ASIC rigs

[chymiro]

I'm currently running at 14.8Mhash/s which extremely sucks. Would it be in my interest to buy the cheapest ASIC miner for 140usd or is there an alternative option?

[1714509145]

1714509145

[mjc]

Buy as much of an SIC unit as yo can comfortably afford.  Know that you may or may not get your money back.  The larger units are more cost effective, but only slightly.

[chymiro]

How about running solo at the cheapest rig would be 4Ghash/s, at difficulty 1(or atleast thats what my miner says). would i make money quickly that way or is pools still my best shot at that point?

[mjc]

Once the ASIC hit the market, 4.5 GH will be not much at all.  To solo mine you will want to be closer to 1 TH.  I bought 3 Single SC that's 180 GH and I'll still pool mine.

Check out my blog for more information on how to determine how to calculate how much MHash is required to earn 1 BTC: http://bitcoinsbs.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/how-much-mhash-does-it-take-to-mine-1-btc/

There are some other really good posts in the mining section of this forum that will help you understand.

[chymiro]

Thanks I'll check them out.


*edit*
So even though my miner on my computer says difficulty 1 its still based of the networks difficulty?

[chymiro]

OK that narrows it down alot for me. so just one more question, would the increase in hash rate lower the cost of bitcoins or raise it? From what i see the exchange rate rose simply due to those who invested and bought as much as they could, so when then a rise in the hash rate could do two things , one make those like me not be able to afford them so making them more valuable or two the rise in hash rate was spread out between alot of people causing peer-to-peer exchanges more frequent lowering the value because people wouldnt be renewing them to the market.

I don't really know much about trading markets so i don't really know of the outcome. meaning if i do invest and buy them now at 25/piece and it drops due to the latter of the options then Im down some serious cash. so before I actually make my decision, is there any one that can predict with fact the outcome of the market.

Thanks for the welcome

[lassdas]

It's supply and demand what drives the price, not the network-hashrate.
Doesn't matter what the hashrate is, if there's thousands of people running ASICs, or just a few running CPUs, the supply will be the same.

Miners generate ~3200BTC per day, trading-volume on markets is 20+times as much, so the influence of ASICs on the market-price is miniscule.

[chymiro]

ok sounds reasonable. Like i said i'm not very smart. Looks like ill invest until a decent profit is made to join miners. thanks for the help

[lassdas]

To give you an idea, the disparity between the Euro and the dollar hasn't changed much since the Euro was introduced a few years ago (10-15?) and it has been between 1USD=1.7EUR to 1USD=1.2EUR

Uhm...I think you mixed that up the wrong way, 
it should be more like 1EUR = 1.2-1.7USD (currently around 1.34).

[mokahless]

How about running solo at the cheapest rig would be 4Ghash/s, at difficulty 1(or atleast thats what my miner says). would i make money quickly that way or is pools still my best shot at that point?

It takes money to make money. If you are only willing to invest 140USD, do not expect large returns, especially if you order this late in the game. By the time you get your unit, I expect the hashrate to be ~300TH/s. A 4.5GH/s unit will generate 0.054BTC/day under those conditions. This /day value will also decrease over time. Expect maybe 6BTC by end of year, currently valued at ~166USD.
This is my opinion on what you should expect as a moderately bad scenario but the value of BTC could be higher or lower and the hashrate could be as low as 200TH/s or maybe higher. My point is, don't look at bitcoin mining as a way to make quick money. Think of it more the same way you would investing directly in bitcoin: a longer-term investment.
Just my opinion.