Hardware to start mining

[fastamdman]

Hmm that's a good point too, may as well just use existing systems for now. My gaming machine sits idle most of the time anyway and is already in my server rack on UPS power. Can just throw in 2 cards in there and get a graphic upgrade at the same time.

Yup yup, that is the best way to do it. What graphics cards do you currently have in the gaming machine? It might be profitable to start mining with that already until you upgrade As far as cases go, I like the looks of this.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod..._re=bitcoin_mining-_-9SIA76H6630881-_-Product

It's pretty cheap and will hold 6 cards.

Edit: This is a pretty decent case for 8 gpu's as well.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod..._re=bitcoin_mining-_-9SIADF46PW3437-_-Product

There are a lot of cheap setups out there that I will be looking into soon!

 

[Red Squirrel]

I don't recall the card but it struggles a bit with Unreal Tournament and KSP, it's several years old at least. Though worth a shot anyway given it won't require any investment at all.

Wonder if it's worth even bothering with some GTX 560s, I bought those to do SLI back when they were considered good but had so many issues with the driver I had to switch to another card, as it kept crashing. They sat on a shelf since.

 

[fastamdman]

I don't recall the card but it struggles a bit with Unreal Tournament and KSP, it's several years old at least. Though worth a shot anyway given it won't require any investment at all.

Wonder if it's worth even bothering with some GTX 560s, I bought those to do SLI back when they were considered good but had so many issues with the driver I had to switch to another card, as it kept crashing. They sat on a shelf since.

If you are paying for electricity the gtx 560's I don't believe are profitable. It costs more in electricity than you can make back, based off this link. https://www.nicehash.com/profitability-calculator/NVIDIA-GTX-560-Ti?e=0.1&currency=USD

But if your electricity is free, you can make some money, but not much lol, probably 8 bucks a month.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah kinda figured lol, think I had checked before.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Profitable GPUs basically start with R9 280/290 generation for AMD, and bare minimum Maxwell(980 Ti) generation for Nvidia. Actually for Nvidia you really need to use Pascal, because Maxwell was way behind.

 

[fastamdman]

Profitable GPUs basically start with R9 280/290 generation for AMD, and bare minimum Maxwell(980 Ti) generation for Nvidia. Actually for Nvidia you really need to use Pascal, because Maxwell was way behind.

Eh I agree to disagree. The wife is running a gtx 980 and making around 2.70 a day as we speak. It's not a lot, but they are also cheap cards.

 

[vailr]

The typical USA household 110/120 volt electrical circuit is limited to ~1500 W PSU, before risking tripping the circuit breaker. There may also be some power cost advantages via using a 220 volt circuit, instead of 120 volt.
So: hiring an electrician may be something worth considering.

 

[tvfreak]

From what I heard, the gddr5 is better than the gddr5x.
So, is the 1070ti would be a better card to use to mine Vs the 1080?

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[DrMrLordX]

From what I heard, the gddr5 is better than the gddr5x.
So, is the 1070ti would be a better card to use to mine Vs the 1080?

Yes. 1080s are not great mining cards.

In general, you want to look at an R9 290 minimum for mining. 290s, 390s, 1060s, 1070s, 470s, 480s, 570s, 580s, Fury Nano, Fury, Fury X, and Vega are all suitable mining cards. 290s are getting really long in the tooth though, and it's hard to find cards that haven't had the crap beaten out of them. Be prepared to do a lot of BIOS tuning and maybe TIM replacement to mine with them.

If you have a lot of other cards lying around and can figure out how to make a profit off them, good on you. I would not look at them for a "new to you" right though.

 

[tvfreak]

Yes. 1080s are not great mining cards.

In general, you want to look at an R9 290 minimum for mining. 290s, 390s, 1060s, 1070s, 470s, 480s, 570s, 580s, Fury Nano, Fury, Fury X, and Vega are all suitable mining cards. 290s are getting really long in the tooth though, and it's hard to find cards that haven't had the crap beaten out of them. Be prepared to do a lot of BIOS tuning and maybe TIM replacement to mine with them.

If you have a lot of other cards lying around and can figure out how to make a profit off them, good on you. I would not look at them for a "new to you" right though.

We were planning on going with 1070, but it seems we might go with 580s.

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[tvfreak]

Yes. 1080s are not great mining cards.

