Random stuff I've learned about mining

[Brunic]

-It's addictive, I can't stop going to check how many BTC I've made.
-Cases are costly and useless.
-Linux is great for mining (thanks LinuxCoin!). It's coming from a guy who've hated Linux for years.
-If you want to start a motherboard without case when there's no power button in sight, touch the two power pins with a metal object. The first time you do it, you feel really awesome  
-Extension cords can reduce the hashing power of your mining rigs.
-Reference 6950 are hot and noisy compared to the non-reference.
-Don't cool your cards, upgrade the air flow.
-Need dummy plugs? Use LogMeIn instead. When Windows doesn't have a monitor plugged, you can access all the cards.
-The province of Quebec in Canada is probably in the top 3 of the places with the cheapest electricity in the world. Yes, it's awesome living here  
-If you start, you can't be perfect. You're going to make mistakes and far from optimal. Consider that in your budget. We probably have around 1000$ of mistakes.
-You're going to learn from your mistakes, so it's going to cost you less with experience.
-Mining can be profitable.
-Mining can make you lose money.
-Mining is a opportunity to build a business project.
-A business project can be profitable.
-A business project can make you lose money.
-Profits are determined by your skills, by your environment and by the interaction between the twos.
-A lot of questions have already been answered by this awesome community.
-If you spend time reading instead of asking the same questions, you learn more than what you wanted to learn.
-Crossfire doesn't do anything.
-USB sticks are cheaper than hard drives.
-Problems? Update the BIOS, the drivers, update, update, update. Solve 90% of problems.
-Watts = Ampère * Volts
-1 Kw/h is the cost of a device of 1000W running for one hour.
-Hanns-G makes great monitors at a really cheap price.
-Gives appropriate thanks to those who help you in your project.
-We've received donations in the 3-digit numbers after posting a video of our project on Facebook. Some awesome people exists and they care for other awesome people. Be awesome.
-Mine with friends. Making money with somebody you care is much better than alone, and it transforms those hard nights configuring new rigs as great souvenirs.
-Hey YOU! Yes you, the lurker reading this! Come post a little. Don't do like me who've lurked this forum for around 4 months without posting. This community is build on confidence, and you can't build it if you don't participate in it. There's a lot of opportunities for known users here that you miss if you just stay on the sidelines.
-Bitcoin currently is like Internet in the 80's, so much needs to be done. Start your project right now to experiment while the cost is low.


That's enough for now. Don't be shy to add to this list.

[Chefnet]

nice +1

[getcopy]

"-Don't cool your cards, upgrade the air flow."
Yeah.

[SuperTramp]

Nice list!

I would like to add:

You do NOT need a high powered CPU for mining.




  -ST

[Sannyasi]

-heating bill is less in the winter and air conditioning bill is higher in the summers

[bcpokey]

-Watts = Ampère * Volts
-1 Kw/h is the cost of a device of 1000W running for one hour.

1000 Watts running for 1 hour is 1kWh not 1kW/hr.

[MrWizard]

"-Extension plugs can reduce the hashing power of your mining rigs."

Please elaborate. What extension plugs?  Why do they reduce hashing?

[AngelusWebDesign]

If he's referring to Cablesaurus cables, he's plain wrong.

I get the same hashrate with or without them -- if anything, my cards run cooler and consume less wattage with the cables.

[Brunic]

"-Extension plugs can reduce the hashing power of your mining rigs."

Please elaborate. What extension plugs?  Why do they reduce hashing?

Mmm, I made a mistake there. English is my second language, I mix up words sometimes.

I meant an extension cord. Electricity seems to lose intensity with those. We've made the test with 2 identical mining rigs, one plugged on an extension cord and the other not, and the one on the extension was losing around 20 MHash/s by card.

If you're using an extension cord, and your cards underperform, don't wonder why

[AngelusWebDesign]

"-Extension plugs can reduce the hashing power of your mining rigs."

Please elaborate. What extension plugs?  Why do they reduce hashing?

Mmm, I made a mistake there. English is my second language, I mix up words sometimes.

I meant an extension cord. Electricity seems to lose intensity with those. We've made the test with 2 identical mining rigs, one plugged on an extension cord and the other not, and the one on the extension was losing around 20 MHash/s by card.

