newbies guide to coin mining?

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NorthboundOcclusive

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surprised there isnt something stickied in here, and didnt see anything with a cursory look around here, so forgive me if im missing something obvious.

how does someone who's woefully inept go about getting started mining? just on the software-side of things, what's recommended for ease-of-use for first timers.

have a PC and a couple old GPUs (HD5750, GF 8400gs, old) lying around essentially unused, and my main PC is usually idle during the day while im at work.
i have no illusions about making lots of money, since i dont have any of the popular/expensive GPUs or specialized hardware for this sort of thing. really what i'd want out of it is an equivalent to $5-10/month, something that could pay for a VPN service, the occasional goodies from Newegg or some such
 
Go over to bitcointalk for many answers to many questions.

Different coins require different techniques.

Nicehash miner is the easiest out there. But you'll only make a few dollars a day on high end video cards. And that's not including the cost to power the system. Though in the winter time your mining box can be used as a heater.
 
oh if only it were the days bitcoin just started wished i would have gotten in on it
 
I plugged in my 6 core Mac pro trashcan to Slush pool for fun a few days ago.

It would take me longer than I have to live to make enough money to cover the mining fees of a transaction...
 
I am currently greatly profiting off different coins where the cost of electricity (.10) kwh is low enough that I still earn enough to make back the cost of the hardware. I'm don't think those cards have enough vram to do much and I'm currently mobile but if anyone wants to shoot me a pm I would be happy to go more in depth
 
Never enough information for these things which is why its hard to get the right person to help you by in life.

NorthboundOcclusive said:
surprised there isnt something stickied in here, and didnt see anything with a cursory look around here, so forgive me if im missing something obvious.
how does someone who's woefully inept go about getting started mining? just on the software-side of things, what's recommended for ease-of-use for first timers.
have a PC and a couple old GPUs (HD5750, GF 8400gs, old) lying around essentially unused, and my main PC is usually idle during the day while im at work.
i have no illusions about making lots of money, since i dont have any of the popular/expensive GPUs or specialized hardware for this sort of thing. really what i'd want out of it is an equivalent to $5-10/month, something that could pay for a VPN service, the occasional goodies from Newegg or some such
Click to expand...

Get yourself a decent GPU or 2 of them if you board supports 2 PCI-E slots....then worry about your Motherboard and CPU.
I am from the stone age and i only discovered mining coins about 5 weeks ago.... still looking for guidance BUT i am trying to do something about it by following my own gut feeling,
The if i start swearing a lot more than i do and i figure out the commands and GUIs properly i will be asking as many people as i can how to do this and that.
It is best to find somebody that can actially log in to your machine and setup the binaries and batch files for you.
I have done this and i have joined a few pools so if u need help i can help you as a beginner-crawl level that's it.
 
if anyone does need halp i wouldnt mind. feel free to shoot me a pm. im running ~20 290's atm and planning on expanding soon. i have mined many differant coins.
 
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How on earth do you solo mine, i tried a guide where u need to update the {coin}.conf file and then use those same details like 127.0.0.1:port user pass but it doesnt freeking work
 
imre said:
How on earth do you solo mine, i tried a guide where u need to update the {coin}.conf file and then use those same details like 127.0.0.1:port user pass but it doesnt freeking work
Click to expand...

You don't solo mine on established coins unless you already have a lot of hash power. For example, on Ethereum, I would suggest to start solo mining when you have at least 12-18 GPUs or 2-3 6xGPU rigs.. Even at 2 I find it too low now. Pool mining will give you predetermined payout based on hashrate and difficulty at any given hour, therefore you get paid every day, hour, whatever it is, and get reliable payouts.

If you mine solo with too little hashrate, you might be delayed 2-3+ days per block as difficulty rises, which in the end will net you less than having had regular profits, luck does play a small role but unless it's a fresh coin with low difficulty, stick to pool mining.
 