In general, you want to look at an R9 290 minimum for mining. 290s, 390s, 1060s, 1070s, 470s, 480s, 570s, 580s, Fury Nano, Fury, Fury X, and Vega are all suitable mining cards. 290s are getting really long in the tooth though, and it's hard to find cards that haven't had the crap beaten out of them. Be prepared to do a lot of BIOS tuning and maybe TIM replacement to mine with them.

If you have a lot of other cards lying around and can figure out how to make a profit off them, good on you. I would not look at them for a "new to you" right though.

What do u mean by TIM replacement and what type of bios tunning

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[tvfreak]

Yes. 1080s are not great mining cards.

In general, you want to look at an R9 290 minimum for mining. 290s, 390s, 1060s, 1070s, 470s, 480s, 570s, 580s, Fury Nano, Fury, Fury X, and Vega are all suitable mining cards. 290s are getting really long in the tooth though, and it's hard to find cards that haven't had the crap beaten out of them. Be prepared to do a lot of BIOS tuning and maybe TIM replacement to mine with them.

If you have a lot of other cards lying around and can figure out how to make a profit off them, good on you. I would not look at them for a "new to you" right though.

Any particular brands of 580 cards are better than other companies

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[vailr]

The Radeon 4xx series is supposedly actually better at crypto-mining compared to the newer 5xx series.
Haven't used any AMD video cards for mining, so can't confirm that.
The specific crypto-coin algorithm being used to "mine" also plays a big part in maximizing potential profitability. Not to mention: whenever a new & improved video card becomes available, the former champion can, overnight, become: "not so great".
It's my impression that nVidia cards are more versatile at profitably mining a larger number of various crypto-coins, compared with AMD.
All of the mining software include built in testing, to try and determine the best crypto-coin option for a particular mining rig setup. But not every coin option is provided in each particular mining software.
Side note: that nicehash online calculator doesn't seem too accurate, compared to real world data.

 

[tvfreak]

The Radeon 4xx series is supposedly actually better at crypto-mining compared to the newer 5xx series.
Haven't used any AMD video cards for mining, so can't confirm that.
The specific crypto-coin algorithm being used to "mine" also plays a big part in maximizing potential profitability. Not to mention: whenever a new & improved video card becomes available, the former champion can, overnight, become: "not so great".
It's my impression that nVidia cards are more versatile at profitably mining a larger number of various crypto-coins, compared with AMD.
All of the mining software include built in testing, to try and determine the best crypto-coin option for a particular mining rig setup. But not every coin option is provided in each particular mining software.
Side note: that nicehash online calculator doesn't seem too accurate, compared to real world data.

Well we just ordered 580 cards. So let's hope there won't be any issues.
We plan on to mine ETN, Monero, zcash, ITNS, XMR and FCN.
can we mine those coins with the 580's

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[fastamdman]

Depending on how you are going to mine, I would look at this. http://jkcrypto.com/what-is-best-gpu-for-mining/

It sounds like you are going to batch mine / pool mine and not use a program. The pros of using a program is they can automatically switch to the most profitable algorithm, it's something you should look into, even batch miners can do this if setup correctly.

For mining the way you are wanting to mine, the article states that the 580s are a bad buy. I wouldn't be to concerned with this fact and just enjoy what you have. Personally, I would have went with 1070s in your situation or 1080ti's if the budget allowed it. However, it is what it is. Your cards can mine what you are looking to mine, but they aren't the best for all of them by any stretch. Regardless, you will have a decent mining rig soon and will hopefully be making profit soon.

If you haven't started mining yet, I would suggest looking into all of the different mining programs / batch files / pools out there. There are so many different ones to try. I would highly suggest trying multiple mining programs out. If you don't try multiple programs / batch files / pools, you very well could lose out on a lot of money. For example, let's say you are making 3 dollars a day per card mining via zpool, but you make 3.50 per day per card on multipoolmininghub and you make 4 dollars a day per card on nicehash. These are all things to consider as making money is the primary objective. Although the biggest downside to nicehash, even though it pays the best in my experience, is the fact that you only get paid in bitcoin. Do a lot of research and start running programs on your current machine until you get used to the software. That way you have less down time when you get the systems up and running. Just remember, every minute the system is down for whatever reason, is a minute you aren't earning with it. Try to keep down time at a minimum.

 

[fastamdman]

@vailr The nicehash profitability calculator goes off people who are running those cards and the amount they are making. It's been extremely accurate for every card I have looked up thus far. What seems off to you?

 

[DrMrLordX]

What do u mean by TIM replacement and what type of bios tunning

Since you went with 580s, you probably won't have to worry about that. Mostly you will want to do undervolting via software on those.

