NEWB here

[Darnol91]

Hey guys! (and gals)
Greetings from Southern US!
I am new to the bitcoin world, and technical computer world for that matter, and was looking for advice and/or direction. I have a good bit of money to invest, and bitcoin has really caught my attention! After doing a decent amount of research I have decided I would like to get into it as best I can. My main question would be other than an ASIC SC (butterfly labs for example) what else would I need to run it hardware wise. I have a macbook pro, but I have a feeling that just wont cut it? Or are the SC's self contained?

I found out about this pool from a reference of mine and he had said you guys had helped him out tremendously in starting up. I know I am well behind the curve, but I thirst for knowledge and have no problem doing the research. I look forward to the knowledge and experience gained and to helping out this pool in any way possible! Thank you for all the help I'm sure to receive in the future!

Regards,
-Darnol

EDIT: Sorry for the edit, but I thought of another question: I do have the capability to run an asic for ~24h a day if possible, but is it still just not profitable?

[jak12132]

On the same idea of GPU mining with scrypt coins. I would recommend starting out with LTC. With your question about your Macbook Pro, it will not be able to mine any coin. The best option is to build your own machine:
http://www.cryptobadger.com/2013/04/build-a-litecoin-mining-rig-hardware/

A highly detailed guide of setting up everything from start to finish is available on that site.

[tripppn]

Check out the group buy section in the mining hardware section of the forum.  DZ does some really good group buys of bigger machines and you buy shares in it.  Also CEX.io is a great option if you want to mine bitcoins.

[odolvlobo]

Unfortunately, the first thing that most Bitcoin newbies want to do is mine bitcoins, and most of them lose money doing it.

They lose money because they have no idea how predict mining revenue, and they end paying more for the equipment than it will ever mine. Basically, if you pay more than 0.05 BTC per GH/s, then you will lose money and you should just buy the BTC instead.