Best non-ASIC way to mine bitcoins

[mechs]

Hello,

    I am fairly new to bitcoin only buying my first ones on Coindesk and CampBX starting in mid-March.  I doubled up after the April crash and put some away in cold storage.  I was looking into mining but have come to the conclusion that with ASICs so hard to purchase (not pre-order) at a rate where there would be even a prayer of a reasonable return, that maybe a GPU miner a better way to go.

    I am looking at some mining machines with 5 7950s and optimized over-clocking/cooling solutions which run about $3400.  My thought is to mine either litecoins or novacoins and then exchange them to bitcoins on an exchange like btc-e or virucex.  I am not sure if anyone else has investigated doing this and if so, if this is a viable way to mine bitcoins indirectly for those with us way too far behind in the ASIC race?

Thanks,
Mechs

[Rez]

If it were me, I'd put that money directly into a purchase of BTC.  Especially if I have that kind of money at my disposal.

Sure, it's not as much fun, but ultimately, you break even on day one.

[bsuperior2]

I started a little late in the mining game as well, about 7 months or so but i have 8 ati 5850s going for decent profit. HOWEVER i wouldn't recommend it if you have to pay for power.

[TheDespite]

In any case I don't think it's viable to purchase a rig, especially not so if you have any power exhaust.

[AblanHen]

What you could do is buy a bunch of Usb block eruptors. They are said to run at about 300mh/s. I'm not sure what the long term profit is on them but its worth looking into.

[heartofalion]

i built a 5 7950 setup up last week for 2100$ alt coins can still be profitable. Mine them and trade em for bitcoins.

[TheDespite]

What you could do is buy a bunch of Usb block eruptors. They are said to run at about 300mh/s. I'm not sure what the long term profit is on them but its worth looking into.

I think I read they go for 2btc ea. Making it pretty much impossible investment with the difficulty going up and such.

[jmh9072]

If you want to start mining right now, the HD7950s are the way to go, and they'll be useful for mining Litecoins even after Bitcoin reaches ASIC saturation.

By the way, $3400 seems pretty pricey for 5 of those cards and a box...the 7950s cost ~$320 each. You could save a lot by building the rig yourself. But anyway, if you decide you want to go this route, make sure you can support the 12+ amps it will draw. Also be aware that you won't see a return on investment for at least a year.

[mechs]

I was actually thinking since I am a gamer and my machine already old, I will get 4X7970s running in Quad-Crossfire, actually put on a decent ram and CPU anduse it for gaming and have it mine novacoins and litecoins in the meantime.  If it pays for itself in a year that way, I would be pretty happy with that. Unfortunately, I do pay for my own power.  Also, I see everyone saying 7950s, but what about 7970s or even the new 7990s?

[jmh9072]

I was actually thinking since I am a gamer and my machine already old, I will get 4X7970s running in Quad-Crossfire, actually put on a decent ram and CPU anduse it for gaming and have it mine novacoins and litecoins in the meantime.  If it pays for itself in a year that way, I would be pretty happy with that. Unfortunately, I do pay for my own power.  Also, I see everyone saying 7950s, but what about 7970s or even the new 7990s?

This is what I'm doing. I have 2x7970 that I use to mine litecoins while not gaming (and my electricity is included in my rent for the moment ).

The reason everyone recommends the 7950 is because they are cheaper and have mining performance equivalent to the 7970 (although for gaming the 7970 is better). As for the 7990, it seems to have a speedup of around 2x compared to the 7950/7970, as one would expect.

Some helpful links:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison
https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki/Mining-hardware-comparison