Newbie Questions re Generating Speed

[HarryStottle]

First post. Impressed with the elegance of the concept and the simplicity of implementation. Already punted it to about 50 friends.

Installed a bitcoin node and have been generating since Tuesday. Naturally wondered how long it takes to generate a coin. Went looking and found, according to the online calculator, that it will take about a year at my current rate of 4400 khashes/s - which I've already seen in the forum referred to as "very slow".

Also found refs on the forum to others generating 50 coins a year and using gpus capable of running 60 mhashes/s instead of cpus.

I appreciate that gpus are a faster option, but how would someone - who's never dabbled in that side of computing - exploit the gpus in our own system? I have two graphics cards in my system, an NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT and an ATI Radeon HD 4300 (which is primarily there to speak to my TV so it's available most of the time). Are either suitable?  (or do you have to dedicate a machine explicitly to the task)

And, in any case, is 4400 the kind of rate we'd expect from a modern CPU? It's an I7 quad core 2.8Ghz. Initially I allowed it to use 2 cores only, but the rate was only 2300, so I permitted the other 2 to join in. If it's relevant, I'm running Win 7 Ult and have 12Gb Ram installed.

Oh and one final question. Do the references I've seen to "Mining" mean "generating"?

[Anonymous]

You could join the mining pool and get coins the communistic way lol.

Where did you hear about bitcoin? Im always curious about how people found out.  

The best way to "generate" is to offer goods and services or a skill you have in exchange for bitcoins.

Theres also the #bitcoin-dev irc room on freenode if youre game.


Mining=Generating.

Mining with a cpu is pretty much useless. Fire up your gpu's instead .

[Mahkul]

I appreciate that gpus are a faster option, but how would someone - who's never dabbled in that side of computing - exploit the gpus in our own system? I have two graphics cards in my system, an NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT and an ATI Radeon HD 4300 (which is primarily there to speak to my TV so it's available most of the time). Are either suitable?  (or do you have to dedicate a machine explicitly to the task)

In order to mine with GPU your card must be compatible with either OpenCL (ATI) or CUDA (NVidia). You can check that here:

NVidia CUDA: http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_gpus.html
Ati OpenCL: http://developer.amd.com/gpu/ATIStreamSDK/pages/DriverCompatibility.aspx

Once you verify that it is compatible, just do a search on the forum for GPU miner and you will find a few of them along with the instructions on how to install and use them. I personally use m0mchil's miner: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1334

And, in any case, is 4400 the kind of rate we'd expect from a modern CPU? It's an I7 quad core 2.8Ghz. Initially I allowed it to use 2 cores only, but the rate was only 2300, so I permitted the other 2 to join in. If it's relevant, I'm running Win 7 Ult and have 12Gb Ram installed.

Yes, it is. CPU mining doesn't make sense anymore, IMHO.

[hook]

Theres also the #bitcoin-dev irc room on freenode if youre game.

Game for what?

[MoonShadow]

Oh and one final question. Do the references I've seen to "Mining" mean "generating"?

Yes.

[HarryStottle]

thankyou comrades, for the comprehensive and comprehensible answers. Apparently my Nvidia supports CUDA so I'm downloading the latest 64 bit drivers to give it a whirl. Expect screams and falling hair in the not too distant future...