Looking for hardware recommendations

[salfter]

Since I'm still stuck here for now, I thought I'd ask.  I've poked around in the hardware section, and it's clear as mud which way I should go.  I'm thinking that an upgraded GPU isn't the way to go, as it sucks down lots of power (and I'd most likely need a bigger power supply to go with it).  That leaves FPGA and ASIC as options, but what's the cheapest way to get going?  I understand that ASICs aren't yet shipping, and that while they promise to be a good bit faster (and maybe cheaper), substantial changes to the way Bitcoin works could render them expensive paperweights.  I'd like to get beyond the ~25 MH/s I'm getting with the CPUs and low-end GPUs I have; what's going to be the best bang for the buck?

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[soniq]

also interested in this, as I am jut new to bitcoins, are BFL singles or Mini rig the way to go?  or are there better ways?  Also see there is a future potential with High Computing, are Asic the answer for this as well? or Nvidia GPU for folding proteins?

[SysRun]

I wouldn't recommend a GPU at this point. it looks like asic is going to dominate in a couple months. not enough time to make your money back from the cost of the hardware.

[Hitman10666]

Since I know next to nothing about this crap, and am also interested, what is ASIC?

[SysRun]

An ASIC can be researched on Wikipedia. The hardware that's being developed is SHA256 specific. Less power, more speed than GPUs.