Article: Cellminer (Bitcoin Miner) by gitbrew

[Mardoxx]

230W power supply does NOT mean it's using 230W. I have a 60 watt bulb in my room, but it's on a dimmer switch. Is it always using 60 watts? Or what about my 650 watt power supply in my PC? Is it always using 650 watts? Has it EVER used 650 watts? (The answer to that is **** no. It uses half of that, maybe.)

PlayStation 3 hardware - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yes, actually, it is always using 60W. Seeing as all the dimmer switch is, is a variable resistor.. so the 'saved' energy is just wasted as kinetic and heat energies.
So it was silly to compare that to a power supply..

[samfuji]

Yes, actually, it is always using 60W. Seeing as all the dimmer switch is, is a variable resistor.. so the 'saved' energy is just wasted as kinetic and heat energies.
So it was silly to compare that to a power supply..

Actually his comparison was spot on. Light dimmers aren't variable resistors; they are triac dimmers. No slim PS3 uses 230W of power, you can get an energy meter and check for yourself.

[ahou]

although I love the idea of this project but its a year too late =(

Pretty much. While a ps3 does in fact outpace electricity costs, it may not be profitable when you consider the fact that it will die much sooner. And even then, you'd only make a few dollars per month anyway. A video card can pay for itself in about a month (or ~20 days if you don't pay for electricity), so there's really no reason not to buy a 5770 at least (or preferably a 5850 which gets twice as many mhashes/sec) if you are interested in mining.

[Shrek]

what the hell is a bitcoin ? lol

[underball]

The PS3 has the mining power of an overclocked nVidia 9600GSO, which is a video card considered mid-range approx 3 years ago. In other words, about 21 Mhash/s.

An overclocked ATI 5870 video card, which is about the same price as a PS3, has a performance of around 400 Mhash/s +- 30 for most people.

In other words, a video card in the same price range as a PS3 has 20x the performance, and uses a similar amount of power as a PS3 does, so it is 20x more efficient in startup cost, and 5-20x more efficient cost/power ratio depending on how you set up a system.

edit: basically a PS3 will not even break even on power cost when you cash your bitcoins

Except you have to put that video card into an $800+ PC in order to take advantage of that Card's full abilities.

You only have to take a PS3 out of the box.

[dem0n]

what the hell is a bitcoin ? lol

It's like paypal but for stoners

[AcADIeN]

Mining using 21mhash is not much... specially with the difficulty we have now, you will be able to do arround 1 bitcoin per 2 month, which is arround 7 $ per month... not worth it. But hey, if you want to waste 60$ of electricity to do 7 $, it's your choice, but I suggest you guys to buy bitcoin instead of wasting your power on your ps3 to get them.

[AcADIeN]

Except you have to put that video card into an $800+ PC in order to take advantage of that Card's full abilities.

You only have to take a PS3 out of the box.

That's wrong, if your computer have pci express you are fine, no need to pay 800$ to support a pci express card :P

[underball]

That's wrong, if your computer have pci express you are fine, no need to pay 800$ to support a pci express card :P

Yes, but you still HAVE TO HAVE A COMPUTER FIRST, in order to put the Video Card into it. You don't need to have a computer to have a PS3.

[ahou]

Yes, but you still HAVE TO HAVE A COMPUTER FIRST, in order to put the Video Card into it. You don't need to have a computer to have a PS3.

And the only component in it that matters is the gpu. Nothing else matters, and can use the cheapest available components. Hell, you could go fish a 10 year old computer out of a dumpster, and just stick a 5850 into it, and still get 400+ mhash/sec.