Building a new PC

[BitMofo]

Hi guys, I'm hoping to build a new PC very soon and would like to double it up as a bitcoin miner...
Is it still worth buying parts especially for mining? How much longer will it be profitable to mine for the average user?

Probably going to get the HD 5850, what do you reckon?
Should I spend a bit more money and get a couple of SLI'd cards?
Has anyone got a similar setup that works well for them? What are your specs?
Thanks!

[1715383266]

1715383266

[1715383266]

1715383266

[Dargo]

5850s are great for mining, if you can find them at a good price. SLI/Crossfire actually is slower for mining compared to two cards without it, but for a non-dedicated rig it would be OK if the benefits (say for gaming) outweight this. I assume your are going to use a case, and if so, you have to get a motherboard that allows for plenty of room between the cards if you have two or more. And you want a case with good airflow. Cases with side fans are a big help since they blow air right on the cards (I have an Azza Helios 910, but I'm going caseless soon since temp is still an issue, but my cards are very close together).

[Morebitcoinsplease]

Hi guys, I'm hoping to build a new PC very soon and would like to double it up as a bitcoin miner...
Is it still worth buying parts especially for mining? How much longer will it be profitable to mine for the average user?

Probably going to get the HD 5850, what do you reckon?
Should I spend a bit more money and get a couple of SLI'd cards?
Has anyone got a similar setup that works well for them? What are your specs?
Thanks!

Yup got 4x5850's running in one box

Motherboard: MSI 890FXA-GD70 AM3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130274

PSU: Antec 1200w (You can run with less but I like to get the best so if I choose to expand I can I think someone said you can run 4x5850 on 750w on another Post)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371032

The rest doesn't matter in my opinion but I got

RAM: Kingston 4Gb
CPU: Phenom II

I run linuxcoin on them and works awesome. No need to SLI (like Dargo said) you loose Mhashes

[kokojie]

Ok guys, for ATI cards, it's called Xfire, not SLI. SLI is exclusively used for NVIDIA cards.

[geek-trader]

I the difficulty continues to go up 10% each time, then, no mining will not be profitable for someone getting in at this point.

We can, and have, argued what the future difficulty increases will be.  I hope they level off soon, but I'm not optimistic.

However, if you are going to buy a machine for gaming anyway, and do some mining on the side, go for it.  You don't have to recoup the whole rig cost to turn a mining profit, because you bought it to game with, not to mine with.    You just have to recoup the "extra" stuff you bought for mining that you would not have otherwise bought to game with.

[BitMofo]

Hi guys, I'm hoping to build a new PC very soon and would like to double it up as a bitcoin miner...
Is it still worth buying parts especially for mining? How much longer will it be profitable to mine for the average user?

Probably going to get the HD 5850, what do you reckon?
Should I spend a bit more money and get a couple of SLI'd cards?
Has anyone got a similar setup that works well for them? What are your specs?
Thanks!

Yup got 4x5850's running in one box

Motherboard: MSI 890FXA-GD70 AM3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130274

PSU: Antec 1200w (You can run with less but I like to get the best so if I choose to expand I can I think someone said you can run 4x5850 on 750w on another Post)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371032

The rest doesn't matter in my opinion but I got

RAM: Kingston 4Gb
CPU: Phenom II

I run linuxcoin on them and works awesome. No need to SLI (like Dargo said) you loose Mhashes

Very nice, I may go for a similar spec! How long do you think it takes to pay the parts off with this spec? Bear in mind electricity is a bit more expensive in the UK I think!

Also, is there an equivalent i5 board? As I think I'm going to go for the i5 2500k (Will be my main PC too...)