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bitcrow said:
You don't solo mine on established coins unless you already have a lot of hash power. For example, on Ethereum, I would suggest to start solo mining when you have at least 12-18 GPUs or 2-3 6xGPU rigs.. Even at 2 I find it too low now. Pool mining will give you predetermined payout based on hashrate and difficulty at any given hour, therefore you get paid every day, hour, whatever it is, and get reliable payouts.

If you mine solo with too little hashrate, you might be delayed 2-3+ days per block as difficulty rises, which in the end will net you less than having had regular profits, luck does play a small role but unless it's a fresh coin with low difficulty, stick to pool mining.
Click to expand...

Give me one i can SOLO mine then?
:)
 
Stick to eth for a while. It is extremely easy to jump into, is still pretty profitable right now, and your AMD cards are best at it. Make some money, buy another card, increase profit, mine some more, rinse, lather, repeat..
 
DuronClocker said:
Stick to eth for a while. It is extremely easy to jump into, is still pretty profitable right now, and your AMD cards are best at it. Make some money, buy another card, increase profit, mine some more, rinse, lather, repeat..
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I agree, looking for new coins all the time is not often the best way to go. You can reinvest what you mine into cheaper upcoming coins, but just like any market, you need to do research and know what you're buying, everything is a risk, nothing is a sure thing. Like Duron pointed out, your AMD cards are best at ETH and its easy to ROI on them right now, I would just get on claymore, set and forget.
 
Maybe, but his "problems" when building machines included bending CPU pins, having to re-seat RAM, and power cables not plugged in correctly don't exactly inspire confidence :D

With AMD hardware, ethereum is going to be more immediately profitable for him, especially if using Nicehash where he gets paid in BTC. If he was going to mine the Zcash directly to hold onto for a while, it might end up paying off. Myself, I'm going to less-risky immediate-reward way here.
 
DuronClocker said:
Maybe, but his "problems" when building machines included bending CPU pins, having to re-seat RAM, and power cables not plugged in correctly don't exactly inspire confidence :D

With AMD hardware, ethereum is going to be more immediately profitable for him, especially if using Nicehash where he gets paid in BTC. If he was going to mine the Zcash directly to hold onto for a while, it might end up paying off. Myself, I'm going to less-risky immediate-reward way here.
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You do have a good point. Im very novice so anyone with any comprehensive info looks like a pro to me...dunning kruger I suppose. So Duron - a single 6x 4GB 470 rig for ETH is still worth setting up? Or should I try for classic?
Do you keep a blog or anything on the miners you have in production?

thanks!
 
1stminingrig.com is another pretty decent resource.

In all honesty, I'm fairly new to the mining thing myself. I only started throwing machines together over the past couple months. I'm going to be putting the 4th 7-gpu machine together over the next few days, and then I'm probably done. Basically at the limits of the power available in my garage, and it is damn warm out there. Its only going to get hotter over the next few months (central Florida). They put out a LOT of heat. Do not underestimate what 1000-1200 watts (per machine!) 24/7 feels like.

Still seems profitable enough to me to throw it all together. Power here is 12-13 cents/kwh, so it isn't too bad. Not quite as cheap as some places though. Revenue varies, but each card generally makes $2+/day after electric, so its $400-500/mo (after electric, before taxes) per 7-card machine. Each machine ends up costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500 including all of the small bits and pieces, so they'll take a few months to break even. Then it is just electric, broken parts, and taxes.

I'm not really well-versed in anything other than eth and zcash, and honestly I'm still quite the novice with those. I use Nicehash on Windows for my GTX 1080Ti (that thing changes between 4-5 different algo's several times a day), and I have ethOS running on the 7-gpu machines. They are running Claymore and connecting to Nicehash's daggerhashimoto pool. As I've mentioned before, it might not be the most profitable way of doing it (Nicehash's pool fee is 3%), but it is convenient to have everything going to one single Nicehash account and automatically dumped to a BTC wallet. One of these days I'll do a little more research and switch to a cheaper eth pool.



