Computers & Electronics

Building a BITCOIN Mining Rig!

  • Last Updated:
  • May 16th, 2013 2:27 pm
Deal Addict
Nov 20, 2006
1042 posts
314 upvotes
Vancouver
David2144 wrote: I'm not buying this ASIC thing one bit! If they can make that many coins, why would the producers sell them? It sounds too good to be true, and it probably is!

And I'm not a bitcoin millionaire but I could've been! sucks but no one could've predicted what happened.
Suckers are willing to buy them, so why not?

Using them for mining and selling them aren't mutually exclusive. For every ASIC they sell they'll be running a few thousand of them in-house.
Deal Guru
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Feb 6, 2003
10715 posts
1254 upvotes
Vancouver
I can tell you ASICs are real - I've seen them in action personally. I'm skeptical about Butterfly Labs but they are not the only ones selling them. Look at how the difficulty rate has been increasing: http://bitcoindifficulty.com/. You think that big jump in late March was from GPU miners? And heck, even with the recent plummet in price, the difficulty is set to rise and will continue to IMO unless it takes another serious hit.

Now let's go back to your plan. A minimal rig with a pair of 7970's will run you about $1100. You'll make about $7 a day at the current exchange rate and difficulty level so it will take 5 months to pay off (or up to 7~8 months if you pay for electricity). You're basically betting that the exchange rate will grow proportionally (or greater) with difficulty. If you truly believe this, it seems a lot simpler to use that money to buy BTC as an investment rather than going through the trouble of spec-ing, purchasing, configuring, and maintaining a mining rig yourself.

I've been mining for 2 years and I broke even on my hardware a long time ago. I wouldn't even dream about starting up today - it's the worst possible timing. Even if you don't pay utilities, it's going to be a grind and you have to live with a hot, noisy machine running 24-7. Hell, I've been waiting for the difficulty to rise enough so I would have an excuse to stop mining. It's almost there.

tl;dnr: It's better to buy bitcoins rather than expensive hardware to mine bitcoins at a slow, continually decreasing rate.
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Deal Addict
Mar 5, 2011
1061 posts
109 upvotes
David2144 wrote: I'm not buying this ASIC thing one bit! If they can make that many coins, why would the producers sell them? It sounds too good to be true, and it probably is!

And I'm not a bitcoin millionaire but I could've been! sucks but no one could've predicted what happened.
I think that is fair. BFL is selling them but hasen't shipped any in over a year. It's a scam. Avalon has shipped but only small batches, and was only created as a compeditor for BFL (underdog won the race though) and all others are not selling, but rather selling shares to mine privately.
Deal Expert
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Oct 26, 2003
39293 posts
6324 upvotes
Winnipeg
Amourek wrote: I can tell you ASICs are real - I've seen them in action personally. I'm skeptical about Butterfly Labs but they are not the only ones selling them. Look at how the difficulty rate has been increasing: http://bitcoindifficulty.com/. You think that big jump in late March was from GPU miners? And heck, even with the recent plummet in price, the difficulty is set to rise and will continue to IMO unless it takes another serious hit.

Now let's go back to your plan. A minimal rig with a pair of 7970's will run you about $1100. You'll make about $7 a day at the current exchange rate and difficulty level so it will take 5 months to pay off (or up to 7~8 months if you pay for electricity). You're basically betting that the exchange rate will grow proportionally (or greater) with difficulty. If you truly believe this, it seems a lot simpler to use that money to buy BTC as an investment rather than going through the trouble of spec-ing, purchasing, configuring, and maintaining a mining rig yourself.

I've been mining for 2 years and I broke even on my hardware a long time ago. I wouldn't even dream about starting up today - it's the worst possible timing. Even if you don't pay utilities, it's going to be a grind and you have to live with a hot, noisy machine running 24-7. Hell, I've been waiting for the difficulty to rise enough so I would have an excuse to stop mining. It's almost there.

tl;dnr: It's better to buy bitcoins rather than expensive hardware to mine bitcoins at a slow, continually decreasing rate.
I've seem a lot of noobs like the op who hears about btc and just wanna get on the gravy train without doing his own reserach, they are doomed to fail.
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Aug 13, 2012
3281 posts
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Toronto
lol 2 bidders kept increasing the price even though they were the last to bid
Member
Mar 6, 2010
236 posts
60 upvotes
How about 4 x 7970s? I just want to mine. I wouldn't mind as long as I break even within an year!
Deal Addict
Apr 2, 2006
1004 posts
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Gtown
[QUOTE]How about 4 x 7970s? I just want to mine. I wouldn't mind as long as I break even within an year! [/QUOTE] say 2400 mHash for your 4 7970 at today's difficulty and current exchange rate of $102 US = 490 x 12 = $5880 looks good on paper unfortunately the difficulty will rise and you will not make $5880
Another thing is the amount of heat and the noise. I have 2 &970's running a core temp of 84 C with the memory downclocked and its like a hair dryer at the back of my case .
Deal Expert
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Oct 26, 2003
39293 posts
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Winnipeg
jimsmith wrote: say 2400 mHash for your 4 7970 at today's difficulty and current exchange rate of $102 US = 490 x 12 = $5880 looks good on paper unfortunately the difficulty will rise and you will not make $5880
Another thing is the amount of heat and the noise. I have 2 &970's running a core temp of 84 C with the memory downclocked and its like a hair dryer at the back of my case .
op is too focused on BTC when LTC is the future.
Sr. Member
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Oct 19, 2012
942 posts
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Brampton
Why do some people's cards run so hot? I have 1 7950 and when its maxed out playing battlefield on ultra, it maxes at around 55 C. I have stock case fans too lol.
Deal Addict
Apr 2, 2006
1004 posts
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Gtown
[QUOTE]Why do some people's cards run so hot? I have 1 7950 and when its maxed out playing battlefield on ultra, it maxes at around 55 C. I have stock case fans too lol. [/QUOTE]
overclocking.
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Oct 26, 2003
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one guy melted his video card into the pci-e slot, one of my video card hit the temperature safety limit and shut off, i'm probably end up killing my card eventually, but i profit from coins
Deal Expert
Feb 24, 2007
15169 posts
2742 upvotes
spandexninja wrote: Don't. Mining difficulty is increasing rapidly due to ASICs and building a GPU rig for Bitcoins simply won't be profitable.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

/thread.
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Dec 14, 2006
3385 posts
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Montreal
Mining is still profitable if you dont pay your electricity fees or if theyre low.
I was there at the 32$ price error at dell.ca day AND at the 150$ off price error at fs.ca
RFD price error moto: "Buy now, think later." -Ahzuz
Member
User avatar
Nov 10, 2005
337 posts
21 upvotes
Montreal
You could also consider Feathercoins. It's still early enough that you won't kill your computer. Personally I think to mine Bitcoins or Litecoins at thus point you really need the right hardware/knowhow..
Banned
Jul 26, 2009
4315 posts
663 upvotes
Toronto
Its not profitable mining Bitcoins right now, as there are huge amounts of people mining due to the current bubble burst and the difficulty has passed the 1/2way point.

Mining for 1 day with my 7850 OC'ed 50% only gives me 0.0008BTC.
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Oct 26, 2003
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Winnipeg
^was mining btc last year, this year is ltc
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Feb 1, 2008
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divx wrote: op is too focused on BTC when LTC is the future.
whats LTC? litecoin?

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