The CryptoMining PC Hardware Thread

[Reynod]

Ok ... you asked for it so here it is.

This is a sticky for discussion regarding computer hardware required for CryptoMining.

Fire away and discuss the best CPU's, GPU's, memory and associated hardware ... post your stats ... discuss what is currently out there and add anything of value from a hardware perspective ... from budget to high end.

We will review this in a week and see how it goes.

There has been a lot of discussion in the last couple of months about graphics cards ... anyone want to start there with some benchies?

I will leave this in the CPU forum area to start with.

There are two additional threads on this topic, one is in GPUs and the other is in components:
- Components: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2041828/crypto-currencies-coin-mining-rest-rig.html
- GPUs: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2041557/crypto-currency-mining-graphics-cards.html

These threads deal with GPUs and the rest of the components that make up a solid rig for coin mining. - G-unit1111

 

[getochkn]

I find CPU mining isn't worth it for the performance vs power used, at least in the current scrypt mining.

I have an 8320, overclocked to 4.5ghz, ram at 2133mhz and I get about 11kh/s per core when using 4-6 cores, so 44-66kh/s. When I go to 8 cores, it drops to about 8kh/s, so 8x8=64kh/s, but my PC is hard to use with all 8 cores used and no difference between 6 and 8 so at 8, something is being bottlenecked, either HT or memory or what not.

With my PC overclocked, probably drawing 150-200w for the CPU with it running at full load. That's a lot of power for a ~60kh/s rate. For comparison, a 7750 video card, less than $100, can do ~150kh/s at a power draw of 50-60w, so almost 3x the performance, 1/3-1/4 of the power, less heat and less stres of running an overclocked CPU 24/7. A cheap secondary 7750 could do way more and no impact your system in anyways if you used that card only for mining.

According to https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison a 4770 can do 80-90 and does use less power than AMD, but again still no where what a 7750 could do and not be using all your cpu 24/7.

I don't think there is any value in x86 based scrypt mining. The thermal and electrical costs can be doubled or tripled with a cheap video card.

 

[vmN]

I don't see the reason to mine on the CPU, as mention above it simply isn't worth it.

I have build a couple of mining rigs for some people, where I used the Sempron 145, 2GB of RAM and then just pump it up with r9 280xs.

 

[Reynod]

I saw some tables in another thread showing various systems ... can one of you guys find it and put it here?

I'll put it at the top of the sticky and acknowledge the user / source of course.

 

[getochkn]

I saw some tables in another thread showing various systems ... can one of you guys find it and put it here?

I'll put it at the top of the sticky and acknowledge the user / source of course.

https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison does that no answer most of it?

 

[Reynod]

Hey thanks for that.

 

[Cazalan]

Hash to $$$ rates for the various cryptocoins.

http://www.dustcoin.com/

 

[Benevolence]

Here's an interesting concept build I helped a friend put together a while ago, I ended up inheriting (no he didn't die) his motherboard, but it was a fun experiment while it lasted: Asus P7P55 Supercomputer Board, i5 lga1156 (forgot the model), FIVE gtx 290 cards. We used this for crypto hashing and pen testing for a CS class, but this thing was freakin' awesome! BTW ran off a 900w PSU
*correction it used 2 900w PSU.*
I'm pretty sure that a modern correlation of this setup could use 5 GTX750 without the need for an external power supply.

 

[Elenadavid]

I think the above discussion regarding computer hardware required for CryptoMining is full of the various relative aspects for the same. One must go through the same in order to ascertain some good knowledge about the computer hardware and relative aspects as well.

 

[vmN]

Worth a read:

http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/9854/why-do-amds-gpus-mine-faster-than-nvidias

 

[tankNZ]

Here's an interesting concept build I helped a friend put together a while ago, I ended up inheriting (no he didn't die) his motherboard, but it was a fun experiment while it lasted: Asus P7P55 Supercomputer Board, i5 lga1156 (forgot the model), FIVE gtx 290 cards. We used this for crypto hashing and pen testing for a CS class, but this thing was freakin' awesome! BTW ran off a 900w PSU

That's interesting...

