<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">> I bought Bitcoin and know a bit about mining and trading them.</span><br></div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt;">> What do you want to know?<br><br>Hi Mirco. This is day two of my investigation into this subject, so I'm more a less a complete newbie. I'm looking at mining Bitcoin (BTC) or Litecoin (LTC), but I'm not sure if it would be worthwhile on my computer. I have a Dell XPS 17 laptop with a P7 2.2 Ghz (capable of something like 3 Ghz in burst mode) and 6 gigs of RAM. It is basically a desktop replacement, but it has only an onboard NVIDIA chip and not a separate card. I think this means I cannot do GPU mining, but I don't know that for a
fact. Do you? From what I gather, GPU mining is much more efficient than CPU mining. </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_7_2_18_1365025958780_62"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_7_2_18_1365025958780_62"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I've seen some say that CPU mining is no longer worth the trouble, at least for BTC. I wonder if CPU mining for LTC would still make sense, as the blocks are smaller. I am as I type this doing some LTC mining in solo mode (just installed it last night). I have not yet succeeded in connecting to any pools. For some reason my Litecoin client won't function except in solo mining mode. </span></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_7_2_18_1365025958780_62"><span style="font-size:
12pt;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_7_2_18_1365025958780_62"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Solo or pooled, I don't yet know if this is a worthwhile endeavor, as it is maxing out my resources (CPU utilization 100%, running in burst mode at 2.4 Ghz). I worry that I might fry my computer in pursuit only a few dollars. Perhaps mining is only worthwhile on desktops with high end graphics cards and good cooling.</span></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_7_2_18_1365025958780_62"><br>I've read about the new ASIC dedicated mining machines that are just beginning to hit the market. From what I understand, they will change everything. I've heard they will cause the Difficulty level to rise dramatically, making even GPU mining almost pointless. I don't know if that is true.</div><div style="font-family: times new
roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_7_2_18_1365025958780_62"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_7_2_18_1365025958780_62"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I would be grateful for any insights. Thanks. </span></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_7_2_18_1365025958780_62"><br>Gordon<br><br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_7_2_18_1365025958780_62"><br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_7_2_18_1365025958780_62"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_7_2_18_1365025958780_62"><span style="font-size:
12pt;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_7_2_18_1365025958780_62"><br><br><br><br><br> </div> </div> </div></body></html>