Best Pool as of August 2012?

[humanage]

What's the best pool right now?

BTC Guild does pay per share, which is very profitable, but they charge a 5% fee. Slush's Pool only charges 2%, but lacks some features. I want to hear what you guys think on the topic. 

[jamesg]

The three pools I use are: (in no particular order)

http://ozco.in
http://bitminter.com
http://maxbtc.com

I would recommend you use these pools because of their fair payout systems (DGM or PPLNS) that cannot be hopped and because they do not have a mandatory fee.

[humanage]

I would recommend you use these pools because of their fair payout systems (DGM or PPLNS) that cannot be hopped and because they do not have a mandatory fee.

So they're better than PPS or Score based?  

Edit: ozco.in seems to have a 5% fee on PPS.

[Clipse]

It all depends on what you want out of the pool.

If you want lots of fancy stats/features and dont mind variance then the pools listed by gigavps is good but if you dont mind the lack of fancy pool features and only interested in zero variance then my 101% PPS Bonuspool ie. no fee, we pay you an extra 1%, offer might be more for you.

[ElectricMucus]

p2pool if you make sure everybody can connect and your node is stable you can easily archive >100% efficiency at all times.

/thread

[Clipse]

p2pool if you make sure everybody can connect and your node is stable you can easily archive >100% efficiency at all times.

/thread

You do know efficiency isnt the same as percentage payout ? p2pool offers pplns and that comes with variance like any other non-pps pool, no way around this unless changing to 0% PPS pool.

[ElectricMucus]

strange I always assumed efficiency is equivalent to payout. What else would it be?

[Clipse]

strange I always assumed efficiency is equivalent to payout. What else would it be?

Efficiency reflects how efficient you handle workload/getworks. So if you have >100% efficiency it means you are submitting more than 1 solved work unit per getwork and in the case of pools offering rollntime this is generally the case since alot of work is generated locally which would keep efficiency over 100% since much less work per submitted work is fetched from the pool.

[ElectricMucus]

and the reason for this not affecting payout would be?

[Clipse]

and the reason for this not affecting payout would be?

Really, did you read what I typed ?

The only benefit to higher efficiency is less strange on a pool since you dont hammer it for work as often. You are still submitting the same amount of work in relation to your hashrate, not 1 more or 1 less thus you dont get paid more simply because you have higher efficiency.

Im surprised you dont know this yet with nearly 2000 posts.

If you still dont understand then I wont be able to explain it to you, its really not that complicated.  

ps. I have just under 1000% efficiency with the latest cgminer on my biggest gpu cluster, do you seriously think I am getting 10x more from my hashing ?

[ElectricMucus]

Alright I understand it now, still you might be wrong.... I'd look it up myself, thanks

[Clipse]

Alright I understand it now, still you might be wrong.... I'd look it up myself, thanks

*facepalm*

No I might not be wrong, I am right.

[jamesg]

I would recommend you use these pools because of their fair payout systems (DGM or PPLNS) that cannot be hopped and because they do not have a mandatory fee.

So they're better than PPS or Score based?  

Edit: ozco.in seems to have a 5% fee on PPS.

I would not recommend using PPS at ozco.in. Their DGM payment system will payout 100% over time.

Also, those fancy graphs are good at helping you understand what kind of return you are making and how the pool is doing with variance and other factors.

[humanage]

What do you guys think of MT.Red?

[Krak]

Really, did you read what I typed ?

The only benefit to higher efficiency is less strange on a pool since you dont hammer it for work as often. You are still submitting the same amount of work in relation to your hashrate, not 1 more or 1 less thus you dont get paid more simply because you have higher efficiency.

Im surprised you dont know this yet with nearly 2000 posts.

If you still dont understand then I wont be able to explain it to you, its really not that complicated.  

ps. I have just under 1000% efficiency with the latest cgminer on my biggest gpu cluster, do you seriously think I am getting 10x more from my hashing ?

He didn't mean the efficiency in cgminer; he meant the efficiency in p2pool.

The efficiency in p2pool shows your amount of dead/orphan shares in comparison to the rest of the pool. If your efficiency is above 100%, you have less than average deads/orphans and vice versa.

[Clipse]

Really, did you read what I typed ?

The only benefit to higher efficiency is less strange on a pool since you dont hammer it for work as often. You are still submitting the same amount of work in relation to your hashrate, not 1 more or 1 less thus you dont get paid more simply because you have higher efficiency.

Im surprised you dont know this yet with nearly 2000 posts.

If you still dont understand then I wont be able to explain it to you, its really not that complicated.  

ps. I have just under 1000% efficiency with the latest cgminer on my biggest gpu cluster, do you seriously think I am getting 10x more from my hashing ?

He didn't mean the efficiency in cgminer; he meant the efficiency in p2pool.

The efficiency in p2pool shows your amount of dead/orphan shares in comparison to the rest of the pool. If your efficiency is above 100%, you have less than average deads/orphans and vice versa.

Still the efficiency >100% doesnt reflect earnings of >100% PPS which he for some reason kept hammering on about.

I still think he was looking at cgminer efficiency since I clearly noted cgminer in my response and he didnt shrug at that to suggest hes looking at a different number within p2pool.

[Krak]

Still the efficiency >100% doesnt reflect earnings of >100% PPS which he for some reason kept hammering on about.

True, it only tells you if you're making more or less than the other people on the pool.

[freshzive]

ozcoin with DGM for the win

[racerguy]

if you're getting 5% more of your shares counted on p2pool you're getting 5% more than someone else with the same hashrate.  What do you think your payout would be in p2pool if your efficiency were below 50% compared to someone with 105%?

[Clipse]

if you're getting 5% more of your shares counted on p2pool you're getting 5% more than someone else with the same hashrate.  What do you think your payout would be in p2pool if your efficiency were below 50% compared to someone with 105%?

*double facepalm*

Sure one guy could earn more than another, it doesnt mean everyone can earn more than 100% of available block BTC, that is whats up for discussion here.

If your efficiency for p2pool displayed 200% efficiency then there must be another user with same hashrate getting 0% efficiency and mining into your wallet.

If everyone could easily get >100% efficiency as electricmucus suggested, where do you think that extra magical BTC comes from within p2pool network ? Surely not from space and time itself.