Should I run my $12,000 Mac Pro Xeon as a rig? Worth it?

[eastar5]

So I am in no ways new to just... all of this stuff, and am way far beyond sufficient with just about anything related to computers, internet, and a lot more to not get into detail.


Point is, there are only so many things you can capitalize on at one time and I just never looked into it.... Point is: I also am traveling a lot, on the go, etc. and have my quad core i7 maxed out everything MBP 17 inch (literally the day before Apple stopped making them for the public), as well as an iPad so I can deal with leaving my desktop to do its "work" when I don't really need it for anything too labor intensive.


I have read forums "beginner threads..." I have done a little research on my own but frankly I don't have too much time to figure out every detail and aspect of this on my own as I normally would with something.


So to the point:

1. I know it is generally almost always best to join a pool. Will that still be true in my case? The machine (may be getting a second one.... hey I didn't pay for it 100% mine, legally owned. Gotta love Ivy League shit & grants..)

ANYWAYS: It's Intel XEON server tower 6.42ghz (too tired to check again, give or take a .02ghz) 24-Core processor (12 physical cores - in all respect, but 24 certainly do go to work when they [rarely] need to.) It has 96GB of DDR3 ECC RAM. Don't ask me how much that upgrade cost. Fucking ridiculous! (16GB ECC modules? good luck..) I can add up to 128GB with a couple more 16GB of these extremely high end and expensive ECC ram modules... but don't think I need to anytime soon. The graphics card is duel Radeon HD 5870s, straight BOSS. They are faster, more expensie than the standard Radeon 5870 cards, which are already pretty top-shelf. Keep it clean dust-off, cool, doesn't move. I use it as my main personal computer for a small but very high end multmedia company I founded not long ago. But I have some time off, as I am moving to the west coast slowly but surely, and I would love to rake in some bitcoins.... who wouldn't?

- Also has extremely cool temperatures, this is probably the most expensive, best made, and highest end PERSONAL computer you could buy when I was given it as a grant/present (March 2013 or something) Thing is still brand new.

- Other quick notes (Don't know if they matter): I run a separate 500TB SSD, that runs off of the highest end PCIe card slot SSD accellorator card-chip. That is just for running my system and vitals themeselves. For the rest of storage: 12 TB internal RAID-0 mirrored SSD and some other things but those are just internal.... have an extra 24+GB RAID in a DROBO (not thunderbolt cause of issues it has actually but utilizing everything to ACTUALLY get close to the 6GB/s eSATA III speeds I have almost reached before, when I first got it and was running tests. So no im not trying to brag, just explaining because I AM A COMPLETE NOOB about all this shit. Thank you for helping and understanding!!

- Also not sure if it matters at all, but because of the graphics card(s) I run in this beautiful titanium and steel Mac Pro Xeon case- I have FOUR 27" Apple Cinema Displays @ 2560x1440 each resolution...all extended (usually) into an ergonomically total of 108" inches of perfectly calibrated brand new Apple displays (?suck at math)

- Yes, I am aware I probably did not deserve all this. But then again, it worked out that way and no complaining. Also, I fucking hate violence and etc. but I do have pretty hefty sercurity from the concierge and security themseves, cameras, and last but not least a mini panic-room in my walk-in closet, equipped with several (legal) high powered, silenced and extended clip firearms. I never bring them out, I NEVER show them off, I never even unlock them from their 4 inch thick titanium with reinforced crazy steel safe. But they are there loaded because I understand the value of what I have in just my home office alone. And what has happened to a colleague of mine from a simple post on a forum that he had been on for years. Anyways enough of that BS. I don't need to say how I think guns&america are messed up.

- Let's pleaaaase focus on bitcoins!!


