Dear Boyah, I offer you an investment opportunity.

[applesauce]

We have a sneaky plan to set up bitcoin mining in a friend's dorm, where we will have free electricity.

The rig we are planning on setting up has the following specs:

AMD Semperon 145 Segras 2.8ghz single-core
2gb DDR3 1333
620-watt PSU

Most importantly, a Radeon 6950, flashed to run as a 6970. The mobo has an additional PCI-express x16, which will allow us to add a second card.

The single 6950 (aka 6970) should have a hash rate of approximately 400. Assuming the exchange rate and difficulty stay the same (they should both increase), it should make about $52.00/mo. Since we will be getting free internet and electricity by putting it in a dorm room, there shouldn't be any expense.

We're going with a single higher-end card to start with so that we a) have room for expansion without selling the other cards, and b) if the market were to crash, we could use or sell the card more easily.

The total cost for setup should be between $365 and $400, depending on the deal we are able to get on a used 6950. This means that payback on your investment, should exchange rates and difficulty stay in balance, would be in the 7-8 month range, after which it should be all profit, then if/when we sell hardware, you would receive money equal to your percentage share of that hardware. If enough people are willing to invest, we could do a setup with a pair of 6950s, which would pay back in about 6 months, and produce about 15% more profit on the dollar invested.

We hope to get everything ordered in the next 24-48 hours and be up and running by the start of next week.

Anyone interested in investing some? We're thinking minimum $40 per person investing, so it's worth the while to divide it up and all.

[PLEASEHELP1991]

don't they lock down the campus network tightly at most campuses?

[applesauce]

don't they lock down the campus network tightly at most campuses?

I don't know what you mean by this. There is nothing illegal about it... It uses IRC for connections, which is definitely not blocked.

[PLEASEHELP1991]

I don't know what you mean by this. There is nothing illegal about it... It uses IRC for connections, which is definitely not blocked.

it's not that it is illegal or anything, but i thought it was standard practice at some schools to automatically quarantine computers with excessive network requests as a possible bot

[snoorkel]

hmm....I am interested in bitcoin mining schemes, but skeptical of running it like this. it seems like something is bound to fail.

if you want to make this .... super serious.... I have key card access to the rack I use (and half-own) at Corporate Colo in LA. obviously this would provide guaranteed power and connectivity (and a fuckton of it). we can setup a nicer pc with a number of GPUs for fast mining and quick payout, stick it in the rack, and let it run 24/7.

maybe something to think about if you can get it working reliably in a dorm on a smaller system.

also, not really related, but the campus might very well block IRC connections...would be easy to get around though.

[applesauce]

it's not that it is illegal or anything, but i thought it was standard practice at some schools to automatically quarantine computers with excessive network requests as a possible bot

This is true, but mining even in a pool uses less bandwidth than the average computer user does.

[applesauce]

hmm....I am interested in bitcoin mining schemes, but skeptical of running it like this. it seems like something is bound to fail.

if you want to make this .... super serious.... I have key card access to the rack I use (and half-own) at Corporate Colo in LA. obviously this would provide guaranteed power and connectivity (and a fuckton of it). we can setup a nicer pc with a number of GPUs for fast mining and quick payout, stick it in the rack, and let it run 24/7.

maybe something to think about if you can get it working reliably in a dorm on a smaller system.

also, not really related, but the campus might very well block IRC connections...would be easy to get around though.

We've used IRC from there before.

Do you get free unlimited power there?

[snoorkel]

We've used IRC from there before.

Do you get free unlimited power there?

not free, and not unlimited (the main cost of renting a rack is the power), but a few GPUs are going to use a lot less power than the 10 4U servers already running in it

[applesauce]

not free, and not unlimited (the main cost of renting a rack is the power), but a few GPUs are going to use a lot less power than the 10 4U servers already running in it

If you have to pay for the power, I guess I don't see what is superior about it.

[Hiro]

i'm slightly interested in this

[snoorkel]

If you have to pay for the power, I guess I don't see what is superior about it.

because I'm already paying a flat rate for the power, so there wouldn't be any additional power cost for throwing in a btc mining machine

[applesauce]

because I'm already paying a flat rate for the power, so there wouldn't be any additional power cost for throwing in a btc mining machine

Oooh, so no matter how much additional power you use, providing you don't exceed some ridiculously high max, there's no increase?

[snoorkel]

Oooh, so no matter how much additional power you use, providing you don't exceed some ridiculously high max, there's no increase?

yes. there is a power quota that I pay for, but it's ridiculously high compared to the amount of power a few GPUs would use... it's 40 Amps @ 120V, I think

[snoorkel]

I also bought btc-x.net and btcnext.net awhile ago. possibilities abound

[applesauce]

yes. there is a power quota that I pay for, but it's ridiculously high compared to the amount of power a few GPUs would use... it's 40 Amps @ 120V, I think

Quad 6950s maxes out at 900 watts, make it about 950-975w with the cpu, board, memory, fans. Max 21% of your power...would probably realistically only use 17-18% even under full load?

I also bought btc-x.net and btcnext.net awhile ago. possibilities abound

Hm, yes. Yes they do.

Well, we are doing this setup here regardless. But setting up a monster quadfire machine with 6950s or better would probably be pretty profitable...