Should I start bitcoin mining?

[cdogster]

I've always wanted to build a multiple video card machine but never had the reason until now with Bitcoin mining.  I mean, I never used cross SLI support with multiple video cards.  Something about stuffing 4 video cards into one machine and overclocking them sounds fun.

But I feel like I'm too late to the party.  Searching for the cost efficient graphics cards is proving difficult as they are out of stock or higher in price due to the demand.

Any suggestions?  Should I wave to the boat or jump in the water and try and swim up to it?

[kodo]

Unless you get free power, no.

[nkocevar]

Now that ASICs have come out, gpu mining is surely nonprofitable no matter the MH/s rate. ASICs are just too power efficient.

[CryptoJunky]

I've always wanted to build a multiple video card machine but never had the reason until now with Bitcoin mining.  I mean, I never used cross SLI support with multiple video cards.  Something about stuffing 4 video cards into one machine and overclocking them sounds fun.

But I feel like I'm too late to the party.  Searching for the cost efficient graphics cards is proving difficult as they are out of stock or higher in price due to the demand.

Any suggestions?  Should I wave to the boat or jump in the water and try and swim up to it?

At this point you probably wouldn't make your money back in Bitcoin, though you would earn some. However, if you're up to mining other cryptocurrencies you might be able to make your money back off of it.

It's tough to say as a lot about the future of mining and ASICs is difficult to predict. You can always sell the rig/GPUs off too if Bitcoin mining becomes highly unprofitable.

[Bitoy]

Go for it because building a 4  rig is fun (btw sli or cross is not needed but use the rig to mine alt coins ie litecoin then exchange it for bitcoins.


I tried 3 cards 7870,7950 and 7970.  But the best is 7950.

card	hash rate	watts	cost us$
7870	400	150	250
7950	600	225	300
7970	700	300	400

[kodo]

Its honesty not worth it

[cr1776]

If you believe that the value of 1 BTC is going to be significantly higher in a X years than it is now, then yes.  2 years ago, 1 BTC was worth about $1.  So even if you were mining 1 BTC per day, it was "worth" about $30/month.  That probably would not cover the power cost so looking at the then current value, it was not worth it.  The argument then was that "mining was not profitable" and that was true at the time but it excluded future potential appreciation.  

Even at $5/BTC roughly a year ago, it might have been only break-even on power.  At $120/BTC today, that changes completely what a machine was mining then.  

So, if you believe that the value of 1 BTC will continuing growing (whether or not at the same rate as in the past 4 years), mining 0.1 BTC/day (or even 0.05 BTC/day) could be worth it in a few years (even before the next block reward halving in ~2017).  Looking at the cost of power today and the value of 1 BTC today alone would lead one to say it is not worth it, but it ignores future appreciation potential.

In short:  if you intend to mine and sell today, then you probably (definitely?) will be losing money, but still may be fun.  If you intend to mine today, and then spend in 12 months or 48 months or longer, then it may be worth it.

You can always use the rig for LTC if you want later.

I've always wanted to build a multiple video card machine but never had the reason until now with Bitcoin mining.  I mean, I never used cross SLI support with multiple video cards.  Something about stuffing 4 video cards into one machine and overclocking them sounds fun.

But I feel like I'm too late to the party.  Searching for the cost efficient graphics cards is proving difficult as they are out of stock or higher in price due to the demand.

Any suggestions?  Should I wave to the boat or jump in the water and try and swim up to it?

[randomnumber]

Depends on how you will be mining of course. Regardless, miners are always welcome and increase the stability and validity of the network. So yes, you should mine.