Well I was proposing Elgius as primary, but I was open to failover pools.
What do you guys think: are the higher fees of the "giants of mining" (50 & BTCGuild) worth the higher likelihood of winning ASIC lottery tickets?Awesome job -R-! BTW: Do you have a magic paper clip that helps to keep magic smoke inside the box? I
when I saw that's basically part of the instructions.
BTCGuild and 50BTC offer something in return for their very reasonable fees - consistent earnings. I used to mine at Slush quite a bit, and they aren't one of the smaller pools. They could hit 20 to 24 blocks per day when luck was running hot, but still had days where a 14 hour block and a 7 hour block could take you down to just 5 block a day, or 1/5 of the income as compared to better days.
But it all averages out - I find BTCG, 50BTC, Slush, EMC, Eligius, GigaVPS, BitMinter, OzCoin and even HHTT all pay out roughly the same over a long period of time if you mine on them consistently. I've spent many, many months of sending the same amount of hashrate to multiple pools and comparing the payouts over longer periods of time - weeks at a time - including the little bit extra you get for merged mining on some pools, and they're all
virtually identical, payout wise, long term. That's why I don't much like merged mining - it adds a great deal more hassle for the same returns. These days I make 30 to 40% more than I would straight mining by switching betweeen pools under certain conditions. You would probably call what I do pool hopping, but of course no one can do that, because all the pools will tell you that they are hop-proof, right?
No magic paperclip. I use something a little bit more classy than a paperclip, and I'm always looking for an excuse to order more stuff from the robot shop:
http://www.robotshop.com/cytron-atx-power-supply-breakout-board-right-angle-2.html -R-
I saw that in your pics and was wondering how much that cost you, or if KnC gave it to you with the Jupiter (cuz they know you're gonna most likely end up needing to use a PC PSU, and this definitely beats the paperclip trick).
Mind you, when I had PSU(s) ... 'paperclipped' I wrapped two layers of Gorilla tape around that bitch and there was no way that clip was coming out, and no way of the paperclip touching anything mettalic, or myself.
Wish it wasn't $10 though, cuz once it hits the border it'll become another $20-$30 in custom's brokerage fee's fuckers. I'm sure other shops I use have something like this (and certainly cheaper then $10), i'll have to keep my eye out (eg. Monoprice if u want cables or adapters
).
EDIT: Well shit, let me eat my own words. Cuz they have a Canadian shop as well as an American one.
EDIT 2: I forgot to ask. Are USPS deliveries of an $8000 piece of hardware whose box has been mangled SOOO badly commonplace to you (and other American's)? Cuz those pics, i've never received, or ever even seen a package delivered to someone (my next door neighbour is our streets mail lady so I see a lot of stuff she delivers) that's in that terrible a shape.
I would be utterly outraged, and even though i'd not actually gain anything from it, i'd be having a long, very loud, very vitriolic conversation with USPS customer support on the phone about this. Like ... I don't even own your Jupiter or had anything to do with it's delivery, but i'm so extremely angry right now. I salute you for not flipping the fuck out like I would have lol.