Do we know how to get 3MH per $1.00 yet?

[marvinmartian]

Be careful.  Make sure you understand that your 3mh/$ may end up costing you more in electricity.

It's a perfectly reasonable plan (eg., building rigs on the cheap).  I do it all the time.   Just make sure you know what you're getting into in the intermediate term (eg., six to twelve months out).

Just look at your electric bill and see how much you're paying in kw/h.  Then pick up a cheap "Kill A Watt" or some other meter so you can tell how much your rig is pulling current-wise.

Then get jiggy with some spreadsheets which hopefully include some kind of sensible forecast for BTC price and mining difficulty level.

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[mike678]

Be careful.  Make sure you understand that your 3mh/$ may end up costing you more in electricity.

It's a perfectly reasonable plan (eg., building rigs on the cheap).  I do it all the time.   Just make sure you know what you're getting into in the intermediate term (eg., six to twelve months out).

Just look at your electric bill and see how much you're paying in kw/h.  Then pick up a cheap "Kill A Watt" or some other meter so you can tell how much your rig is pulling current-wise.

Then get jiggy with some spreadsheets which hopefully include some kind of sensible forecast for BTC price and mining difficulty level.

care to clarify how you get 3 mh per dollar invested in rig? The best I've ever heard is 2.25 from deslok in this thread.

[marvinmartian]

care to clarify how you get 3 mh per dollar invested in rig? The best I've ever heard is 2.25 from deslok in this thread.

I wasn't claiming to get that pricepoint.  I was merely cautioning the OP regarding price/electical efficiency.
 
Getting 3 mh/$ is tough.  You need to get a good price on 5830s or some other similarly priced card (you can Google BTC mining cards for spreadsheets on mh/$) and spend next to nothing on the hardware.  EG., even if you get 5830s (@ 350mh/s) for $150 you're still not there:  350/150 = 2.33.

So the 3mh/$ "barrier" is largely subject to price changes in graphics cards.

In terms of hardware, I'm a fan of buying old and cheap then upgrading the weak links.  Not sure if anyone has posted this already:

   https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

It's a good starting point (that I'm sure everyone reading this post has already seen).

EDIT:  350mh/s is incorrect.  A more conservative figure of 300 yields:  300mh/s / $150 = 2 mh/s / $.

[mike678]

EG., even if you get 5830s (@ 350mh/s) for $150 you're still not there:  350/150 = 2.33.

Dunno where you got 350 megahash for a 5830 but I highly doubt thats possible. I remember seeing 340 and that was a super heavy overvolt and I highly doubt that is sustainable for long periods of time if you don't want your card to fry.

[marvinmartian]

Dunno where you got 350 megahash for a 5830 but I highly doubt thats possible. I remember seeing 340 and that was a super heavy overvolt and I highly doubt that is sustainable for long periods of time if you don't want your card to fry.

I wasn't being accurate, more trying to illustrate the basic scenario.  But yes, you are correct.  350mh/s is doubtful for a 5830.  I'll go and fix my post. 

The link I provided, however, should show some more solid data for many cards and mh/s rates.

[Supercrit]

WHat I paid

2x 5970 for $750 (used)

2x 5870 for $350 (used)

3x 5850 for $345 (these were new)

Thats about 3.4gh for $1445 for the cards

I spent another 150-200 per rig.

$50 foxconn mobo (currently running 4 cards)
$30 cpu
$180 Thermaltake 1200w power supply
and whatever 1gb of ram costs.

Good deals are out there!

I'm so jealous of you now, where you got these incredible deals!?

[pandemic]

I bought both of my 5830's at $99 a piece. I can get 305-307mh/s steady. That works to 3mh/1$ already.

[Jack of Diamonds]

I bought both of my 5830's at $99 a piece. I can get 305-307mh/s steady. That works to 3mh/1$ already.

True but you also need a system to run the card.
I proposed cheap old computers from craigslist ($20-$30) with PCI-e slots as a solution, which would bring such a rig very close to the desired $3/MH ratio.

The computer I linked doesn't run PCI-e but you get the point, this kind of stuff is really available out there for very cheap.
Some people might even throw these away rather than sell them.

At current prices of components, this isn't doable with any other card than a 5830 (if you're lucky enough to find one)
Also not counting the insane deals Bitjet got above, they are very rare or one-of-a-kind.