2. Don't give a f%#k about ELECTRICITY COSTS.... well that's not nice... no, I would prefer for them to be cheaper of course. But if you can tell me I can make X amount of bitcoins a week by running this thing solely on mining for X hours a day or from X-X.... and that it would cost me though $XXX in eletricity. It's irrelevant to me. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

3. WHAT ARE THE BASIC SIMPLY STEPS TO BEGINNING MINING *IF* the above looks promising to you experts here? Is there a specific GUI program I run?
Is it command based?
Can someone break this down for ME in the SIMPLEST most CONCISE ways (not simple like idiot-simple... just I catch on and usually excel in any subject very quickly it just comes down to time again :/

4. Oh and for my home studio rig - I only have "standard" cable. However, I have several cable connections. Seperate ones. As in, I have my WiFi, Ethernet port 1, Ethernet port 2 (not used yet), and same for my macbookpro (just 1 ethernet of course for that).... but ONE MODEM and ONE router/wifi router. So pretty basic average home-level shit.

5. WITH THAT BEING SAID: ARE or WHAT different hardware upgrades would (if any) make an ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE to what I can mine? I want to start ASAP! I don't really want to add anything to my main 3D modeling/rendering/media workstation I described above, but what about upgrading modem, utilizing one way or another as many separate strong wifi signals I have (if you have experience with that please let me know!), along with their perminant passwords.... OR if those do not really make up for having the "standard" bandwith level of cable packages... I could expand to the higher and more expensive bandwith speed cable option - if that is the case.

(I also MIGHT be moving somewhere with google fiber but not sure yet)

- Because I would be hard-pressed for anyone in this entire forum to have a more powerful out of the box computer than mine. No cooling systems, no anything. Just straight ridiculousness. But it goes to use.... The company I am CEO of and for now, also work with team for bigger client projects for doing the stuff you see in the highest end commercials on TV (and don't realize that it is not "real") to even bits and pieces of the movie effects such as stuff in Iron Man 3.


HOWEVER - let's just for the sake of keeping this simple start with this one extremely powerful, state-of-the-art, overpriced machine.


Anyone who really provides me with any above and beyond help with this, aka saving me time.... I'll make sure it comes back around. That is just how I am.


ONE last QUESTION:  Say hypothetically, I could run an army of machines on a very high speed LAN that connects to a instituions (I don't know if 'T3' is the right term anymore for the standard of larger venues/instutions for maintaining the highest speed internet.....) but yeah, you get the point! Say I was to arrange this on 100 computers at a major, major, most funded university in the world - hypothetically and no, not be stupid about it.... not even be 0% mistaken with any actions... would that give the potential to actually make SUBSTANTIAL bit-coins?

NOT counting on that... just saying between my quad core i7 and my mac pro xeon 24 core, I might as well earn a couple bitcoins here or there or more... during the times they are sitting idely anyways.



THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR RESPONSES! I really do appreciate it. And ANY just suggestions/tips/anything that can give me an idea of starting this as soon as TODAY and how much I at best be making? one bitcoin per day? One per week? A couple a day? I really told you I have no idea !!! Thanks.

[Kluge]

Didn't read most of your wall of text, so hoping I didn't miss something relevant. CPUs have been made obsolete in BTC mining, except in some cases of free electricity (unless you count pissing your landlord off) -- but even then, it wouldn't be worth your time.

You want the Radeon HD 5870s. 2 5870s = ~800MH/s = ~.0331BTC/day until difficulty changes. If you can run the cards for significantly less in electricity than revenue you'd be bringing in, then yes - it's worth it.

[Xian01]

No. Not worth it.

[xh4]

Well, if you don't care about electricity, then yes, it's worth it.

Will you earn any meaningful amount of coins? Nope. Unless you think YAC is worth anything.

[110110101]

CPU mining is as others have mentioned not worth it, and GPU mining on OSX is not as good as on Windows or Linux due to limitations in OpenGL for OSX. From the cgminer readme; http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/README:

Q: Can I mine with cgminer on a MAC?
A: cgminer will compile on OSX, but the performance of GPU mining is
compromised due to the opencl implementation on OSX, there is no temperature
or fanspeed monitoring, and the cooling design of most MACs, despite having
powerful GPUs, will usually not cope with constant usage leading to a high
risk of thermal damage. It is highly recommended not to mine on a MAC unless
it is to a USB device.

That being said, if your costs are nearly 0, well sure you could make some coins in the long run, but your machine is not the fastest when it comes to mining.