 

[sonoran]

Hash to $$$ rates for the various cryptocoins.

http://www.dustcoin.com/

Has anyone seen a complete ROI analysis on mining? It doesn't matter what the hash generation rate is if you'll never recoup the initial hardware costs + electricity costs + added cooling costs (I guess this last one would actually be reduced heating costs during winter).

 

[toprock]

Hash to $$$ rates for the various cryptocoins.

http://www.dustcoin.com/

Has anyone seen a complete ROI analysis on mining? It doesn't matter what the hash generation rate is if you'll never recoup the initial hardware costs + electricity costs + added cooling costs (I guess this last one would actually be reduced heating costs during winter).

We have a x30 GPU 290 tower which has already paid itself off (circa 100 days) so everything now is pure profit. Great alternative to stocks and shares as in a year if it all hits the fan your still left with the assets and can sell the hardware for a good return too!

This heats the office so windows have been open all winter, nice and toasty! Will move it downstairs come summer. Extra fans aren't an issue as built into the Gladiator mining frame...

 

[toprock]

Here is a great entry level setup based around the fact CPU, memory, etc isn't all that important, its all about quality PSU, the more efficient the less the electricity costs and big ATI graphics cards...


• CPU: Intel Pentium G3220 3.00GHz Dual Core (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor
• Graphics: 4x AMD Radeon 280X 3GB GDDR5 Graphics Cards
• RAM: 4GB DDR3
• Motherboard: Asus H81M-Plus Intel H81 Micro ATX Motherboard
• Cooler: Intel CPU Cooler
• Audio: High Definition Audio
• Case: Custom-Built Aluminium Frame
• Risers: 4x PCI-E 1x16x Risers
• PSU: 1200W Corsair AXi Platinum Modular Power Supply
• Storage: 320GB 2.5" HDD
• Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium

 

[younes-ea]

I've readed from hardware.info (dutch versoin) that biostar will release a baord with build in things and a 130w tdp and it mines at 24 gigahases here is the site (translated) http://www.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnl.hardware.info%2Fnieuws%2F39274%2Fbitcoins-minen-met-speciaal-qmoederbordq-van-biostar

 

[Cazalan]

The IRS wants in on your virtual coin. So now you'll have computer costs, power costs and the IRS to deal with. They consider it property and since it is easy to look up the value on an exchange for how much it's worth, they expect their cut. Doesn't make much sense to me. If you're a carpenter and you buy some wood, nails and an electric saw and build a table. You wouldn't get taxed again on the reassembled good before even selling it.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/r-says-bitcoin-considered-property-185947019.html

Q-8: Does a taxpayer who “mines” virtual currency (for example, uses computer resources to validate bitcoin transactions and maintain the public bitcoin transaction ledger) realize gross income upon receipt of the virtual currency resulting from those activities?

A-8: Yes, when a taxpayer successfully “mines” virtual currency, the fair market value of the virtual currency as of the date of receipt is includible in gross income. See Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income, for more information on taxable income.

 

[toprock]

Cazalan how can they track virtual wallets?

They can't :- D

 

[Cazalan]

Cazalan how can they track virtual wallets?

They can't :- D

Perhaps you haven't heard of the NSA? I'm not saying they will, but unless you can afford a good lawyer it's generally not advised to cross the IRS. They can ruin your life. The gov is 18 trillion in debt. That's $60,000 per US resident, but closer to $180,000 per tax payer. If they get your name from an exchange and realize you're not putting anything down on your taxes they can flag you for an audit.

 

[toprock]

Cazalan, the number of people mining is a spec of dust in space VS the masses earning money through official means/paid jobs etc.

I think your overestimating how many people do this, and more importantly how many people do this and actually make a profit ;- )

 

[Cazalan]

Cazalan, the number of people mining is a spec of dust in space VS the masses earning money through official means/paid jobs etc.

