Mining btc or alt?

[flagpara]

Hello all,

I plan to start learning about mining and gifting myself with small equipment for Christmas, you guys made me wanna try this! 

I don't really care for profit (well it would be cool to reach ROI, but I mostly do it for the fun and to learn), and I plan to buy something like an antminer s3.

I have two main questions:
-Is it possible to switch from btc to an altcoin? From what I saw it's not the same scrypt most of the time, but is it possible to switch while loosing perf or is it not possible at all? And if it is not would you advice to start with btc or alt or whatever it doesn't really matter and that's a newbish question?
-Do you need anything more than the actual miner and a laptop? Do you need to have some more equipment?

Thanks in advance!

Flagpara

[GriffinHeart]

I wouldn't suggest starting mining BTC, the difficulty just rose to about 79.1G which is pretty damn high.
If you have $2000 dollars to spare, buy an S7 and it will ROI in about 3-6 months on average as of now. I don't suggest purchasing any miner under the S5. The S5 is the best $/Gh but the S7 is the most power efficient and fast.
I'd suggest start looking through altcoins. several GPUs (about $250 is what I paid) made more in Ether than my S3 as long as I've had them running. It's your choice what you mine though, Rubycoin, LGBTQoin, Monero or whatever tickles your pickle.
In the end it's your choice.
 

[notabeliever]

Not all altcoins are the same and frankly stay away.  Go with coins that have been around for a longtime.
Bitcoin, Litecoin, Peercoin, Maza Tak Tek


1. Download a btc wallet  to get an address (Encompass).  
2. Sign up with a exchange like Bittrex, Ccex or yobit.
3. Do you have a miner now? if so point it to a multipool that pays in btc (use address from #1)
$. No miner practice with Multiminer or Guiminer or the latest NiceHash miner
https://www.nicehash.com/?p=news&id=47

for example point Nicehash software to Nicehash learn then you can practice on other coins.

[MaritiJames3]

If you got Sha miners, go for BTC.
If you mine with a GPU, altcoin is the way to go..
You can check the most profitable coins to mine @ http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency

[Yauthitdar]

If you want to gain some experience of mining. Spend a few hundred dollars on a few 280x GPU and mine Ethereum. But it is not very profitable if you pay for electricity.