Do we know how to get 3MH per $1.00 yet?

Jack of Diamonds

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Quote from: pandemic on August 03, 2011, 05:50:28 PM

I bought both of my 5830's at $99 a piece. I can get 305-307mh/s steady. That works to 3mh/1$ already.

True but you also need a system to run the card.
I proposed cheap old computers from craigslist ($20-$30) with PCI-e slots as a solution, which would bring such a rig very close to the desired $3/MH ratio.

The computer I linked doesn't run PCI-e but you get the point, this kind of stuff is really available out there for very cheap.
Some people might even throw these away rather than sell them.

At current prices of components, this isn't doable with any other card than a 5830 (if you're lucky enough to find one)
Also not counting the insane deals Bitjet got above, they are very rare or one-of-a-kind.

pandemic

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I bought both of my 5830's at $99 a piece. I can get 305-307mh/s steady. That works to 3mh/1$ already.

Supercrit

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Quote from: bitjet on August 01, 2011, 11:49:31 PM

WHat I paid

2x 5970 for $750 (used)

2x 5870 for $350 (used)

3x 5850 for $345 (these were new)

Thats about 3.4gh for $1445 for the cards

I spent another 150-200 per rig.

$50 foxconn mobo (currently running 4 cards)
$30 cpu
$180 Thermaltake 1200w power supply
and whatever 1gb of ram costs.

Good deals are out there!

I'm so jealous of you now, where you got these incredible deals!?

marvinmartian

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Quote from: mike678 on August 02, 2011, 12:35:41 PM

Dunno where you got 350 megahash for a 5830 but I highly doubt thats possible. I remember seeing 340 and that was a super heavy overvolt and I highly doubt that is sustainable for long periods of time if you don't want your card to fry.

I wasn't being accurate, more trying to illustrate the basic scenario. But yes, you are correct. 350mh/s is doubtful for a 5830. I'll go and fix my post.

The link I provided, however, should show some more solid data for many cards and mh/s rates.

mike678

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Quote from: marvinmartian on August 02, 2011, 11:56:14 AM

EG., even if you get 5830s (@ 350mh/s) for $150 you're still not there: 350/150 = 2.33.

Dunno where you got 350 megahash for a 5830 but I highly doubt thats possible. I remember seeing 340 and that was a super heavy overvolt and I highly doubt that is sustainable for long periods of time if you don't want your card to fry.

marvinmartian

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Quote from: mike678 on August 02, 2011, 11:44:21 AM

care to clarify how you get 3 mh per dollar invested in rig? The best I've ever heard is 2.25 from deslok in this thread.

I wasn't claiming to get that pricepoint. I was merely cautioning the OP regarding price/electical efficiency.

Getting 3 mh/$ is tough. You need to get a good price on 5830s or some other similarly priced card (you can Google BTC mining cards for spreadsheets on mh/$) and spend next to nothing on the hardware. EG., even if you get 5830s (@ 350mh/s) for $150 you're still not there: 350/150 = 2.33.

So the 3mh/$ "barrier" is largely subject to price changes in graphics cards.

In terms of hardware, I'm a fan of buying old and cheap then upgrading the weak links. Not sure if anyone has posted this already:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

It's a good starting point (that I'm sure everyone reading this post has already seen).

EDIT: 350mh/s is incorrect. A more conservative figure of 300 yields: 300mh/s / $150 = 2 mh/s / $.

mike678

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Quote from: marvinmartian on August 02, 2011, 11:28:33 AM

Be careful. Make sure you understand that your 3mh/$ may end up costing you more in electricity.

It's a perfectly reasonable plan (eg., building rigs on the cheap). I do it all the time. Just make sure you know what you're getting into in the intermediate term (eg., six to twelve months out).

Just look at your electric bill and see how much you're paying in kw/h. Then pick up a cheap "Kill A Watt" or some other meter so you can tell how much your rig is pulling current-wise.

Then get jiggy with some spreadsheets which hopefully include some kind of sensible forecast for BTC price and mining difficulty level.

care to clarify how you get 3 mh per dollar invested in rig? The best I've ever heard is 2.25 from deslok in this thread.

marvinmartian

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Be careful. Make sure you understand that your 3mh/$ may end up costing you more in electricity.

It's a perfectly reasonable plan (eg., building rigs on the cheap). I do it all the time. Just make sure you know what you're getting into in the intermediate term (eg., six to twelve months out).

Just look at your electric bill and see how much you're paying in kw/h. Then pick up a cheap "Kill A Watt" or some other meter so you can tell how much your rig is pulling current-wise.

Then get jiggy with some spreadsheets which hopefully include some kind of sensible forecast for BTC price and mining difficulty level.

MelMan2002

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Quote from: shotgun on August 01, 2011, 03:23:13 PM

good luck finding any 5850 cards these days.

