Mining estimate

[ponzi]

OK, I've downloaded the client and I've spent a CPU-day mining but my balance still says 0.00. Can somebody give me an estimate of bitcoins/GHz/CPU-hour so I'll know if this is worthwhile.

On the plus side, the bitcoins.com client seems to be threaded since top reports 100+ CPU usage. Nice work!

[tool_462]

1)  Can't believe your username wasn't taken until now.

2)  The client doesn't report a MHash/s reading anywhere?  I'm not familiar with CPU mining since it is so little compared to GPU.

[Bert]

Lookup the Mhash/sec for your setup.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

Then plug the numbers into a calculator.
http://bitcoinx.com/profit/
http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator.php
http://0x10.org/sandbox/bitcalc/

Most people join mining pools, because the difficulty has increased so much to make it nearly impossible to solo mine unless you have 20Ghash/sec.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools

Pick any pool that you like, they all pay the same^*.
Joining a smaller pool will payout less often, but with bigger rewards.
Joining a larger pool will payout more often, but with tiny rewards.
The average should be the same for all pools over time.

^* Some charge additional fees as well as keeping the transaction fees of all mined blocks.

But it is a good idea to avoid the top 2-3 largest pools, because no one person should control 50% of the mining, it could cause the exchange rate to drop if it happens.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses#Attacker_has_a_lot_of_computing_power

[ponzi]

1)  Can't believe your username wasn't taken until now.

2)  The client doesn't report a MHash/s reading anywhere?  I'm not familiar with CPU mining since it is so little compared to GPU.

1) Well, I was kindof stumped too :-)
2) There is a client that uses my GPU? I'm on Linux but I might be persuaded to go windows...

[BkkCoins]

Yes there are a few clients for Linux. I don't recall which use the GPU but they do. Someone will chip in here. I'm on Linux too but I'm using a CPU miner not GPU (just playing).

A real world figure for BitCoint revenue that I just saw based on another rig here using ATI 5870+5970 is 1.20 cents / day / MHs (using $16 exchange). Electricity costs about 9%. Of course, other equipment will vary and a CPU (w/o GPU) is just going to lose you money to electricty.

I figured you need 0.20 MHs / W to break even with electric @ 10 cents kWH.

[Bert]

It really depends on your flavour of Linux.

I used this guide down as far as "Setup Headless Bitcoin Mining", where I stopped because I wanted to use the machine for other things besides mining.

But if you search this forum, I'm sure that you will find help in setting up mining on any kind of Linux.

[cryptomint]

1)  Can't believe your username wasn't taken until now.

2)  The client doesn't report a MHash/s reading anywhere?  I'm not familiar with CPU mining since it is so little compared to GPU.

1) Well, I was kindof stumped too :-)
2) There is a client that uses my GPU? I'm on Linux but I might be persuaded to go windows...

I use phoenix with the phatk kernel for gpu mining on linux: http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=6458.0
poclbm is another popular choice: http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=1334.0

What is the model of your GPU?

[BkkCoins]

You might try BitClockers.com - I've been with them a while and they're not too big. About 300 GH/s total, 500 users. They have some decent stats pages and seem to be security conscious. I don't know anyone there personally though.

Eligius is good too but pretty stark as far as interface.

There is a lot of choices though. Some are listed on the bitcoin Wiki and lots more show with on google.

[bitcointraderuk]

I think deepbit is one of the largest isn't it?

[Onedutch]

I'm using  http://mining.bitcoin.cz/ happyly ever after, Slush is on top of his mining pool.

I did choose this one because of the SCORE instead of PROP I liked "impossible to cheat" so I went with that one..

[Bert]

I personally like MtRed, it does not hold onto some of your BTC's. Most pools have a minimum payout of at least 0.01 to 1.0, so there is always a tiny amount of Bitcoins left in your account if you ever decide to change pools. MtRed allows you to fully empty your account. This reason alone is enough for me to stay. But it is a matter of personal choice, read through the list of pools and pick one that suits you.

[noob_jul11]

Then plug the numbers into a calculator.
http://bitcoinx.com/profit/

I like this calculator; but how do I find out how much electricity my system is using? I'm on Ubuntu 10.10.

[BkkCoins]

You can get some indications from the Bitcoin Wiki Hardware Comparison page.
Give a rough guess, or use a Kill-O-Watt meter to check actual usage.
I also bet if you post your basic system details here someone could give you a close guess.

[noob_jul11]

Ubuntu 10.10 with 1 6970; looking to upgrade to 2 6970.

Per https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison, I'm burning 196 W/hour for 1 6970?

[KaptainBlaZzed]

Then plug the numbers into a calculator.
http://bitcoinx.com/profit/

I like this calculator; but how do I find out how much electricity my system is using? I'm on Ubuntu 10.10.

use this calculator, it has all needed calculations.

www.kaptain.me/btc_calc.php

[Bert]

Ubuntu 10.10 with 1 6970; looking to upgrade to 2 6970.

Per https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison, I'm burning 196 W/hour for 1 6970?

I'd GUESS add another 150 watts for your CPU, RAM, motherboard, HDD, fans, (also any USB devices drawing power). So say 350 watts, maybe 400 watts, try both values and see the effect.