Archive for the ‘General Info’ Category

A Quick Look at the NiceHash Miner 2.0.0.3 Alpha

25, May 2017

NiceHash is preparing an update for their NiceHash Miner software to a new major version 2 and they are working on completely redesigning the interface of the tool for monitoring and choosing the highest profit for users on their hashrate renting/buying service. The software benchmarks all your CPU and GPU hardware to get an idea on what hashrate in various algorithms it is capable of delivering and based on that information switches between different algorithms to maximize your mining profit.

The NiceHash Miner software is essentially a GUI making mining easier for people that are not so into crypto currency, but still want to make some profit from it without having to get into too much details. The software uses popular mining software for the various supported algorithms and is often updated in order to provide the best possible performance for its users.

The new version 2 of NiceHash Miner is still in Alpha and available for people to try it out and report bugs and issues they discover, but soon it will most likely be also available to the general public as well.

With the new version things should become even easier for regular users such as gamers that already have a decent video card and a higher-end processor that can be utilized to mine when not used for gaming. The software might also be a good choice for regular users that haven’t yet started building multi-GPU mining rigs, provided that they do have a decent CPU and/or GPU available or even a few of them lying around and not doing much.

The Bitcoin Network is Congested with Unconfirmed Transactions

17, May 2017

Do you remember the time when Bitcoin was advertised as a fast and easy way to transfer money all over the world with a minimal transaction fee. Well, these times are long gone now that we are seeing the 1MB blocks full with transactions, a backlog of almost 200000 unconfirmed transactions and over 100 BTC in fees alone with almost 100MB backlog (100 blocks behind with 1MB block size). As a result there are high transaction fees that start at more than a dollar and can go as high as a couple of dollars just to have your transaction included in a block in a reasonable time. Things are not looking good, unless a consensus for a solution (even temporary) to the small block size is found as with the increase of the price of Bitcoin. Services such as online Bitcoin wallets and such have started to increase the transaction fees already so, that there will be no extra delay for their customers, the problem is that these extra costs are usually covered by the users.

For example the online Bitcoin wallet and a Bitcoin-powered debit card issuer Xapo has recently informed its customers about their plans to actually have the transaction fees for withdraws paid by the users. According to a post on Aksjebloggen.com, prior to that the service did not have users paying the fees for outgoing transactions, but the high fees associated with transfers on the Bitcoin blockchain have forced this change. With low transaction fees covering the extra cost is not a problem for some services, but with the constantly growing transaction fees you can even end up paying more for the actual transaction to be included in the blockchain than the amount you are transferring if it is just a couple of dollars.

Do you remember those promo images comparing Bitcoin to Western Union, PayPal and other popular payment services and talking about how BTC is better with the very low transaction fees cited as one of the key advantages. Well, if this trend continues and a solution is not found soon, then things might end up with Bitcoin transaction fees actually making transfers more expensive than to use a more established alternative payment method like the ones mentioned…

8x GPU Nvidia Mining Rig With Asus PRIME Z270-A

14, May 2017

NiceHash have published some interesting experiments they have done recently, building an 8x GPU mining rig using the Asus PRIME Z270-A motherboard. This motherboard has 7 PCI-E slots as well as two M.2 SSD slots and they have utilized the 7 available PCI-E slots and one of the M.2 slots with an adapter to get 8 video cards working. Their experiment was with 8x Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 on that particular motherboard from Asus, though other cards will most likely work as well just fine. With the recent price spike and unavailability of cheaper 6x GPU motherboards for mining people are already looking into more expensive alternatives that work well for six or even more GPUs like this model from Asus for example.

It is interesting to note that one of the M.2 slots was turned into the PCI-E slot by using cheap M.2 to the PCI-Express adapter that can be purchased from Chinese sellers on Ebay pretty cheap. You should however be careful if/when using such adapters as sometimes on some motherboards the M.2 slots are shared with some of the PCI-E slots on the motherboard. The Asus PRIME Z270-A motherboard apparently can be upgraded to 8 GPUs using this method, or you can just use the 7 available PCI-Express slots for a seven GPU mining rig instead of the more traditional 6x GPU configuration. The only drawback, the Asus PRIME Z270-A are not the cheapest out there as they use the Z270 chipset and you additionally increase the cost for the M.2 to PCI-E adapter, but then again you also get to connect up to 8 GPUs to a single mining rig (if your PSU(s) can handle that).

– For more details about the 8x GPU Nvidia Mining Rig With Asus PRIME Z270-A on their website…


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