If you're using an extension cord, and your cards underperform, don't wonder why

That doesn't make sense -- the card pulls all the electricity it wants from the PSU.
Using an extension cord would increase your electricity cost (the long cord acts like a resistor -- if your cord is warm to the touch, remember you're paying for that heat!)

Are you sure there wasn't some other variable that would explain the drop?

At any rate, I've studied electronics and electricity, and I've never heard of "intensity" of electricity. It sounds like Scientology, or pseudo-science (I know, I'm redundant!) to me.

Next you're going to be talking about how I need to be bled with leeches to get rid of the "bad humours" in my blood. 

[phelix]

"-Don't cool your cards, upgrade the air flow."
Yeah.

   care to elaborate?  you mean more air through the case?


+1 for the list.

[bcpokey]

Electricity doesn't lose "intensity." That doesn't even make sense. Not to mention that "electricity" had to flow for miles from the power generation station down transmission wires to substations to local grid to transformer to your in home wiring, before even arriving at the socket, so a few extra feet of copper is hardly going to make a difference.

If you have a BAD extension cord it's possible you are sending "dirty" power causing the psu to have bad voltage regulation or something, but that's more to do with an individuals set up than it is with extension cords in general.

[Brunic]

That doesn't make sense -- the card pulls all the electricity it wants from the PSU.
Using an extension cord would increase your electricity cost (the long cord acts like a resistor -- if your cord is warm to the touch, remember you're paying for that heat!)

Are you sure there wasn't some other variable that would explain the drop?

At any rate, I've studied electronics and electricity, and I've never heard of "intensity" of electricity. It sounds like Scientology, or pseudo-science (I know, I'm redundant!) to me.

Next you're going to be talking about how I need to be bled with leeches to get rid of the "bad humours" in my blood. 

Use those leeches on your cards, it gives 10 MHash!!!!!

I'm far from being an electrician, my knowledge is limited in that domain. I'm talking only about my experiences. But for "intensity", it's the word we use when we talk about the amperes in French. Looking on wikipedia, it seems that the correct term in English is "rate of flow". Hey, I've learned something today!

Anyway, one month ago, we bought two identical mining rigs. At that moment, we had to use an extension cord to plug one of them, because we didn't had enough available plugs in the wall. A few days later, we saw that one of the rigs was slower than the other one.

And don't worry, we didn't went:"Oh, it's the extension cord! I am so dumb! lalalala" it would've been too easy.

Instead, we went into the configs, removing the cards, switching the cards, overclock, underclock, updating drivers, etc. Nothing was working, and we've let it mine at that reduced speed for a couple of days, until when we've realised it was plugged on the extension cord. We've removed the extension, and the problem was solved.

Maybe our cord was defective/too long/whatever, I can't really tell. And I don't really care because I don't use them anymore. It's just a free "trick" that I feel I could share, because if I knew this trick two months ago, I could have save a couple hours of work.

"If your mining seems slow, and it's plugged on an extension cord, the problem could be the extension".

care to elaborate?  you mean more air through the case?

Case? Which case? Cases are costly and useless

Seriously, it's just that I've seen many times people asking how to cool down their cards (with a freezer, A/C, ice, snow). Having a better air flow can do wonders. Be sure that air circulate properly around your cards. If your cards heat, it's because the hot air doesn't get out fast enough.

With our rigs, just removing the cases lowered the temperature of around 5 to 10 Celsius degrees. And without cases, it's easier to move around the cards, especially with risers. You can put new fans wherever you need, add more distance between the cards, etc.

[Valalvax]

+1 lots of good info, some of which I've learned myself, and also carries over to day-trading on the market (ESPECIALLY the addicting part)


About the extension cable, what is it rated at? if it's a el-cheapo Christmas lights cord then it's likely not good enough to run a computer (and you're lucky you didn't burn the place down) as for lowering the intensity/current/amperes, yes, it can, but it's an negligable amount

I'm guessing it just wasn't thick enough for a computer

[Dexter770221]

-Watts = Ampère * Volts

Not true. There are some issues. Like phase shift... Complicated stuff, thats why PSU's have PFC...

[phelix]

-Watts = Ampère * Volts

Not true. There are some issues. Like phase shift... Complicated stuff, thats why PSU's have PFC...

Not incorrect either and generally a good first approximation.

+1 

[max in montreal]

We've received donations in the 3-digit numbers after posting a video of our project on Facebook. Some awesome people exists and they care for other awesome people. Be awesome.

link?