April 18th, 2013 
CryptoBadger 
One of my finished plastic-crate mining rigs.
So you’re interested in mining cryptocurrency, but you’re not sure where to start? No problem, this guide is all you need to set up your own headless litecoin mining rig—even if you have absolutely no experience with this sort of thing.
First, let’s get the obvious question out of the way: why litecoins? After all, bitcoins are worth more, right? The simple answer is that at the time of this writing, litecoins are currently the most profitable cryptocurrency to mine when you take into account how much each coin is worth, and the time required to mine one. Rest assured that if the situation changes, and another cryptocurrency suddenly surpasses litecoin as the best mining option, the rig outlined in the guide should have no problem switching over to a new coin.
This guide will be broken into several parts, each focusing on a different aspect of building your first mining rig. First, let’s take a look at what you’ll need in terms of hardware to put a respectable miner together.
Build your own Litecoin Mining Rig, part 1: Hardware
4/06/2017: This guide is roughly three years old. Please don’t attempt to buy any of the hardware recommended here—it’s quite obsolete! If you’re looking for information about modern GPU mining, please click here for my updated 2017 guide on mining Ethereum.
Here is the list of hardware that I recommend:
| Motherboard | ASRock 970 Extreme4 |
$98 |
| Processor | AMD Sempron 145 |
$38 |
| Memory | 4GB G.SKILL DDR3 SDRAM (2 x 2GB) |
$46 |
| Power Supply | Seasonic 860w Platinum PSU |
$199 |
| GPUs | 3 x MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 (Twin Frozr) |
$319 each |
| (optional) | 3 x PCI-E riser cable | $5 each |
| (for dummy plugs) | 68 ohm 1/2 watt resistors | $3 |
Update 11/26/2013: The Radeon 7950 video cards are sold out pretty much everywhere. They’re still the best option for mining if you can find them, but if you can’t, then the new Radeon R9 280X cards are likely your best option. They do consume a fair bit more power though, so you”ll want to upgrade your power supply as well (this 1250w Seasonic should support three 280X GPUs without problems). As for brands, I recommend these Sapphire, Gigabyte, and MSI 280X cards for now. I’ll be updating the rest of my guide at some point in the near future with optimal settings for the 280X, so stay tuned.
Update 12/01/2013: If you’re trying to put a rig together, you’ve probably noticed that the above video cards have become nearly impossible to find. I’ve received a few messages from folks that are having some good results using the R9 290 cards, although they’re a fair bit more expensive than the 280X. If you’re itching to build a rig ASAP and can’t find a 7950 or 280X, then you might consider the 290. It looks like all of the current 290 cards are using AMD’s reference cooling design at the moment, so brand probably doesn’t matter too much. Although given a choice, you usually can’t go wrong with Sapphire, Gigabyte, and MSI. Again, remember to pick up a fairly powerful PSU if you’re going to run 3 of these in a rig.
You will also need a USB stick (8GB or larger, this one is fine) if you’re using Linux as your OS, or a harddrive (a cheap SATA drive of any size will do) if you’re using Windows. I will cover setup on both Linux and Windows in the next sections of this guide, as well as the pros and cons of each.
The video cards may be difficult to find, as they’re popular and often sell out. You can substitute nearly any 7950-based GPU, but if you have a choice, go for the MSI or Sapphire cards. They’re not voltage-locked and will save you some electricity in the long run. I have the MSI card that I recommended in all of my rigs, but I’m told that this (and also this) Sapphire card is also a good choice.
The motherboard, CPU, and RAM are all relatively unimportant. The motherboard simply needs to have enough PCI-E slots to host your three GPUs (if the recommended board isn’t available, here is another, or if you can’t find either ASRock, this Gigabyte board is a good alternative). The CPU will essentially sit idle, as all of the actual mining is done by the GPUs. The Sempron 145 is an excellent choice here because it’s cheap and draws very little power (if the Sempron is unavailable, this one is also a fine choice). If you’re going with Linux, you can get away with even less than 4GB of RAM, but I’d stick to that as a realistic minimum on Windows.
The power supply is important, and you don’t want to skimp on it. The Seasonic that I’ve recommended is extremely solid and 93% efficient, which will help keep power consumption to a minimum. It’s also modular, which is really nice if you’re putting this together in a plastic crate like I recommend.
The PCI-E risers aren’t strictly necessary, as all 3 GPUs will fit on the motherboard without them. However, airflow will be extremely limited due to the close proximity of the cards, and I really don’t recommend setting them up that way long-term. The riser cables allow you to position the GPUs off of the motherboard in a more spaced-out fashion. I dropped the temperature of my GPUs by nearly 10 degrees Celcius by simply using risers to separate them. Availability and pricing on Amazon is constantly changing, so check eBay if you can’t find them.
