Starting out in bitcoin - Dual 5970...

[snedie]

So I'm just starting out in the Bitcoin mining adventure, and I just need a little help starting. I have a dual 5970 system and I have a couple of questions:

)From what I have seen, most people like to use Ubuntu for the Bitcoin OS. Is there a windows option? I am comfortable with Ubuntu but a windows version would be more suitable for me.
)Is there an x64 GPU application? I run an x64 windows OS and as such it will not load the generic client (Invalid executable).

Any other basic starting info is greatly appreciated.

[Meni Rosenfeld]

You can use Kiv's GUI frontend for poclbm. If you use a pool, that (and the ATI stream SDK) is all you need. If you want to mine solo you need some form of bitcoin client. I had no problem using the default client on Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit.

[MDKing]

So I'm just starting out in the Bitcoin mining adventure, and I just need a little help starting. I have a dual 5970 system and I have a couple of questions:

)From what I have seen, most people like to use Ubuntu for the Bitcoin OS. Is there a windows option? I am comfortable with Ubuntu but a windows version would be more suitable for me.
)Is there an x64 GPU application? I run an x64 windows OS and as such it will not load the generic client (Invalid executable).

Any other basic starting info is greatly appreciated.

From what I've read I believe the reason that people ( including myself ) use Ubuntu over windows when you have a dual card setup is because you can't turn off the crossfire feature which will reduce your overall Mh/s.

[snedie]

Thanks for the replies.

I got the solo bitcoin client and the poclbm-gui running, which is generating between 800Mhash/s and 1.3Ghash/s (And pushing my cards to the limit). At this rate, how long would it generally take to make 1 bitcoin?

Just trying to figure out it this will even pay for the electricity used to mine the coins...Thanks again

[edit] Also, is it normal for the poclbm-gui client to use the CPU for mining too, even though it is not set to use it?

[MDKing]

Check out http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator.php

You can use it to determine the average time to mine a block. A single block is worth 50BTC and with around 1.3GHz the time would be

Probability      Time
Average      2 days, 21 hours, 55 minutes
50%              2 days, 0 hours, 28 minutes
95%              8 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes

A good way to quickly get some bitcoins would be to join a pool. From my own experience I like bitpenny.com and slush's pool.

[snedie]

Check out http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator.php

You can use it to determine the average time to mine a block. A single block is worth 50BTC and with around 1.3GHz the time would be

Probability      Time
Average      2 days, 21 hours, 55 minutes
50%              2 days, 0 hours, 28 minutes
95%              8 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes

A good way to quickly get some bitcoins would be to join a pool. From my own experience I like bitpenny.com and slush's pool.

When you say Ghz, do you mean Ghash/s? See pics added to my previous post

[Dude65535]

[edit] Also, is it normal for the poclbm-gui client to use the CPU for mining too, even though it is not set to use it?

It is the bitcoin client that is using your CPU. Turn off the generate coins setting. It isn't needed for mining with a separate mining program and there are better cpu mining programs.

[snedie]

Even when I exit the client my CPu remains at 100%. Task manager is showing each process running within the poclbm-gui applications is using 25% of my cpu (Four miners, one for each GPU).

That raises another question. With crossfire enabled across both 5970's (So all four GPU's act as "One"), do I need 4 miners? I have the option to select each GPU core individually, but was curious if it was required.

[MDKing]

When you say Ghz, do you mean Ghash/s? See pics added to my previous post

Yes typo, 1.3Ghashes/s

[snedie]

When you say Ghz, do you mean Ghash/s? See pics added to my previous post

Yes typo, 1.3Ghashes/s

Thanks.

So an average of 2days to get 50BTC, not bad. That would cover 7 days of electricity for my PC (£26.88/week Avg when running both GPU's and CPU maxed). If I could acheive that 2day rate consistently I could get a nice mint from this: Going on that estimate, I could POSSIBLY achieve £96.4201/week. In Slush's pool, going from the average solve time I could get £84/week.

