Throwing my hat into Cryptocurrency

[msvirtualguy]

I spent last night (probably stayed up too late) going over this cryptocurrency thing and after reviewing options and seeing what was out that there is actually available i decided on GPU based mining.

I purchased the following:
Refurb Asus B250 Strix: $116
Intel G3930 Kaby Lake Dual-Core: $43
1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX 4GB DDR4 2400: $34
2 x Corsair Refurb RM750x PS: $150 total
6pack USB 3.0 PCI-E Express 1x to 16x Extender Risers: $89
2 x Evga GTX 1060 Single fan + Hopefully the one in Patricks Post so 3 for now and trying to find 3 more for a total of 6.
Chrome 5-Shelf Steel Wire Layer Shelving: I'll be putting some wood on the shelf to place the components and hang the GTX 1060's with Zipties above each shelf.

This is phase one to see how things go and if Crypto continues to grow, i'll invest in another setup and just move to the next shelf and so on.

Total cost for everything should be around the $1900 mark.

I also have my new workstation that sits at night and when i'm traveling that has a GTX 1080Ti, would love to get that working for me as well.

I probably will run Windows 10 on the new build and already run windows 10 on my current workstation.

Any thoughts or input on this config? I figured it's the best config that I could find that has availability. Stock is scarce on AMD cards are way above normal sane price levels and even the 1060's are demanding a premium of about $60 above normal prices which is why I went the 1060 route.

 

[Marsh]

What are you going to mine?

If you are going to mine XMR, CPU mining still very profitable.
I am avoiding to buy any new GPU card in the short term, hate to pay insane premium price.
I'll wait for the GPU market to crash.

 

[marcoi]

Seems like the market is in a rinse and repeat pattern. IE something sparks a growth where cards and coins are exploding and everyone wants in, which causes huge inflation on GPU costs. Then eventually the coins hit the next level and everything drops back down to normal. If you can plan how you mine to ride that wave you can make good on mining then selling off old cards. IE If i held onto my two r9 290x cards, they would be close to double the value i sold them for.

1. prior to start of next wave, buy a lot of cards
2. mine with cards right till breaking point, then sell what you have.
3. wait for breaking point and gpu prices to lower.
4. buy new cards when prices are down and wait for next wave.

Just a though, it probably very hard to predict when things will be hot and cold.

 

[msvirtualguy]

What are you going to mine?

Planning to mine Ethereum

I can live with a $60 premium on cards, I can't for for $160 like the RX470s that's why I went with the 1060's. According to my research I should get about 22-23Mh/s each card. Here's the calculator:





What are you guys using for Wallets?

 

[Marsh]

You pay 0.04 KW/h.
You will make money with any coins.
Which city / state are you located . I want to move to your city.
I am paying $0.28 per KW/h , with AC going, it would hit high usage tier at $0.40 per KW/h .
Last few days , my city Danville ,CA temperature was 99-103 degree, power usage with AC and mining was like 125KW per day.

 

[Monoman]

the biggest takeaway from this post is 0.040KW/h??? holy hell that's CHEAP! we pay 0.22/KW/h here... I still mine.

 

[zhoulander]

dat power rate!!!

 

[msvirtualguy]

Doh! That actually should say .09 KW/h...and yeah..electricity is cheap but where we get hammered is Natural Gas delivery charges especially in the winter...so i'm sure it's a wash.

Updating the calculation now.

 

[cactus]

@msvirtualguy Are you looking to hold or just cash out? If you believe a single coin is going to stay in vogue(and thus value), mine just it. I see it as the Altcoins will come and go, but BTC could last longer. LTC was up a ton on the rumor MtGox would start exchanging it, so it was the coin to mine at the time. I have been using nicehash (their client is Windows only, you can point your Linux miner to their stratum) to run a 1080Ti, a 290, and a 290x. XMR is not run, but ZCash and Etherium are the two coins I see mining mostly. It switches to what hash rate is selling for the most at the time and pays out BTC.

The 290s(one unlocked to a 290x) were from the LTC boom in 2014. The dual 290(x)s are about equal hashing power as the 1080Ti for ~2x the power usage.

 

[msvirtualguy]

Honestly, my thought was continually cash out because of the risk.

What wallet are you guys using that's secure but not hardware?

 

[Klee]

I spent last night (probably stayed up too late) going over this cryptocurrency thing and after reviewing options and seeing what was out that there is actually available i decided on GPU based mining.

I purchased the following:
Refurb Asus B250 Strix: $116
Intel G3930 Kaby Lake Dual-Core: $43
1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX 4GB DDR4 2400: $34
2 x Corsair Refurb RM750x PS: $150 total
6pack USB 3.0 PCI-E Express 1x to 16x Extender Risers: $89
2 x Evga GTX 1060 Single fan + Hopefully the one in Patricks Post so 3 for now and trying to find 3 more for a total of 6.
Chrome 5-Shelf Steel Wire Layer Shelving: I'll be putting some wood on the shelf to place the components and hang the GTX 1060's with Zipties above each shelf.

