Quote from: dashminer on July 29, 2015, 04:53:36 AM

Thanks for your input.

Yes, Fury seem to be great. I am getting Fury Nano as soon as they are available.

How much are you getting at xpool? It is not on poolpicker, so hard to compare with others:

I know that there are many nicehash miners and nicehash paid 0.00032930 per MHs. You mentioned that you have 6.1 mhs. So you'd get 0.00200873 BTC (0.00032930 x 6.1) for 2015-07-27.
I'm using 2015-07-27, because that's the last published date of nicehash on poolpicker.eu.

Quote from: dashminer on July 26, 2015, 12:40:45 AM

25-07-2015 payout hash is 802ed5aaaf451e7b839b982482c79e5f075e0e23ccd6c799f34a183d2dffdd6e . 0.003644 BTC per 100% (0.26 DASH base + 9% daily bonus at 0.012859505 DASH/BTC exchange rate). $1.05 USD per 100% (288.22 BTC/USD exchange rate).

dashminer.com paid 0.003644 BTC per 100% on that day. With your "strange" settings of "64%" you'd be getting around 0.00233216, which is 16% more than nicehash.

But as I mentioned before, if you are looking for a "cool & quiet" mining, dashminer.com is not what you want.

If you were using full potential of your graphics card (100% of R9 290), then you'd get a 0.003644 BTC payout, which is 81% more than on nicehash with 6.1 mhs.

Something like this...

PS: There is example.bat in dashminer package. What happens if you don't use your .conf file and just run from command line? I would not recommend setting gpu-threads to 4. "1" (default) is a good value for R9 290.

Thanks

With my settings I get about ~0.0025 BTC, after their 2% fee, on Xpool.

It isn't so much that I am looking for "cool & quiet" mining. I am factoring in electricity usage, and hardware life. I don't ever intend to get rid of, or upgrade, any of my hardware, ever. What I intend to do is continue adding to what I already have. Currently I am pushing 6 Mh/s. By the end of the year, (assuming my software release goes about as well as it did last year) I project to be running between 500 Mh/s and 1.5 Gh/s. That will cost me a sizeable chunk of change, and i expect to eventually make it back. But, to do so, I have to find the sweet spot. The sweet spot being, highest payout/hash - energy & maintainence costs.

My advantage, in this area, is my experience with programming and electronics. I know energy efficiency degrades as heat increases. There are four ways to deal with this, all of which have their issues.

The first is to just let 'em rip. The downside being drastically shortened hardware life, and higher energy bill. The income will be high in this scenario, but short lived as the equipment will begin to wear out. Then I have to deal with replacement costs.

The second is what most farms seem to be doing, which is to keep the farm in a temperature regulated environment. This helps with the equipment a lot, but running hot still shortens the life of the systems. The major downside is the cost of cooling when the weather is warm. Otherwise, this isn't such a terrible option, other than high power costs. I am a bit on edge about this option because I have seen a lot of farms shut down because the power bill make sit unprofitable for them.

The third is to consider adding in an alternative energy source, such as solar power, in additional to the setup in the second scenario. This would obviously put a large dent in the energy expenses. The downside is solar being so expensive to setup in the first place. Something adequate to drive a 1 Gh/s farm would run > $20k, assuming the person did most of the work themself.

The fourth is my idea. Focus on maximum efficiency. Fine tune the systems to gain the highest number of hashes with the greatest energy efficiency.

In the end, coin mining is all about sustainable-profitability. Based on my projections, the fourth is the best way to go. It does require the most effort, but also the smallest expense. The effort primarily being in doing all the calculations, and making sure nothing is left out of the equation. When I say nothing left out, I mean buying the fastest equipment, with the best on card cooling, platinum grade power supplies, low power CPUs to match the motherboards, energy efficient system RAM, and system storage drives, power regulation and battery backups, environmental controls such as air filtering and A/C, and alternative energy sources (such as solar, etc.)

I suppose for having only been into coin mining for going on 6 days now...maybe I have put an excessive amount of thought into it. But that's how I roll! Basically, I am testing the concept to see if it can be made sustainable. If not, then my unused gpu power will just help offset my electric bill (since my main computer is on 24/7 anyway).

Also, since you asked, i ran the dashminer with minimal options (intensity a @ 22, gpu-threads @ 1, no other options set). It has been running for 9 minutes, and it is running at 95% @ 72C and drawing an avg of 199W of power. This is what most people don't catch. I have left it running now for 15 mins. The rate has stayed at 95%. The temp has creeped up to 73C, and the avg power usage is now 201.8W. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the vrm1 temp was up to 92C. The projected rate was 0.244 DASH/day. And the fan speed was 100%.

For contrast, I am back to my previous settings. The projected rate is 0.166 DASH/day. The hash rate is hovering right at 64%. The temp is 60C The fan speed is 85%. The power usage is avg 121.0W. And very importantly....the vrm1 temp is only 63C,

Based on the numbers you posted

Quote from: dashminer on July 26, 2015, 12:40:45 AM

25-07-2015 ... 0.003644 BTC per 100% (0.26 DASH base + 9% daily bonus at 0.012859505 DASH/BTC exchange rate). $1.05 USD per 100% (288.22 BTC/USD exchange rate).

running with the recommended settings, I would make ($1.05 * 95%) $0.99. Now I factor in the power usage expense. The baseline usage for normal activity is about 12W. So, we subtract that from the avg and get 188.8W. That give me 4.5312kW for 1 day. That makes my power expense $0.46/day. So, my net gain is $0.53/day running the recommended settings.

If I run with my settings-- ($1.05 * 64%) $0.67. Power usage is 108W, or 2.592kW/day. Power expense is $0.26. Net profit is $0.41/day.

Seems like a clear winner, right? Well, I didn't factor in the expense of climate control, and running A/C or central air is expensive, especially when it is >90F outside and humid. Plus, this is also using the presumption that the computer is already on for other things (which it is). If I was running the system for the sole purpose of mining, then I have to factor in the entire system power usage. Instead of it being 188.8W vs 108W, it would be more like 700W vs 500W, because every part of the system would factor into it, and be affected by the heat.

And then we still haven't considered longevity. Assuming we manage to maintain profitability over the long term, then we have to deal with equipment maintenance. At a rate of $0.53/day it will take me 567 days (1.6 years) to pay a gpu if I have to replace it. So, the hardware must survive longer than 1.6 years (assuming profitability does not decrease) for this to be profitable. Heat degrades electronic equipment, so over time, the hotter I run it, the slower my hash rate will be. Granted, running slower, it will take me 732 days (2.1 years) to pay for the equipment. But, running at the lower temperature, the hash rate will not degrade as much, and I won't have to be concerned about hardware failure, pretty much indefinitely. Basically, running hot, I will eventually destroy the hardware. Running cool, it will continue to perform well long after it is outdated equipment. At which point, I can still sell it in good condition, instead of as junk for parts.

Yeah.....so anyway. It's all about the net profit. Whatever turns out to be the most profitable, that is what I am going to do. And, i am hoping dashminer turns out, at least, be competitive with xpool. I would prefer to have two good places to mine. Better to have a back up than rely on one location entirely.