what did you start mining with?

[vapourminer]

as a long time folder, starting with a coppermine p3 1.0 years back and now folding with 2 GTX 285s and a Q9650 @ 3.8, Ive always liked the hardware aspect.

so, what hardware did you folks start with back in the day?

as for me a couple month ago i saw bitcoins threads at various hardware sits and pretty much blew it off. like, riiiight.. money from video cards.. as time passed and more threads kept coming up, I started to seriously look into it. at that point I switched my HD4850 (which sucked a folding anyway, but hey science is science) and signed up at the various sites to get the money into a bank account to see if it actually worked. well of course it does.

so.. hardware..

started with the 4850 but soon upgraded to a 6870 in the day to day rig. then replace the HD3850 in the HTPC (it sucked at HTPC duties, no real 23.97 FPS support) with a 6770. HDMI 1.4a!  3D support! 23.97 support! yea!. those pull double duty in the respective rigs  where I can easily justified as legit hardware upgrades. but then..  then a 5830 in an old P4 prescott carcass as a dedicated rig in the basement.

guess the bug has bit. 800-850 M/Hash total. fun,  I know its not gonna make me rich but its more hardware to play with and I can fold with it later if I want.

anyone else want to tell their hardware story?

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[sethmo]

Started with my 6870 in my main PC, which I was wanting to upgrade anyway.  So i got two 6950s.  Then picked up 4x5830s when they came in stock.  And about two weeks ago, picked up another 4x5830 setup.

So, I started with about 300mhash, now am at about 3200 mhash

[mikeo]

Two weeks ago I cudn;t spel betcoin, now I are mining it ;-)

Seriously, bitcoin mining really strikes my geek cord! Now before everyone flames me for overspending, I'm doing this as a hobby first and to make a little money at it second. I started two weeks ago building This:

MSI 870-G45 Motherboard
OCZ 800W PSU
Sempron 140 CPU
Kingston 1GB DDR3
4GB USB Flash Drive
2xMSI Radeon HD 5830s
Antec 200 case
Running BitCoin 0.2.1b, for 614 MH/s

IMO, I need to generate double the hashrate to save a little face, so this is my next build (parts on order):

Selling off the MSI 870-G45 M/B and the Antec 200 case. Swapping the OCZ 800W PSU for a Tagan 900W PSU in my gaming machine. Adding:

MSI 890FXA-GD65 R M/B (PCIe 2x x16, 4x x1)
2 more 5830s for total of 4 (may add 2 more GPUs later for total of six with an additional PSU)
PCIe extenders
Caseless with a slightly modded HSPC Tech Station Kit Standard Size (14x9.5) Version 2.0 - Black

[NetTecture]

1x5770
Added anothe one 2 days later

Added 3x6970 3 weeeks later.

Next week I add 5 6970
A week later I add 33 6970

Ordered, paid Waiting

[mike678]

1x5770
Added anothe one 2 days later

Added 3x6970 3 weeeks later.

Next week I add 5 6970
A week later I add 33 6970

Ordered, paid Waiting

I hope you realize that you wasted a lot of money right? You could have gone with the 5830 @ 130 and still done way better or by waiting you could have received an even better deal. The only argument for getting the 6970 is because its going to be a part time mining rig part time gaming rig and its clear those wont be used for gaming.

[neptop]

An Acer Aspire ONE 150 (the ones with the bad Atoms). Back in... I don't know. It generated a block every few hours! Three a day IIRC. I don't have the wallet any longer.

That was when I found Bitcoin by accident while looking for something else on SourceForge.

But I sold them way before a Bitcoin was worth a dollar so it didn't make me rich.

Lesson learned: Believe in Bitcoin.

[ElectroGeek007]

I started in my dorm room with 4 CPUs and a Radeon 4550, I got about 25 MH/s when I was lucky

[pekv2]

Back in 2010 I received a 5830. I just found out about Bitcoin 2 days ago. I'm mining on my 5830. Only if I had knew about Bitcoins & Bitcoin mining when I received this card or in fact when I had my 4890, all the lost time of mining that I could have had. My plan is to mine for at least six months with the rig I have now, then upgrade to moar Bitcoin mining power rig &/or a year from now to a mining farm then hopefully LOL maybe consider free electricity, solar or mini wind turbines "the goal for free electricity might be a little far fetched, but it is my goal".

[teukon]

One of the two cores on my Intel Atom D510 (the other core was F@H).  I got 250.01 BTC with this .

[deslok]

I remember reading an article on a tech site right after the crash earlier this year and said "crash or not that's brilliant" my thinkpad w510 started mining when i got home i think it's make ... .3 bitcoin sofar between the quad core i7 and the quadro gpu ... too bad i didn't find out them when an atom could get 250 bitcoin! i have a single 5870 right now running in addition to the thinkpad i'm looking at getting another motherboard so i can get the 5830 i have on the shelf running.

[mastergamer]

xD, i just picked the worsest time, to start with mining...
Damm... when a low intel atom cpu with about 0,3Mhash or so was able to collect 250BTC... iam running about 1,3Ghash and mal 0,8BTC/day.
That really make me sad

[NetTecture]

1x5770
Added anothe one 2 days later

Added 3x6970 3 weeeks later.

