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Topic: Is "casual" mining still sustainable? Is buying a new rig stupid? - page 3. (Read 7084 times)

member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
You're asking if difficulty will eventually level off because "new miners will stop coming in" and you're asking if you should start mining?
Yea, that's why the difficulty is going to keep going.

I would not spend $700 on a new rig right now, unless that $700 is going to net you a minimum of 1GHash.  You should be able to get a 600Mhash rig for under $400 right now, so 1.2Ghash for $800.
I'm curious how you would build a rig for under 400 dollars and get 600 megahash. Considering the 5830 is at 130. I did a quick calc and I'm just a little higher then $400 for 600 megahash and that's before shipping.

2 x 5830s: $260
1 AMD Sempron: $40
2 GB RAM: $20
MSI 870-G45 AM3: $75
Coolmax 750W PSU:  $68
Total:  $463, Total MHash:  626 (could probably squeeze more)

So, just over $400 as you said, but also over 600 MHash.  Could probably go with a slightly cheaper MoBo.
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 250
If I were to spend $700 on a mining rig and get 600 MH/s out of it, and get it online in a week from today, would it pay for itself eventually?

Depends on your power costs.  That PC would recover its costs within 6 to 12 months.  You've also got to count on bitcoin's price dropping below $10 in your calculations.  Depending on your climate the extra heat generated may be welcome in winter, but cause even more power consumption in summer.  It's the hidden cost of cooling that most miners never take into account.

Many people once hoped that bitcoin's value would continue to go up with difficulty, yet for the past several difficulty increases this has proved to be the exact opposite.  Price goes down with increased difficulty.  As difficulty goes up the hype of getting rich by running your GPU flat out disappears, and with it the interest of new people to keep the whole thing going.

I'm in San Diego, by the beach, so no air conditioning, we just have a window fan.  The Pacific Ocean is the world biggest air conditioner and it's about 200 yards away.  Smiley

So - high California power cost, but no additional cooling costs.
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
Price goes down with increased difficulty.

I honestly don't think that's true. Non miners could care less where the difficulty is. The reason the price dropped from 30 to its current is because of a lack of faith in its value. This is due to several hacking incidents not to a rising difficulty.
legendary
Activity: 1692
Merit: 1018
If I were to spend $700 on a mining rig and get 600 MH/s out of it, and get it online in a week from today, would it pay for itself eventually?

Depends on your power costs.  That PC would recover its costs within 6 to 12 months.  You've also got to count on bitcoin's price dropping below $10 in your calculations.  Depending on your climate the extra heat generated may be welcome in winter, but cause even more power consumption in summer.  It's the hidden cost of cooling that most miners never take into account.

Many people once hoped that bitcoin's value would continue to go up with difficulty, yet for the past several difficulty increases this has proved to be the exact opposite.  Price goes down with increased difficulty.  As difficulty goes up the hype of getting rich by running your GPU flat out disappears, and with it the interest of new people to keep the whole thing going.
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
I'm in the "you can't know for sure" camp on this question, mainly due to uncertainty in BTC price. One thing that makes it tough to build right now is that the GPU market is really lean. There don't seem to be many exciting cost effective options out there atm. Nothing like 5830s for $109 or 5850s for $150, or 5870s for $190.
 Angry 
That's why if you want to buy a machine you wait till you find some deal like that Tongue Don't be impulsive and buy the first item you can.
legendary
Activity: 1820
Merit: 1000
I'm in the "you can't know for sure" camp on this question, mainly due to uncertainty in BTC price. One thing that makes it tough to build right now is that the GPU market is really lean. There don't seem to be many exciting cost effective options out there atm. Nothing like 5830s for $109 or 5850s for $150, or 5870s for $190.
 Angry 
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 250
Hello, all.  I'd like to get the opinion of this forum.

If I were to spend $700 on a mining rig and get 600 MH/s out of it, and get it online in a week from today, would it pay for itself eventually?

The mining calculators say no,
At some point, new miners will stop coming in...,

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=30536.0

You think I should try to hunt down some 6990's ? I don't have that kind of cash.
full member
Activity: 246
Merit: 102
Hello, all.  I'd like to get the opinion of this forum.

If I were to spend $700 on a mining rig and get 600 MH/s out of it, and get it online in a week from today, would it pay for itself eventually?

The mining calculators say no,
At some point, new miners will stop coming in...,

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=30536.0
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 250
I'm glad it helped
You can now spend $100 to help Bitcoin economy Wink

If gambling sites that take BTC count as the "Bitcoin economy", I'm half way there since Monday.   Undecided
legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1280
May Bitcoin be touched by his Noodly Appendage
I'm glad it helped
You can now spend $100 to help Bitcoin economy Wink
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 250
Using the link provided by jackjack, I specced out a 600 MH/s system on NewEgg / Amazon, with a case, for $592, shipped.

That's under the magic $1 per MH/s
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
You're asking if difficulty will eventually level off because "new miners will stop coming in" and you're asking if you should start mining?
Yea, that's why the difficulty is going to keep going.

I would not spend $700 on a new rig right now, unless that $700 is going to net you a minimum of 1GHash.  You should be able to get a 600Mhash rig for under $400 right now, so 1.2Ghash for $800.
I'm curious how you would build a rig for under 400 dollars and get 600 megahash. Considering the 5830 is at 130. I did a quick calc and I'm just a little higher then $400 for 600 megahash and that's before shipping.
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 250
If I were to spend $700 on a mining rig and get 600 MH/s out of it, and get it online in a week from today, would it pay for itself eventually?
600 Mhps? Really?
Think again: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_rig

Thanks for that link, it looks like I can go cheaper than $700
hero member
Activity: 602
Merit: 500
No one knows the future. The current forecast for paying off a rig at $1/MHash is about 6 months. This expects both difficulty and price to remain constant though. Either could change at any time.

I would suggest building more efficiently though if you worry about a rig paying itself off, < $1/MHash is bad efficiency, and makes it less likely to pay itself off.
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
You're asking if difficulty will eventually level off because "new miners will stop coming in" and you're asking if you should start mining?
Yea, that's why the difficulty is going to keep going.

I would not spend $700 on a new rig right now, unless that $700 is going to net you a minimum of 1GHash.  You should be able to get a 600Mhash rig for under $400 right now, so 1.2Ghash for $800.
legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1280
May Bitcoin be touched by his Noodly Appendage
If I were to spend $700 on a mining rig and get 600 MH/s out of it, and get it online in a week from today, would it pay for itself eventually?
600 Mhps? Really?
Think again: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_rig
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 250
Hello, all.  I'd like to get the opinion of this forum.

If I were to spend $700 on a mining rig and get 600 MH/s out of it, and get it online in a week from today, would it pay for itself eventually?

The mining calculators say no, because they assume the difficulty will forever go up.  But the difficulty has to stop and level off at some point, right?  At some point, new miners will stop coming in, or current miners leaving, or shutting down part of their rigs will match new miners coming in.  Right?

I suppose the $ value of BTC could shoot up, and that would definitely help.  It could also go down.

Is it just stupid to buy a $700 new rig now?  I just want to break even, without factoring in selling the used hardware later.

BTW, I currently run 1 5830 at 300 MH/s.  But that was easy, I just stuck a new 5830 in my existing computer.  I'm proposing buying a whole new rig.  And the $700 comes from what I specced out at NewEgg.  Closed case system.  I can't have TOO much fan noise and hardware just sitting out.

Thanks for your opinion.
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