Getting in to mining but have no knowledge on where to start..

[Tholek]

So I'm new to all this and was wondering if anyone wanted to show me the ropes. I do have little bit experiences with Linux but can learn very fast.

Here are a few questions that I have if anyone can answer them.

What do I need to know?

How do I go about it?

What should I buy?

I'm also reading up "Mastering Bitcoin" which originally came from this community.

[MRKLYE]

Don't.

It's a waste of money to mine.. may as well just buy bitcoins.

[Tholek]

I don't pay the electric bill and have money to buy more than 5 of the top brand ones.

[SFR10]

What do I need to know?
-It depends on a lot of factors, to name some are: how serious you are? / the budget you could use for investing on equipments, (have money to buy more than 5 of the top brand ones) it would be better if you could state the exact budget instead / mining equipments could fail any time so some backgrounds would really come handy at times

How do I go about it?
-Depending on the equipment you try to buy, there are bunch of great threads here that explain the setup processes and possible fixes to the problems

What should I buy?
-I need two things for this to answer it: Your exact budget and the available space for the miners

[unholycactus]

It depends on which miner you buy really. Some don't require much setup and are pretty straight forward to use e.g. Bitmain.

Mining has become a really risky investment and I find that even if you don't pay for electricity right now, it's still really hard to reach ROI if you have to buy the miners without reselling them with a good price.

[VirosaGITS]

I don't pay the electric bill and have money to buy more than 5 of the top brand ones.

With free electricity; Antminer S3, Antminer S5, Antminer S4, SP20, Antminer S2. Probably in that order.

If you get the Antminer S3 for cheap, they are still solid and easier to make quiet. Ant miner S5 are a good unit while still fairly efficient. Antminer S4 are a bit less so but the only thing you care is GH/$. Note that these are harder to make quiet, but not during winter. Then the SP20 which are good units but different. Then a S2 for 150-200$ could still be nice.

You also have the option to go for the Avalon6 or the S7, but it would be less cost effective for you.

[mavericklm]

I don't pay the electric bill and have money to buy more than 5 of the top brand ones.

s5 and evga 1300w(or server grade psu). in time u can upgrade from 2*s5 to 1*s7

this are the main things, you can build your small farm on 

[HarryKPeters]

I don't pay the electric bill and have money to buy more than 5 of the top brand ones.

With free electricity; Antminer S3, Antminer S5, Antminer S4, SP20, Antminer S2. Probably in that order.

If you get the Antminer S3 for cheap, they are still solid and easier to make quiet. Ant miner S5 are a good unit while still fairly efficient. Antminer S4 are a bit less so but the only thing you care is GH/$. Note that these are harder to make quiet, but not during winter. Then the SP20 which are good units but different. Then a S2 for 150-200$ could still be nice.

You also have the option to go for the Avalon6 or the S7, but it would be less cost effective for you.

Exactly. If you can cope up with the noise (basement placement vs living room placement), start with a S3. They are easy to set up and you can learn about setting up miners, connecting to pools and learn the trading.

From there.. Expand!

[crazyearner]

Just buy bitocin and leave it to mature in the future and maybe tinker with some equipment to play around with but right now mining is not a good way to grab bitcoin. You might as well just buy the coin hold on to it and sell higher price and buy back in at lower repeat the process gain more coin.

[Nexious]

There are a lot of variables to consider. Main ones are hardware price, electricity price, pool fees and the price of Bitcoin all play certain factors.

[Amph]

There are a lot of variables to consider. Main ones are hardware price, electricity price, pool fees and the price of Bitcoin all play certain factors.

price of bitcoin does not matter, if you're not going to sell again your hash, and if you deal in bitcoin only, pool fees is negligeable

only initial investement and bills cost really matter

[Nexious]

There are a lot of variables to consider. Main ones are hardware price, electricity price, pool fees and the price of Bitcoin all play certain factors.

price of bitcoin does not matter, if you're not going to sell again your hash, and if you deal in bitcoin only, pool fees is negligeable

only initial investement and bills cost really matter

Price of Bitcoin does play into it for a majority of miners, hence the price goes up a lot of miners start up again etc.

[Ondart]

I've got an S5 and an S7 running and I am making a profit after electricity costs but not yet on return on investment (ROI) until early nest year. I had to insulate my small basement storage room to reduce the very loud noise to make my wife happy. I also had to install a vent fan in the wall to expel the significant heat the miners produce into the garage, and I had to install two vents for air input. I also had to extend two electrical sockets from different circuits to the basement, one for each miner. The costs of the miners, power supplies and this additional hardware for electrical, cooling and noise will take me a while before I get my return on investment. If you are single, heck, you can run a miner in the kitchen and heat the house if you want to.

I sell some mining coin to pay for the electricity costs over and above my normal budget for electricity every month. I am mining to gather bitcoin over time and I don't worry about the price. If you want to get started on a small scale, purchase an AntMiner S3 or an S5 for a few hundred bucks and give it a go. Before I did all this I learned how to establish a cold wallet and a watching wallet to protect my proceeds. I also read up on the mining reward halving that happens every four years to determine if the profitability will continue with the miners I have when the halving occurs. I consider it a hobby and I enjoy it.

-Ondart

[Djisamsoe]

If you dont have experience just go to Bitmain and buy S7 - it is easy to run, if you learn fast, in one or two days you will know how to set up this. Just visit www.hashnest.com and order miner. With time you will learn more and then you will decide what can be better for you.

[bitart]

I've got an S5 and an S7 running and I am making a profit after electricity costs but not yet on return on investment (ROI) until early nest year. I had to insulate my small basement storage room to reduce the very loud noise to make my wife happy. I also had to install a vent fan in the wall to expel the significant heat the miners produce into the garage, and I had to install two vents for air input. I also had to extend two electrical sockets from different circuits to the basement, one for each miner. The costs of the miners, power supplies and this additional hardware for electrical, cooling and noise will take me a while before I get my return on investment. If you are single, heck, you can run a miner in the kitchen and heat the house if you want to.

I sell some mining coin to pay for the electricity costs over and above my normal budget for electricity every month. I am mining to gather bitcoin over time and I don't worry about the price. If you want to get started on a small scale, purchase an AntMiner S3 or an S5 for a few hundred bucks and give it a go. Before I did all this I learned how to establish a cold wallet and a watching wallet to protect my proceeds. I also read up on the mining reward halving that happens every four years to determine if the profitability will continue with the miners I have when the halving occurs. I consider it a hobby and I enjoy it.

-Ondart

Could you please advice where you have read about cold and watching wallet? I'm using google of course but to find a quick summary on the topic would be really helpful.
How do you mean that you can heat the house with that miner? Does it generate significant heat (only one piece)
Does it worth to mine on your own or nowdays you need to join somewhere to get some coins?
What do expect with the next halving in connection with price?