NewEgg Black Friday - Diamond 5970 for $299 shipped

[btc_artist]

I appreciate the reply.  I'm still pretty new to this, so I'm still learning.  Thanks for the analysis.

[btc_artist]

BTW, does anyone know how long this deal will last?

[DeathAndTaxes]

BTW, does anyone know how long this deal will last?

Probably until they are gone.  There have been other sales in the past. $500, then $400, this is likely the last of the inventory to make room for the 7000 series next year.  I would expect to see some price drops for 6000 series too around the start of the new year but the 5000 series is superior for hashing.

[btc_artist]

BTW, does anyone know how long this deal will last?

Probably until they are gone.  There have been other sales in the past. $500, then $400, this is likely the last of the inventory to make room for the 7000 series next year.  I would expect to see some price drops for 6000 series too around the start of the new year but the 5000 series is superior for hashing.

Thank you sir!

[worldinacoin]

There will always be new cards coming out and old cards being sell cheap, it is very hard to go for every offer.  Extremely tempting though.

[DeathAndTaxes]

There will always be new cards coming out and old cards being sell cheap, it is very hard to go for every offer.  Extremely tempting though.

On a MH/$ basis these are probably cheaper than the yet to be released 7000 series.  On a MH/W basis though the 7000 series will likely require about half the electrical load.

[worldinacoin]

There will always be new cards coming out and old cards being sell cheap, it is very hard to go for every offer.  Extremely tempting though.

On a MH/$ basis these are probably cheaper than the yet to be released 7000 series.  On a MH/W basis though the 7000 series will likely require about half the electrical load.

I am trying very very very hard to resist the temptations, dun tempt me

[P4man]

unless you have free electricity, its still a pretty awful deal compared to the butterfly single board, which is looking more and more legit.

[grubles]

simply put: you can get ~1.4 GH/s with 2 $300 5970s or you could get ~1 GH/s with a (now) $700 BFL miner.


1.4 GH/s for $600


or



1 GH/s for $700




but obviously the 5970s will use more power.

[P4man]

but obviously the 5970s will use more power.

Considering most people have trouble being operationally profitable with GPU mining, thats of course the proverbial sauropoda in the room. Unless have very cheap or free electricity, the choice is between spending $600 and losing more every month or spending $700 and being operationally profitable.

[grubles]

but obviously the 5970s will use more power.

Considering most people have trouble being operationally profitable with GPU mining, thats of course the proverbial sauropoda in the room. Unless have very cheap or free electricity, the choice is between spending $600 and losing more every month or spending $700 and being operationally profitable.

By investing into mining right now, you will be losing $ every month, regardless. Buying into mining right now is betting on the price of bitcoins increasing in the future. If you immediately sell your coins as you mine them you are doing it wrong.

[P4man]

By investing into mining right now, you will be losing $ every month, regardless. Buying into mining right now is betting on the price of bitcoins increasing in the future. If you immediately sell your coins as you mine them you are doing it wrong.

No, If you mine at a loss hoping bitcoin prices will increase then you are doing it wrong. The sensible approach is to buy bitcoins with dollars rather than with more dollars in electricity and hardware.

[btc_artist]

By investing into mining right now, you will be losing $ every month, regardless. Buying into mining right now is betting on the price of bitcoins increasing in the future. If you immediately sell your coins as you mine them you are doing it wrong.

No, If you mine at a loss hoping bitcoin prices will increase then you are doing it wrong. The sensible approach is to buy bitcoins with dollars rather than with more dollars in electricity and hardware.

Don't leave the hardware out of the equation.  If you mine you also have the (used) GPUs that you could sell or utilize for something else.

So if you buy a GPU for $300 and make the $300 back in a year or so, you still have the GPU, as opposed to just buying $300 worth of bitcoins now.

[P4man]

Don't leave the hardware out of the equation.  If you mine you also have the (used) GPUs that you could sell or utilize for something else.

Its the other way around. If you take hardware depreciation in to account its even worse. If you mine at a loss because of electricity costs alone, it means you are buying bitcoins above market rate, you are just paying the utility company instead of the exchange. Why would you do that when you can buy them at market rate?

[btc_artist]

If the market rate for bitcoins is X, and the (higher) rate per mined bitcoin is Y, and the value of the used GPUs on the market is Z, then the difference between X and Y needs to be more than Z or you should be mining.  Or am I missing something?

[btc_artist]

My numbers very well might be off, but this is what I'm trying to say:

200BTC * $2.50 (market price) = $500 for 200BTC
200BTC * $4.00 (mined price) - $500 sale of used hardware a year later = $300 for 200BTC

Is that way off?

[P4man]

My numbers very well might be off, but this is what I'm trying to say:

200BTC * $2.50 (market price) = $500 for 200BTC
200BTC * $4.00 (mined price) - $500 sale of used hardware a year later = $300 for 200BTC

Is that way off?

Not had your coffee yet?
You are paying $800 for 200BTC instead of $500. That you can sell the card is irrelevant. You can obviously sell it if you are not mining too. And if you dont have one, you are forgetting the purchase price. So this is closer to reality:

200BTC * $2.50 (market price) = $500 for 200BTC
200BTC * $4.00 (mined price) = $800 in electricity +$1000 in hardware - $500 sale of used hardware a year later = $1300 for 200BTC

You know, Ill sell you BTCs at half that cost!

[DeathAndTaxes]

My numbers very well might be off, but this is what I'm trying to say:

200BTC * $2.50 (market price) = $500 for 200BTC
200BTC * $4.00 (mined price) - $500 sale of used hardware a year later = $300 for 200BTC

Is that way off?

Well there is no way you are going to sell a $300 GPU for $500 12 months from now.  

Figure the max lifespan of a GPU is 3 years.  Thus it depreciates about 7.5% per month.  In a year you might get $130 for this GPU.  Personally I am in it for the long haul so I just look at 3 year lifespan so $300/36 = $8.33 per month.  This card costs you about $8.33 per month in hardware costs.  It consumes about 250W (if optimized) so @ $0.10 per kwh that is $18.00 per month.  

Thus lifecycle cost of this card works out to about $18.00 + 8.33 = $26.33 per month.   At current difficulty this card can mint about 20 BTC per month so that is ~ $1.30 per BTC. 

Of course you need to consider all the hardware not just the GPU if you are building a new rig but you can use the same kind of math (take total hashing power, total ammortized hardware cost per month, and total electrical consumption).

[OgNasty]

Just thought I'd throw this out there... It costs me just over $1.50 to mine a bitcoin and if I were only to mine "off peak" it would cost under a $1.

[btc_artist]

Thanks for pointing out the problems in my logic.