Topic: Best miner for $300 (Read 2841 times)

What a mix of server parts and office parts? It's quite easy isn't it? An optiplex 780 cost you what? 40$, sometimes $5-$10 at fleamarkets or garage sales. they have 4 pci slots you use risers you run 4 470's  and you just need a beefier powersupply which can be done on the cheap as well.

if you would like to mine for fun then go ahead and buy the miner for $300. if you are looking for profit then buying the best miner for $300 is just not a good idea. mining bitcoin at this moment of time is not a profitable one.If you could spare more money you could try mining alt coins.

R9 290 4GB is a better way to go that the R9 3xx series, if you can find a 290 - less expensive but hashes just as well and ROCK SOLID reliability. Flashing them with a mining bios from TheStilt makes them VERY VERY nice.


 Building mining rigs using old parts might be less efficient, but it tends to be a TON less expen$ive and overall likely to SAVE you money. The HUGE majority of my GPU-based mining has been done with systems that were largely used parts or "already on hand", then added GPUs for the actual mining work - and a few were systems I already had on hand doing OTHER stuff that I just repurposed.


 The "fire hazard" statement is BULLSHIT.
 There is no reason for used parts to be more of a fire hazard than new, *IF* you have any clue at all about how to build a system in the first place.

LMAO,yes I am delusional

I have 6 "scrap" PC's built & running 24/7 for the last 4 years........they have made 100's of dollars (if not 1000's) for me & are no more at risk of a fire hazard than your brain catching fire  

And yes I AM better than you

BTW,the 380 4gig ($150-200) or the 390 8gig ($200-275) cards are the way to go,find em on sale & they can earn that back as fast as 2 months or so  

I agree with leowonderful,DO NOT buy used GPU's,I have & regretted it,the return of GPU's on ebay wasted time & a 15% restock fee was a pisser  

All other parts,CPU,mobo,ram,HDD,dvd/cd rom,even PSU if of sufficient power (no less than 600 watt),are ok in used condition  

BTW,you can resell a new GPU after mining for several months for damn near what you paid for it & the warranties are MUCH easier to get than on any ASIC miner  
 

An AMD GPU such as R9 390 to mine ethereum, but that assumes you already have a desktop computer ready to devote entirely to this.  You will not really be able to use that computer for anything else, so will need another computer for your regular computer activities .  Then you will be getting something less than 2 dollars a day, maybe more like $1.30, depending on the card, depending on where the price of bitcoin goes etc...  Overall it is not that profitable, but makes for a fun hobby that teaches you just how unlikely it is to make anything significant through mining.

With old gear in a lot of cases you are dealing with a individual seller, not a distributor.  Not sure if OP is US but going to guess so.  If so he can go to ebay buy one pretty easy and shipping is not really that high on S5 and S7 is a little heavier but still not bad.  I don't think shipping is going to make or break your ROI unless you for some reason have horrible shipping to some remote country.

And besides ebay the forums tend to be cheaper as no paypal protection, but there is escrow.  So that is another option out there for S5/S7.   But think your idea about distributor is kinda wrong in most cases when it comes to dated gear.

I believe it will only be feasible if you live near the distributor.

After last big drop with DAO ETH has been kinda steady 10-12 dollars mainly.  So it really is not varying a ton but ETC could push it I guess you never know on alt's.   Getting a GPU is not a bad idea with 300 budget.

With S5 should be able to do miner and PSU.  Don't forget the PSU cost when figuring it out as I don't see you getting a S7 and S7 PSU for 300 dollars, you could do it if you up budget.   But on original budget I don't see S7 as option.

If you can find one near you, you could save on shipping and just pick it up yourself.
I'd recommend an S5 or S7 if you just want to mine as a hobby.

If you mine an altcoin with a GPU like other people recommended, results will be more variable.

I've gotten scrap CPUs and decent cases for free before. Yes, they may not be the best, but as long as you don't get critical components like a PSU, you should be good to go. I don't recommend doing this if you're trying to get a mining pc that's up and running 24/7, but I've built several computers through this process, and they work perfectly fine. A cheap CPU won't cost you nearly as much as a good mobo most of the time, so try getting a used mobo; new ones can be costly.

Now, when buying a GPU, do research. Don't buy an HD 4670 for mining, or an R7 240. Try not to go used as components may have a shorter lifespan than expected; some cheaper GPUs you can try are the 300 series R7s and RX 470.

