CrazyBlane - Yeah thanks, I have been reading up on this last night and see that I am massively behind the times
Do you think it would still be worth trying to get involved with an Avalon batch #3, as - as I said, I can get the capital for the unit no problem, but I guess you just have to be one of the first to recieve them right?
cheers again for your help.
Nemesis - Yes, it could be a good idea for a sticky, perhaps an index-like post, called something like: "A complete guide to mining bitcoins from 2013 onwards"
Then inside I guess you would want a few links to stickys outlining mining principles, then a few links to posts telling you how to calculate the hashrate of your hardware (roughly), perhaps with links to a few common ASICs/GPUs to give people a rough idea of where they lie in the grand scheme of things...
Then a few links to mining profitability calculators so that people can guestimate their ROI. Following this, a couple of links to mining pools with a limited outline of the pros and cons of that pool (methods of operation).
Then, once readers have got all excited (as I did) a few disclaimer points describing caveats such as the general difficulty/total network hash rate increases which follow release of a batch of new (more powerful) mining equipment, giving those that recieve new equipment first a significant advantage in the short run, general ASIC delays/scams
A re-iteration of the effect of power consumption and how it can impact 'profits' gained by mining etc..
If it is undesirable to to create a sticky which is largely links to other posts, Im sure the posts linked to could be copy-pasta-ed and then appropriately linked to under the pasted text, or w/e...
/ramble