[cp1]

Didn't read most of your wall of text, so hoping I didn't miss something relevant. CPUs have been made obsolete in BTC mining, except in some cases of free electricity (unless you count pissing your landlord off) -- but even then, it wouldn't be worth your time.

You want the Radeon HD 5870s. 2 5870s = ~800MH/s = ~.0331BTC/day until difficulty changes. If you can run the cards for significantly less in electricity than revenue you'd be bringing in, then yes - it's worth it.

Yep, you'll make about $4 / day minus electricity.

[tamacoinchi]

You'll not make significant money, and you'll put your very expensive computer at risk of damage.

[pand70]

tl;dr

[Frankthetank]

Nah lousy mining rig. Given the length of your post you probably could have found that out quicker by reading up a bit champ.

[Mahav]

only thing of worth for mining in that monster are the two 5870s, which a basic <$700 single 7950 rig could hit 75% of. OP could also look into mining YAC with his CPU cores, i haven't done so though

[eastar5]

Didn't read most of your wall of text, so hoping I didn't miss something relevant. CPUs have been made obsolete in BTC mining, except in some cases of free electricity (unless you count pissing your landlord off) -- but even then, it wouldn't be worth your time.

You want the Radeon HD 5870s. 2 5870s = ~800MH/s = ~.0331BTC/day until difficulty changes. If you can run the cards for significantly less in electricity than revenue you'd be bringing in, then yes - it's worth it.

Ha..... well i have Radeon HD 5870s.... maybe I typo'd it... i was tired. People have some real issues if they think that was a lot to read.... although sure, it was not a concise post... it's called partially thinking out loud.



Soooo I finally got to dive in today and actually get everything running prime , and I'll grab one of those $2000 butterfly rig boxes , I love the results it charts allegedly and how small and portable it is.....

I'm also going to setup at least 50+ high ennough end machines at a certain ivy leauge institution, and if I have time (obviously its not worth it over other things in life) but I'll easily go around and to another college or two, or why not even a private high school ... No fuck no I do't work IT job but it's just not a big deal.... a USB drive and I have access to them plenty, not like I have to be sketchy about it. I mean it doesn't take anytime to setup .... I'll just pay my younger brother like $100 to setup all the like 400 quad core mac pros in the high school , cause thats easier ..

And nah no one is going to notice they are running, and like i said its probably on my bottom of worries behind anything in life? I technically could even run them off of the other residence tower across from me,since I used a $30 ideal chipset usb long range attenna + a simple program with my i7 quad core mbp that i use to do that sorta stuff.... (break WEPs in average 20 mins... WPAs more like an hour) , and I'll use them to channel my internet together to get a significantly higher bandwidth and speed into one, or whatever


BUT im saying i could if i had the time , probably not that difficult to since I have completely (unknown) remote access over what cause of the GPS tracing for fun with it makes it seem coming from the penthouse and prob a few under me and across from me..... might as well setup mild hidden bckground mining there too!


HOW Are People saying that "it's not worth it" are you kidding me... haha, I am no noob to getting money on the internet for doing not much of anything/nothing (some $XX,XXX profit domains i bought that were trademarked too haha...... site flipping is really the easiest get decent sums of cash fast.....)

But this is ridiculous! WHY would anyone sane haha not do this?


Oh, i guess ur referring to electricity? I mean... I actually am not wasteful I recycle and such, but uhh I never considered that strangely enough... that doesn't matter. I could use up as much energy as I want . But the point is TAKING OVER a couple mac pro / media labs that are barely used in the summer anyways... but still remaing on sleep  /

Thanks guys this is really sick! it just makes me feel a little better abut my equitment  I am glad I guess I don't factor electricity as behind a part of this..... maybe when I move or somthing, but yeah. Idunno , run a cable to a public surge outlet LOL ,... or if ur a country folk.. fuckin  get some wind turbines and solar panels. Ok sort of JK here but not relaly.. cause that would be if u were georgraphically in the right place , the right economical situation anywys


Otherwise, yeah, lol i dont know how much eletricity costs tot be dead honest, but it cant be that much unless ur like supporting a family of 4 in a 4 story grand victorian house where everyone is leaving lights blearing in a million rooms and theres 10 macs and a home theater, normal appliances , heated pool... ya that im sure is mad expensive.


