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Redemption.man (OP)
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June 28, 2011, 05:28:26 PM
 #1

I currently have about 15 spare PC's hanging around, in was just wondering would it be worth trying to cluster them with a live cd like clusterknoppix for CPU mining? Or would it be better to just miner on all of them separately?

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btcgames
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June 28, 2011, 05:30:08 PM
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I don't believe there would be any benefit to using a cluster for bitcoin.  The mining pools take care of bundling together your effort, and I would definitely recommend joining one of them.
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June 28, 2011, 05:37:48 PM
Last edit: June 28, 2011, 05:54:06 PM by BitCoinBarter
 #3

I currently have about 15 spare PC's hanging around, in was just wondering would it be worth trying to cluster them with a live cd like clusterknoppix for CPU mining? Or would it be better to just miner on all of them separately?

Hopefully someone with more experience will post on this. Until then, here is my none experience take.

You do not need to cluster them. If they are running, then you will have 15 bitcoin clients running at what speed they can do.
e.g., If one is running at 1 Mhash/s and another at 4 Mhash/s, then you are running at 5 Mhash/s.

The problems that I see:
Even with 15 machines, 1 GPU will out produce them (i.e., run more Mhash/s).
The current BitCoin client will not allow CPU mining (you will have to use an old version).

Could be wrong.

Anyone confirm or deny?
wannaBhacker
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June 28, 2011, 05:46:46 PM
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There would be no benefit to have them in a cluster instead of just mining separately. And unless your electricity is free a single ATI card will give you much more hashing power at a much lower electricity cost.
Redemption.man (OP)
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June 28, 2011, 05:52:19 PM
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My electric is free, and was just hoping to use some old hardware instead of leaving it in storage
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June 28, 2011, 05:53:27 PM
 #6

There would be no benefit to have them in a cluster instead of just mining separately. And unless your electricity is free a single ATI card will give you much more hashing power at a much lower electricity cost.

To be clear, if you mine separately on each of them, you're most likely duplicating a lot of effort and essentially only getting any unique work done on the system with the fastest CPU.  If you use a mining pool, they handle coordination to ensure that work isn't being duplicated by members of the mining pool.  I believe you could get the same benefit by using a dedicated CPU mining program on each system and pointing them to your own Bitcoin client as the server.

You can get more information here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Cpu_Miner
wannaBhacker
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June 29, 2011, 03:36:37 PM
 #7

There would be no benefit to have them in a cluster instead of just mining separately. And unless your electricity is free a single ATI card will give you much more hashing power at a much lower electricity cost.

To be clear, if you mine separately on each of them, you're most likely duplicating a lot of effort and essentially only getting any unique work done on the system with the fastest CPU.  If you use a mining pool, they handle coordination to ensure that work isn't being duplicated by members of the mining pool.  I believe you could get the same benefit by using a dedicated CPU mining program on each system and pointing them to your own Bitcoin client as the server.

You can get more information here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Cpu_Miner

If he mines separately he will not be duplicating anything. Each miner will have unique work if he mines on them solo. However, time to mine a block at the current difficulty he will never see a block.

Now, back to the real question. Mine as a cluster or not, do not. Just hook them each up to a mining pool with a CPU Miner and you are good to go.
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June 29, 2011, 04:12:58 PM
 #8

I currently have about 15 spare PC's hanging around, in was just wondering would it be worth trying to cluster them with a live cd like clusterknoppix for CPU mining? Or would it be better to just miner on all of them separately?



As someone else posted, CPU mining probably costs you money. Since you don't pay for your power, it still doesn't make much sense.

15 old computers might get you 30-40 Mhashs. You can pickup a ATI Radeon 5770 for $90 and it will get you 200 Mhashs (and actually make you a little bit of money).

So $90 card and you make money
15 old heaters running 24.7 costing someone else money and making you almost nothing.

I'd sorta go with the first option.

 
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fascistmuffin
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June 29, 2011, 04:28:55 PM
 #9

Be weary about string attached to "free" electricity. Apartments/housing usually have a maximum before they'll charge you (15 computers will do the trick to hit that), and if you're getting it from your place of work, you'll get fired or disciplined if they find out.
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