Questions about HardWare

So, I’m just getting into mining, and I have some questions. I was looking at the chip here . I’m wondering if an ASIC is a CPU, or a GPU, or maybe it is something else entirely. If it is a completely different chip, then how would I utilize it?

Thanks in advance,
Flippy

Hi flippyfeet,

An ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) is much closer to a CPU than a GPU. To put it simply, it is a purpose built chip meant to perform only one task hence the “application specific” portion of the name.

If you were to buy the chip you see on that website, you would still need to properly attach it to a board. I wouldn’t recommend this if you don’t have prior experience in soldering and working with computer hardware. Also, Butterfly Labs has gotten a lot of criticism recently. They have thousands of orders to fill and not many have left their production facility yet, so there is no telling when you may actually receive the chips.

If you are looking in to purchasing an ASIC, I’d suggest a business that is using the Avalon chips and making their own units. Avalon has already shipped several hundred ASICs and plans to have their chips out the door within a month or two I believe.

I cannot vouch for their validity, but one company I found that is using Avalon chips to produce mining rigs is Terrhash https://terrahash.com/

If you have any more questions ask away :slight_smile:

Can the client use GPU cards installed on a pc?

An ASIC is a chip, CPU/GPU’s are different and are usually used for mining scrypt coins.

Hi, I’m new but I’m jumping into threads.

If I’m not mistaken, since peercoin uses the algorithm as BTC the same hardware should be compatible.

I’m using ASICs to mine just fine via cgminer. Cgminter can already utilize GPUs, so its just a matter of configuring a pool.

Hi i am new here. I cant make new thread so i thought of reviving this one

Can anyone buy something with 100-150 dollars and mine PPCs cost effectively? Also how could someone earn PPCs?

[quote=“NUKE1989, post:6, topic:171”]Hi i am new here. I cant make new thread so i thought of reviving this one

Can anyone buy something with 100-150 dollars and mine PPCs cost effectively? Also how could someone earn PPCs?[/quote]

I believe with that sort of money you can buy a asic usb miner 2.5 GH mining speed and make some coins.

I got one and have another 4 coming soon, although I am mining BTC currently so can’t say how much you make mining ppc.

which one did you buy?

I have a redfury already, now waiting on 2 bluefury and 2 nanofury. Price went up on these stickers big time in the space of a week!!

Yeah i noticed and because of this and because difficulty is also going up i dont think i will buy any…

I am not sure if it is viable for PPCs and i dont really like to mess with other alt coins. BTC, PPC and XPM are enough for me…

[quote=“NUKE1989, post:10, topic:171”]Yeah i noticed and because of this and because difficulty is also going up i dont think i will buy any…

I am not sure if it is viable for PPCs and i dont really like to mess with other alt coins. BTC, PPC and XPM are enough for me…[/quote]

This is something I would be interested in knowing as well

I’m new to mining. I bought 48 Block Eruptors from a former Bitcoin miner.

I’m using a 4-year laptop to run cgminer with a stratum.d7.lt account but it tells me I need to install OpenCL.dll, which I think is part of the OpenCL driver for dedicated graphics cards, something my laptop doesn’t have.

My question is: is my computer too old for mining? Is there’s a minimum requirement guideline I can follow?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: I downloaded OpenCL.dll into the cgminer folder. Cgminer pops up in cmd window and then quickly disappears, roughly stating that no GPU’s usable. I’m not using GPUs to mine so how do I fix this. @.@!

Never mind…problem solved.
Can’t wait to get my hands on the new 240Ghz this weekend… ;D ;D ;D ;D

[quote=“supernatural, post:12, topic:171”]I’m new to mining. I bought 48 Block Eruptors from a former Bitcoin miner.

I’m using a 4-year laptop to run cgminer with a stratum.d7.lt account but it tells me I need to install OpenCL.dll, which I think is part of the OpenCL driver for dedicated graphics cards, something my laptop doesn’t have.

My question is: is my computer too old for mining? Is there’s a minimum requirement guideline I can follow?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: I downloaded OpenCL.dll into the cgminer folder. Cgminer pops up in cmd window and then quickly disappears, roughly stating that no GPU’s usable. I’m not using GPUs to mine so how do I fix this. @.@![/quote]

  1. are you running windows? what is the OS?
  2. what version is your cgminer ?
  3. If you have not installed the the driver for the Block Erupters yet, go ahead and run the driver you downloaded from silabs.com

http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx

  1. If the driver was setup successfully you will see your Erupters in your list of devices (Control Panel – Devices and Printers). Make sure you make a note of what COM port your device is connected to

  2. If you’re familiar with CGMiner, then you are all set to run your CGMiner. Instead of running cgminer.exe make sure you use cgminer-nongpu.exe. If you you want to create a shortcut, just create the following command line:

cgminer-nogpu.exe -o [pool]:[port] -u [username_worker] -p [password] --icarus-options 115200:1:1 --icarus-timing 3.0=100 -S //./COM3 -S //./COM4 -S //./COM5

Make sure you make the proper changes with the proper COM port that your device is plugged into (the COM Port number from Device and Printers)

So what are the best ways to mine for ppc and xpm??

Seems like you don’t want to throw the same hardware at it as you would if you were
mining for bitcoin.

So what are the best ways? If one had a few thousand dollars to throw at equipment, how would that best be spent?

I am also new to this whole mining thing. I got lightly into LiteCoin mining back in the day, but dropped off with it. Figured might as well give it another shot.

Anyways, I’m currently rocking a ASUS Sabretooth 990FX board, AMD FX-8150 processor, 8GB RAM (irrelevant info probably), and two nVidia GTX-275 (old as shit, but I have a Radeon 7790 on it’s way).

I set this up as a gaming rig, but I’m just wondering what the profitability of it is if anything for mining.

Am I still able to use those 275’s or are they junk.