Important: you may also need to create dummy plugs for each of your GPUs. Some operating systems will idle video cards that do not have an active monitor connection, which will obviously kill your mining performance. Dummy plugs “trick” your OS into thinking a monitor is connected, thus preventing attached GPUs from being idled. You just need a few resistors ($1-2 at Radio Shack if they’re not available at Amazon) and these instructions to create your own plugs.
So you’ve got nearly $1400 worth of hardware, but no place to put it, as I haven’t mentioned a case. I highly recommend against trying to cram 3 GPUs into a conventional PC case. A plastic crate or two works far better due to the tremendous heat that the video cards will give off. Added bonus: they’re cheap!
Here is what you’ll need to create a simple DIY plastic crate housing for your miner:
Plastic Crate (get 2 if you want a place for your PSU) |
$5 each |
| Plastic stand-offs | $4 |
| 6 x #4 3/8″ wood or metal screws | $1 |
| Brace to rest GPUs on (I used two of these) | $4 |
| a few cable ties (8″ or so) | $2 |
| power switch & LED (optional) | $6 |
You can get plastic crates in most home improvement stores if you don’t want to ship it from Amazon. I picked mine up at Lowe’s for under $5 each. You should be able to get everything else on the list at Lowe’s if you happen to have one near you, too. As far as tools go, you’ll need a drill and a knife capable of cutting into whatever plastic crate you buy.
Assembly Steps:
First, attach your CPU & heatsink/fan to your motherboard, and place your RAM into the memory slot(s). Then follow the general steps below to mount everything into your plastic crate.
Click the images for a close-up look at each step.
Place plastic standoffs on the bottom of your plastic crate, and rest your motherboard on top of them. Make sure that all of the essential ports are accessible (SATA, USB, keyboard, mouse, etc). Use your knife to cut away pieces of the crate if necessary so that all ports you plan to use are exposed. Then plug your riser cables into the PCI-E slots of your motherboard.
Place your brace (either the plastic guards that I recommended, or a cut yardstick, or whatever you have that works) so that it is sitting above the motherboard, high enough for your GPUs to rest on. Cut the brace so that an inch or two sticks out on either end of the crate.
Drill holes in your brace so that you can secure it with cable ties (see image). Do not simply rest the brace on the crate! An accidental bump can cause it to fall into the crate, along with ~$1000 worth of GPUs if you do that!
Connect each GPU to it’s corresponding riser cable, resting the bracket end on the lip of the crate and the other end on your brace.
Screw each GPU down into the lip of the crate. If you drill small pilot holes ahead of time (mark where to drill with a sharpie), this is much easier.
If you have a power switch and LED, mount them into one of the crate’s corners. I was pretty sloppy with mine, but it’s functional.
You’re done! Simply connect everything to your power supply and you should be ready to power your rig on for the first time. If you have a second crate, you can put your power supply in there (along with your harddrive if you’re using Windows), and stack it under your main crate to save some space.
In the next part of this guide, I’ll show you everything you need to do to start mining under Linux (and Windows will follow shortly after)!
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All 11 different models of R9 290X on newegg have DVI-D ports only and are incompatible with dummy plugs.
Every R9 290 non X that I looked at has the same issue.
Is it even worth it to build a mining rig now with the increased price of the hardware and the new asic scrypt miners?
Hello Mr. Needs,
I built my rig following this guide about 3 months ago.
On a good day I am now generating 0.25 LTC.
Since I started 3 months ago I have had a mix of problems.
First, my pool ripped me off and did not pay-out, so I was down 2 weeks mining.
Also, my rig keeps crashing, and I don’t know why.
I can sit and watch it for days and it’s OK, but then I leave for a 2 week trip, and it crashes as soon as I go out the door.
So far in 3 months of mining I have accumulated 20 LTC. so I have not even paid off one of my 3 GPU’s, never mind motherboard, PS or the rest of the bits and bobs.
If you ask me, the I would say;
No, mining does not pay off so it would not be worth your while to build a rig.
It is good fun however, and I can use the hardware later on for other things.
I am now going to invest $17,500 in an ASIC.
I won’t get it until Q3 of this year, ( I’m on a promise here ) but when I get it, my expected 500MH/s will allow me to solo mine.
A rig like this, doing 1.5MH/s will not compete with the asics which are being sold in their thousands.
Yea thanks for the advice. Unfortunately I can’t buy Asics because I am a broke college student. I guess the only way to be involved now is trading. I hope that someday 0.1 BTC can buy a house. <– Going of the 1 million prediction.
You can buy scrypt asics without breaking the bank:
Fibonacci.io
Then look them up on the litecoin talk.org forum.
You can mine Vertcoin. GPU only mining, and much more profitable for GPU miners.
