Are the small usb miners worth it?

[kirkyeehee]

I'll start off by saying that I am currently using my gaming rig as a miner and that gets me around 560 kh/s (R9 280x in my current card) and I was wondering if the little usb mining dongles I see on ebay are worth it?

Code:

http://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=usb+bitcoin+miner&_sop=12

Like these for example.

If I am guessing this right (which is all it is, a guess as I've been in this mining stuff for 2-3 days now) 2 of those dongles (depending on what ones I got) would give me around the same khash rate that my card is currently giving me, but with a lot less power being used. In particular I was looking at this one:

Code:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/1-ASICMiner-Block-Erupter-USB-Bitcoin-ASIC-miner-330Mh-s-In-Hand-Ready-To-Ship-/201062264962?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ed03eb082

With the bitcoin pool I am in right now, I get around 0.00219831 BTC per day (not quite a day because I used my PC for it's actual purpose of gaming for a few hours yesterday) but with a lot of wear and tear on my GPU, which, in reality I would much rather use for gaming. I did put around $1400 into this rig after all lol.

So long question short (to late for that?) is it worth getting a few of those smaller usb dongles to save wear and tear on my GPU?

Also, anyone curious as to the pool I'm currently with, it can be found here on these forums.

Code:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=448649.0

Many of you likely already know of the pool.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I look forward to your responses.

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[roslinpl]

From my informations I can say - if you want to mine bitcoins - USB erupters are not really good choice right now

Sure - you can buy hundreds of them ... but to get your money back you will need to wait ... perhaps forever

DO not invest your money into USB erupters if you want to mine bitcoins.
This is really senseless.

[rammy2k2]

they never did, they are for fun only

[dream22]

Are you looking to mine BTC or LTC?

[Sector7G]

I am new at this.  I am using a USB miner.  I'm using it sort of like training wheels on a bike.  It's a good way to learn without a big investment.  I have received two payouts from Slush Pool.  I am experimenting with wallets from Multibit and Bitcoin QT.  Now that I have gained a little confidence in the process, I am thinking of buying an Antminer S1. 

[roslinpl]

Are you looking to mine BTC or LTC?

Perhaps BTC if did posted it here at Bitcoin Forum > Bitcoin > Mining > Hardware

[roslinpl]

I am new at this.  I am using a USB miner.  I'm using it sort of like training wheels on a bike.  It's a good way to learn without a big investment.  I have received two payouts from Slush Pool.  I am experimenting with wallets from Multibit and Bitcoin QT.  Now that I have gained a little confidence in the process, I am thinking of buying an Antminer S1. 

Antminer S1 , Gridseed    - perhaps good choices in "fair" price (for now).

I would choose Gridseed because of it's specifications.

[kirkyeehee]

Are you looking to mine BTC or LTC?

Bitcoins, but the pool I'm in mines other coins and then converts them to bitcoins, (check out the first post where I linked to the pool for more details) giving more coins overall. With the first pool I was in (slush's pool) I got 0.00004119 BTC for 24 hours of mining. With the new pool I'm in, I've mined roughly 21 hours so far and I'm expected to get: 0.00235442 BTC because you mine other coins, that automatically get converted to bitcoins. So for what my graphics card is giving me per day, I could get roughly the same from 2 of the usb devices with a lot less power used. As it goes now I'm not going to be able to mine from this card for to long anyway because this PC will have to last me a good long while. This is another reason I was looking into another method of mining.

[miroman86]

Its a good hobby, but say goodbye to earning BTC with USB miners... I only do it for fun, and I think most people here use their USB miners on a Raspberry Pi to solo mine and hopefully win the 25BTC jackpot...

fun to setup, but know in advance that you wont ROI on these...

[MiningSensei]

Only place you will get ROI is in altcoins.

[kirkyeehee]

I decided to take a risk, dump the whole bitcoin market as it's not easy to get anything anymore, and I'm gonna go with a different coin. Just not sure yet, currently mining memory coin, but interested in Doge coin as well.

Thanks for your input just the same everyone. I may still look into one of these usb miners as a hobby at some point. You know, just for the hell of it lol.

[Operatr]

USB miners have the worst $/hash ratio of any miner. Even with the best $/hash and watt/hash mining is still a margins game.

These little miners are more meant for people wanting to try it out without a huge investment, and profitability takes a back seat to fun playing with a new technology. For some, they are a gateway miner before stepping into something larger.

You might look at Dualminer USB sticks, which are dual Bitcoin/Litecoin miners. They have another version out that is Litecoin mining only that cost about half as much.

"just for the hell of it" would be the proper attitude if buying a USB miner  

[thirdprize]

FWIW, I just got an AntMiner U2.  I have my computer on all day for work so that is the power covered.  A USB miner saves me burning out the motherboard/on-board graphics cards, which aren't that good for mining anyway.  £30 investment is probably cheaper than playing the stock market.  Probably going to buy some Litecoins and Dogecoins just to be on the safe side.

[Borntostun]

As a hobby . . . yes.  As an investment, likely not. 

[roslinpl]

As a hobby . . . yes.  As an investment, likely not. 

Indeed But in the price of 1$ you can probably make a profit from those

[MiningSensei]

As a hobby . . . yes.  As an investment, likely not. 

It is a pretty sweet hobby   Like many have said it is only potentially profitable if you beleive that a price rise is in the works.

[thirdprize]

I have had my USB Antminer U2 up and running for a few days now.  It is running at 2Gh/s during work hours on my laptop.  Documentation says it goes up to 4Gh/s but i might try 2.5 at some point.  I calculate that in 6 months I will get 0.01 Btc from the pool I'm with.  It isn't much but I'm not out to retire on my profits.  It is just for fun. 

If your graphics card is only giving you hundreds of Mh/s then this would be much quicker and probably use less energy.  And they are a darn sight cheaper than a new graphics card.  Only downside is you need a custom version of CGminer to use the thing.

[robinjoo1]

hey i have an usb erupter asic miner running at more that 334 MH/z

[roslinpl]

I will show you what you can do with usb erupters


:-)

[Meman]

I will show you what you can do with usb erupters

Gangsta