MineMeBitcoins - Bitcoin mining, made simple.

[Anon10W1z]

MineMeBitcoins is a script for Windows users that makes for the simple usage of poclbm and ufasoft's coin miner. The script uses wget and 7-zip to download and extract the miners (I got the idea from @XFlak and ModMii). Click here for more details+download link.

This script is targeted for noobs at bitcoin mining.

 

[Magsor]

Mining bitcoin for a profit is a thing of the past unless you have a ASIC based mining rig. (which also started the crazyness of bitcoin inflation)

 

[naved.islam14]

What is mining/bit coins?

 

[trumpet-205]

What is mining/bit coins?

Basically using your computer to do serious number crunching. In return you get bitcoin, which is electronic currency that can be used for online shopping or real world currency.

Only problem is, it is totally not worth it these days to use computer to mine bitcoin. Your monthly electric bill will always be higher than what you get from bitcoin in return. To actually profit from bitcoin mining you need ASIC solution Magsor mentioned.

Bitcoin mining using PC is a lost cause. Even Folding@home or BOINC at least let you contribute to scientific cause.

 

[exangel]

If you already have a gaming rig with high end GPUs it's not a waste, a friend of mine was running Folding@home 24/7 on his "old" PC which had crossfired Radeon HD 5750s until I told him about btc.
Now it's mining and when he's at work he has his main PC with Radeon 7970 x2 is mining also. It makes him about $11 a day at the current exchange rate (it's sunk a little in the past couple weeks..) Since he already had all this hardware for gaming he's just accumulating money with it all, it's not a worthy "pay for itself" type of investment but since he's getting US$~70 a week for leaving the machines on, it's not a lost cause. his electricity is included in his rent so this is just basically a money machine for him.

the only company that's pitching ASIC machines to regular consumers was looking a bit foul for a while (selling preorders and winding up being cornered into revealing they didn't have a prototype) but they do finally seem to be shipping the 5 GH/s rigs that have been preordered. https://products.butterflylabs.com/

 

[Clydefrosch]

If you already have a gaming rig with high end GPUs it's not a waste, a friend of mine was running Folding@home 24/7 on his "old" PC which had crossfired Radeon HD 5750s until I told him about btc.
Now it's mining and when he's at work he has his main PC with Radeon 7970 x2 is mining also. It makes him about $11 a day at the current exchange rate (it's sunk a little in the past couple weeks..) Since he already had all this hardware for gaming he's just accumulating money with it all, it's not a worthy "pay for itself" type of investment but since he's getting US$~70 a week for leaving the machines on, it's not a lost cause. his electricity is included in his rent so this is just basically a money machine for him.

the only company that's pitching ASIC machines to regular consumers was looking a bit foul for a while (selling preorders and winding up being cornered into revealing they didn't have a prototype) but they do finally seem to be shipping the 5 GH/s rigs that have been preordered. https://products.butterflylabs.com/

before he knows it, he will learn that theres a difference in how long a machine will stay alive when it runs 24/7 or when it only runs when its needed

 

[Magsor]

If you already have a gaming rig with high end GPUs it's not a waste, a friend of mine was running Folding@home 24/7 on his "old" PC which had crossfired Radeon HD 5750s until I told him about btc.
Now it's mining and when he's at work he has his main PC with Radeon 7970 x2 is mining also. It makes him about $11 a day at the current exchange rate (it's sunk a little in the past couple weeks..) Since he already had all this hardware for gaming he's just accumulating money with it all, it's not a worthy "pay for itself" type of investment but since he's getting US$~70 a week for leaving the machines on, it's not a lost cause. his electricity is included in his rent so this is just basically a money machine for him.

the only company that's pitching ASIC machines to regular consumers was looking a bit foul for a while (selling preorders and winding up being cornered into revealing they didn't have a prototype) but they do finally seem to be shipping the 5 GH/s rigs that have been preordered. https://products.butterflylabs.com/

Not bad at all might be worth it to mine afterall... shhh don't tell anyone...

 

[exangel]

before he knows it, he will learn that theres a difference in how long a machine will stay alive when it runs 24/7 or when it only runs when its needed

He's been running "old faithful" (a Core 2 Quad system) with the 5750s 24/7 for several years with no hiccups.. he's practically been expecting it to die for a couple years now, because it's overclocked (probably with a voltage bump), but it's still chugging along. Since bitcoin mining taxes the video cards rather than the CPU, maybe the GPUs will bite the dust faster than they would have, but they're damn near obsolete anyway (from a hardcore gamer's perspective). At least he'll have enough BTC to buy himself an ASIC system by the time that happens!

My point is that he doesn't "need" to run the system with 5750s at all, and I also disagree with you as I am a system builder with about 13 years of experience (more if you count repairing manufactured systems as experience). He may be "lucky" having come up with a magically stable long-term "always on" system with consumer components, but I think he deserves some credit for thoroughly researching and planning his builds to be used as always on systems, even before he heard of BTC.

Running a computer system 24/7 only causes "more" degradation if you suck at maintenance, have a poor computing environment (i.e. live with smokers, lots of dust, or near oceanfront; salt air can be bad) or have a component with flaws to begin with. Some parts incur more "wear" and chance of failure from being shut down/booted daily than being on continuously.

 

[trumpet-205]

Hmm.. last time I check bitcoin value dipped to the bottom. They are really volatile.

Still, HD7970 is an enthusiast grade GPU. If we are talking about say HD7870 where it is the mainstream model, it has only 1/3 of GPGPU performance than HD7950. Worth it if you have very high-end GPU I guess. Bitcoin mining can definitely be done using CPU, but it is painfully slow.

As far as lifespan goes, CPU and GPU will all eventually wear out due to electromigration. At stock speed 24/7 it will take probably forever. Overclock does accelerate electromigration and running it on 24/7 does speed up the process. But as long as you didn't push it too far (such as subzero cooling) it should still last long enough for your next PC upgrade.