Bitcoin & Litecoin: ASIC or PC rig, including longevity of hardware and value

[mirias]

Before anyone jumps to conclusions, please hear me out first. I have read another thread in here that deals with a similar subject, but does not quite go into details as I would like it to do. I also read an article here: http://www.pcgamer.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-cryptocurrency-mining/  and it seems to contradict some of the stuff stated in that other thread. That is why I want to outline my main points of concern in the hopes of clarifying the issue for me.

 In the above referenced article, it seems that a PC rig with 6 RX Vega 64 video cards would be able to produce just below the level of the Antminer S9, with a cost just below the $5,000 mark. While the S9 is well over $5,000 these days.  The thread that I read in here a few claimed that a PC would not be able to work for Bitcoin, but that it would be best to do altcoin with a PC. And another good reason for mining altcoin would be the resale value of video cards.  So my questions are as follows:

Are GPU rigs capable of bitcoin mining or not? And are they not capable comparable work? Do GPUs go bad faster than ASICs?

If GPUs can be sold after a couple of years, would this not be a better incentive for using a PC? Sure ASICs would save space, but does the resale value stay up? I am assuming you can resale a video card for about 50% its value after a year or two. But assuming you can only make a 1/3 the cost, you only have to spend 2/3 the amount on a new rig, because video cards tend to stay around the same price range. But what is the resale value of an ASIC? Is it at least 1/3?

If someone can enlighten me as to what would be the best investment. I have been looking into this, but it is hard with all the information out there. Also, I read on another site that you can mine both bitcoin and litecoin on the same machine, with two instances of some application. Not sure if that was in reference to ASICs or PC rigs. And they did not specify if this would cause poor performance on either of the mining instances.

[component9]

You cannot mine bitcoin with a regular PC - the only profitable option now is to use an ASIC like the Antminer S9. You need the raw hash rate that an ASIC provides.

>> Are GPU rigs capable of bitcoin mining or not?

So, no, GPUs are not capable of mining bitcoin. You can use them for mining altcoins.

>> But what is the resale value of an ASIC?

The value of an ASIC goes down as the bitcoin mining difficulty goes up and eventually, the ASIC miner becomes worthless. Chances are that you'll use your miner until it becomes worthless. Check this mining profitability calculator https://jblevins.org/btcmpc/ - it takes into consideration the change in difficulty over time so you can see how your profitability declines as the difficulty increases.

[BitMaxz]

Before anyone jumps to conclusions, please hear me out first. I have read another thread in here that deals with a similar subject, but does not quite go into details as I would like it to do. I also read an article here: http://www.pcgamer.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-cryptocurrency-mining/  and it seems to contradict some of the stuff stated in that other thread. That is why I want to outline my main points of concern in the hopes of clarifying the issue for me.

 In the above referenced article, it seems that a PC rig with 6 RX Vega 64 video cards would be able to produce just below the level of the Antminer S9, with a cost just below the $5,000 mark. While the S9 is well over $5,000 these days.  The thread that I read in here a few claimed that a PC would not be able to work for Bitcoin, but that it would be best to do altcoin with a PC. And another good reason for mining altcoin would be the resale value of video cards.  So my questions are as follows:

Are GPU rigs capable of bitcoin mining or not? And are they not capable comparable work? Do GPUs go bad faster than ASICs?

If GPUs can be sold after a couple of years, would this not be a better incentive for using a PC? Sure ASICs would save space, but does the resale value stay up? I am assuming you can resale a video card for about 50% its value after a year or two. But assuming you can only make a 1/3 the cost, you only have to spend 2/3 the amount on a new rig, because video cards tend to stay around the same price range. But what is the resale value of an ASIC? Is it at least 1/3?

If someone can enlighten me as to what would be the best investment. I have been looking into this, but it is hard with all the information out there. Also, I read on another site that you can mine both bitcoin and litecoin on the same machine, with two instances of some application. Not sure if that was in reference to ASICs or PC rigs. And they did not specify if this would cause poor performance on either of the mining instances.