Seriously, if the principle of that high school did it and was balin' out... im sure anyone here with eletronicty problems could figure it out lol


***
Naw this isnt something im gona get "into" , but again...  lol this reminds me of something that i would of been super into if i was like 9 and setting up ridiculous income for that age, be all cool and stuff

[RichG]

So I am in no ways new to just... all of this stuff, and am way far beyond sufficient with just about anything related to computers, internet, and a lot more to not get into detail.


Point is, there are only so many things you can capitalize on at one time and I just never looked into it.... Point is: I also am traveling a lot, on the go, etc. and have my quad core i7 maxed out everything MBP 17 inch (literally the day before Apple stopped making them for the public), as well as an iPad so I can deal with leaving my desktop to do its "work" when I don't really need it for anything too labor intensive.


I have read forums "beginner threads..." I have done a little research on my own but frankly I don't have too much time to figure out every detail and aspect of this on my own as I normally would with something.


So to the point:

1. I know it is generally almost always best to join a pool. Will that still be true in my case? The machine (may be getting a second one.... hey I didn't pay for it 100% mine, legally owned. Gotta love Ivy League shit & grants..)

ANYWAYS: It's Intel XEON server tower 6.42ghz (too tired to check again, give or take a .02ghz) 24-Core processor (12 physical cores - in all respect, but 24 certainly do go to work when they [rarely] need to.) It has 96GB of DDR3 ECC RAM. Don't ask me how much that upgrade cost. Fucking ridiculous! (16GB ECC modules? good luck..) I can add up to 128GB with a couple more 16GB of these extremely high end and expensive ECC ram modules... but don't think I need to anytime soon. The graphics card is duel Radeon HD 5870s, straight BOSS. They are faster, more expensie than the standard Radeon 5870 cards, which are already pretty top-shelf. Keep it clean dust-off, cool, doesn't move. I use it as my main personal computer for a small but very high end multmedia company I founded not long ago. But I have some time off, as I am moving to the west coast slowly but surely, and I would love to rake in some bitcoins.... who wouldn't?

- Also has extremely cool temperatures, this is probably the most expensive, best made, and highest end PERSONAL computer you could buy when I was given it as a grant/present (March 2013 or something) Thing is still brand new.

- Other quick notes (Don't know if they matter): I run a separate 500TB SSD, that runs off of the highest end PCIe card slot SSD accellorator card-chip. That is just for running my system and vitals themeselves. For the rest of storage: 12 TB internal RAID-0 mirrored SSD and some other things but those are just internal.... have an extra 24+GB RAID in a DROBO (not thunderbolt cause of issues it has actually but utilizing everything to ACTUALLY get close to the 6GB/s eSATA III speeds I have almost reached before, when I first got it and was running tests. So no im not trying to brag, just explaining because I AM A COMPLETE NOOB about all this shit. Thank you for helping and understanding!!

- Also not sure if it matters at all, but because of the graphics card(s) I run in this beautiful titanium and steel Mac Pro Xeon case- I have FOUR 27" Apple Cinema Displays @ 2560x1440 each resolution...all extended (usually) into an ergonomically total of 108" inches of perfectly calibrated brand new Apple displays (?suck at math)

- Yes, I am aware I probably did not deserve all this. But then again, it worked out that way and no complaining. Also, I fucking hate violence and etc. but I do have pretty hefty sercurity from the concierge and security themseves, cameras, and last but not least a mini panic-room in my walk-in closet, equipped with several (legal) high powered, silenced and extended clip firearms. I never bring them out, I NEVER show them off, I never even unlock them from their 4 inch thick titanium with reinforced crazy steel safe. But they are there loaded because I understand the value of what I have in just my home office alone. And what has happened to a colleague of mine from a simple post on a forum that he had been on for years. Anyways enough of that BS. I don't need to say how I think guns&america are messed up.

- Let's pleaaaase focus on bitcoins!!


