Cryptocoin Mining?

[ViviTheMage]

I am tempted to build a rig to run 2 6990's ... hrmmm. before the difficulty gets too hard.

 

[Aikouka]

The single reason I'm not considering TradeHill is because of how they gained my email address to mail be twice.

I don't think it was TradeHill that sent those two e-mails but a random user since it had a referral code in the TradeHill URL. The person most likely got the database and simply sent out e-mails to each person in it.

Or maybe the TradeHill user is actually the hacker and is using it to gain all those referrals :hmm:!

 

[Chiropteran]

I haven't read of one person actually buying bitcoins though. Every computer nerd and their cousin is mining for bitcoins and I would guess maybe a few investors or whoever actually buying them.

Yes you have. Every time you hear about someone selling bitcoins, someone else is buying. It's just more interesting to write it as "hey I traded some silly electronic currency and got real US cash!" rather than "I traded $50 to get some electronic currency". Nonetheless, every time you hear about someone selling bitcoins there is somebody else on the other side of the transaction buying.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

ok now im contemplating just buying dual 6950s and sticking it into my old Opteron Rig.

So then it becomes a question of how long it will take to offset the costs of 6950s....

edit: fml old rig doesn't have 4x pcie connectors and probably cant support dual 6950s... ok fine. single 6950 it is then

 

[Aikouka]

edit: fml old rig doesn't have 4x pcie connectors and probably cant support dual 6950s... ok fine. single 6950 it is then

A 6950 is about $200... do you think you'll be able to recuperate that much money if the price doesn't bounce back? It'll probably only give you between 270-300 MHashes extra.

 

[ViviTheMage]

A 6950 is about $200... do you think you'll be able to recuperate that much money if the price doesn't bounce back? It'll probably only give you between 270-300 MHashes extra.

What is the best video card to get 2-4 of, and get the best MHashes?

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

A 6950 is about $200... do you think you'll be able to recuperate that much money if the price doesn't bounce back? It'll probably only give you between 270-300 MHashes extra.

Even so he'd get a fantastic GPU and possibly pay for most if not all of it. Running 24/7 can get some decent returns.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

What is the best video card to get 2-4 of, and get the best MHashes?

I hear the 5970 is the most efficient card to get the best returns.

 

[ViviTheMage]

What mobo can handle 4 of em? haha

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

What mobo can handle 4 of em? haha

Prob one of the Classified EVGA boards.

 

[Aikouka]

I hear the 5970 is the most efficient card to get the best returns.

The 5970 would be the best on a pure standpoint of a single card providing the most MHashes, but I'd guess that it would take way too long to pay back... especially with the market being so volatile right now. A single 5970 is around $700. My 5870 produces about 370 MHashes, so you'd get a bit over 700 with a single 5970.

The problem is that a 5830 could do about 300 MHashes when overclocked and it costs significantly less money (~$110 a piece). So spending about half as much as the 5970 (3 x $110) provides even more hashes/second.

In regard to power use... you'd need a very hefty PSU to power four of them at once. Anandtech's 5970 review shows a total system pulling 529W up from 167W at idle. ~350W extra x 4? That's 1400W ignoring any other system component.

 

[ViviTheMage]

So what about 4 5850's?

 

[Dark Shroud]

What mobo can handle 4 of em? haha

There are a few AMD boards that can handle a few cards.

This is the one I'm looking at getting: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131736

This is also a popular one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130274

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

The 5970 would be the best on a pure standpoint of a single card providing the most MHashes, but I'd guess that it would take way too long to pay back... especially with the market being so volatile right now. A single 5970 is around $700. My 5870 produces about 370 MHashes, so you'd get a bit over 700 with a single 5970.

The problem is that a 5830 could do about 300 MHashes when overclocked and it costs significantly less money (~$110 a piece). So spending about half as much as the 5970 (3 x $110) provides even more hashes/second.

In regard to power use... you'd need a very hefty PSU to power four of them at once. Anandtech's 5970 review shows a total system pulling 529W up from 167W at idle. ~350W extra x 4? That's 1400W ignoring any other system component.

Yea and you'd be getting like 700x4 Mhashes more, and even more if you overclock. 2800 Mhashes is blazing fast. You get the advantages of needing only one motherboard, powersupply, case, and cpu. Per unit of space it is very efficient. 2800 mhashes a box is crazy. It is very expensive to do it this way.

My 5850 makes 260 Mhashes and I make about .3 BTC a day so 2700/260=10.38x.3 = 3.11 BTC a day. Thats some serious power.

 

[SlowSpyder]

What mobo can handle 4 of em? haha

My current MSI K9A2 Platinum can... it can do 16xPCIE x 2 or 8xPCIE x 4. Of course, the down side is you'd be using an Athlon or PhenomII on the AM2+ platform with DDR2.

