highly interested newbie with a couple ?s

[jray1luv]

Hey there bitcoin community, with the recent attention bitcoin has been getting in the media it led me to really research how it all works. I love the idea of decentralized currency its what the world needs and I'm all for it. Just had a few questions so I can better inform myself and of course a couple mining questions.

Is there a good book or a webpage possibly where there's tons of information all in one place about bitcoin? I've watched videos, read short articles and have been through this forum a bit so I feel like I have a good knowledge base. Now I feel like I need a big book to start reading.

I want to set up a small mining setup that can at the very least support itself so I can conteribute to the project. Could this be done with the 333mh USB block erupters on a powered hub? What about the new USB erupters that hit 5.2 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=333494.0. Are red fury's cost effective? Do all USB erupter pull 1/2 watt like the 333mh one?

Are the butterfly labs jalapeño still super backordered? Is this a more cost effective solution over the USBs? Again I just want this to be a self sustaining hobby at first.

I probably don't want to use my everyday computer to handle my mining. I was already looking at getting a rack mount server with a quad core xenon to host my media and my bands website. Would the xenon rack running centOS show improvement in CPU mining and overall Mining performance over a computer with a consumer grade CPU? Like my athlon 4000 brisbane.?

Thanks for your guys help I look forward to your replys!

[jray1luv]

Bump.
 Was that too hard to understand? Should I post my questions in another forum?

[odolvlobo]

I don't have answers for your specific questions. I'm sure the answers are buried in threads in the Mining forum.

However, I can tell you that mining with a CPU is probably no longer feasible, and mining with a graphics card is no longer cost effective.

[jray1luv]

OK that's what I figured, I was curious because some of the mining programs still include CPU mining. I know GPU mining isn't feasible for bitcoin but isn't the fastest way to mine litecoin?

[BitOfPoker]

To be perfectly honest with you, the answers to all your questions are probably somewhere on this site.  Get out of newbie jail and go ask in the respective forums.  bitcointalk people are generally pretty helpful.

[DannyHamilton]

It is difficult to predict whether any particular mining setup will be able to support its own costs. It depends on what happens in a completely unpredictable future.  Most significantly, it depends on how quickly the difficulty increases, and what the future bitcoin exchange rate is.  You can make your own predictions on both of those and then work out the math to see if you'll be profitable or take a loss, but very few honest and reliable people are going to be willing to state for certain whether the rig you've described will or won't be able to cover its own costs.

[PenAndPaper]

You can make calculations about mining profitability yourself using online calculators like this one
http://mining.thegenesisblock.com/

[cGull]

You can make calculations about mining profitability yourself using online calculators like this one
http://mining.thegenesisblock.com/

Nice link, thanks. Sure is a jungle out there.