Question about mining

So my brother asked me about investing in some form of bitcoin, "Etherium" specifically. Is it better to just buy it and sit on it or is it possible to start mining it with a spare rig I have to get a feel for how it all works. Is their stock in Etherium or is the stock the actual coin?

I have many dual to hexa core intel systems lying around as well as gtx 980ti, 970, 2x 7870, 5850, 6850 ect not in use, and a 12 kilowatt solar system rolling the meter back faster than I can use it in the summer.

I guess my plan would be a dual core intel and the 2 7870s crunching 24/7 to learn about the whole ecosystem. And if it was fun/profitable expand from their.

Any thoughts or advice, is it even worth the effort.

Thanks for your advice and time.

Normally with those cards, I would say don't bother mining and instead purchase Ethereum.
The solar power makes this interesting. Even if you get maybe 6-8 hours where the solar offsets the power, it might be worth it for you. But honestly, those cards won't get you too much coin for the power usage.

You may be better off selling all those cards and getting 2x RX570s (if you can find them instock). You will benefit much more from newer hardware. R9 290 minimum, RX400, RX500 preferred.

Coins are effectively the "stocks"

I don't actually know if any of that AMD hardware can mine ether, but the 970 and 980Ti wouldn't be horrible at it. They should be relatively equivalent to an out-of-the-box RX 470 in terms of speed. DriveEuro is right in that the RX400/500 series cards are the way to go for mining ether, but the inventory has dried up and prices have skyrocketed.

The 7870 actually isn't absolutely horrible at mining ZEC. It can be undervolted and underclocked down to around 120w and still generate enough to be considered at least profitable since you already own it.

Wondering about this as well. At the current time I'm mining and holding, but if I eventually sell I'd assume I'd need to pay capital gains on what was sold.

Thanks guys for the advice and info. I guess ill try out the 7870s to get a feel for it all and if it breaks even, that be enough for me to learn about this. I do have a 290x tri cool as well I guess I can play with to see which setups more efficient...lots o-cards to test and play with...I know I'm not getting rich but if its free for me to try it I figure why not check it out.

Good luck to you all out their and have a great memorial day

I said 'screw it, lets waste some money and buy a mining rig and try mining some ETH' but it looks like everyone else had the same idea as the AMD cards seem to be sold out everywhere

Guess I'll save my money

Danith said:

I said 'screw it, lets waste some money and buy a mining rig and try mining some ETH' but it looks like everyone else had the same idea as the AMD cards seem to be sold out everywhere

Guess I'll save my money

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Ditto. The cards I have laying around are useless except for my 1070 and I don't want to burn that one 24x7. Couldn't find any 480's in stock. Some 460's for $100+ or GTX 1050TI's same price. It would probably take me a year to recover the cash I spent on a video card.