Bitcoin - expected hashrate-bitcoin conversion

[Jeff]

I've been doing about 260 MHash/s for about 24 hours now and still have no bitcoins.  Is this normal?  I was expecting to have 1 or 2 by now.

Approximately what can I expect in terms of conversion of hashrate x time into bitcoins?

Thanks,
Jeff

[tomcollins]

I've been doing about 260 MHash/s for about 24 hours now and still have no bitcoins.  Is this normal?  I was expecting to have 1 or 2 by now.

Approximately what can I expect in terms of conversion of hashrate x time into bitcoins?

Thanks,
Jeff

If you are not in a pool, you get 50 or 0.  If you are in a pool, you'd probably have a few by now.

[Pieter Wuille]

You need on average 4295*difficulty Mhash before you generate a block (with a reward of 50 BTC, currently). At 260Mhash/s, that means approximately once a month. You're better off mining in a pool which such a hashrate, where you get much more frequent but smaller payouts.

[[Tycho]]

I've been doing about 260 MHash/s for about 24 hours now and still have no bitcoins.  Is this normal?  I was expecting to have 1 or 2 by now.
Approximately what can I expect in terms of conversion of hashrate x time into bitcoins?

If you are mining solo then you can expect one block of 50 BTC each 4 weeks and 2 days. (But can vary from few seconds to six months, depending on your luck).

[Tukotih]

Close thread?

The answer is: It will take aprox. 1 month with your hashrate to get 50BTC. Use a mining pool.

[Jeff]

Thanks for the responses.  They were all very helpful.

I've got onto a pool - I'm using the poclbm-mod pool (bitcoinpool.com).  Question now is: the poclbm-mod application is showing that I'm doing about 225 - 230 MHash/s, but the bitcoinpool.com website is showing me as only doing 128.85 Mh/s.  Why such a large discrepency?

Also, the recommended/default parameters for poclbm-mod included the /low argument... would this account for why I'm getting 225 Mh/s now, compared to about 265 before with poclbm?

Thanks again,
Jeff

[rcsheets]

You need on average 4295*difficulty Mhash before you generate a block

Can you explain how you arrived at that number? Why is it 4295? Also, by "on average" do you mean the same thing that I mean if I say that when brute forcing a symmetric-key cipher, I will on average find the correct key at halfway through the key space?

[PiGames]

I've been doing about 260 MHash/s for about 24 hours now and still have no bitcoins.  Is this normal?  I was expecting to have 1 or 2 by now.

Approximately what can I expect in terms of conversion of hashrate x time into bitcoins?

Thanks,
Jeff

http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator.php
is a nice little tool if you're considering going it solo.