But if you can find a cheap one on Ebay and a 45 or 65 watt CPU, all you need is a stout power supply for a good mining machine.

*edit - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130136

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

My current MSI K9A2 Platinum can... it can do 16xPCIE x 2 or 8xPCIE x 4. Of course, the down side is you'd be using an Athlon or PhenomII on the AM2+ platform with DDR2.

But if you can find a cheap one on Ebay and a 45 or 65 watt CPU, all you need is a stout power supply for a good mining machine.

*edit - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130136

I think BTC mining isn't very CPU dependant so you don't need much in the way of CPU power.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I think BTC mining isn't very CPU dependant so you don't need much in the way of CPU power.

Right. And I see one of these for sale pretty cheap out there now. Find a used 45 or 65 watt CPU (or underclock I guess) to keep your cards fed and put whatever four cards you want on this board.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Right. And I see one of these for sale pretty cheap out there now. Find a used 45 or 65 watt CPU (or underclock I guess) to keep your cards fed and put whatever four cards you want on this board.

Good tip.

 

[Madcatatlas]

Did that mobo go out of stock the min you linked it or..?

 

[Zargon]

price is all over the place today

 

[ViviTheMage]

Did that mobo go out of stock the min you linked it or..?

Did for me .. hrmmm, I wonder if hte investment will be worth it.

 

[Aikouka]

Yea and you'd be getting like 700x4 Mhashes more, and even more if you overclock. 2800 Mhashes is blazing fast. You get the advantages of needing only one motherboard, powersupply, case, and cpu. Per unit of space it is very efficient. 2800 mhashes a box is crazy. It is very expensive to do it this way.

My 5850 makes 260 Mhashes and I make about .3 BTC a day so 2700/260=10.38x.3 = 3.11 BTC a day. Thats some serious power.

I'm not doubting how powerful the system is, but I'm trying to avoid suggesting that a 4x5970 is a wise decision. If the price stays at $7 per BTC, it would take 129 days (4 * 700 / (3.11 * 7)) to recoup the money. Raising it back up to ~$15 would still take about two months.

I honestly don't have nearly enough faith in the BTC "market" to ever let me make a decision like that.

You could say that you can attempt to recoup money by selling the 5970, but that's a dangerous game based on how high the price is on that card. $700 will also buy you a current generation equivalent 6990, which is faster in games. Most people buying these will probably be people looking for a cheap gaming card or maybe someone wishing to try their own bitcoin luck, but convincing someone to pay $400-500 for your 5970 to help recoup costs... I think that's a bit of a stretch. That's why the 5830 is so popular... 1/3 of the performance for 1/7 of the price.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Did that mobo go out of stock the min you linked it or..?

The board I was talking about?

No. It's an old board, I got mine back before the PhenomII launched. You can only find them used. I was just pointing them out as a cheap alternative to a $200+ new board with four PCIE slots.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I'm not doubting how powerful the system is, but I'm trying to avoid suggesting that a 4x5970 is a wise decision. If the price stays at $7 per BTC, it would take 129 days (4 * 700 / (3.11 * 7)) to recoup the money. Raising it back up to ~$15 would still take about two months.

I honestly don't have nearly enough faith in the BTC "market" to ever let me make a decision like that.

You could say that you can attempt to recoup money by selling the 5970, but that's a dangerous game based on how high the price is on that card. $700 will also buy you a current generation equivalent 6990, which is faster in games. Most people buying these will probably be people looking for a cheap gaming card or maybe someone wishing to try their own bitcoin luck, but convincing someone to pay $400-500 for your 5970 to help recoup costs... I think that's a bit of a stretch. That's why the 5830 is so popular... 1/3 of the performance for 1/7 of the price.

This is my dilemma too, doesn't make a LOT of sense. I might just stick with using my 4x6950's.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

I'm not doubting how powerful the system is, but I'm trying to avoid suggesting that a 4x5970 is a wise decision. If the price stays at $7 per BTC, it would take 129 days (4 * 700 / (3.11 * 7)) to recoup the money. Raising it back up to ~$15 would still take about two months.

I honestly don't have nearly enough faith in the BTC "market" to ever let me make a decision like that.

You could say that you can attempt to recoup money by selling the 5970, but that's a dangerous game based on how high the price is on that card. $700 will also buy you a current generation equivalent 6990, which is faster in games. Most people buying these will probably be people looking for a cheap gaming card or maybe someone wishing to try their own bitcoin luck, but convincing someone to pay $400-500 for your 5970 to help recoup costs... I think that's a bit of a stretch. That's why the 5830 is so popular... 1/3 of the performance for 1/7 of the price.

I guess I just have more faith in the market.