Topic: Anybody else getting slaughtered by this latest difficulty? (Read 10167 times)

in part of Uk i'm in,electricity rate is about $0.23 (equivalent £0.14 in UK,this has now risen to £0.20 now).Solar panels are cheap where I am but deep cycle batteries are pricey plus inverter and charge regulator.

A solar system typically has solar panels,deep cycle battery,charge regulator and of course and inverter (not needed if running off 12V.Runnng a MBP from airline/car adaptor means you run from 12V and can skip on the inverter)

Also a MBP uses no more than 85W at a time from mains when under full load and charging the battery at the same time. When my MBP is only charging the battery but idling,it uses 66W for fast charging (in 2hrs)

When battery is full,but GPU is under load my MBP uses 50-55W (60W if monitor is on as well) whereas CPU uses more power and gives less performance than GPU mining with it. I got these watt figures by using a watt meter.Also running from mains adaptor and through an invertor means losing some of the energy to conversion so it's best to just run a MBP (MacBook Pro) with it's airline/car adaptor I think as its straight from 12V supply.

In response to the poster who asked me to double check my grammar and spell check it,well can you please be more constructive and show me where the spell check tool is on this forum, and I will take your tip more positively in the future,thank you.Problem is I'm always busy with everything else,I type fast and I have wireless keyboard, so sometimes, certain keys won't fire if you can understand what I mean (say If I type this sentee and the c key doesn't fire sometimes or it gets jumbled up between reciever and keyboard,it happens sometimes,like this 'im tstng my keybrd' this shows that several keys are not 'firing' when they should be sometimes. or 'hte','teh') I guess this forum requires a higher standard of spelling and grammar whereas all other sites I go to don't care as long as I'm vaguely understandable,that's all and I've also come to expect this to be universal (of course this isn't the case).I'm stuck with current Keyboard until next upgrade cycle in 2014.(each upgrade cycle is 4 to 6 years due to budget cuts and is generally more cost effective for me than it is to maintain an aging system).Thank you for your understanding about the issues.

On a lighter note however,My new PC case has arrived and all neccessary parts will be upgraded when it all arrives like Case,new fans (as cases supplied ones are crap for cooling as its the Coolermaster Silencio 550 case as i expect quiet and cool computing for good price) and Radeon HD 6950 (old stock on sale that may have unlocking feature for it's shaders).

You sir, are most undoubtedly retarded due your utterance of that statement. That is all

If you were to power your laptop alone with solar power, you are going to need about 150W of solar panels. This will adequately charge the battery while the sun is putting out it's ideal power and cover efficiency loss. The panels plus their charge controllers alone will run you hundreds. (eBay is borked right now so I'll add better price estimate later) You need a deep cycle battery of decent size for this. Do NOT get a car or starter battery. You will ruin those in a short amount of time. Amp hours are your friend here and cranking amps aren't needed for this. The battery + inverter will be another $100. I got a 400W inverter off Newegg on a sale for $20. Expect $10 per 100W normally though. Pure sine wave is an added cost, but you don't need it for what you are doing.

Making your own power is cool and all, but you have to realize that when it comes to solar panels, there is no such thing as low cost. If you are trying to save money, look somewhere else. You will end up paying more for these parts to produce the electricity than you will in electricity from the utility. I pay $2.00 a day for my rigs, but am making $15 a day. My electricity rate is $0.101 per kwh. What's your's?

Also, please, use proper grammar and spell check when writing large blocks of text. People will be kinder.

Ok guys,can u plz take it easy on the replies cus I'm trying to say that once hte upgrade is complete I won't be in that mess ny more now ok.I come here to ask for suggestions and share my experiences on mining.

I'm still hearing nothing about the best low cost design for a solar generator for the laptop which will be used for something else that I can build easily and cheaply (other than mining ok).I'd like to change the direction of the conversation now as I feel the reponses are getting a little far now esp hte phone idea plus the suggsetions that I'm desparate are not helping me.I'm doing this mainly as a series of experiments.

