Hi all, another newbie looking to guidance....

[Jordz]

Hey all,

I have been seriously considering becoming a miner and would appreciate being pushed in the right direction to start my reading up n what all you experienced guys consider ore requisite before buying a rig etc.

I'd appreciate if I could be given links to posts or stories that cover the following points, feel fee to include any links to other points you feel necessary.

I'm interested to understand the following:

- What resources are rigs hungry for eg power, gpu etc I'm also keen to know what impact Internet speed/bandwidth has on the rigs output.
- Recommended rigs to build based on different price points and to die for hardware that one should buy if found at decent rates.

Thanks again and as a newbie I hope to not be a PIA for too long as my background is electrical engineering and I work professionally with complex systems ( lighting, energy control and smart home integrated systems) and plan to become a self sufficient miner who can help others when needed.

[odolvlobo]

The best thing to do is to start out small. Try mining with your video card first. Try a few pools.

[Stephen Gornick]

- What resources are rigs hungry for eg power, gpu

GPU mining is on its last legs.  About the only ones left mining profitably on GPUs are those whose cost of electricity is below average (i.e., they are paying under $0.10 per kWh).    

The final nail in the GPU mining coffin will be ASICs.

Here's the first ASIC:



 - https://mineforeman.com/2012/12/28/asicminer-the-dark-horse-in-the-bitcoin-asic-race-may-have-just-come-in-first/

If they are successful then it is just a matter of weeks before even those paying two cents per kWh will be kvetching about the rise in the difficulty.

[AVerySneakyPerson]

Then would it be profitable to invest in ASICs? I couldn't see them as a resellable good.

[Endgame]

Then would it be profitable to invest in ASICs? I couldn't see them as a resellable good.

It could be extremely profitable to invest in ASICs, but it really depends how soon you are able to get your hands on one. The first ASIC miners will make a lot of money, the last ones not so much. As for resale, ASIC's can only be used to mine bitcoins, so resale would be limited to selling to other bitcoiners.

[klondike_bar]

Then would it be profitable to invest in ASICs? I couldn't see them as a resellable good.

It could be extremely profitable to invest in ASICs, but it really depends how soon you are able to get your hands on one. The first ASIC miners will make a lot of money, the last ones not so much. As for resale, ASIC's can only be used to mine bitcoins, so resale would be limited to selling to other bitcoiners.

Well said, those who et the first ASICs will have 100% ROI within a month or 2, whereas those who buy 6mos after realease may take 6-9mos for the same ROI

[Jeweller]

If you've got ASICs, use them immediately.
If you can get ahold of ASICs soon, buy them.
But if you've just found out about this now, it's basically too late.  People have been lined up with pre-orders for months.  Some are even auctioning off their pre-order positions.
The 'gold-mining' analogy works on several levels here: it's a gold rush.  The initial miners in 2009 could just sift through sand in the river and pick up gold.  When GPU mining first started, there was also easy money to be had.  And the first ASIC miners will find some mother lodes of their own.
But if you're moths late showing up to the game, there won't be much left for you.  The real profits to be made are in the upswing of the difficulty curve.

If you really want the exposure at this point, you're much better off buying bitcoins.

[klondike_bar]

I still see ASIC tech as taking some time to ramp up from its current state (production, pre-testing) through the stages: proof of concept, delivery of pre-orders, verification by ASIC owners that the technology in fact works, then several waves of buy in and improving tech.

As i see it it could take a month or 2 simply to distribute the pre-orders, and another 3 months to saturate the market of serious and semi-serious miners. Even at that point i see this technology providing an Return-On-Investment (ROI) within a 3-6month period.

I might be making the wrong assumptions (correct me if so) but i feel that buying a "single" from the first company to market (after filling any pre-orders) for ~$1000 (lets say this is meets the claimed 55-74Ghash/s), it would provide at minimum ROI within 2013, if not 200-300% ROI if the unit can be secured early.

But currently, there seems to be no profitability in buying equipment for mining, unless you plan to use a GPU for resale or personal use once it reaches the difficulty that electricity cost = btcoins mined  (where i live that sits around 1 Mhash/joule)