Which pool to use

[crudpuppy]

Ok,  so if there really was a best pool everyone would use it and the others would die so how do you decide?  I'm currently mining in 50btc pps but was looking at the larger BTC guild and its pplns method.  I know it gives more volatile results but according to reading would be or should be slightly higher results after say a month or so of mining?  Course does mining power effect the choice here or what?  At what mining power do you decide to mine solo or do you ever?

[Graet]

PPS generally has higher fees
PPLNS, DGM etc generally have lower fees

PPS= same payment per share for every share over a difficulty period
other payout systems have more variance (value of shares  changes) due to luck but over time should even out

smaller pool means you get higher reward per block from less blocks, bigger pools get more blocks so you get more frequent but smaller payouts. all being equal (inc fees) you should earn about the same from any fair payout method over time.

Your mining power over time *should* earn the same, difference being fees paid (this is affected by luck on non PPS payout methods)

different ppl have different goals, some solo mine on a couple of 333Mh/s block eruptors hoping to be lucky, but then on my pool
<ozbot> #1: Anon - 12541.52 GH/s | #2: Anon - 6607.52 GH/s | #3: Anon - 6530.63 GH/s | #4: Anon - 5882.58 GH/s | #5: Anon - 5756.81 GH/s | #6: Anon - 5735.83 GH/s | #7: Anon - 5661.79 GH/s | #8: shao-zen - 3102.91 GH/s | #9: Anon - 2913.73 GH/s | #10: Anon - 2833.89 GH/s
all of these ppl are terahash+ miners that feel pooled mining is better for them

hope that is a help
Graet

[crudpuppy]

Yeah I think it does.

Basic recap of you msg:

Basically any "reputable" pool should end up paying about the same over time excluding maybe fees.

As far as mining solo its all about risk for reward even small miner could solo mine and make it big(or not).  Bigger miners still pool as its a consistent payout rather then so much the varied solo.

[Graet]

Yeah I think it does.

Basic recap of you msg:

Basically any "reputable" pool should end up paying about the same over time excluding maybe fees.

As far as mining solo its all about risk for reward even small miner could solo mine and make it big(or not).  Bigger miners still pool as its a consistent payout rather then so much the varied solo.

yep

[Keldel]

If you wish to support the decentralized nature of bitcoin, please consider p2pool.

You also get to keep the fees!

[crudpuppy]

I started with p2pool but that was before I had any real hashrate and noticed it is NOT designed for low hashrate guess I could give them a try again.  Specially since both btcguild and 50btc are getting ddos'd since last night..hehe