Hello Joan
I really want to start mining (merged mining – different currencies but using the same algorithm). I am not a computer technician. What you recommend I do to get my hands on the hardware and software (easiest route)?
Regards,
I have a 3 card rig using Saphire 7950’s
After 3 months mining one of the fans on my GPU #2 is rattling a bit, and sometimes stops.
Any idea what is causing this ?
Do I need to strip it down and oil something somewhere ?
any ideas ?
thanks,
-joan
Joan,
I have 8 Sapphire 7950 cards running and one of the fans on one card began to make a noise and wobble so I took it apart to see if it could be oiled and/or tightened. No, there is no way to oil the fans on Sapphire 7950 cards that I can see and I read that someone who tried to bore a hole in the center of one card, ruined the card. The strange thing is, I put the card back in the rig and it has been running fine for about 3 weeks now. Sometime it will begin to wobble a little but no noise and after a while it straightens out and runs fine.. ????
I agree with your reply to Mr. Needs Help that it is no longer economically feasible to invest in GPU mining equipment for the return received. I am, however; no so sure that ASIC will be any better after a few more months and hundreds or thousands of people put them online mining.
Hi Edwardf,
thanks for your comments.
Going on what you said I took the GPU card out of my rig and have now got it mounted into my tower PC.
My rig has the GPU’s stacked vertically, so the fan axles are horizontal.
In my PC the card is mounted horizontal, so the GPU fan axle is vertical.
( are you with me ? )
Bingo !
as you say, the rattling and the noise went away. Sure it rattled and scraped a bit, but after about 1/2hr. it seemed to settle down, and is now running smoothly.
I will see what happens if I keep it running overnight.
wrt Asics, yes big changes ahead for all of us.
GPU mining will not be able to compete. I have decided to take the gamble and go for one.
If I don’t, then it effectively means that I give up mining Litecoin.
The pool I am with just now has a combined hash rate of about 300KH/s. We are finding a block at a rate of about 1 per day.
My rational is that if I solo mine with an asic at 500MH/s, then I too could get 1 block of 50LTC per day. That’s say $500 per day, and that would pay my asic off in about 35 days.
The big unknown as you quite rightly point out, is the increased difficulty that will result from thousands of miners each hashing at 500MH/s-plus ! with their own asics. The first guys that get their asics up-and-running will be able to make some coins, so it will depend on how far down the foodchain that my order is.
I’m going to need some luck !
Hi Joan,
are you the same Joan that I offered some help to prior to Christmas? If so, congratulations on your success in getting your rigs running. You and Edward have addressed the quandary we are all facing regarding the future feasibility of profit from mining. I’ve got my GPU rigs mining at middlecoin.com, which pays in BTC. As a personal strategy, I’ve invested in an account at Bitcoin trader. I send each accumulation to my account there, buy shares at $20 each, which are currently generating around 1 to 1.5 percent each week day, and then roll the cash generated into more shares. I encourage you to take a look at Bitcoin trader.
https://bitcoin-trader.biz/?ref=ezpacer
If you are interested, and will be so kind as to use this referral link from me, there is a small referral benefit to me, which I would appreciate.
Joan, I’ve also put down for the small 16 Mh/s miner that Alpha Technologies is offering. Time will tell.
Personally, I feel that trading on the exchanges, while also using the miners as long as they will turn a profit, is the most effective way to go.
Cheers and good luck to you both
I have ordered four fibonnaci chips (each about 8.4MH/s) and bought a boatload of hardware profit shares.
I sold 8 of my 10 XFX 280X cards (they were unreliable cards anyway, and on two occasions caused fires in the PSU end of the PCIe leads). One of my machines is being transformed into an Ubuntu monster, with a 2TB hard drive replacing the USB, a faster CPU (6 core) and more RAM on the way. I used one graphics card to run graphics, of all things.
The second rig will keep one GPU and run off USB. Once my chips are sent out following hosted mining period, I will run them off the this rig. So at least part of my capital has been recouped to compensate for the electricity I used and the fact that I could have burned my house down twice. That and the 126 litecoins I mined in three months, I’m not down too much (especially as said litecoins have been invested into asics anyway).
Hi ezpacer, I read your message to Joan. Good luck with your new approach. I am still using GPU miners and speaking of that shortly after I responded to Joan’s inquiry, my two rigs shut down from mining after running continuously for several weeks. They had switched to the “failover” pool a week ago when the primary pool shut down for repairs. I do not see any problem and they both are connected via Putty. I checked my script and entered the “failover” pool as the primary pool, rebooted, and still they will not go into cgminer. I am still using cgminer 3.7.2 and xubuntu 12.10. This has been working great all along but now even though the rigs are connected to my network and are running they do not connect to cgminer for some reason. Any ideas?
