How can I start mining?

[flibberdipper]

I'm willing to give up folding for mining, if my CPU can actually mine. I don't have a GPU that can mine (and if my onboard can, I sure as hell am not using it), so I would have to mine on my CPU. I'm running Windows 7, ATM.

[helping]

no

 

long answer: insufficient/inefficient hardware 

[Bonsai99]

Not worthwhile, you might as well leave a bunch of lights on in your house 24/7 because that would be that equivalent of what you would be doing mining with a CPU.

[dizmo]

Buy 6000 series or newer AMD card on used market.
Plug into computer.

Start mining.

[flibberdipper]

Not worthwhile, you might as well leave a bunch of lights on in your house 24/7 because that would be that equivalent of what you would be doing mining with a CPU.

My grandma uses all 75 watt bulbs, and my OC only draws 80.

[flibberdipper]

Buy 6000 series or newer AMD card on used market.

Plug into computer.

Start mining.

Is CPU mining REALLY that terrible for me? How long would it take for me to make $1 USD?

[CCap]

The great thing about mining is once you get a lower end card, you can make money from the card for an even better one. From there, you can upgrade once more, and again and again. Sure, it will take a while for the steps to happen unless you get really lucky mining a low end coin now, and it explodes later on, then you're set.

 

 

Buy 6000 series or newer AMD card on used market.

I'd take his advice as to I recommend you do the same.

 

//CCap

[zxcvbnmmssdh]

This would be a good place to start:

[flibberdipper]

The great thing about mining is once you get a lower end card, you can make money from the card for an even better one. From there, you can upgrade once more, and again and again. Sure, it will take a while for the steps to happen unless you get really lucky mining a low end coin now, and it explodes later on, then you're set.

 

 

I'd take his advice as to I recommend you do the same.

 

//CCap

I was curious about CPU mining so I could do that. Since TigerDirect accepts them now...

[flibberdipper]

This would be a good place to start:

Dancing Linus, you're a smartass.

[zxcvbnmmssdh]

Dancing Linus, you're a smartass.

*bows*

[tek inpektor]

I'm willing to give up folding for mining, if my CPU can actually mine. I don't have a GPU that can mine (and if my onboard can, I sure as hell am not using it), so I would have to mine on my CPU. I'm running Windows 7, ATM.

BTC or LTC?

I learned to mine from this tutorial.

 

[Bonsai99]

I was curious about CPU mining so I could do that. Since TigerDirect accepts them now...

[flibberdipper]

BTC or LTC?

I learned to mine from this tutorial.

 

I'm kinda thinking Bitcoin.

[tek inpektor]

I'm kinda thinking Bitcoin.

Follow that tutorial, just do this program and pool instead.

 

http://guiminer.org/

 

http://mining.bitcoin.cz/

[flibberdipper]

Follow that tutorial, just do this program and pool instead.

 

http://guiminer.org/

 

http://mining.bitcoin.cz/

Alright, I'll try it this weekend after my SSD upgrade.

[tek inpektor]

Alright, I'll try it this weekend after my SSD upgrade.

Have 'fun'.

[zxcvbnmmssdh]

Have 'fun'.

"Making" money

[SMURG]

Is CPU mining REALLY that terrible for me? How long would it take for me to make $1 USD?

A very, very long time. Depending on the coin it's probably years or potentially even infinite (i.e. you'd never finish a block). Even with a pool, you could be looking at years (again depending on coin).

[CCap]

You could be better off taking out a loan. Whether it be from a bank, a sibling, or just a friend. Borrow a hundred or so dollars for a dedicated gpu, 7770, 7790, r7, r9 260x, something of the sorts, and you could pay them back decently fast with mining.

 

The beauty of mining is that you are able to mine a low end coin, and use the coin you've mined like stock. Hell, you don't even have to mine it. If you bought into a low end coin, let's say it's conversion rate is something like .50c per coin. You spend $100 on coins, leaving you with 200 coins. Let's say that tomorrow is a fantastic day for the coin, and it goes to 1.00 per coin. Now if you convert the coins to USD, then you've just profited $100. 

^

Not really recommended you do that, since you could lose some money during the whole converting to LTC, and then to BTC, and then finally cashing out. By that time, you could potentially lose a lot of money, and it's just something cool to think about. Keep it in mind if you come across some money.

 

//CCap

[MariusJS]

DO NOT MINE BTC with your CPU!

Mine CPU only coins!!!

[flibberdipper]

DO NOT MINE BTC with your CPU!

Mine CPU only coins!!!

What coin do you think would be good for a CPU?

[roid]

What coin do you think would be good for a CPU?

Probably a momentum algorithm coin like protoshares or memorycoin, not sure if you'd make much of a profit tho since cpu hashing rate is so low, but a momentum coin would probably give you the fastest speed for a cpu.