It takes years before you mine even 10 satoshi if you mine bitcoin with mining rig or just a pc.. Bitcoin could be mine only for antminer s9 or other asic miner..
Base on what you asking if you can be still resale those miner yes you can be still resale them in cheap price depends if your asic is running without any problem..

For GPU you can only mine with altcoin any supported algo except for litecoin and bitcoin cash..  If you heard from some other people they are mining bitcoin with mining rigs they using software which is auto-convert from altcoin to bitcoin but they are just mining altcoin if you heard nicehash it is one of the well known software to use to mine altcoin that auto convert your mining coins into bitcoin..  but i am not considering to use nicehash because nicehash was hack last month so if you are planning to mine with mining rigs or gpu use a trusted software or script to mine altcoin that you can convert in bitcoin in trusted exchanges..

[mirias]

As for the ASICs... does this need to be attached to a PC at all times, or do you configure the application, and then leave it running?



BitMaxz

For GPU you can only mine with altcoin any supported algo except for litecoin and bitcoin cash..  If you heard from some other people they are mining bitcoin with mining rigs they using software which is auto-convert from altcoin to bitcoin but they are just mining altcoin if you heard nicehash it is one of the well known software to use to mine altcoin that auto convert your mining coins into bitcoin..  but i am not considering to use nicehash because nicehash was hack last month so if you are planning to mine with mining rigs or gpu use a trusted software or script to mine altcoin that you can convert in bitcoin in trusted exchanges..

Thank you for further elaborating on this, I believe I have heard about that software and the hack. So I now understand what is being done in that case. So, my next question would be whether or not you can mine both Bitcoin and Litecoin? How would it affect each other, if it was possible? Would I be better off just mining one at a time, or would the performance slowdown be nominal, and thus worth the splitting up of the resources?

[component9]

As for the ASICs... does this need to be attached to a PC at all times, or do you configure the application, and then leave it running?

Depends on the miner - for the AntMiner S9, you just configure it and it'll run on its own

https://www.antminerdistribution.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/AntMiner-S9-Installation-Guide.pdf

[mirias]

As for the ASICs... does this need to be attached to a PC at all times, or do you configure the application, and then leave it running?

Depends on the miner - for the AntMiner S9, you just configure it and it'll run on its own

https://www.antminerdistribution.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/AntMiner-S9-Installation-Guide.pdf

Thanks for the responses, I really appreciate it. I checked out your calculator site, and it seems to be a bit disappointing. I would not be able to break even with an S9 within the first year. According to that, even after 360 days, I would still be $1999 in the red. And with the rate of difficulty going up so high, it seems to not look good even after I break even. Is this supposed to be that way? I am a bit confused, because I thought the whole thing would pay itself within 8-10 months, not over a year.

[component9]

I would not be able to break even with an S9 within the first year. According to that, even after 360 days, I would still be $1999 in the red.

The calculator assumes an increase of 5% in the difficulty every 14 days, so that's not necessarily reflective of what could actually happen. The difficulty gets adjusted based on the network's total hash rate, so if miners pull out (stop mining for some reason) then the difficulty increase won't be as big as it might have otherwise been. Here's a chart of historical difficulty - you can see there were some dips: https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-difficulty.html

The calculator also doesn't consider changes in the exchange rate - if the price of bitcoin goes up again this year that'll make your miner more profitable.

[mirias]

The calculator also doesn't consider changes in the exchange rate - if the price of bitcoin goes up again this year that'll make your miner more profitable.

So at this point I am going to have to hope for the value of bitcoin staying up and/or rising. Final question... do you have any suggestions as to where I can find good pricing for an S9? I have found some sites that have good values, but one in particular had an outrageous value of ~$1700. I tried checking their verification, but I did not recognize the certificate company. So if you know of any vendor with pricing closer to the $5000, than the $6000, I would appreciate it.

EDIT: My apologies, I am not asking you to do my research for pricing, I was just wondering if you had any vendor in mind. I just though I would ask from someone who seems to know way more than I do. But if you don't have anything in mind, I still appreciate all the information, because it has clarified so much more than what I was able to read in the past week.