If I had to give starter advice to someone who has never tried it before:

1. Go to Coinbase. Set up wallet. Opinions vary widely on the best way to go about setting up a wallet. Coinbase to me was easy, and I don't intend on leaving enough BTC in there ever to really worry about.
2. Go to Nicehash and download their miner.
3. Put your BTC wallet ID in the tool.
4. Benchmark (if you're running AMD hardware, uncheck all boxes other than DaggerHashimoto just to get through the benchmarking faster.. none of the other algos are generally nearly as profitable on AMD hardware).
5. Start mining.
6. Install MSI Afterburner and tweak settings for best power efficiency & performance. If using AMD hardware, look into BIOS modding. Changing memory timings has an immensely positive impact on eth hashrate on AMD cards.
8. Deposit money from Coinbase to bank account.


That's it. Those steps work for both AMD and nVIdia. You just get to skip some with nVidia. You can literally be earning money within 10-15 minutes.
 
rehab said:
You do have a good point. Im very novice so anyone with any comprehensive info looks like a pro to me...dunning kruger I suppose. So Duron - a single 6x 4GB 470 rig for ETH is still worth setting up? Or should I try for classic?
Do you keep a blog or anything on the miners you have in production?

thanks!
Click to expand...

if you ever need some help feel free to shoot me a pm. As regards to your questions yes it is more then profitable right now however the prices on cards are a bit high right now due to the 5 series release. And mem is the only thing that matters on the Polaris cards. And some of the 4gig cards will need to be flashed to get decent performance
 
DuronClocker said:
1stminingrig.com is another pretty decent resource.

In all honesty, I'm fairly new to the mining thing myself. I only started throwing machines together over the past couple months. I'm going to be putting the 4th 7-gpu machine together over the next few days, and then I'm probably done. Basically at the limits of the power available in my garage, and it is damn warm out there. Its only going to get hotter over the next few months (central Florida). They put out a LOT of heat. Do not underestimate what 1000-1200 watts (per machine!) 24/7 feels like.

Still seems profitable enough to me to throw it all together. Power here is 12-13 cents/kwh, so it isn't too bad. Not quite as cheap as some places though. Revenue varies, but each card generally makes $2+/day after electric, so its $400-500/mo (after electric, before taxes) per 7-card machine. Each machine ends up costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500 including all of the small bits and pieces, so they'll take a few months to break even. Then it is just electric, broken parts, and taxes.

I'm not really well-versed in anything other than eth and zcash, and honestly I'm still quite the novice with those. I use Nicehash on Windows for my GTX 1080Ti (that thing changes between 4-5 different algo's several times a day), and I have ethOS running on the 7-gpu machines. They are running Claymore and connecting to Nicehash's daggerhashimoto pool. As I've mentioned before, it might not be the most profitable way of doing it (Nicehash's pool fee is 3%), but it is convenient to have everything going to one single Nicehash account and automatically dumped to a BTC wallet. One of these days I'll do a little more research and switch to a cheaper eth pool.



If I had to give starter advice to someone who has never tried it before:

1. Go to Coinbase. Set up wallet. Opinions vary widely on the best way to go about setting up a wallet. Coinbase to me was easy, and I don't intend on leaving enough BTC in there ever to really worry about.
2. Go to Nicehash and download their miner.
3. Put your BTC wallet ID in the tool.
4. Benchmark (if you're running AMD hardware, uncheck all boxes other than DaggerHashimoto just to get through the benchmarking faster.. none of the other algos are generally nearly as profitable on AMD hardware).
5. Start mining.
6. Install MSI Afterburner and tweak settings for best power efficiency & performance. If using AMD hardware, look into BIOS modding. Changing memory timings has an immensely positive impact on eth hashrate on AMD cards.
8. Deposit money from Coinbase to bank account.


That's it. Those steps work for both AMD and nVIdia. You just get to skip some with nVidia. You can literally be earning money within 10-15 minutes.
Click to expand...

I use etherminer and claymore miner on all my rigs it gives a bit more control on when you cash out your ether and is a bit more efficient
 
Well i left this thread and went and purchased 2 of the MSI Armor 580 OC 8GB cards at B&H. I had some credit there...so... I read there is no real benefit to the 5 series but since cost was not an issue...what the heck.