Hello Joan,Edward,Staffinsnake,
Well, our group certainly qualifies for the tenacity award! Joan, I predict you will at the least triple your investment, so go for it!! As for the system crashes, things that can bring them on include temps going too high on just one GPU, thread concurrencies, intensity, and uncomfortable ratios between memory and engine clock speeds, or PSU capacities, among other issues. You can try changing one area at a time to something less intense, and by experimentation perhaps find a status at which they will stay on 100%.
Edward, I’ve also experienced cgminer issues simply from normal entries into the scrypt line, which, when removed, resulted in cgminer working normally. Can’t explain why they were a problem to cgminer. Glad you got them going again.
All the altcoins deserve our attention at some point. I selected 4 at present to concentrate on beside LTC and BTC. Dogecoin, zetacoin, blackcoin, vertcoin.
Blackcoin seems to have some very positive aspects, and recently had about a tenfold increase in value. Finding the next altcoin that will get the attention of traders is the luck to be hoped for.
Vertcoin will get a groundswell of support from GPU miners, due to its intentional programming to defeat asic use to mine it.
As always, best wishes and good luck
Hey peeps,
Blackcoin is just proof of stake now, so mining time is over. You can still mine Cachecoin now, but it would be better with a CPU miner as the N factor is too high. I could not for the life of me get my XFX 280X GPUs to work with the Scrypt-jane patch at all, but other cards seem to work. Only a 290 would have enough memory by now (and not for long), hence I have beefed up the RAM on my ubuntu monster to 24GB (although for some reason the blue RAM slots on the 970 Extreme4 only recognise 2GB apiece, making total recognised RAM 20GB), and have also upgraded the CPU to a 6 core FX6300 and replaced the USB with a HDD.
It is indeed time to look at other altcoins, especially sj and sN algorithms. I tried to mine the Romanian bitleu, but my GPUs wouldn’t play.
All the best!
Michael
Yes,Ezpacer.
Same Joan.
and without your help I would have needed a hair transplant by now !
As I have posted about, I did eventually get up and running, averaging about 1500KH/s, but I am dogged by system crashes which I cannot explain. Average effective mining time is about 75%.
It’s Ok, but nothing great. It has been fun though, and also very educational.
Ezpacer, posted my reply to you in the wrong box, sorry.
Look at my reply to Edwardf below.
I am looking at getting an Excalibur-5 from Mining Asics BV in the Netherlands.
They are offering 500MH/s power for an outlay of Eur 10,000, ( that is about US $ 13,500 ) promised delivery date is July-August 2014.
Big outlay and also a big gamble, but I think that hashing with a few MH/s will not cover your electricity soon.
The Excalibur is scrypt based, so it can mine other scrypt coins too.
Hi Joan,
I’m interested in buying a stake in your asic miner if you are interested in the proposition. By working together we could maximize the amount of Mh/s we can acquire in the near future. Please drop me an email if you see this post glenndruryc@yahoo dot com.
Regards
Once a fan goes bad it is best to replace the card because the fans aren’t usually interchangeable. You could use your warranty to RMA the card but it might take weeks for them to ship you a replacement. If you keep using it, a couple things could happen. The card could start crashing the system, burn up the motherboard, or possible just be noisy. You mihgt see if they would “cross ship” a replacement.
Some fan issues are due the lubricant drying out.
I’ve been successful in opening up the fan and putting a few drops of sowing machine oil in. (Using MSI 7950 and MSI 290x cards)
JJ,
I think the post from Joan asking about fans on Sapphire 7950 cards was back in April and I responded to it then. Since then I have successfully replaced fans on 3 Sapphire 7950 cards. Fans are available for purchase on eBay from several different suppliers. It is possible to replace the fans without taking the card apart completely by removing only two screws on the side of the card where the wires for the fans are located. It is also possible to separate the card’s circuit board and there are videos on the internet showing how to do that. The cards have a heat sync the same as a CPU and when the card is completely disassembled, the heat sync must be cleaned so that new heat sync compound can be applied. There are videos on the internet showing how to do that also. Some people have gained performance and lowered heat in the cards by re-applying the heat sync compound on several models of cards. It is not possible to lubricate the fans on Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 cards. I took one completely apart to find out if it was possible. It is not because the driving mechanism is magnetic and when the plastic shaft end that rotates in a small hole wears to a point that it becomes unbalanced, the fan begins to bind as the magnets are closer on one side of the circular enclosure. That is why the fan begins to make a noise by hitting on the shroud cover. The supplier I go fans from on eBay was Yeskystore located in California. Sorry for the long post but wanted to clear up some misconceptions about these cards. I doubt that Sapphire would issue an RMA unless it was purchased new from an authorized reseller and was within the limited warranty period. All but two of my cards were used when I purchased them. There is also a question about how the cards are used.
