I am given an opportunity to present a business plan (small) and if it sounds good i'll get $1,500 in funding for mining hardware.
My power cost here is $0.12 Kw/h
I was originally considering Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Litecoin as my top 3 prospects. I would like some flexibility to change to a different coin if the need arises and i know some rigs are suited only for bitcoin.
I was mostly considering GPU rig compared to an asic one.
I live on the east coast near NJ/PA area so i'm close to a Micro-Center which sells Graphics Cards in stock but they only seem to have 1-2 of any given card in stock and i was considering between 4-6 graphics cards.
My first concern is availability and pricing, even if some cards would be ideal they seem to be sold out or are being re-sold on ebay for3X the price.
The antminers are bitcoin exclusive? They are about $1,300+ and don't ship until late November, which doesn't rule it out.
Are there any better options or guides anyone would reccomend for someone to get started?
p.s. - From the research I have done it seems impossible to tell the Hash rate of any card without having it tested first.I am a freshman college student majoring in computer science and this is exactly the type of formula I would like to study and understand in the pursuit of knowledge. Thanks.
Here's my advice: Do not get ASIC miners as they consume lots of electricity. Get a GPU rig instead, it is more versatile. Besides selling them will give back some of your capital.
I'd suggest that you get any cheap RX 470/480/570/580 and GTX 1050Ti/1060/1070 that is close to MSRP. Get the versions with more VRAM as Ether needs loads of those and you might run out of them next year with 3GB and 4GB versions of the cards. Also note that blower style cards are generally not preferred but if you find them at or near MSRP just grab them. You can also mix GPUs even if they are from different brands. I personally prefer getting the GTX 1070s as their resale value is higher, consumes less electricity, gives higher hashrates and can leave more expansion space in case you want to expand your rig to contain more GPUs.
Here's a suggested rig by me:
Mobo+CPU: Any mobo that is a mining mobo and the cheapest Intel Pentium CPU that can fit the socket
EG: Biostar TB250-BTC PRO + Intel Pentium G4560
Cost: 98+64= $162RAM: A 4gb stick would do
Cost: $40HDD: A 1/2TB one to store all those blockchains if you want local wallets
Cost (2TB): $67SSD: No need
Rig Frame: Search up on DIY rig frames and make it yourself.
Cost: 30ishThat leaves about $1200 for GPUs.
Personally I would pick GTX 1070s. You can get 4 of them at MSRP price and they are best for Zcash mining right now,
earning around $270 a month at max overclock with electricity prices factored in. But, if you cannot find any 1070s at MSRP or close to (AKA anything over 385) I'd go for GTX 1050Ti, they aren't really overpriced right now. You can get 7 or 8 of them if you stretch your budget a little. Overclocked they can
earn around $230-$240 a month mining Ether, enough to buy another to add to your rig. I cannot say much about AMD cards as I don't own them except that Monero mining is more profitable than Ether mining on them right now.
Feel free to ask more questions, I'll be happy to answer.