Radeon HD6950 GPU can get me 390-450 max MHash/s from wot i heard from a friend of mine on the PC.I only add extra comps to boost my overall MHash/s to see how many work PC/Mac comps I can get away with mining with (u can't get fired for mining as long as u don't mess up their systems)

Posters plz understand this.The whole laptop and Pc mining thing is an 'interm solution' until the upgrade is successfully complete as im waiting 4 my GPU 2 get here,NOT a permanent solution as this is unviable for the long term.I know this fully and I am reasonably competent with computers (In fact i spent a decade working with them,studying them,creating art on them,making films on them,experimenting with them,upgrading them,heck even done basic programming on them,I have reasonable experience on multi-platform setups PC/Mac/Linux as I work on them in my day to day for film making,writing up seminars/reports and mining as well)

I hope this clarifys things 4 u.

0.06 BTC/day is less than electricity.  That may be what he's trying to say.

If you're that desperate, go check ebay for buy it nows.  I got a pair of 5870's for $500.  They're probably even cheaper right about now

I get about 750-850 MH/s pool mining, which at present difficulty is about 0.50 BTC.  So, it's still covering electricity, and maybe a little bit more, but not much.  At 0.06 you might as well use this:

Look muffin,I know that my current approach is ineffective but it serves as an interm temp 'solution' until the PC is upgraded to a Radeon HD 6950 gpu.I can't run 24/7 on mining as this is unfeasible in my area due to overheating issues as well as having to make budget cuts (I'm effectively forced to,so I hav no choice in the matter)

My laptop runs 24/7 cus heat output and energy use is low. If u have ny helpful suggestions for building like a solar generator system to run my laptop,elec will b free for that laptop and thus reduce my costs as there'll be room for a more powerful PC running about 17hrs a day a wk (as this is a gd in between solution for me between mining maximum btc that I can do and still keep power use/heat output under control)

My PC is mainly used for special Ops not mining,however they can include mining,experiments and processing the films I make after editing them on macbook pro (as I need Final Cut Pro 7 tools as required from workplace to use) as well as just working normally as well.The laptop is usually used to backup my main PC so that I always have the edge in my work place in terms of combined processing power from CPU+GPU from both computers linked together working on those huge 1080P HD film files that can reach 100GB+ at a time when it's RAW captured footage ok.

I still want to be allowed flexible mining when I can,so that I can mine while working on my films at the same time with 2 comps combined nythin is possible 4 me.Compared to the guys n filmmakers at my workplace my 2 computers are unstoppable 

Your "approach", for lack of better terms, is stupid. What's the point of having GPU mining systems that are not running 24/7 while electricity is cheaper than the BTC generated? The whole point of having dedicated mining machines is to have maximum up-time, which you are effectively destroying. Also, mining with a Laptop GPU is just as bad as mining with a CPU, since their hashing power is 10x less than a graphics card. So money put into using that to mine is probably being lost due to electricity costs.

Hi guys,
I saw this post and I thought that I should share my experiences as a miner.

In the early days,I did this solo for 3wks b4 realising that the smarter option 4 me is to mine in a pool.
Shortly after I added my laptop in addition to my PC (Has Radeon Hd 4670 GPU will be upgraded soon to radeon HD 6950 GPU) during the day to boost production to 0.06btc per day then.This was achieved by running my PC for 14hrs a day (cant do 24/7 due to overheating issues and high electric rates in my area) alongside my laptop (MBP mid 2010 with Nvidia GT330M GPU) during the day.

This sounds strange as during the day my elec usage combined is only 190W with 2 computers combined (140W total for my desktop and 50W for laptop with GPU at full load but CPU idle) which was much lower than expected.This helps keep elec cots under control and stop those overheating issues as well.

But the difference is at night,I shut off my PC but keep my laptop to maximise my chances of getting a small trickle of btc whilst eliminating excess power use at night (by switching off everything to do with PC and eliminating wall vampires-a term used by eco conscious ppl to describe appliances that draw power when seemingly 'off'.)