Responding to my own comment and question. When I entered the working pool into the primary position in cgminer I also added another back-up pool as “failover only”. Well it turns out that was the problem. I deleted the “failover” portion of the script, rebooted.Now cgminer is working and both of my rigs are back to mining as before. ???
with increasing difficulty inthe incurring this by obtaining bitcoin mining is still profitable to buy these items?
Jarem,
At this time it does not appear profitable to build GPU mining rigs. If some scrypt coins become a lot more valuable than they now are, perhaps then it would be. Right now, it is uncertain whether you will do well enough to pay the costs of the parts.
If you have enough money to buy an asic mining rig, that would probably be more profitable. A 16 Mh/s model will cost around $2400, about one third more than the parts to build the rigs described here. Or, you could try to make money by trading, buying and selling on the exchanges like Bter.
Good luck
What are the technical reasons why you recommend those cards specifically? I can’t seem to find any … gamers normally get the best card they can afford, so why can’t we do this in mining?
It’s a matter of electricity use per hash. 7950s are more efficient in that respect. But with scrypt ASICs coming out soon, it’s moot.
YOU CAN BUY THE BEST CARDS OUT THERE HELP YOURSELF….BUT
GET BIGGER CARDS….MEANS GET 1600 WATT PSU
THIS CONFIG WORKS ECONOMICALLY WITH 860W ETC.
HAPPY KILO-HASHING
Why get expensive power supply when you can get two cheaper ones and connect them together.
I have used 3x R9280 GPU with two CX500 PSU (http://www.corsair.com/en/cx-series-cx600m-modular-atx-power-supply-600-watt-80-plus-bronze-certified-modular-psu) and connected them with ConnectPSU (http://www.connectpsu.com). It works like a charm and I can connect a fourth GPU if I want.
With summer around the corner I was wondering if any of you have a good/cheap/efficient cooling setup?
My options are:
1. Utilize the air conditioning in my basement.
2. Install a window air conditioning unit.
3. Purchase a space cooler/portable air conditioning unit.
My rigs are in a large unfinished basement area. I’m thinking utilizing my installed air conditioning is going to be expensive electricity wise.
Any thoughts/experiences in this area?
Thanks!!!
Greetings Frodo,
Depending on your geographic location, maybe your basement will stay close to its ambient temp year round? Of course letting in winter air is not an option now.
I’m in Oklahoma, no basements usually in houses here, and I’m running mem 1250 eng 850 powertune 0 and I 19, undervolted to CG’s suggested 1081, in order to run stable until Fall and cooler temps.
With these settings my 3 GPU rigs are averaging 1500+ kh/s each, with GPU’s staying in 68C-76C range.
My three rigs are all in our laundry room, close to the breaker box and each running on a dedicated receptacle with its own breaker. My summertime “fix” has been a window A/C, and a manifold made of 1″ thick foam insulation board. The manifold uses the side and top space through the window around the unit (a tipped over “L” shape)to exhaust hot air rising from the rigs (a box fan exhausts the air collected in the manifold space above the rigs, to the outside), while the cold air from the A/C is directed under the manifold box down to the rigs, where a box fan for each rig blows directly into the GPU fans. I cut a piece of trim board to hold the top of the A/C unit in place, since the window is raised as high as it will go to allow the exhaust box to fit in the space, and made a custom screen to fit in the outside opening of the manifold. The electricity cost a month for all this seems to be around $130 at this point…!
Maybe in your case something like this to get the hot air exhausted out of the basement would be enough, and not need A/C…
…BTW, if you’d like to hear the strategy I’m using now to maximise return on my GPU mining, which is giving me greater returns than simply mining and holding, I’ll be glad to share it…
Hello ezpacer,
I am running two rigs with 4 cards each (Sapphire 7950) located in my garage. The temps here in Oregon have begun to rise so the temp in my garage is going over 80 and up to 90. I only have a small fan blowing on the rigs which are stacked one above the other in a frame I constructed using 1/2 in. aluminum angle. I am currently set at I: 20, E: 1050,
M: 1500, powertune 20. The cards are undervolted @1.094 for some and others would not function below 1.125. The card temps are steady at between 63C. to 70C. for now. Both rigs are plugged into one outlet on a single 20 amp breaker. There is no window in the garage, only two 10″ opening, one high and on low on the west side for air circulation. I have no idea what I can do to keep the temp down at this point but will find a way. My electric bill increased by approx. $150/month.
I would be interested in hearing bout your new strategy to maximize return
on your GPU mining. Thanks.
Greetings Edward,
It looks to me like you’re having far better results temp wise than I am. I’d like to correspond more with you, my email is glenndruryc@yahoo dot com, if you’d like to touch base that way.
You basically saw my approach in my recent letter to you and Joan above.
