Profitability

[keybaud]

I've done some sums to see what the profitability is of mining BTC and I'll post my results below.

My overclocked 5870 is working at 344 MH/s. it can go faster, but it gets too hot and the fan makes too much noise, so I dropped the speed down a notch (reducing the clock speed did not make a noticeable impact on the power use).

Using http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator.php, 344 MH/s equates to an average time of 11 days, 21 hours, 35 minutes to mine 50 BTC. This means that my PC will mine 128 BTC a month, on average.

The current value of a BTC is approx $0.70 and the exchange rate is approx $1.60 to £1.00, so I am generating approx £56 per month.

The electric cost is 8 pence per kWh, as the expensive rate for the first x kWh is already being met by normal usage in the house, and the PC uses 300W in BTC mining mode with the monitor turned off. This means that the PC will cost £18 a month to run. In the long term I may try and build a more energy efficient mining rig, as my current PC has 2 sound cards, 3 HDDs and a quad core CPU.

I am making just over £38 a month as profit. This will obviously change as the BTC difficulty and market value fluctuate, but it may be of interest to some people.

It is worth noting that when I was mining with my HD 4870 I was actually losing £1.00 a month....

[Alexium]

My overclocked 5870 is working at 344 MH/s

What core frequency is that?

[frankiebits]

Man I just bought a 5870 Vapor X OC , I hope I can more than that out of it.
My 1st Gen 5830 with locked voltage gets 280 , I was going to sell the 5830 , but now I think I may keep both.

[Alexium]

I was going to sell the 5830 , but now I think I may keep both.

I would advise to consider selling your 5830 and getting used 5850, 5850 should break 300M easily with OC

[frankiebits]

I was going to sell the 5830 , but now I think I may keep both.

I would advise to consider selling your 5830 and getting used 5850, 5850 should break 300M easily with OC

Already bought the 5870 , got a good price though.

[Alexium]

Already bought the 5870 , got a good price though.

I meant swapping 5830 for 5850 instead of keeping it along with 5870.

[cdb000]

If difficulty continues to rise at the current rate, mining with a 5870 will become uneconomical in about 6 or 8 weeks (at the price I pay for electricity) at which time I guess my cluster will be dismantled and there will be some cards on eBay. I have been wondering whether it is worth selling some 5870s before the breakeven point as a hedge against the possibility that a lot of used 5870s will turn up on eBay at about the same time.

A rough estimate today suggests that each 5870 is likely to make another £30 or so after paying for electricity before that point in time. Obviously, this depends on difficulty increase, the value of BTC, the cost of electricity.

I cannot complain -- since I starting mining Bitcoin, I have mined enough BTC to pay for my mining hardware and make a moderate profit, but it will be a shame to no longer have, as my wife describes it, "a machine in the attic that sits there making money"

[keybaud]

My overclocked 5870 is working at 344 MH/s

What core frequency is that?

925 MHz. I've had it up to 950 and it will probably go higher, but I prefer it quieter. I have a XFX card with a modified ASUS BIOS that puts the voltage up. I haven't been able to unlock the voltage settings for use with MSI Afterburner, but the BIOS settings do overwrite the default voltages.

[rezin777]

My overclocked 5870 is working at 344 MH/s

What core frequency is that?

925 MHz. I've had it up to 950 and it will probably go higher, but I prefer it quieter. I have a XFX card with a modified ASUS BIOS that puts the voltage up. I haven't been able to unlock the voltage settings for use with MSI Afterburner, but the BIOS settings do overwrite the default voltages.

Could you be more specific with the model of your card? I'm assuming that it's a reference board and you've loaded an unlocked BIOS on to it. In which case with the correct settings, Afterburner should be able to change the voltage.

[mjsbuddha]

If difficulty continues to rise at the current rate, mining with a 5870 will become uneconomical in about 6 or 8 weeks (at the price I pay for electricity) at which time I guess my cluster will be dismantled and there will be some cards on eBay. I have been wondering whether it is worth selling some 5870s before the breakeven point as a hedge against the possibility that a lot of used 5870s will turn up on eBay at about the same time.

as the difficulty rises you will get fewer bitcoins but they will be worth more because everyone else will be getting fewer as well. as they become harder to get the price will go up. as long as your machine keeps chugging along at its current hash rate you should be profitable.

[grue]

If difficulty continues to rise at the current rate, mining with a 5870 will become uneconomical in about 6 or 8 weeks (at the price I pay for electricity) at which time I guess my cluster will be dismantled and there will be some cards on eBay. I have been wondering whether it is worth selling some 5870s before the breakeven point as a hedge against the possibility that a lot of used 5870s will turn up on eBay at about the same time.

A rough estimate today suggests that each 5870 is likely to make another £30 or so after paying for electricity before that point in time. Obviously, this depends on difficulty increase, the value of BTC, the cost of electricity.

I cannot complain -- since I starting mining Bitcoin, I have mined enough BTC to pay for my mining hardware and make a moderate profit, but it will be a shame to no longer have, as my wife describes it, "a machine in the attic that sits there making money"

you should sell it on bidding pond, or at this forum, so you won't get any fees