Bitcoin Forum

Are there any good sites or stores you'd recommend buying a decent miner for a reasonable price? Is there like a ratio of price to effectiveness or any general rules for buying miners or whatever they're called?

There are a few mentions of this already on the forum but here are the 3 companies at the moment selling to the public.

Bitmain.com

Canaan sells the Avalon 741 through a distributor
Minerwarez.com

http://miner.ebang.com.cn
They sell the ebit.

You can find info about all of them on this forum. There are also resellers and what not.

Yeah, what steam said. Miners are in the vernacular "boutique" electronic devices so except for the distributor for Canaan all miners are most safely purchased directly from the manufacturer. It's kinda like trying to get tickets to a really ripping concert... Very high demand, but limited supply. And only comes around now and again... :P  Sure, you can go to "scalpers", but you may get scammed. Just like IRL...

I forgot to answer the second part of your question. Price doesn't necessarily dictate quality. You are looking for TH/S, and power consumption. All gear has a spec sheet that goes over these things.

Also you may want to check out the threads in mining basics and keep doing research before buying anything.

My question could be stupid, I just consider start mining. My question is - Is it possible to start mining and to earn some small money, using a 3 years old laptop Samsung with an Intel Pentium 8970 CPU with tact frequency 2,30 GHz with rating 4,6 (Windows experience rating). Or wirth a tablet? Without using spezialised mining hardware?

possible yes, if you have free electricity. but you will damage your laptop more than the money earned.
if you really want to earn from your laptop. maybe go for pos wallets or lending bots but if will require some capital.

Thank you betong! In fact I have some money, I can afford to invest about 100 USD at the moment. In my imagination POS wallet is a digital wallet, where I keep my bitcoins. It is sth like an IBAN in the bank. If this is correct - I already have my BTC pos wallet in blockchain with the specific address. What can I do with it? And second question - what mean lending bots? As I know a bot is sth like a robot? Could you explain me and adviceme what to do for your 2 suggestions - going to POS wallets and lending bots. I am a real beginner in mining and I am not very familiar with the terminology. Thank you in advance! Great weekend!

Do not torture the computer, with such equipment you will earn $ 1 a month.

Remember that any weak PC can be useful in BOINC projects.  ;)

Thank you to everyone, who replied! Rabinovitch, can you send me link for the BOINC project? I want to read about it and to share the recources of my Samsung if possibility to earn sth. I would be happy even with 30-50 USD per month with my 3 years old laptop.

That's not going to happen. Your laptop will not earn you any money at all with mining.

I was scared also that I can not earn money from my laptop and you unfortunately confirm it. Thank you.

Yes 5 moths ago i did this stupid thing to mine with my laptop as soon as i stated my miner my laptop hangs, after that i never put that much of load on the poor thing,i understand that is a very dedicated mc and you also should understand that you should never ever i repeat never ever start minning from laptop.If you want some free coins start with any faucet website they will give more coins that ypur laptop.And you save your laptop. 

complete ethereum mining guide here: http://ontimefeed.com/how-to-mine-ethereum-2018 (http://ontimefeed.com/how-to-mine-ethereum-2018)

Recently came across asic-minerworld.com , surprisingly pleased, low prices, pretty fast delivery and good quality.
I recommend!

Has anyone else heard of this store. This is first time I see it

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t trust reviews from completely new accounts that have one post and one post that is promoting a shady site. Don’t fall for the scams. Just buy from the manufacturer or from reputable forum members with escrow/ebay if you’re feeling brave.

As stated in my previous post, those are your best bet. I understand wanting the best deal, but no one is going to take a loss on equipment out of the goodness of their heart. So any better deal you find is either used or a scam. Best of luck.