Only a few left - but they are in stock:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B004W75ATI/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1312300578&sr=8-1&condition=new

bitjet

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Quote from: bboques on August 02, 2011, 01:32:44 AM

Your running 4 cards on the foxconn mobo by using PCI to PCIE16 adapters and pCIE1 to PCIE16 adapters? No issues in getting software to recognize any of it? If heat wasn't an issue could you run 4 6990s in it or was my local computer shop right that better cards must have good mobos and processors in order to work??

the foxconn board has 2 pcie-x16 and two pcie-1x slots. so im using 2 1x riser cards.

mike678

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Quote from: bboques on August 02, 2011, 01:32:44 AM

Your running 4 cards on the foxconn mobo by using PCI to PCIE16 adapters and pCIE1 to PCIE16 adapters? No issues in getting software to recognize any of it? If heat wasn't an issue could you run 4 6990s in it or was my local computer shop right that better cards must have good mobos and processors in order to work??

If you want high megahash per dollar your looking in the wrong place by choosing a 6990. Depending on how much you pay they tend to give 1-1.25 megahash per dollar before you even add the other parts into the cost. Most 6990 builds tend to be less then 1 dollar per megahash after you include the parts.

bboques

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Your running 4 cards on the foxconn mobo by using PCI to PCIE16 adapters and pCIE1 to PCIE16 adapters? No issues in getting software to recognize any of it? If heat wasn't an issue could you run 4 6990s in it or was my local computer shop right that better cards must have good mobos and processors in order to work??

bitjet

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WHat I paid

2x 5970 for $750 (used)

2x 5870 for $350 (used)

3x 5850 for $345 (these were new)

Thats about 3.4gh for $1445 for the cards

I spent another 150-200 per rig.

$50 foxconn mobo (currently running 4 cards)
$30 cpu
$180 Thermaltake 1200w power supply
and whatever 1gb of ram costs.

Good deals are out there!

deslok

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Merit: 250

It's all about the game, and how you play it

good find on the gx260 no good for mining but the right idea!

Jack of Diamonds

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Quote from: mike678 on August 01, 2011, 05:57:07 PM

Is it even possible to get over 2MH/$1 per rig?

I did the math while I built my rigs, you can get pretty close.

Buy an old (2006-2007) PC for $30 with a PCI-e lane and stick in a 5830 you found for $99 & overclock it to 300mhash/s, that's one way.
http://rochester.craigslist.org/sys/2523974541.html

(Note, this one may not have PCI-e, just using it as an example)
It's a gamble though because old PSUs may not be that stable for 24/7 strain. And that still wouldn't be 3mh per $, a bit less.

Plus it's going to take tons of space running just 1 card per rig, but it's cost-effective since you get psu, casing, hdd, operating system, ram, cpu, motherboard for $30.
On my dedicated rigs just the Sempron processor alone costs $30.

deslok

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It's all about the game, and how you play it

Mike is right. If you pay attention you can normally hit 2 but you're dealing with used hardware our thing a lot if bargain hunting.

mike678

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Quote from: bboques on August 01, 2011, 07:05:01 PM

I appreciate the quick reply and feedback, your right I could have explained it better

Basically accounting for all hardware needed to get something working is there any setup that's 3MH/$ invested?

I'm almost 100% positive that you can never get the 3MH per server. The reason I say this is because the most cost effective card I've ever seen is a 5830 @ $110. That will give you 3 megahash per dollar but becomes diluted the moment you add other costs. You will not find multiple 5830's for less then 110 because it is in such high demand. Machines like the one deslok bought wont come up on the market very often because he had to find really good deals on the 5770's and a super cheap computer that could handle them.

The max you should expect out of completely new parts is 1.5 megahash per dollar and if you wait to find sweet bargains on craigslist ect expect 1.5-2

bboques

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I appreciate the quick reply and feedback, your right I could have explained it better

Basically accounting for all hardware needed to get something working is there any setup that's 3MH/$ invested?

mike678

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Quote from: deslok on August 01, 2011, 06:10:45 PM

yes it is although it might not be possible building from new. I purchased an old tower on CL for 45 and 2x5770 for 150 it's running at 440mh/s for the past few days so i've managed 2.25mh/$

That's a very good deal you got Tongue

I agree though I highly doubt you can pull off 2+ with new. Another thing I'd like to point out though is that I doubt you could get a pc with over 1000 megahash used and still get 2mh/dollar. Once you get to that point you'll be needing high end psu and mobo's and those probably wont come too cheap.

deslok

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It's all about the game, and how you play it

Quote from: mike678 on August 01, 2011, 05:57:07 PM

Quote from: Jack of Diamonds on August 01, 2011, 05:37:02 PM

It's no promise of 3MH /$1 per single rig, but per card it is.

Is it even possible to get over 2MH/$1 per rig? I've done a lot of theoretical builds and if you want any realistic build it usually tops out around 1.5 megahash per dollar.

Quote from: iopq on August 01, 2011, 05:45:14 PM

mine is in the mail already, it was like 145 and 15 bucks shipping

The 5 I got come Wednesday Cheesy

yes it is although it might not be possible building from new. I purchased an old tower on CL for 45 and 2x5770 for 150 it's running at 440mh/s for the past few days so i've managed 2.25mh/$

Topic: Do we know how to get 3MH per $1.00 yet? (Read 2438 times)