I then make sure the laptop is run from the mains (so that it doesn't waste energy charging up the battery as well as GPU mining) then put the screen to sleep and HDD to idle mode to save about 12Watts of power.

This may sound strange as a strategy but its effective at keeping my elec bill low while getting those much valued btc (so I still make more than I pay for the elec this way as the Pcs hard work compensates for its power use and hte laptop pays for itself,sort of)

If u guys can help me build a low cost solar power system where it consists of a low cost solar panel that can charge the dep cycle batt in garden during the day then at night run laptop from inverter that way i run on free elec overnight and when early morning comes,3 hrs on laptops batt while solar generator is charging the deep cycle batt so that reduce the burden on mains elec then.

Does this sound stupid to u guys or is it an interesting approach to the problem?

I really resent you implying our Pyramid Scheme is a Ponzi scheme.

Used? Wow I thought I did good selling one for $155 new. I mean, I did still do good, profited off a card I wasn't going to use. Due diligence -- people gotta get better at it.

Not to be a jerk but these posts serve no purpose. "Ooh I can get around difficulty, but I won't say how."

Then don't tell us in the first place. I'm happy for you but it really adds nothing constructive to the conversation.

@Nagle -- No, just no. Let's not even get into this again. Just because something requires growth doesn't make it a ponzi scheme, using what I'm thinking you are defining as a ponzi scheme. Elsewise all fiat currency under current capitalism is ponzi.

@Cluster2k -- GPU mining will be killed off within weeks, say wha? FPGAs are low watt, low hash, HIGH COST items. Unless FPGAs take off with huge huge huge investment no such thing will happen. That one FPGA guy back in the day might have seemed like big potatoes back when the network was 1THash, but he doesn't seem so interesting now (and I assume there is a reason why he couldn't leave his FPGA cluster running for more than a few weeks, such as it being borrowed from some lab or something). But then again if there is ever any serious dumping of huge amounts of money into mining it will drive out most everyone else, regardless of platform.

It's half way to a Ponzi scheme.  A Ponzi scheme also requires something of little to no real value changing hands, and payouts to early participants being paid from later participants.  Hmmmm.

Some people argue the world's banking systems and stock markets are a giant Ponzi scheme, as they rely on young people buying up assets at rising prices to benefit older asset holders.  But at least a stock represents ownership in a company making a useful product or providing a service.

The inevitable and fully predictable difficulty rate that's putting a squeeze on Bitcoin mining profits is a short term danger to Bitcoin.  Many people first noticed Bitcoin because it was a way to make money by having a PC running software.  The lost interest of these people must be replaced with real world uses and practical applications for Bitcoin.

I switched a PC off a couple of weeks ago that was running a 5750, and am about to sell some 6950 hardware.  Both those PCs are still profitable at current power prices, but the return was very small and I just don't see the point in earning a few dollars per day per PC when they're probably depreciating in value almost as quickly.  The hash rate is still going up, meaning either people are paying a lot less for power than I am (0.25c/kwh) or they don't pay for power at all (fixed contracts or stealing power from work).

Even with the current difficulty squeeze on profits we'll see a difficulty increase of at least 20% next week (estimated at 8% right now).  If FPGA mining ever takes off then GPU mining will be killed off within weeks.

That's the definition of a Ponzi scheme.

You got a 5830 for $72.30?  Good deal!

Because if you got one for $72.30, it would pay for itself in 30 days. (Actually, that calculation assumes no increases in difficulty...which is a bit of a stretch.)

I just bought a 5830 for BTC.  It should pay for itself in about a month, and I'll buy whatever I can then.  It's already happening and, really, buying things other than t-shirts has really only begun to be possible in the first part of this year.  So, just give it some time.  As a miner, I know time seems to go VERY slowly, but really, things are changing incredibly quickly in the community right now with innovation and services coming quickly now.

Patience is a virtue, because my rigs pay out over time. 

Sure, if you wanna be alone in your blockchain...

Ehh, how can that even be possible?

No, actually.

I have found a way to circumvent the difficulty.

I can still mine at a difficulty of 1 if I want to, but I don't.