I have $5,000 to buy equipment and almost free electricity. Where do I start?

[Rabinovitch]

or wait a little till the s6 miners are out in june-july.

You have no any proofs, right?  They promised to release new generation of their antminers soon (about one mnonth ago!) but still nothing has been released.

[1715230812]

1715230812

[mavericklm]

or wait a little till the s6 miners are out in june-july.

You have no any proofs, right?   They promised to release new generation of their antminers soon (about one mnonth ago!) but still nothing has been released.

they will release jack shit cause knc is dead, bitfury is b2b, spondoolies is out for few months... they have no need to rush something new to the market atm!

@Tabata11 i would go with good ventilation and underclock if&when necessary..... an 12kbtu ac will die in summer time because of too much heat!
it's about adapting to your room and electric capabilities...

[crazyivan]

The University will notice that you are sucking down a large amount of electricity. They will come down hard on you. Your mining career will end well before you experience ROI. They may even press criminal charges against you as well. If you don't think so, go ahead, no skin off my teeth.

This.

5 S5 suck a lot of power and someone will notice, 100%. If I were you, I would go either cloud or invest into some PoS coins.

[xstr8guy]

I have $5,000 to buy equipment and almost free electricity. Where do I start?

The question shouldn't be "where do I start?" It should be "when should I have started?"

And the answer is... you should have started in the fall of 2103. You're way too late to the game unless you're just in it for the "fun"!

[vince232]

I live in an apartment that is owned by a large university so I don't think they monitor electricity usage or anything like that.

Also, how long does it take to set up the mining equipment? I have little knowledge about computer systems and mining equipments. and I would like to mine to earn bitcoins and learn about them at the same time.

how about trying to mine with your personal computer first so you can familliarize how mining works. i would still recommend trading over mining now

[Snipe85]

how about trying to mine with your personal computer first so you can familliarize how mining works. i would still recommend trading over mining now

This means he'll have to mine some new altcoins preferably CPU ones, which basically drops 99% of coins out of the equation. It can also mean he won't earn anything as some of these coins are scams or fail to reach a significant market cap.

5 S5 suck a lot of power and someone will notice, 100%. If I were you, I would go either cloud or invest into some PoS coins.

This might be a good idea. Although PoS is not considered "mining" by all it's probably the only way if you can't profit from traditional mining. It's by far better than cloud if you ask me.

[vince232]

how about trying to mine with your personal computer first so you can familliarize how mining works. i would still recommend trading over mining now

This means he'll have to mine some new altcoins preferably CPU ones, which basically drops 99% of coins out of the equation. It can also mean he won't earn anything as some of these coins are scams or fail to reach a significant market cap.

5 S5 suck a lot of power and someone will notice, 100%. If I were you, I would go either cloud or invest into some PoS coins.

This might be a good idea. Although PoS is not considered "mining" by all it's probably the only way if you can't profit from traditional mining. It's by far better than cloud if you ask me.

Im not saying he will earn.  Im just saying to mine first with his computer to familliarize how mining works. Before you invest 5k dollars on mining.  You should study it first.  Not just buy right away

[Snipe85]

Im not saying he will earn.  Im just saying to mine first with his computer to familliarize how mining works. Before you invest 5k dollars on mining.  You should study it first.  Not just buy right away

It's not that hard. Most miners come with their own programs where you just enter the address of the pool and boom, you're mining.
Mining with your GPU is usually harder than that

[notlist3d]

Im not saying he will earn.  Im just saying to mine first with his computer to familliarize how mining works. Before you invest 5k dollars on mining.  You should study it first.  Not just buy right away

It's not that hard. Most miners come with their own programs where you just enter the address of the pool and boom, you're mining.
Mining with your GPU is usually harder than that

As far as just mining to learn it I would suggest getting a stick miner if you are not wanting to spend much.  I consider it much better then CPU/GPU mining.   Some of the old block erupters are pretty cheap.

[vince232]

he should mine first using his computer. so that he can learn more about mining and not just jump in on it.

like most of us are saying mining now really isnt that good and it is better to trade.

if he mines with his gpu he can have estimates on how much he would earn if he buy an expensive miner and see if he really wants it.

[mrhelpful]

I would just invest $5,000 traditionally, then use the investment to buy 1 btc instead.

And buy more when you see the price movements to pick up or not. Its not good to just buy and expect to just shoot up, its better to earn other areas of profit then using that free capital to your advantage.