I’m mining with approx 4200 kh/s at middlecoin.com, using a bitcoin wallet address as username. Currently I’m receiving from .012 to .024 btc a day from middlecoin, which equals $7-$10 a day. I opened an trading account here
https://bitcoin-trader.biz/?ref=ezpacer
and regularly send the btc I mine into the btc trader account, where while I’m at work in my job, the traders there are using the account money to make around 1% a day gain, 5 days a week, buying and selling btc on the exchanges. This is a HUGE return on investment. Banks do 1 to 3 % a YEAR, by comparison. The trading contract is for 120 days, at which time you can withdraw any part or all of your original stake.
You CAN withdraw the earnings daily, however, rather than take the profits at this time, I withdraw the cash earned back into my account balance and buy another share when I have $20 accumulated. So far in 30 days I’ve grown the acct from 1240 (my initial deposit using 3 btc) to 1900 dollars by sending my mining results, and by rolling over each days earnings into further shares. This is compounding the growth, so that the account will roughly double every 120 days as long as I keep putting the profits back into shares. I am extremely happy with the results so far.
Regards
Hey I’m from Oklahoma too. Just for that I’m going to use your referral link. Would you recommend selling off gpu rigs now? I only have 1.8 MH/s or 1800 kh/s. Is it still worth it?
Hi Mr. Needs,
Thanks for your vote of confidence! You’re welcome to use my email link in my comment to Edward above, introduce yourself, and I’ll try to give you the tips and info I can from my experience to help you along. I expect my account on btc trader to double in the next 3 months…(and intend to KEEP doubling it)
At this time, if you already have a rig, imo it’s still profitable, but only slightly. I don’t recommend selling at this time, because the backlash of quitters who bought GPU’s and are now selling them at 1/3 what they cost 3 months ago is glutting the market. Now is actually the right time to be buying additional GPU’s on ebay where they are going for around $125 each, and expanding your capacity. Also, by successfully converting to vertminer, the rigs can still be mining profitably even when scrypt mining is taken over by asics.
However, one thing you can’t discount is that even though you aren’t making much today, no one knows if the coins you’re mining today for a few cents each may become worth many many times their present value in the days, months, and years ahead. So…you could be making $2.00 a day now, but find out 3 or 4 years from now that your coins are worth so much that you were actually making $200, $400 or more a day.
That actually happened to me with blackcoin last month. I mined for a little over a week at blackcoin pool when they were worth less than a cent, and at the same time changed some ltc and btc fragments into BC cause I liked it. Came back 2 weeks later from a weekend trip and found out BC was worth over $.30 each (end of April) It peaked and started dropping immediately, but I did sell at a point roughly 20x my investment. So IMO mining cryptos has value simply for the future potential, even if we are only break-even or even a little below right now.
My approach at btc trader as I outlined to Edward above is the most powerful strategy I’ve found so far.
I’m moving from GPU mining to concentrate on trading cryptocurrencies. I have two 3 GPU rigs and one 2 GPU rig. Each rig is averaging 500+ kh/s per GPU. One of them has the Seasonic 860 PSU, One has a Corsair 850, and one has a Corsair AX1200. Two of the rigs are upgradable to 5 GPU’s, and the 2 GPU rig is 3 GPU’s max capacity.
I will sell them completely assembled, ready to use,or by component.
I will pay shipping, USA only.
Rig 1, 3 GPU’s, 850w PSU, $530, ready to mine out of the box.
Rig 2, 3 GPU’s, 1200w PSU,$630, ” ”
Rig 3, 2 GPU’s, 860w PSU, $430, ” ”
If you want components only, get in touch to discuss…
glenndruryc@yahoo.com
All the GPU’s are Sapphire 7950’s
Of course, I will take btc, ltc, doge, bc, or zeta also for the rigs or components.
Hey I’m interested. Depending where you are, I can just pick it up instead of mailing too. Would you be able to send me screenshots of the rigs and the hash output too?
Email me at glenndruryc@yahoo.com, Mr. Needs! I’ll send you pics and location info. I have some time left this evening if you make contact.
Tell me which one or what you’re interested in.
Regards,
Are Litcoin ASIC’s already on line ???
I have got a feeling that they are.
My pool is showing a net hash rate of 320GH/s.
From about 200GH/s less than a month ago, that would take quite a few Graphics Cards to generate that kind of hashing.
I have also noted a drop in LTC hashing power in my pool and in several others, I take it that Litecoin GPU miners are switching to other coins in their attempts to ” turn a coin”, so to speak.
I have a 500MH/s Asic on order with a tentative delivery date of August 2014.
However, if other miners already have theirs up and running now, then I can see difficulty levels increasing so rapidly, that I will not get ROI on my asic at all !
Hi Joan,
A while back I posted to you on here regarding the possibility of buying a percentage of your asic miner. Beyond that question, remember that I mentioned my experience at https://bitcoin-trader.biz/?ref=ezpacer?
