First Mining Machine - A newbie - Your Help (:

[benyben]

Sorry - I am sure this is annoying as U prob. get someone asking all the time.

I want to get into mining.

I have the money available to buy a system to do so.

Only thing is, I am the lazy type when it comes to research and so on (:

May I bluntly ask, considering a system with the HD 6990 [is this the fastest one one can get?], running full speed non-stop, and after taking into consideration the electric bill [how much is it? more than a 1K a month?], what is the "profit" created by such mining?

Please don't kill me for asking 


Will appreciate your response

And thank you!

[Jaime Frontero]

the 58xx series still reigns - if not precisely supreme.  nevertheless, it's the best bang for the buck, if you can find them.

linux is the best operating system - although windows has some overclocking utilities that are better.  i use linux, and prefer GPUs of the Sapphire brand - they come with a *much* better over/under-clockable range, using the linux tool: AMDOverdriveCtrl.

your electric bill estimation appears to have a misplaced decimal.  a thousand-watt system (GPU + CPU + fans + HDD, with no CD/DvD drive [what for?], speakers, etc) might cost two or three bucks a day...  tops, in the US.

read this forum until your eyes cross.  it's all here...

[benyben]

Appreciate your response!!!!

[atomicsewer]

Check out some of the Youtube videos that casascius recently created.  He goes pretty in-depth into what it would take.  I'm sure he wouldn't even mind telling you the exact hardware he uses (if he hasn't posted on here already).  I believe he also offers a cloned drive that you can purchase which can get you that much further faster.

[benyben]

Wow thanks! I don't even know what cloned drives mean - but I will look into that!!!

[atomicsewer]

benyben, a cloned drive is simply a hard drive that has been cloned/mirrored from another drive (as its source).  casascius has his mining rig set up, and sells drives that are perfect mirrors of his setup.  So if you got a drive like that from him, it'd be a plug and play type of thing, assuming some hardware matches.

There are quite a few users with impressive rigs on the site.  They would all have tokens of wisdom to smooth any bumps on your mining path.

[Jaime Frontero]

Wow thanks! I don't even know what cloned drives mean - but I will look into that!!!

cloned drives are like burning a .iso image onto a USB drive to install an operating system - except they come completely configured with the suite of programs one needs to do the task at hand - in this case, mining.

[benyben]

I should have figured that this is the meaning of a cloned drive! Of course!

I am dead-scared about going into mining, but I am better off buying a rig, as it is still usable even if the US GOV decides to shut this thing down (:
At least I will have a sick gaming rig  

I'm actually a broke student, with bills to pay - but I BELIEVE IN THIS SO MUCH, that my body is BOILING with excitement!

[Jaime Frontero]

I should have figured that this is the meaning of a cloned drive! Of course!

I am dead-scared about going into mining, but I am better off buying a rig, as it is still usable even if the US GOV decides to shut this thing down (:
At least I will have a sick gaming rig  

I'm actually a broke student, with bills to pay - but I BELIEVE IN THIS SO MUCH, that my body is BOILING with excitement!

you are officially... a miner.

[benyben]

(:

So it's the 5970? I am surprised. I thought the 6990 will put it to shame. Weird.

[Nythain]

It ain't playing games, it's doing SCIENCE! well, not really, but it's fun to say

[benyben]

U want to hear the funny thing? I sold my 5970 two months ago (I didn't even know what Bitcoins is, let alone mining), thinking - who needs it?!