What are your experiences with solo mining? Do you get consistent results (say within 8 hours or so).

[edit] Thats all off my 2am math work   and something tells me I did it wrong 

[bitjet]

Snedie, did you have to do anything to start all 4 cores in windows, or did it just work? Did you have to swap your monitor cables around or run 2 monitors (i from each card?)?

Its a real bitch to get all my 4 cores started mining, sometimes it takes me an hour of swapping cables around.

[Meni Rosenfeld]

Snedie, did you have to do anything to start all 4 cores in windows, or did it just work? Did you have to swap your monitor cables around or run 2 monitors (i from each card?)?

Its a real bitch to get all my 4 cores started mining, sometimes it takes me an hour of swapping cables around.

Maybe making one of these (VGA dummy plug) can help.

[snedie]

At the moment I have an eyefinity display, but all three screens go into one card. The miners simply worked right off the bat, but my cards are still in crossfire so not sure if this makes a differance? (Is CCC distributing the load? The second card isn't under as much load as the first but all four miners have the same performance of 250Mh/s-275Mh/s).

[MDKing]

When you say Ghz, do you mean Ghash/s? See pics added to my previous post

Yes typo, 1.3Ghashes/s

Thanks.

So an average of 2days to get 50BTC, not bad. That would cover 7 days of electricity for my PC (£26.88/week Avg when running both GPU's and CPU maxed). If I could acheive that 2day rate consistently I could get a nice mint from this: Going on that estimate, I could POSSIBLY achieve £96.4201/week. In Slush's pool, going from the average solve time I could get £84/week.

What are your experiences with solo mining? Do you get consistent results (say within 8 hours or so).

[edit] Thats all off my 2am math work   and something tells me I did it wrong 

Pool costs are generally 3 to 10%, with slush's I believe it's the minimum 3% while at bitpenny it is 10%. Slush's pool typically does have a higher variance over short periods of time but does even out over the long term. Personally, I've had my miner running for a week ( my average per block was around 3 days so consider me unlucky. ) and didn't solve any blocks so hence why I pool mine and I certainly remain it to everyone.

Again these are all averages you could be very lucky and solve 10 blocks a day or be very unlucky and solve none for an entire week. You just have to be willing to accept those bad weeks.

[bitjet]

Snedie, did you have to do anything to start all 4 cores in windows, or did it just work? Did you have to swap your monitor cables around or run 2 monitors (i from each card?)?

Its a real bitch to get all my 4 cores started mining, sometimes it takes me an hour of swapping cables around.

Maybe making one of these (VGA dummy plug) can help.

I tried plugging in 3 monitors and that didnt seem to help me. But I did not have it in crozzfire.

[bitjet]

At the moment I have an eyefinity display, but all three screens go into one card. The miners simply worked right off the bat, but my cards are still in crossfire so not sure if this makes a differance? (Is CCC distributing the load? The second card isn't under as much load as the first but all four miners have the same performance of 250Mh/s-275Mh/s).

What drivers are you using? What build of windows?

[snedie]

What drivers are you using? What build of windows?

Thanks,
Josh

OS Name:                   Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
OS Version:                6.1.7600 N/A Build 7600
OS Manufacturer:           Microsoft Corporation
Catalyst™ Version   10.12   
OpenGL Version   6.14.10.10362   
Catalyst™ Control Center Version   2010.0930.2237.38732   

[bitjet]

Im using a newer verison of all the drivers except for the open gl driver. Im going to try to put the crossfire bridge back on my card and enable cross fire and see if I can see all 4 cores. Right now I can only see the 2 cores of the card that my primary monitor is plugged into.

[snedie]

I attempted to use the 11 drivers a couple weeks ago and it led to a windows os that no longer wanted to boot.

[bitjet]

weird.. maybe it just wast activating the specific card you had the plug plugged into?