What is crypto currency mining?

[SlapMiSphincter]

Hey guys im looking at buying a R9 290 Asus Direct CU II card for $290 (I know 290 - $290 ha ha) the seller says they bought it late Jan- early Feb and it was used for low power altcoin mining from march until now. Im new to building computers so I have no idea if its a bad deal or not, any help would be great, thanks.

[TetraSky]

Meaning it most likely ran 24/7 at maximum load for a couple of weeks.
Now that it's pretty much pointless to "mine" for crypto currency(bitcoin/litecoin/etc...) using a GPU due to increasing mining difficulties, they are reselling the cards they don't need.

 

All in all... it shouldn't really do anything.

[Yummychickenblue]

It's a great deal considering it's $100 off but it has been put through stress.

[MrYuriy]

Meaning it most likely ran 24/7 at maximum load for a couple of weeks.

Now that it's pretty much pointless to "mine" for crypto currency using a GPU due to increasing mining difficulties, they are reselling the cards they don't need.

 

This.

 

As TetraSky said, to clarify: This GPU was dropkicked (in the PCB) by Chuck Norris on a daily basis.

[helping]

Read the FAQ, ask questions you have about it in this thread. 

 

 

You're so late on this it's not even funny.

This.

 

As TetraSky said, to clarify: This GPU was dropkicked (in the PCB) by Chuck Norris on a daily basis.

It doesn't actually do considerable damage or wear as long as the owner kept it at reasonable temperatures, voltage, and didn't constantly thermal cycle.

Mining isn't the issue with the card, it's the owner. If you're buying it from someone who knows what they're doing, there is no problem. If it's that one guy, then there could be problems.

[SAV1OUR]

Read the FAQ, ask questions you have about it in this thread. 

 

 

You're so late on this it's not even funny.

mining died before the big bang 

[SlapMiSphincter]

So is it a crappy deal or not?

[helping]

So is it a crappy deal or not?

You didn't know what mining was 5 minutes ago. Wait for more replies, do more researching, and sleep on it before you decline.

It's not bad IMO.

Well the seller said it was ran on low power altcoin and never over heated.

That doesn't really tell us anything. The DCUII cooler is decent. And I think that non-reference 290's were launched fairly recently. If he has decent seller feedback, I would go ahead and get it.

[SlapMiSphincter]

Read the FAQ, ask questions you have about it in this thread. 

 

 

You're so late on this it's not even funny.

It doesn't actually do considerable damage or wear as long as the owner kept it at reasonable temperatures, voltage, and didn't constantly thermal cycle.

Mining isn't the issue with the card, it's the owner. If you're buying it from someone who knows what they're doing, there is no problem. If it's that one guy, then there could be problems.

Well the seller said it was ran on low power altcoin and never over heated.

[TetraSky]

Should be perfectly fine really.
Unless the owner had fun throwing it against the ground for some reason. The Direct CU II has very good cooling as well, so I doubt it would've overheated.

 

Asus doesn't seems to ask for an invoice, so worst case scenario, you could RMA it. (Though there might be an issue if you don't live in the same country as it was originally sold in, like if it's a Canadian SKU and you are in the US, or vice versa. they could potentially refuse it)

[SlapMiSphincter]

Should be perfectly fine really.

Unless the owner had fun throwing it against the ground for some reason. The Direct CU II has very good cooling as well, so I doubt it would've overheated, unless it was in a closed case without any airvents for some reason. (not that those even exist outside of pre-built small form factor system)

 

Does Asus require the original invoice for RMA ? If they do, might not be too great, because they shouldn't really be accepting ebay invoice as proof of purchase.

 

Edit: From their RMA form, I don't see any mention of invoice, so I'm guessing they don't ask for it, meaning it should be fine, no?

Look im not sure, im from Australia so idk if its different here or not, but thank you for your help, its appreciated 

[Fred Castellum]

Your somewhat late on the cryptocurrency train bud. Go do self research you'll need that knowledge and experience if you want to make any money.

[Jerakl]

In response to your question....

[CatCloud]

Your somewhat late on the cryptocurrency train bud. Go do self research you'll need that knowledge and experience if you want to make any money.

i...dont think he wants to mine, simple asking if its worth buying a Gpu cheaper then retailer that went trough minig.

Id say no, who knows how the seller pushed that card. It might live another 6 month then start failing.

[SlapMiSphincter]

i...dont think he wants to mine, simple asking if its worth buying a Gpu cheaper then retailer that went trough minig.

Id say no, who knows how the seller pushed that card. It might live another 6 month then start failing.

Exactly, but as i said before the seller says its was used for low power altcoin mining, it never over heated and it comes with the warranty 

[Fred Castellum]

Exactly, but as i said before the seller says its was used for low power altcoin mining, it never over heated and it comes with the warranty 

I wouldn't do it. 

[CatCloud]

Exactly, but as i said before the seller says its was used for low power altcoin mining, it never over heated and it comes with the warranty

He can say one thing but done something else. Its not worth the risk for a mear 100 buckets.

[SlapMiSphincter]

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/berwick/other-electronics-computers/asus-r9-290-graphics-card/1047020550 heres the link to it.

[RuecanOnRails]

I'd say it's a good deal. Unless the card is somehow broken and he's trying to scam people with his ad.

 

Yes miners run the cards hard. However they also maintain and care for the cards more so than any normal user would. Downtime, instability, damaging heat or too far pushed overclocks leads to loss of profits. Simple as that, mining operations are competitive and running cards into the ground is not in the best interest of the miners. The card was likely under-volted as well.

 

 

Seeing as it's a former mining card, the seller should know a lot about the technical details of the card such as thermal limits, max stable overclock, max clocks when under-volted, etc. Find out what his mining settings were, what fan curve was used, average temps, etc.

[RuecanOnRails]

By "low power altcoin mining"  I assume he means coins such as Hirocoin or Darkcoin based on X11 algorithm that uses 50% less power and runs much cooler compared to Scrypt?

 

Could be. I figured it would in relation to undervolting the card to keep temps low while maintaining the same hashrate.

 

On that note of Darkcoin's X11 and it using 50% less power; Honestly to me shows inefficiency and perhaps a purposely hindered miner for the "devs" to mine 2x faster than others. If you're using 50% less power, you're not pushing the card as hard as it could be. I'm not accusing them of having a secret miner that uses 100% power of the GPU, just something to think about.

[SlapMiSphincter]

The same seller just listed a reference R9 290 card, saying that his got 20 other of the same card

[DoubleA7]

Exactly, but as i said before the seller says its was used for low power altcoin mining, it never over heated and it comes with the warranty 

 

Get the card, break it someway covered by warranty and get a replacement. - be careful.

 

If you're not comfortable breaking it and getting it replaced just go up to them and say it doesn't run properly on your system and want a replacement card.

 

Otherwise just don't buy it.

[Mooshi]

This is like buying a cpu that was overclocked to stink and then running Prime95 constantly for around 4 months. The chip would be fine, but it has to have had an impact on lifespan. Not sure this is worth the risk. I think it's kind of funny how the same lot responsible for price gouging are now desperately trying to get rid of their cards now that mining went bust.