me what thins means and why it takes so long to "connect"?

misconfiguration..nothing else to say with the info you gave out. try post a screenshot at least

[babylon_n_ting]

I tried to post screenshots using the "insert image" icon on this forum, but all it does is generate the following: http://

Is there an easy way to post a screenshot?

[ixfinito]

I tried to post screenshots using the "insert image" icon on this forum, but all it does is generate the following: http://

Is there an easy way to post a screenshot?

Try

http://tinypic.com/

[alepintchap]

Did you wait for the client to finish downloading all the blocks? I'm not entirely sure you need to do this but most guides say you do.

[Archer8]

You might want to try this mining pool.  They do charge a fee though 3% but it has to be about as easy as it gets

http://www.bitcoinplus.com

[wolftaur]

CPU mining won't make you much at all -- but that's not to say it's completely useless. While I was exploring bitcoin, I had a CPU miner going. (Actually, a few of them, I have a bunch of boxes.) I actually did make a bit more than the power costs... by about ten cents. I wasn't mining for profit, though -- it was for learning. I got to experiment with different pools, transfer a little coinage around, all without the risk of "Oh, fuck, there goes my big profit for a month!!"

So it really depends what your interest in mining is all about ... if you want to experiment with it, a CPU miner gets your feet wet. It'll even pick up enough that you can buy a few iTunes tracks with the proceeds (assuming you're selling your coins) if you leave it running long enough. If your goal is to buy a big-screen TV ... You're not getting there with a general-purpose processor. (And, hell, even if you had a rack of GPUs, there's no guarantee you get there!)

[Yatta99]

CPU mining won't make you much at all -- but that's not to say it's completely useless. While I was exploring bitcoin, I had a CPU miner going. (Actually, a few of them, I have a bunch of boxes.) I actually did make a bit more than the power costs... by about ten cents. I wasn't mining for profit, though -- it was for learning. I got to experiment with different pools, transfer a little coinage around, all without the risk of "Oh, fuck, there goes my big profit for a month!!"

So it really depends what your interest in mining is all about ... if you want to experiment with it, a CPU miner gets your feet wet. It'll even pick up enough that you can buy a few iTunes tracks with the proceeds (assuming you're selling your coins) if you leave it running long enough. If your goal is to buy a big-screen TV ... You're not getting there with a general-purpose processor. (And, hell, even if you had a rack of GPUs, there's no guarantee you get there!)

I'll echo wolftaur's post. CPU mining is valuable in that you get to learn about the different pieces of software, the pools, and bitcoins themselves. You won't make more than a few bit cents a week, but take the time to learn and experiment and see if this mining thing is something that you want to invest time and money in. If you decide that you want to bail out, then no harm done and not much money wasted. If you decide that you want to continue then you have some basic knowledge that you can build on.

It's better to say, "I wish I had started doing this two weeks ago" rather than "I wish I didn't spend that several thousand dollars on hardware." 

[babylon_n_ting]

I have tried CPU mining, primarily to educate myself regarding the mining process. I left the Bitcoin software to run for over 24 hours, making certain that it had downloaded all the blocks (I double checked on another website for the current number of blocks).

However despite downloading all the blocks, the Bitcoin software did not quote a hashrate in the bottom left hand corner, so I assumed that I had done something wrong. I tried to upload a screenshot of my Biotcoin software to this forum, but the forumsoftware did not seem to be working as I could not upload the screenshot.

Any suggestions as to what I'm doing wriong appreciated.

[jdebunt]

in the GUI for CPU mining, it says its "started" or "stopped"?

[Jessica]

I tried to post screenshots using the "insert image" icon on this forum, but all it does is generate the following:

Is there an easy way to post a screenshot?

Try

http://tinypic.com/

Tinypic is the worst imagehost ever. They delete everything you post. Trust me. (:

Try imgur.com, min.us, anything. ^^
Btw, Photobucket and Imageshack are bad, too. Try the ones above.

[Gabi]

If you want to mine just download guiminer, join a pool and have fun. If you want to cpu mine use the ufasoft cpu miner in guiminer to mine

[babylon_n_ting]

in the GUI for CPU mining, it says its "started" or "stopped"?

I tried two approaches:

1. Using the official Bitcoin application plus Guiminer. Using this combination, Guiminer said "connecting" - after 24 hours of "connecting", I gave up

2. Using just the offical Bitcoin application alone (ie without Guiminer). The Bitcoin client just downlaoed all the blocks, but did not quote a hashrate in bottom left hand corner.

[python]

stop

[compcentral]

I wouldn't say CPU mining is worthless.  I generate close to 200 MH/s with just CPU mining (quite a few servers that do other things as well, but mine with spare horsepower) and using a mining pool that gets me about .2 bitcoins per day.