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Showing 3 of 3 results by freedomworkshop
Post
Topic
Board CPU/GPU Bitcoin mining hardware
Topic OP
Mining Rigs - Specifically (tech talk for noobs)
by
freedomworkshop
on 29/01/2014, 04:17:44 UTC
I was just reading this thread

..and I came across this post:

I'm curious to see some pictures of those mining rigs.  Share your pictures of your rig and then details of build and mhash/sec.  Let's get a frame of reference up here with some visuals.  I will use this first post as a place holder and take a picture of my own rig later today.

I am fortunate enough to have a shop with space for me to setup my mining rigs.  So far I've just gone with the open "bench" setup to save on costs and to make cooling easy.

In the photo you can see the bench with three rigs (a mix of 5870, 5970 and one older 5840) on the floor is the Bitcoin solo server running in -server mode, which also has 2 5870's.  There are a couple of other machines in my office with 5870's elsewhere.  I am at 3.8G/hash and adding about 1/g/hash per week buying up cheap used cards via craigslist.

I am working on building a good Ubuntu Live ATI ISO file today in an attempt to eliminate all of the hard drives by using USB thumb drives, that'll save on electricity as well as hardware costs going forward.

http://www.eskimo.com/~dan/rig.jpg


I don't want to hijack the thread with a million noob questions (and I am a noob - started learning about Bitcoin "yesterday"), but I am very curious about a lot of things. I have thee questions from reading the post above. If anyone can answer them, I'll be very appreciative - as I really love the idea of getting into mining. I know it's a tough business, from what I have read online, but it just sounds so cool, the fact that it's tough doesn't turn me off. I can't get past the cool factor Cheesy

Questions:

1). In a setup such as the one in the picture, can you just keep plugging video cards (or asic cards) into 1 computer? Will that computer overheat or crash or what ever? Or, is all the work done by the "rigs"/"cards", and the completed work pretty much just seamlessly flows through the computer into the laptop? The reason I am asking this, is because I like the idea of simply buying up a heap of video cards and lining them all up, but surely there's a limit? Can anyone give me their 2 cents on this?

2). I am thinking of buying this card. What do I do with it? Do I just plug it into my laptop with USB? Or des it go into expansion ports in a PC? Don't PC's have like just a couple/few of those ports? I can't figure out what it is by looking at the picture. Can I buy a special "box" that is suited to simply plugging a  heap of those cards in? Or can I just hook them all up to a laptop via a heap of usb cables and a hub?

3). If you like (as wih the other thread, above), can you please show a picture of your "rig", but specifically explain all the "meaty" info like:

- How much did it cost?
- How old is it?
- Does it use a lot of power?
- How many Bitcoins does it mine?
- What mistakes did you make? What would you do differently? what do you WISH you had done?

I am really interested discussion relating to all of the above. Basically, I envision my apartment turning into a heap of rigs, shelves and wires - and me being very proud of it, as visitors look at it - almost looking afraid, while I smile and proudly announce: "Cool, huh?". But I need to get my head around what mining rigs are, what cards are, how they work together, how to join them together, how many computers I need, etc.

Note: I have been researching pretty heavily since yestgerday afternoon. I have studied the history. I know that it all started out using CPU's and then people realized that graphics cards are 100 times faster, and then machines were made to do the job in a dedicated fashion (asics) and now there are gigahash rigs and even terrahash rigs etc. I get all that. But I am not clued on on the specific of how all that stuff plugs into computers. So that's what I would like to learn about in tbis thread - as pertaining to how many Bitcoins can be made.

In short, I a just looking for your 2 cents, from what you have learned - in order to provide me with direction. How can your experiences help me? A noob.
Post
Topic
Board Currency exchange
Topic OP
[EXCHANGE] Bitcoins
by
freedomworkshop
on 29/01/2014, 03:48:55 UTC
Hello, I started using Bitcoin yesterday, and I am trying to get a handful of bitcoins so I can learn how to use it. If I send you $10 by PayPal (which I know is a no-no, but I'll risk it), will you give me like 0.005 Bitcoins? ..or something similar? I am just trying to get a handful so I can make transactions between wallets and see how it all works. Alternatively, I can provide you with some web hosting, if you need a website? I will accept Bitcoin as payment: followfolks.com

P.S.I currently don't know how to make transactions, but I have 2 wallets. One called Multibit and one from Blockchain. So, I am yet to figure out how to receive Bitcoin payments (which is why I want to get some Bitcoins, so I can experience it and learn). Any direction on how to receive the Bitcoins would also be appreciated.

P.P.S. Please don't rip me off. I am a noob Smiley

P.P.S. I promise I am not a scammer. I'll give you any details you want from me. I just want to get a handful of Bitcoins to practice with.
Post
Topic
Board Mining speculation
Topic OP
Who cares about the exchange vs electricity? Really?
by
freedomworkshop
on 29/01/2014, 03:42:32 UTC
I have had a sleep (since my first day of learning about Bitcoin - yesterday), and I don't know when I came to this conclusion exactly (it's in my head, nonetheless), but -- does it really matter what the current Bitcoin exchange is worth? I mean, I know it has gone from being worth like $50, right up to $800 odd, and next week it could be worth $50 again. Yet I see people (around, online), saying: "Oh it's not worth mining this week, it costs xxx in electricity, so I am not mining"..

..I sit back in my seat and think to myself: "so what?" ..hello? ..the electricity cost is going to be the same whether the current rate is $50 or $800 - at the end of the day, you're mining for Bitcoins and those Bitcoins might have been generated at a loss, but next week might be worth 10 times what they were worth when you mined them. The opposite is true. You might mine Bitcoins while they're $800, and think you're making a great profit (and covering your electricity costs). You go to bed and wake up to find that they're all worth $50.

So, the way I see it, I think I am going to go ahead and buy some mining power, and just disregard the current exchange rate (and any electricity bills; I'll just suck them up), and just start pumping by wallet with Bitcoins. In 5 years I am either going to be the owner of a heap of dead Bitcoins, or the $500 I invested will be worth $25,000 -- and what the electricity rate was at the time I generated them is going to be the least of my concerns.

Am I right?

..or am I right?