580s will do fine, but I would be wary of mining ITNS, FCN, and FTM. They are basically uh . . . well I'm not going to write off Electroneum entirely, but as for the others, there's a less-than-charitable word for altcoins like those.

XMR = Monero

And at this point, Zcash is best mined on Nvidia hardware. Preferably 1070s.

You would do well to look at ETH and XMR mining, in my opinion. If you are doing quick turnarounds on your coins then the other alts may do well for you, but I would seriously not want to hold those coins for long.

 

[tvfreak]

Since you went with 580s, you probably won't have to worry about that. Mostly you will want to do undervolting via software on those.

580s will do fine, but I would be wary of mining ITNS, FCN, and FTM. They are basically uh . . . well I'm not going to write off Electroneum entirely, but as for the others, there's a less-than-charitable word for altcoins like those.

XMR = Monero

And at this point, Zcash is best mined on Nvidia hardware. Preferably 1070s.

You would do well to look at ETH and XMR mining, in my opinion. If you are doing quick turnarounds on your coins then the other alts may do well for you, but I would seriously not want to hold those coins for long.

Good point.
What are your thoughts about those other alt coins I mentioned

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[fastamdman]

Good point.
What are your thoughts about those other alt coins I mentioned

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The other coins are trash lol. How many cards did you end up buying? What are you planning on using for the rest of the hardware?

 

[tvfreak]

The other coins are trash lol. How many cards did you end up buying? What are you planning on using for the rest of the hardware?

We are going to start with 8gpu

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[fastamdman]

We are going to start with 8gpu

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Good call. What motherboard, cpu, ram, power supply and case do you plan on using?

 

[vailr]

@fastamdman: Looking at profitability for a single GTX 1060-6 Gb, the nicehash calculator currently shows $102.48 /month, before factoring in the power cost. Of course, there's a lot of valuation changes constantly going on, but that seems like ~$25+/month overly optimistic, to me. If you have links to some other profit estimators, I'd like to see how those may agree/disagree with nicehash's data.

 

[tvfreak]

Good call. What motherboard, cpu, ram, power supply and case do you plan on using?

Memory and mobo not too sure. But something on the cheap side. Or I should say cheaper. My buddy decided on a PSU that is 1200 watts. But I'm not sure what brand.


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[IntelUser2000]

We are going to start with 8gpu

Some tips:

-Don't cheap out on the power supply. There are things worse than high ROI time. That's called a Fire Hazard.
-For PSU longevity I aim for 50-60% load on the power supply. For example, with ~550W power consumption I use 750W minimum, 850W preferrably. 550W power consumption @ 90% efficiency equals 500W load on the power supply.
-Back on the fire hazard thing, I use one 6/8 pin power cable per card, and another peripheral power cable per pcie riser.
-RX 570/580 cards are fine. In fact, they are more stable to setup than RX470/480 series. I have both. You can't really get the 4xx generation so it doesn't matter but the 5xx generation tends to have better design as well

 

[fastamdman]

@fastamdman: Looking at profitability for a single GTX 1060-6 Gb, the nicehash calculator currently shows $102.48 /month, before factoring in the power cost. Of course, there's a lot of valuation changes constantly going on, but that seems like ~$25+/month overly optimistic, to me. If you have links to some other profit estimators, I'd like to see how those may agree/disagree with nicehash's data.

I think you should look into how nicehash pays its customers. It's not just you mine X hash for X algo and get paid X. People who BUY hashing power, help dictate how much the sellers (people mining) will get paid. This is exactly why nicehash can be more profitable than other companies. A gtx 1060 earning 102 a month is no where near off. My wife is earning roughly 3 dollars a day with a gtx 980. The 1060 is a more profitable mining card. The fact that a 1060 is making slightly more than 100 is extremely accurate, judging off the fact of her 980 monthly statistics. Also, looking at it live currently, I am seeing it earning 98.12 before electricity. Part of that difference I am sure is the fact that bitcoin dropped in price since you looked at it. Using the website what to mine as well shows the gtx 1060 making about 85 a month as well, the fact that nicehash is paying slightly more shouldn't be surprising as again, it factors off there database of people using that specific card and how much they are making. 85 dollars is for a 100% stock card, not overclocked at all. You can earn more per day by overclocking and mining the right algorithm and having lower difficulties. It looks pretty accurate to me, but then again I have a 1080 and not a 1060. Regardless, the point still stands that mining is profitable for just about everyone with decent hardware