I truly believe the most effective strategy right now is mining coin, and then putting it to work at bitcoin trader. My results so far have been extremely gratifying, and I think there is great potential for the forseeable future for anyone who combines their mining with a trading account with them. Here is my personal proforma based on a one time deposit of 2500.
06/20/14 $0.00 $581.97 $2,500.00 $581.97 $3,081.97
2 $0.00 $717.45 $2,500.00 $1,299.42 $3,799.42
3 $0.00 $884.46 $2,500.00 $2,183.88 $4,683.88
4 $0.00 $1,090.35 $2,500.00 $3,274.23 $5,774.23
5 $0.00 $1,344.17 $2,500.00 $4,618.40 $7,118.40
6 $0.00 $1,657.08 $2,500.00 $6,275.48 $8,775.48
7 $0.00 $2,042.83 $2,500.00 $8,318.30 $10,818.30
8 $0.00 $2,518.37 $2,500.00 $10,836.68 $13,336.68
9 $0.00 $3,104.62 $2,500.00 $13,941.30 $16,441.30
10 $0.00 $3,827.34 $2,500.00 $17,768.63 $20,268.63
11 $0.00 $4,718.30 $2,500.00 $22,486.93 $24,986.93
05/20/15 $0.00 $5,816.66 $2,500.00 $28,303.59 $30,803.59
Regular Deposit CalculationBase amount: $2,500.00
Interest Rate: 252%
Effective Annual Rate: 1132.14%
Calculation period: 12 months
Looks like my copy and paste came out crazy, but this is based on their 1% more or less results x 5 days each week. You can see that in 12 months, given that they continue to match their present performance, the $2,500 will become $30,000+.
My personal strategy, Joan, will be to put all the proceeds of a 50 Mh/s asic miner, as earned daily, (expected delivery, end of June) directly into my btc trader account. I’m shooting to reach max allowable account ($47,500) as soon as possible, at which time the account will be generating in excess of $11,000 monthly.
Hope you can see my point: mining PLUS turbo charged investment vehicle!
Hello Ezpacer,
Thank you for your response. I did see your offer but I have been busy with other things, so I have not had a chance to consider it in detail; sorry about that.
I also have two partners contributing to the purchase of my mining asic, so I am not alone to make any decision.
I will however give your proposal some serious thought.
I will need to thoroughly understand and digest what you are proposing. So let me dwell on this for a few days.
At present I am biting my lip waiting for my mining asic to arrive because I see the difficulty rising every day, and I still have at least 2 months to go before the delivery date promise. I think that some asics are already hashing in the LTC network because the net hash rate has increased so much in a few weeks.
I am also considering changing to another coin myself, darkcoin looks quite interesting, as does VTC.
I don’t know if my asic will do scrypt-n as well as just scrypt.
If I were selling ASICs I would be “testing” the next generation at scale when selling the previous generation…
Slogan: “We only sell quality, well tested ASICs”
This is a loosing battle for normal people.
Two options in my mind.
1. Get out
2. Move to scrypt resistant coins like Vertcoin
Feel free to disagree, but the rules of the game does not change with ASICs:
* There is a fixed supply of coins per time.
* In order to have a steady coin income you will have to increase your hashing rate at the rate of the network. For May that was about 30% for LTC…
The same is of course true for Vertcoin or any scrypt resistant coin, but without the ASICs the growth in overall network rate (and thus difficulty) are much slower so you get more time to recoup your investments. You have seen a big growth of network rate for VTC due to people moving from LTC to Vertcoin (I assume), so ASICs are to a certain degree impacting Vertcoin… But with a larger network comes larger interest and hopefully a higher value coin down the road.
Cheers!
Thank you for your input FrodoB.
I am not sure that I am understanding you correctly, what is a ” losing battle for ordinary people”.
Do you mean that the ASIC companies are flooding the system with Hashing power, before they sell the asic’s on to their customers ?
So are you suggesting that the customers will always be a step behind in the game, and that the asic manufacturers will keep a large portion of the hashing power that they create, for themselves ?
Furthermore, as a miner, having purchased one asic and then as mining difficulty increases, we need to buy another asic to maintain the same level of mining income.
I see a constraint on this being the fact that asic manufacturers need to allow their customers a reasonable roi, ( return on investment ) otherwise there would be no point in anybody buying an asic.
In addition, and there are now several vendors in the asic market who are competing with each other to sell their product.
Some asics now do both scrypt and scrypt-n, so changing to Vertcoin may not be saving you from an asic onslaught.
Hey EZ,
I’ve had a bunch going on lately so haven’t been too active on my site, but I just wanted to warn you that there is a very good chance bitcoin trader will end up being a scam. They’re almost certainly a type of ponzi scheme known as a HYIP (high-yield investment program). A 1% daily return is certainly never sustainable.