Like many hero/legendary members here, you seem to suffer from a superiority complex. Go and see a shrink and please get your head examined. There are so many delusional folks on the forum, it's not even funny.

I bet most people, who are interested in bitcoin, know how to build a pc from parts.

As in life, you get what you pay for in mining. If you use scrap parts to build a pc, you will end up with a scrap pc, it will function as a miner but it won't be efficient and will cost you in the long run. At worst, it will be a fire hazard. Please get a pc built for mining and don't cut corners. Even if you know how to build a pc from scrap parts, a mining pc is not the brightest idea to do so.

Oh,I forgot MOST folks don't know how to build a PC or use scrap parts TO build a PC for almost free..............but I do!!!!!!!     

This has been changed somewhat already, so even in April 2017, at block 3.5 mil (now at about 2.1 mil) ethereum network will be at 25 sec/block, so mining will be OK by at least that time. It is pretty much from the source (VB himself).
https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/4iozgf/in_around_14_month_the_difficulty_bomb_will_make/d30c0lq

There's no good miners you can purchase for 300$; if you have cheap electricity(less than 0.07$/kwh- I have 0.06/kwh and the ln has almost roi'd for me), consider the S7-LN- it has a PSU and the miner, everything you need to get started with. You can even scrap the PSU after the miner becomes unprofitable and sell it for a pretty decent price- it's a good psu and people will pay for it.

Ethereum would actually be a poor choice long-term- here's why. Serenity has been implemented in Ethereum since day 1, and this will be what happens to the difficulty:

•Difficulty on 2016-09-06 is 35.56 T and average blocktime is 15.16 seconds.
•Difficulty on 2016-10-02 is 36.40 T and average blocktime is 15.52 seconds.
•Difficulty on 2016-11-06 is 40.17 T and average blocktime is 17.13 seconds.
•Difficulty on 2016-12-02 is 48.56 T and average blocktime is 20.71 seconds.
•Difficulty on 2017-01-05 is 88.83 T and average blocktime is 37.88 seconds.

•Difficulty on 2017-02-09 is 249.8 T and average blocktime is 106.5 seconds.
•Difficulty on 2017-03-07 is 679.3 T and average blocktime is 4.829 minutes.
•Difficulty on 2017-04-02 is 1.753 P and average blocktime is 12.46 minutes.
•Difficulty on 2017-05-07 is 6.907 P and average blocktime is 49.09 minutes.

Boom. Difficulty bomb hits, blocktime explodes even though hashrate is going up. Curious what happens past that?


•Difficulty on 2017-06-02 is 20.65 P and average blocktime is 146.8 minutes.
•Difficulty on 2017-07-07 is 82.50 P and average blocktime is 9.773 hours.
•Difficulty on 2017-08-02 is 219.9 P and average blocktime is 26.06 hours.
•Difficulty on 2017-09-05 is 879.6 P and average blocktime is 4.342 days.


Difficulty will make mining impossible, and then Ethereum will become POS or something similar with the addition of Casper. Ether is good for now, but it won't be in the near future. That being said, I don't recommend mining it, but ROI can be possible with some cards. Resale value of cards is also pretty high, so there's multiple things going for you. You can still buy cards and mine Ether with them as of now.


R7 370 isn't the best card for mining Ether, I actually recommend the RX 470, as it provides nearly the same hashrate as the RX 480, although prices are still inflated and it's still unavailable in many regions due to the fact that people are buying tons of these exclusively for Ether.

You can't build a good gpu mining pc for under $300 shipped. An AMD R7 370 costs about $150 shipped, that's 50% of $300. You need a good 750 Watt PSU, 4 - 8 Gig RAM, CPU and motherboard and a hard drive. This is the minimum setup that will do measly 10 - 12 Mhs. I wouldn't call this setup a "Best" miner for $300.

To answer, OP's question:

There's no such thing as Best miner for $300. Either don't waste your $300 or waste it on booze. You will have far more fun with the latter.

Can you build a PC??

GPU mining is much better than BTC mining,VERY low profit ATM..........hashrate/diff keeps climbing 

Try the bitmaintech s7 ln.

Comes with a psu and is a little over your budget

Maybe 375 shipped.

I want a nice cheapish miner for $300 or under shipped. I have dirt cheap power and I live in a place with a cool climate.
Just looking to get into the hobby and mine a couple of dollars a day.

Thanks!