Woah close call ty.
Are you sure about the miner gate app. when I turn down the CPU Cores to 6... my computer only runs at 80%.
I guess, I'm just breaking even or losing money because of power costs. but it still seems like I'm making coins, because I'm already on the computer.... so isn't more better then less?
Or is the powerdraw that much more.
anyways, thanks for the info with the ipads... wouldn't wanna fry those.
So is the best way to mine with an antminer, those are 1440 USD and 1600 USD, thats a big investment. Do Antminers mine, any mineable coin? Like FCN or ETC or ETH?
A lot of questions at once, i'll try to answer most of them
1) There is a (very) measurable difference between a CPU running at 10% and a CPU running at 80%. I've measured this for myself, using my old desktop PC. The difference between the two was an extra power draw of 120W. Using an extra 120W 24/7 will make a measurable difference when your powerbill arives.
2) I have no figures of cpu usage vs longevity of the CPU, this being said: overheating will never be good for a CPU. I think the actual effect (wether or not you'll break your machine) will probably depend on a lot of factors, but personally, i wouldn't take the risk to make a couple of bucks (at very best)
3) using minergate, you'll probably mine some coins, no question about it... The thing is: most of these coins will be worth allmost nothing. For example 1000 BCN is worth less than 6 cents. Minergate has a minimal withdrawal amount. For some coins you'll need a couple thousand coins before you can even withdraw them, so you should look into this before you start mining.
4) If your pc has a decent graphics card, you might be able to mine some altcoins with said card, and if you're really lucky (if you have a good card and a good electricity price), you might even make a profit.
5) Antminers are a brand of ASIC, they're made for 1 hashing algorithm, and one algorithm only. with an antminer, you can mine coins that use the sha256 algo. This includes bitcoin, but also these coins:
http://www.coinwarz.com/miningprofitability/sha-2566) sites like coinwarz can be used to see if you can make a profit mining bitcoins. They allow you to make a basic calculation including your power costs, pool fee, hashing power, initial investment,... Do be carefull tough, they make a calculation at current difficulty and block reward. The block reward will stay the same for another ~4 years, but the diff might go up or down. Also, the cost of an antminer might be influenced by your country. My country charges huge customs fees to get stuff into the country, especially when it comes from china.