I don’t have any personal experience with them, but I’ve seen many of these types of sites/promises in the past, and usually the users/investors end up getting burned. Just make sure that you do your research and be careful. Just a friendly warning & something to think about – good luck if you decide to risk it!
Hi Joan,
I think the asics are hard wired in the chip for only scrypt, and won’t do any variations, as the GPU miners are able to do. If you want, drop me a note at glenndruryc@yahoo.com.
Best wishes,
Hello Cryptobadger!
Very honored to have you take time to post. You have been very perceptive regarding the altcoin events for the past year, and I recognized early that you had a very good grasp of financial reality.
I have an extensive background in penny stock dealing, so I know exactly what you are referring to!
That said, my readiness to take risk was what brought me into your site and my subsequent adventure in the world of altcoin mining, and it has been great. I have emphasized in conversation with others who are following me into bitcoin trader, that the nature of an internet opportunity like this includes the very real possibility that we could come to a morning when we try to log on, and there is no site to log on to, and no trail to follow!
However, as I’ve also pointed out, they appear to be sincere and conscientious in every aspect of their website functions and their diligent communications, aspects that are often ragged around the edges with scams.
Also, they are taking great efforts to participate in the public eye, including sponsoring several European bitcoin symposiums lately, and maintaining a facebook page.
My bottom line is that the potential gain is certainly worth the risk of a moderate amount of funds, which I am willing, if it so turns out, to lose.
From my perspective, arbitrage between the exchanges with the results btc trader is currently posting, given the price differences that are prevalent at this time between the popular exchanges, is very do-able. I even encourage you, with great appreciation for all I’ve gained from your efforts, to do your own due diligence into btc trader, and to test the water yourself, as I feel it is a present opportunity that is too great to ignore. Of course it may be different at any given time to come, but in all I think it is a thing to diligently pursue while it is in its season, again with funds that can be used speculatively just for the chance of a significant score. In my case, I’m all in!
I want to always treat you and your site with the respect that is due, so feel free always to let me know if I post too far afield of the aims you maintain for the site!
With affectionate good wishes for your contributions and leadership that have gained me so much ground I would never otherwise have known how to accomplish,
hi everyone, I read this thread with interest. I am putting out a cryptocoin for the website and I wanted to hear from people on the subject of Vericoin and Vertcoin. Most food bloggers and chefs are busy in the kitchen and aren’t going to want to go buy ASICS to make coin. I want to make something that will resist ASICS and stay good for the little guy and be also flexible like Vericoin, which can be used in place of Bitcoin at businesss that accept BTC. Also, the coin is for food establishments. I think I want to make something in it that if you horde it, you LOSE interest.
Nofyah
Hello
The guide says that you can produce approx. 5 litecoins everyday with this setup however Joan from the third post above says that he can only get 0.25 litecoin per day using the same setup/hadware config.. Which is more accurate?
Hello Gaurav – the guide was written nearly two years ago, over which time the difficulty required to mine a single litecoin has risen dramatically. I no longer recommend building a GPU-based mining rig for scrypt coins; there are plenty of purpose-built ASIC machines that will mine far more effectively.
[…] Like a check, all of us joined the actual specs associated with 2 mining systems to the calculators beneath. For the Scrypt GPU mining rig, all of us utilized the actual system referred to, as well as for the SHAS-256 ASIC miner all of us utilized the actual specs of the Butterfly Labs miner. […]
[…] As a test, we entered the specifications of two mining systems into the calculators below. For our Scrypt GPU mining rig, we used the system described, and for our SHAS-256 ASIC miner we used the specifications of a Butterfly Labs miner. […]
[…] As a test, we entered the specifications of two mining systems into the calculators below. For our Scrypt GPU mining rig, we used the system described, and for our SHAS-256 ASIC miner we used the specifications of a Butterfly Labs miner. […]
[…] As a test, we entered the specifications of two mining systems into the calculators below. For our Scrypt GPU mining rig, we used the system described, and for our SHAS-256 ASIC miner we used the specifications of a Butterfly Labs miner. […]
[…] As a test, we entered the specifications of two mining systems into the calculators below. For our Scrypt GPU mining rig, we used the system described, and for our SHAS-256 ASIC miner we used the specifications of a Butterfly Labs miner. […]
[…] As a test, we entered the specifications of two mining systems into the calculators below. For our Scrypt GPU mining rig, we used the system described, and for our SHAS-256 ASIC miner we used the specifications of a Butterfly Labs miner. […]
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[…] As a test, we entered the specifications of two mining systems into the calculators below. For our Scrypt GPU mining rig, we used the system described, and for our SHAS-256 ASIC miner we used the specifications of a Butterfly Labs miner. […]
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