This is phase one to see how things go and if Crypto continues to grow, i'll invest in another setup and just move to the next shelf and so on.

Total cost for everything should be around the $1900 mark.

I also have my new workstation that sits at night and when i'm traveling that has a GTX 1080Ti, would love to get that working for me as well.

I probably will run Windows 10 on the new build and already run windows 10 on my current workstation.

Any thoughts or input on this config? I figured it's the best config that I could find that has availability. Stock is scarce on AMD cards are way above normal sane price levels and even the 1060's are demanding a premium of about $60 above normal prices which is why I went the 1060 route.

GTX 1060 3 GB or 6 GB?

With ETH DAG heading up the 3 GB cards will only be profitable for a couple of months.

 

[msvirtualguy]

GTX 1060 3 GB or 6 GB?

I'll have 4 x 6GB Cards and 2 x 3GB cards. I'll just resell the 3GB if/when the DAG exceeds the 3GB limitation.

 

[Marsh]

6pack USB 3.0 PCI-E Express 1x to 16x Extender Risers: $89

What version of riser are you getting?
version 006c or version 7
I am going to order few version 7 riser next few day from Ebay.

 

[msvirtualguy]

6Pack USB 3.0 PCI-E Express 1x To 16x Extender Riser Card Adapter Mining Monero BTC with 6pin & 4pin on Board, USB 3.0 Cable 60CM + 15Pin SATA to Molex 4Pin Power Cable-Newegg.com

 

[Marsh]

Version 7 riser uses SATA power plug instead of 4 or 6 pin molex
pro:
1 - no need for the molex to sata power adapter cable , some of the power adapter cable are not reliable.
2 - pci-e riser gets 3.3v from PS directly without extra voltage regulator , less heat.

I have 4 RX GPU cards, I'll order version 7 to test it out.

 

[Kybber]

So $8000 profit per year and $1900 investment cost. Please let us know around mid September whether you've actually covered the initial investment. And if not: What were the main contributing factors that caused the initial projection to fail?

 

[msvirtualguy]

So $8000 profit per year and $1900 investment cost. Please let us know around mid September whether you've actually covered the initial investment. And if not: What were the main contributing factors that caused the initial projection to fail?

I will be watching the market regularly and try to be setup to move between currency hopefully to stay above water. Sure it's a risk but what isn't these days that has any sort of decent roi?

Basically, ya have to watch the market..and if Ethereum explodes...i'll have to be adaptable.

 

[BobbyB]

Don't forget your calculator doesn't take into account difficulty increase over time and the current unsustainable (depends on viewpoint of course) valuation of ETH. So your 27ETH/year shrinks to something reasonable like 12-16ETH/year. 100% utilization is also not given, there will be some downtime most likely. Finally, ETH valuation - assume rather 100-150USD/ETH than the current peak.
Sure, the valuation could increase but in such case you are better off just buying straight, imho. With ~15Eth at 150 you are looking at what, 2250$/year before power costs are deducted.

Not to be debbie downer but there is another part of the equation. Sure the hardware can be sold, at 50-70%, to recoup some invest.

For me it comes down to it how you value your time. If you got plenty of it, go for it. If you got spare HW and/or infrastructure with proper colling and power, sure go for it. If you are long on cryptocurrency in general or some specific cases, buy and hold. If it's a hobby project for fun, go for it. Just be honest with yourself.
Not a popular opinion around here I'm sure but definitely consider your time needed for getting it up and running and keeping mining operations active and how you see medium term market use and value of cryptotokens.
(disclaimer: I buy and hold, small position of 2-3 tokens and expect a big correction soon to buy some cheap GPUs for hashcat, opencl and other, better uses)

What are you guys using for Wallets?

Don't trust anything that's online or shared. You should own it. Isolated VM is my approach, with paper backup (don't own ETH, so no idea about specifics for that)

 

[Marsh]

If it's a hobby project for fun, go for it. Just be honest with yourself.

I do not want to derail this thread.
I have to tell a funny story about mining and my wife.

Every time the fans of 2U mining server ramp up making loud noise, my wife would said that we found a coin.
I just node my head and agree with her.

 

[msvirtualguy]

What's the difference in markets vs crypto? You have to diversify. I will not be solely mining for ETH just starting there, and yes..this is really about hobby with a possible payback. I have a room in basement that used to house my rack..etc...which is now empty. Figured it would be good to put it to use.

I also have stock too, and trade as well, that doesn't take over my life.