Next week I add 5 6970
A week later I add 33 6970

Ordered, paid Waiting

I hope you realize that you wasted a lot of money right? You could have gone with the 5830 @ 130 and still done way better or by waiting you could have received an even better deal. The only argument for getting the 6970 is because its going to be a part time mining rig part time gaming rig and its clear those wont be used for gaming.

I hope you realize that when you go scale (and this is jusst step 1) then availbility, rpeplaceability etc. are just as important. I would have gone with 6990 if I could, for density.

I am going to do that "commercial". Just opening a data center in an earea with acceptable power pricing for mining only (and renting out space for rigs or rigs).I would have to spend a lot more on infrastructure to get the same density. Right now we will put 2 cards into one rack unit height as it looks. Waiting for the prototype of the case.

[mike678]

1x5770
Added anothe one 2 days later

Added 3x6970 3 weeeks later.

Next week I add 5 6970
A week later I add 33 6970

Ordered, paid Waiting

I hope you realize that you wasted a lot of money right? You could have gone with the 5830 @ 130 and still done way better or by waiting you could have received an even better deal. The only argument for getting the 6970 is because its going to be a part time mining rig part time gaming rig and its clear those wont be used for gaming.

I hope you realize that when you go scale (and this is jusst step 1) then availbility, rpeplaceability etc. are just as important. I would have gone with 6990 if I could, for density.

I am going to do that "commercial". Just opening a data center in an earea with acceptable power pricing for mining only (and renting out space for rigs or rigs).I would have to spend a lot more on infrastructure to get the same density. Right now we will put 2 cards into one rack unit height as it looks. Waiting for the prototype of the case.

The 5830 at 130 has been on sale for over a week nonstop so it is hardly unavailable. When looking at megahash per server you still would get more out of each server with a 5830 at 130 then a 6970 set up. While at that scale megahash per square foot may be an issue. This issue isn't that big though because it only takes about 44 5830's to produce the same amount of  megahash as 33 6970's thats only 11 more cards which is only about 3 more servers.

[mike90045]

P4, 3GHz  But that was a long time ago. Took a while to finish a block.

[teukon]

xD, i just picked the worsest time, to start with mining...
Damm... when a low intel atom cpu with about 0,3Mhash or so was able to collect 250BTC... iam running about 1,3Ghash and mal 0,8BTC/day.
That really make me sad

Yeah, 5 blocks for 200khps over a few months.  However, even with the low difficulty and low power consumption, 150 of those BTC were barely profitable and the other 100 I generated at a loss.  Bitcoins were not highly valued back then.

I took a chance (bought 1500 BTC back when all the bids and asks were multiples of 100 BTC) and got lucky!

I was excited when people started taking more interest.  knightmb decided to set up a mining farm and everyone thought he was nuts!  Eventually there were problems with the main exchange (paypal scams) and someone started a new exchange which was supposed to do everything properly and professionally (mt gox  ).

Ah! memory lane.

[Sideways]

I hope you realize that you wasted a lot of money right? You could have gone with the 5830 @ 130 and still done way better or by waiting you could have received an even better deal. The only argument for getting the 6970 is because its going to be a part time mining rig part time gaming rig and its clear those wont be used for gaming.

I disagree, one thing I also check for is resale value. A 5770 is a good miner per cost, but you won't make anything back selling it. A 6970 will have awsome resale value. I sincerely  hope that bitcoins really take off and I'll never sell my mining gear, but if I have to my 6950's will still sell at decent prices.

[NetTecture]

I hope you realize that you wasted a lot of money right? You could have gone with the 5830 @ 130 and still done way better or by waiting you could have received an even better deal. The only argument for getting the 6970 is because its going to be a part time mining rig part time gaming rig and its clear those wont be used for gaming.

I disagree, one thing I also check for is resale value. A 5770 is a good miner per cost, but you won't make anything back selling it. A 6970 will have awsome resale value. I sincerely  hope that bitcoins really take off and I'll never sell my mining gear, but if I have to my 6950's will still sell at decent prices.

This wont happen. The only sensibly approach is to get 6970 then sell them when the 7xxx series comes up BEFORE the resale value drops too much. No sense in sticking to them when the 7xxx series is that much more efficient.

Resale value is one reason I went for 6970s.

[haploid23]

started with a HD5670, later added a few 5870s, 5850s, and 5830s

1x5770
Added anothe one 2 days later

Added 3x6970 3 weeeks later.

Next week I add 5 6970
A week later I add 33 6970

Ordered, paid Waiting

 
33x 6970 in one order is freakin crazy!

[NetTecture]

started with a HD5670, later added a few 5870s, 5850s, and 5830s

1x5770
Added anothe one 2 days later

Added 3x6970 3 weeeks later.

Next week I add 5 6970
A week later I add 33 6970

Ordered, paid Waiting

 
33x 6970 in one order is freakin crazy!

Depends, I may add another 8.... likely moving from 5 to 6 cards per motherboard. Plus it is only 8 computers, half a rack full.

[compro01]

nvidia 8800GTS and my core2 duo e6850.  got about 25 Mhash/s between the two.

upgraded to a single 6870 and dropped the CPU mining, now doing about 285 Mhash/s.