Noob mining questions.

[shirenji]

I've been doing some reading on the forums about solo mining, pool mining and just things in general to take into consideration before purchasing mining software.

Firstly. I might be getting a Dell Alienware M17X Laptop.
 -    Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM Processor (2.2GHz, 1600 MHz DDR3, 6M cache
 -    8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2 X 4GB)
 -    1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M

(thank you mum) lol.

Do you guys think I'd be generating more BC than what I'd be spending on the added electricity usage? (I'm pretty sure I'll be pool mining)

Secondly. With purchasing the mining software. Could someone link me to where to purchase it. (I'm assuming theres numerous sites, but with that I'm sure theres plenty of dodgy sites. It just seems safest to ask atm)

Also, is it a one time fee or a reoccuring fee for the software?

Thanks in advance guys

[ultraimports]

I've been doing some reading on the forums about solo mining, pool mining and just things in general to take into consideration before purchasing mining software.

Firstly. I might be getting a Dell Alienware M17X Laptop.
 -    Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM Processor (2.2GHz, 1600 MHz DDR3, 6M cache
 -    8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2 X 4GB)
 -    1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M

(thank you mum) lol.

Do you guys think I'd be generating more BC than what I'd be spending on the added electricity usage? (I'm pretty sure I'll be pool mining)

Secondly. With purchasing the mining software. Could someone link me to where to purchase it. (I'm assuming theres numerous sites, but with that I'm sure theres plenty of dodgy sites. It just seems safest to ask atm)

Also, is it a one time fee or a reoccuring fee for the software?

Thanks in advance guys

Hi there!

I consider myself new to mining, but the learning curve is steep. First of all, NVIDIA cards to not mine well, so go for an ATI card (Radeon 5xxx series or better). You can find the probable MH/s speeds here:

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

Next, you don't need to (or should not) pay for a mining application, they are free, but require a bit of research to learn how to use them. There are different miner apps out there, and most of them work with all OS's but some do not work with all.

For me, since my OS is Windows (I'll get blasted by some here) I use the GUIMiner program. It is very easy to use, and I highly recommend it, especially for beginners. The latest version can be downloaded here:

https://github.com/downloads/Kiv/poclbm/guiminer-20110701.exe  (if there is a newer version, someone please chime in)

Also, you will need to sign up for a pool to mine from. There are several out there, and each have their pros/cons I'm sure. I say experiement with the pools a bit so you understand them better, and research the video cards before investing. I would say a desktop is the better investment for mining, however, if you are looking for dual purpose (like you can only buy a laptop because you need it) try to find a high end ATI card for the laptop.

Oh, and last but most important: download the bitcoin client app so you have a payment address!! Learn how to protect the wallet too (on this forum) I hope this helps!

[Wombat]

Firstly, don't pay for mining software, there's plenty of good, free options available:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Miners

Personally, I use cgminer.

Secondly, even if you do swap to an ATI GPU as suggested, I'd think hard about whether to mine at all on a laptop. Unless it has some excellent cooling, heat will be a major issue. If this is your primary PC, think hard about what that might do to the expected lifespan of the laptop vs the likely reward (pretty small for a single GPU at the current difficulty).

If you do end up doing it anyway, I'd probably run it without the battery while you're mining as it will only hurt your energy efficiency, and the extra heat will degrade it more quickly.

[shirenji]

Firstly, don't pay for mining software, there's plenty of good, free options available:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Miners

Personally, I use cgminer.

Secondly, even if you do swap to an ATI GPU as suggested, I'd think hard about whether to mine at all on a laptop. Unless it has some excellent cooling, heat will be a major issue. If this is your primary PC, think hard about what that might do to the expected lifespan of the laptop vs the likely reward (pretty small for a single GPU at the current difficulty).

If you do end up doing it anyway, I'd probably run it without the battery while you're mining as it will only hurt your energy efficiency, and the extra heat will degrade it more quickly.

The desktop im using atm is my mums. I'm not so sure about the GPU in it. It is NVIDIA GeFore 9200
and the processor is E7500 Intel Core 2 DUO CPU @ 2.93 GHz 2.94GHz

I wasn't sure how to reply to both you and the other person in one reply, so I just quoted this one, hopefully it'll notify you both or something. Thank you for replying though. You guys have both been pretty helpful.

So with the desktop im using based on those two things, am I going to paying more than what I'll be earning? and what are your opinions on solo/pool mining. Which is more rewarding? from what I read you earn more pool mining. Also I already have the client downloaded (it's in my signature) lol. But I will look into securing it.

[nmat]

There should be a sticky for this kind of questions.

1- Don't even think about solo mining. It's not worth it unless of have lots of GPUs.

2- NVIDIA is bad for mining. If you do get the 460 and if you mine 24/7, you will make 1 bitcoin per month (more or less). Check the calculator at http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator.php.

3- It is highly unlikely that it will cover the electricity costs, but that depends on where you live and on how much do you pay for electricity.

At current prices, 1 bitcoin is around $7. Prices can go up or down...

[shirenji]

There should be a sticky for this kind of questions.

1- Don't even think about solo mining. It's not worth it unless of have lots of GPUs.

2- NVIDIA is bad for mining. If you do get the 460 and if you mine 24/7, you will make 1 bitcoin per month (more or less). Check the calculator at http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator.php.

3- It is highly unlikely that it will cover the electricity costs, but that depends on where you live and on how much do you pay for electricity.

At current prices, 1 bitcoin is around $7. Prices can go up or down...

I don't think it'd cover costs, but what I mean is for what I'd be making in bitcoins. I'm unsure of if it's worth the extra costs, and if so, roughly how much the costs would be. ( I live in Australia) Where pricing is f'ing ridiculous lol.

[Wombat]

There's no point mining with that desktop either, take a look at similar hardware in the mining hardware comparison posted earlier, you'd be lucky to pull 2Mhash/s with the GeForce 9200. You might do a little better with the CPU, but you won't even make back what the extra electricity costs you.

Why don't you install a miner, sign up to a pool and see what hashrate you actually get? It'll only cost you a bit of time, the energy cost will be tiny if you only run it for an hour or two and you'll learn a fair bit along the way.

If you're still keen after that, brand new Radeon 5850's are still available in Australia for around AUD170 that will give you 350 to 400 Mhash/s. That would be a pretty decent upgrade to your desktop, and would likely still be marginally profitable even at Australian electricity prices (say ~AUD0.22/KWh if you're on an average plan).

[rbc2012]

Use this site to see how much you can earn with your hardware:

http://bitcoinx.com/profit

I think you will find at current market prices and difficulty that mining will lose you money.

[shirenji]

what about CPU miners? depending?

[hairykrishna]

As I understand it CPU mining these days is essentially pointless - it's an order of magnitude slower than GPU's and GPU profits are currently pretty marginal.

[Fakeman]

In my experience, a GPU that did ~8 Mhash (4350 I think) didn't just earn less than my 5830@300 Mhash, it earned nothing at all because none of its shares were accepted.

[rbc2012]

> what about CPU miners? depending?

Forget about CPU mining unless difficulty drops below 500k, maybe more.
AMD GPUs are for more efficient at doing mining.
Using a CPU is like entering a horse into a car race.

Look here to see how much faster GPUs are over CPUs.

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

[metacontent]

If you are making a mining rig you don't need 8gb of memory or a fast cpu and a high quality hard drive.

All you need is a really good gpu, any processor (that will run it), any hard drive, and 2gb of ram.

I have a radeon hd 6950 and a radeon 5850 and I'm happy with both of them if you are looking for recommendations.