is there like super beginner instructions for how to even set up mining. I am new to mining at all. Like do I need a special program for it or what? I really don't get how it works. I have a windows 7 OS. I would like to try mining some mints but I need some help. I already watched the video on steak cloud but how do i mine from my computer or something like cpu? I don't think I want to pay to rent mining rigs from some website, because would that even be profitable, since then id have to sell my mints for more btc to rent the machines.
if you join IRC i'm sure someone will gladly help you. It's just too many questions that would flood pages of the forum so it would be easier to join IRC
Just for fun I pointed an antminer s3 averaging 435.37 GH/s at steak cloud. The first payout was from a partial shift and small. My first full shift payout was 10833.39825300 mint. I like to stake mintcoin with the wallet they provide and plan on sending any coins I mine there. I live in Los Angeles and electricity cost is very high. If you calculate the cost for mining mintcoin or any other coin in LA you will find these are the most expensive coins you will ever purchase. It makes much more sense financially to purchase coins of any type rather than spend the same amount on miners. If you don't get electricity free or very cheap forget about profit from mining. You'll never even break even on your miner cost. If you get free power from a dorm room or rental and run miners the landlord will notice the spike in the utility bill and start looking for the culprit. 4 antminers can easily fully load a 20 amp circuit and pop breakers. If you pull the plug when fully loading a circuit with miners you'll be surprised at how hot the metal blades on the plug are. The wires in the wall are that hot too.
That said I love mining. I sold most of my mining hardware but still run a small group of different miners. It's a hobby and people blow money on hobbies all the time. I have a couple of antminers pointing at steak cloud mining different coins for fun. I'm fascinated by mining equipment and crypto coins in general. I run the antminers and 4 different types of scrypt miners. The electricity cost versus return is ridiculously bad but I enjoy tinkering with the hardware and software.
If you want to mine with a cpu, try minergate. They provide the software to download and it's very easy to setup and run. I like to mine bytecoin there. When you cpu mine your cpu will get hot so your computer needs to dissipate heat well. Not generally a good idea on a laptop. Lots of fans are a good idea. I bought a cheap workstation on Ebay and use it to run miner software and stake a few different coins.
I like to to tinker with mining and have to point them somewhere and getting some mintcoin in the process is a bonus. Good luck checking out mining it's a good thing to stake and mine. It supports the coins network and it's a lot of fun to learn about it all. Grow your hoard of coins and don't sell any. Who knows, maybe someday they'll be worth something significant. ;-D