[alh]

I too would suggest a stick miner as the starting point for learning about mining. It's so much faster than the CPU, or a GPU, that it will keep your interest a bit. It also lets you figure out what kind of speed delivers what kind of return. Stick miners are really cheap compared to a GPU, and draw little power and generate little heat compared to a GPU. You will not get rich, but you won't go broke spending $50-100 for the hardware to run a1-3 stick miners. Think of it as a learning investment, and then decide what kind of effort and risk you are willing take with Bitcoin mining.

[Stratobitz]

Chances are you will get shut down by your landlord/university... and then you will be stuck with a bunch of hardware you have to move.

Regardless of free AC; there are most certainly very vague clauses in your agreements with your landlord/university regarding reasonable use of ameneties; ethics; etc - they will come down on you if you are pulling 10 kW of power (which you could with $5,000 in gear).

Secondly; you are going to have to exhaust the heat - and $5000 worth of ASICs is going to put of some real heat.

Third, Law Enforcement Agencies; the DEA, actively monitor areas around colleges using helicopters with IR cameras. This is done passively by all police copters now. The cameras are always running - and the images they capture are IR - which show heat exhaust from buildings. The images are simply run through a software system (all on auto) - and anything out of the ordinary and you will get a knock on your door.

They are searching for "growers". Bitcoin miners have, on more than one occasion had DEA show up for a bust.

Just some things to think about.

Strato

[Amph]

Chances are you will get shut down by your landlord/university... and then you will be stuck with a bunch of hardware you have to move.

Regardless of free AC; there are most certainly very vague clauses in your agreements with your landlord/university regarding reasonable use of ameneties; ethics; etc - they will come down on you if you are pulling 10 kW of power (which you could with $5,000 in gear).

Secondly; you are going to have to exhaust the heat - and $5000 worth of ASICs is going to put of some real heat.

Third, Law Enforcement Agencies; the DEA, actively monitor areas around colleges using helicopters with IR cameras. This is done passively by all police copters now. The cameras are always running - and the images they capture are IR - which show heat exhaust from buildings. The images are simply run through a software system (all on auto) - and anything out of the ordinary and you will get a knock on your door.

They are searching for "growers". Bitcoin miners have, on more than one occasion had DEA show up for a bust.

Just some things to think about.

Strato

this is the reason why cloud are better, no electricity to worry about, and no anything else you mentioned, basically the risk are the same with physical HW but the cost are much less

and another thing good to do now is to buy bitcoin and forget about mining completely

[Snipe85]

this is the reason why cloud are better, no electricity to worry about, and no anything else you mentioned, basically the risk are the same with physical HW but the cost are much less

and another thing good to do now is to buy bitcoin and forget about mining completely

Nothing to worry about and then one day they run away with your money.
I agree with the second part, Bitcoin is really close to this years bottom, so if you wanted to buy in cheap here's your chance. If Bitcoin follows its typical pattern it will jump at least 10% by the end of the year. Less risky than being stuck with hardware if you ask me.

[techgeek]

Avoid the headache and drama, the prices are plummeting so its better to buy now at this point.

As for the remainder of the money do a 50 split between it, since the btc price is so low, then sell some off when it goes back $100 difference then use that to buy into a legit cloud mining service like genesis mining..as for free electricity I highly doubt its for free.

[Tabata11]

Yup. Just bought $4,000 worth of coins at 217

[ThomasCrowne]

Yup. Just bought $4,000 worth of coins at 217

Undoubtedly the smarter play at this point if you still believe.

BTW, for future reference, you would be lucky to be able to run 1x or 2x units in your apartment before you would likely blow your circuit out.  These ASIC's definitely suck down a heck of alotta juice.

[MRKLYE]

In all honesty I would skip the mining and just buy BTC straight up.
Mining is hot, noisy and takes maintenence and upkeep to be profitable.

I owned 2 s1's and the only time I got ROI on it is when I sold the damn things.

[notlist3d]

In all honesty I would skip the mining and just buy BTC straight up.
Mining is hot, noisy and takes maintenence and upkeep to be profitable.

I owned 2 s1's and the only time I got ROI on it is when I sold the damn things.

A lot of ROI depends on electricity price.  I normally say mine.  But BTC is at a attractive price to buy.

Even buying holding a few weeks and then buying gear I think might be best way.  I think we will have a least a small upwards motion in next few weeks.