Here is the rest of the hardware..its all sitting in boxes from last PC. Im a little concerned I will run into issues with the age of my board and the 580s.. but I will flash the BIOS tonight.

Core i7-860
Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO
Asus - P7P55D-E PRO ATX LGA1156 Motherboard
Crucial - Ballistix Sport 16GB
Kingston - HyperX Fury 240GB 2.5
Thermaltake TOUGHPOWER 750W 80 PLUS GOLD

Crossfire is pointless correct? Any recommendations on Linux or Win for this? I will be looking into ETC to start with.

I figure since this all cost me out of pocket 209.00 I might as well give it the ol' college try.

Thanks for any info - and thanks for the offer cdabc123 , im sure ill take you up on that over PM.
 
rehab said:
Well i left this thread and went and purchased 2 of the MSI Armor 580 OC 8GB cards at B&H. I had some credit there...so... I read there is no real benefit to the 5 series but since cost was not an issue...what the heck.

Here is the rest of the hardware..its all sitting in boxes from last PC. Im a little concerned I will run into issues with the age of my board and the 580s.. but I will flash the BIOS tonight.

Core i7-860
Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO
Asus - P7P55D-E PRO ATX LGA1156 Motherboard
Crucial - Ballistix Sport 16GB
Kingston - HyperX Fury 240GB 2.5
Thermaltake TOUGHPOWER 750W 80 PLUS GOLD

Crossfire is pointless correct? Any recommendations on Linux or Win for this? I will be looking into ETC to start with.

I figure since this all cost me out of pocket 209.00 I might as well give it the ol' college try.

Thanks for any info - and thanks for the offer cdabc123 , im sure ill take you up on that over PM.
Click to expand...

the board will be fine all my rigs run on supermicro dual 1366 boards with a Xeon l5520 (I got the combos for around 60 each)

I heard the 580s can have a issue with flashing the bios but I don't remember details. You will also want to find one with specific memory (I also don't remember this I have yet to mess with those cards much)

don't crossfire the cards just plug then in and install drivers.

If your good with linux feel free to use it but I would recommend windows 2012r2 that is what I use on am my rigs and it works great.
 
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Remember that you may calculate profits today but a month from now it may be significantly less. Coin price changes can swing drastically but people always forget that difficulty is what really kills it.
 
workshop35 said:
Remember that you may calculate profits today but a month from now it may be significantly less. Coin price changes can swing drastically but people always forget that difficulty is what really kills it.
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true but their are a few coins currently profitable so even if one fall off the face of the earth their is a good chance something else is profitable
 
cdabc123 said:
true but their are a few coins currently profitable so even if one fall off the face of the earth their is a good chance something else is profitable
Click to expand...

Yup, theres usually something you can make a tiny bit off of. I just think its important that people realize that you may think you can get return on investment in a few months at current prices and difficulty, when in fact it may take three times as long as what they think and it might not happen at all.
 
I still dont understand how to calculate this stuff, i dont get it at all,
I need somebody to do this with me on desktop screen share
speaking in words is not the same, draw me a picture.
 
workshop35 said:
Yup, theres usually something you can make a tiny bit off of. I just think its important that people realize that you may think you can get return on investment in a few months at current prices and difficulty, when in fact it may take three times as long as what they think and it might not happen at all.
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That's not true.

I sold my 290s and 280s when litecoin crashed. If I kept mining I'd be laughing my way to the bank right now.

I missed last year's ether mining crazy by 5 month. By the time I started last June I could've ROIed more than 3 times if I kept my old cards.

Right now I have a shitload of 470s and 570s. I'm keeping them even if the profits barely pay for electricity.
 
TheLAWNoob said:
That's not true.

I sold my 290s and 280s when litecoin crashed. If I kept mining I'd be laughing my way to the bank right now.

I missed last year's ether mining crazy by 5 month. By the time I started last June I could've ROIed more than 3 times if I kept my old cards.

Right now I have a shitload of 470s and 570s. I'm keeping them even if the profits barely pay for electricity.
Click to expand...