2. Don't give a f%#k about ELECTRICITY COSTS.... well that's not nice... no, I would prefer for them to be cheaper of course. But if you can tell me I can make X amount of bitcoins a week by running this thing solely on mining for X hours a day or from X-X.... and that it would cost me though $XXX in eletricity. It's irrelevant to me. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

3. WHAT ARE THE BASIC SIMPLY STEPS TO BEGINNING MINING *IF* the above looks promising to you experts here? Is there a specific GUI program I run?
Is it command based?
Can someone break this down for ME in the SIMPLEST most CONCISE ways (not simple like idiot-simple... just I catch on and usually excel in any subject very quickly it just comes down to time again :/

4. Oh and for my home studio rig - I only have "standard" cable. However, I have several cable connections. Seperate ones. As in, I have my WiFi, Ethernet port 1, Ethernet port 2 (not used yet), and same for my macbookpro (just 1 ethernet of course for that).... but ONE MODEM and ONE router/wifi router. So pretty basic average home-level shit.

5. WITH THAT BEING SAID: ARE or WHAT different hardware upgrades would (if any) make an ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE to what I can mine? I want to start ASAP! I don't really want to add anything to my main 3D modeling/rendering/media workstation I described above, but what about upgrading modem, utilizing one way or another as many separate strong wifi signals I have (if you have experience with that please let me know!), along with their perminant passwords.... OR if those do not really make up for having the "standard" bandwith level of cable packages... I could expand to the higher and more expensive bandwith speed cable option - if that is the case.

(I also MIGHT be moving somewhere with google fiber but not sure yet)

- Because I would be hard-pressed for anyone in this entire forum to have a more powerful out of the box computer than mine. No cooling systems, no anything. Just straight ridiculousness. But it goes to use.... The company I am CEO of and for now, also work with team for bigger client projects for doing the stuff you see in the highest end commercials on TV (and don't realize that it is not "real") to even bits and pieces of the movie effects such as stuff in Iron Man 3.


HOWEVER - let's just for the sake of keeping this simple start with this one extremely powerful, state-of-the-art, overpriced machine.


Anyone who really provides me with any above and beyond help with this, aka saving me time.... I'll make sure it comes back around. That is just how I am.


ONE last QUESTION:  Say hypothetically, I could run an army of machines on a very high speed LAN that connects to a instituions (I don't know if 'T3' is the right term anymore for the standard of larger venues/instutions for maintaining the highest speed internet.....) but yeah, you get the point! Say I was to arrange this on 100 computers at a major, major, most funded university in the world - hypothetically and no, not be stupid about it.... not even be 0% mistaken with any actions... would that give the potential to actually make SUBSTANTIAL bit-coins?

NOT counting on that... just saying between my quad core i7 and my mac pro xeon 24 core, I might as well earn a couple bitcoins here or there or more... during the times they are sitting idely anyways.



THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR RESPONSES! I really do appreciate it. And ANY just suggestions/tips/anything that can give me an idea of starting this as soon as TODAY and how much I at best be making? one bitcoin per day? One per week? A couple a day? I really told you I have no idea !!! Thanks.

My only question is why you spent TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLARS on a friggin' Mac.

[Mike Christ]

My only question is why you spent TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLARS on a friggin' Mac.

I'm also wondering this.  You coulda gotten a new car for that price.

[BitNit]

My only question is why you spent TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLARS on a friggin' Mac.

I'm also wondering this.  You coulda gotten a new car for that price.

Sounds like he got a government grant for school

[CDI]

:?

[papaminer]

tl;dr

this

[lowlevel]

I couldn't get through the post/followups either. In short, the mac pro is just typical intel server cpu's.. nothing worth throwing at mining. Generally apple video cards are also 2 generations old, so may have been worth running a year ago if you had an ATI/AMD one , but probably not worth it today...

[lowlevel]

My only question is why you spent TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLARS on a friggin' Mac.

I'm also wondering this.  You coulda gotten a new car for that price.

I spent $8k on a mac pro years ago... and to be honest I have to say the Mac Pro was the best, quietest, most stable computer I ever owned. I was able to keep it as my only computer for 4 years... I wasn't buying 'new motherboard' every 3 months trying to solve stupid problems, reinstalling constantly/etc... and then I was easily able to sell it for over $1000 on craigslist when I was done with it... so not as bad as a value as you might initially suspect... hopefully they keep making something like that.