I think your overestimating how many people do this, and more importantly how many people do this and actually make a profit ;- )

Well I did get a bill once from the IRS for 60,000 so I'm a bit more paranoid about it. That took a couple months to clear up and it was an error on their part. They were going to seize $3,500 of my salary a month from my employer until the balance was paid.

Anyhow it's not about profit because it's not treated as a currency. It's treated as property. So the minute you generate a bitcoin they want their cut. So just generating 1 bitcoin would raise your income by $1000 before the crash. Which depending on your tax bracket could mean an extra $200 to the IRS.

It probably would take a few years for the IRS to start catching up with this stuff but they will eventually. There was a time when they weren't even monitoring stock options trading.

Anyhow a bit off topic, but figured people wanting to get serious about mining might want to know what they're in for.

 

[Benevolence]

Whatever you do, don't go this route:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/02/harvard-supercomputing-cluster-hijacked-to-produce-alt-cryptocurrency/
The worst part is the supercomputer cluster is 99% CPU power. 17 hours later (and about $1000 in power usage) and he successfully mined about $200 worth of "Dodgecoin"
Much coin
Very power!

 

[Fr33Th1nk3r]

All those miners buying up amd cards are driving prices crazy high. Why does mining use a GPU and not a CPU?

 

[getochkn]

All those miners buying up amd cards are driving prices crazy high. Why does mining use a GPU and not a CPU?

GPU can do 10x the processing a CPU can for this type of task. For example, my 8 core CPU would get about 11 kh/s, 8 cores, 88kh/s. My 7870 GPU, nothing that great in terms of top cards, could get 350 kh/s. 4x the rate for a GPU that costs the same as the CPU. Now add 4 videos card, 1 CPU on a motherboard does 88, 4 video cards does 1400.

And ASCI mining, a way using small CPU's made just for this task, are taking place and the GPU mining is dying, there is no more inflated cards. In fact, prices are dropping. Used cards are cheap as hell as miners are dumping their cards, and manufacturing, take a year to get card production up enough to keep up with mining demand, now will have tonnes of excess cards and will dump them. Retailers who couldn't keep them in stock, started ordering more and more, and now are stuck with lots of extra cards, and are selling them on sale. AMD prices are going down, not up. That was so last month. lol.

 

[Fr33Th1nk3r]

All those miners buying up amd cards are driving prices crazy high. Why does mining use a GPU and not a CPU?

GPU can do 10x the processing a CPU can for this type of task. For example, my 8 core CPU would get about 11 kh/s, 8 cores, 88kh/s. My 7870 GPU, nothing that great in terms of top cards, could get 350 kh/s. 4x the rate for a GPU that costs the same as the CPU. Now add 4 videos card, 1 CPU on a motherboard does 88, 4 video cards does 1400.

And ASCI mining, a way using small CPU's made just for this task, are taking place and the GPU mining is dying, there is no more inflated cards. In fact, prices are dropping. Used cards are cheap as hell as miners are dumping their cards, and manufacturing, take a year to get card production up enough to keep up with mining demand, now will have tonnes of excess cards and will dump them. Retailers who couldn't keep them in stock, started ordering more and more, and now are stuck with lots of extra cards, and are selling them on sale. AMD prices are going down, not up. That was so last month. lol.

Is it even profitable? Do you need to know code to get into it? Because I don't really care about learning code.

 

[Benevolence]

The best part is you need ZERO programming knowledge to get started, however basic math skills and a robust knowledge of computer hardware will get you much farther.
You don't need to do any programming, and can download pre-made miners which will simply let your computer do all the work for you.
BE WARNED! The biggest factor is electricity/hardware price compared to profitability. You need to spend a lot of money on a dedicated GPU miner or ASIC unit to see a return on your investment before the hash difficulty makes this a loosing investment. Alternatively, running a miner on old hardware may also be a losing game as the $electricity/$mining ratio approaches and surpasses a 1:1 ratio. If you want to see a return on your investment, get GREAT equipment and run it as fast/soon as possible as you will soon see a diminishing return on your investment as the hashing difficulty increases.

So don't try this on a CPU, outdated or energy inefficient hardware, and do your research before buying into it, just like any other investment.