It is true. What I said was that you cant look at todays price/difficulty and make an accurate prediction of when you will make ROI. You dont have a crystal ball on what will happen to the price or how saturated the mining market becomes.

You might get lucky and start mining before a price spike but it doesnt always happen that way. And if you keep mining at a loss during the bad times it can negate the future price spikes. And you only make that extra if you hold the coins and eat the electricity cost anyway. When the price jumps so does difficulty, so those profits are never consistent regardless.
 
what mining pool everyone using? and what program to mine ETH are you using. Looking to jumping back into mining with all these prices surging.
 
I've recently switched from Nicehash over to ethermine.org using Claymore 9.3 for everything.
 
How do these pool services work for people who would use their system for gaming a couple hours a day and wan their PC back in full during that time?

I have a couple Fury X cards on a I7 4770k as my primary machine. I like to game most every night for a couple hours. Is that a problem? Otherwise I could just let my machine run the mining functions while I'm at work or hanging with the family. I'm the only user of the PC.

Is it worth it for something casual like that? I see on the calculators the Fury X should be worth like 30 to 33 MH/s -- so a pair might get 60 MH/s?

http://www.mycryptobuddy.com/EthereumMiningCalculator

Seems like I might make like $50 a month or so? Is that right?

If you join a pool like nicehash or whatever - are they expecting you to be mining non stop?
mining.JPG
 
^ You'd make what the graph on the right shows if the price stays flat and the difficulty continues increasing at the same rate that it has in the past month. The $50 in the chart is power cost.

Can't speak for all pools but for something like ethermine the fee is only 1% and you can mine as little or as often as you want.
 
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PiERiT said:
^ You'd make what the graph on the right shows if the price stays flat and the difficulty continues increasing at the same rate that it has in the past month. The $50 in the chart is power cost.

Can't speak for all pools but for something like ethermine the fee is only 1% and you can mine as little or as often as you want.
Click to expand...
Ha. Whoops read that wrong.

So with ethermine do you have a good link to a setup guide you'd recommend?

I guess I'll give it a shot.

What about nicehash as a option? How to you advise working towards the strongest most efficient currency since that seems to switch regularly.
 
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Do you have an ETH wallet already? http://parity.io if not. Install it and grab your wallet address from the Accounts tab (starts with 0x).

Then download Claymore (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1433925.0) and add your pool address (us1.ethermine.org:4444) and your wallet address (from parity) to the config.txt file (be sure to uncomment those lines as well) and run the EXE. After about a minute it should begin showing you the MH rate for both cards. There's other settings and some specifically for AMD cards that you can mess around with. Everything is in that thread.

ETH is deposited into your wallet once you've accumulated one coin. You can set it lower at ethermine.org but there's an extra fee to do so.

That's the gist of it, or at least as much as I'm willing to type on my phone. :)
 
Archaea said:
How do these pool services work for people who would use their system for gaming a couple hours a day and wan their PC back in full during that time?

I have a couple Fury X cards on a I7 4770k as my primary machine. I like to game most every night for a couple hours. Is that a problem? Otherwise I could just let my machine run the mining functions while I'm at work or hanging with the family. I'm the only user of the PC.

Is it worth it for something casual like that? I see on the calculators the Fury X should be worth like 30 to 33 MH/s -- so a pair might get 60 MH/s?

http://www.mycryptobuddy.com/EthereumMiningCalculator

Seems like I might make like $50 a month or so? Is that right?

If you join a pool like nicehash or whatever - are they expecting you to be mining non stop?
View attachment 26702
Click to expand...

you need to treat these mining calculators as theoretical maximums. Think of it as IDE and ATA100. 100 MB was the maximum speed the bus would support, but in reality benchmarks never hit that point. You are unlikely to hit the numbers you get from these cryptocurrency calculators.
 
linking a bank account with these crypto sights - (coinbase offers to let me link my checking account by providing them the user name and password) That sounds outright crazy. I think i'll do it the old fashioned way of verification of deposit.
 
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