Is it worth starting mining in October/November 2013?

[mp3wizard]

I spent an hour yesterday looking everywhere for the reply button, at the end I just gave up, I felt stupid, I felt like I was missing something, should of read the guidelines!

So I am considering ordering a 400 ghz miner, which I believe would reach me in October/November at the earliest... With all the BFL products coming online and the massive increase in difficulty, would it still be a profitable acquisition?

I'd hope to at least cover all costs $7,000 for miner and electricity etc and make a few thousand over a space of a year, is this a realistic expectation? or is it only really the first users using the 1,500 ghz miners that are going to make some real money?

I appreciate that everyone wants less miners to make more $ for themselves but I'd appreciate honest feedback please, I have tried the bitcoinx profit calculator but i don't quite understand how I gauge an accurate prediction from it.

If I wanted to try and make some money through bitcoin, would you consider it safer to just purchase bitcoins outright and pray that they rise in value? Personally I think the price will fall over the next 6 months so it's probably not the best time to do that either...

Thanks in advance for any advice and thanks to everyone for sharing their knowledge on this forum, i have found it to be very informative.

[Mikez]

Do some more reading first. If you come here and talk about mining at 400 ghz, you're not too likely to be taken seriously.
Before spending that amount of money be sure to be ready for anything and be sure you're knowing what you're spending it on.

Don't invest what you can't afford to lose.

[cscape]

The hardest part will be a good estimate of the rise in difficulty. It is possible that difficulty will skyrocket with all the ASICs hitting the market. Personally, I wouldn't invest in anything with a break-even point more than 1-2 months away at current difficulty.

[mp3wizard]

Do some more reading first. If you come here and talk about mining at 400 ghz, you're not too likely to be taken seriously.
Before spending that amount of money be sure to be ready for anything and be sure you're knowing what you're spending it on.

Don't invest what you can't afford to lose.

I've done a ton of reading, i think 400 ghz is an accessible entry point for a noob, if i was talking 1,500 ghz and spending $100k in the next few months then that would certainly warrant some skepticism.

It's definitely a risk, maybe litecoin is the way to go.

[dwolfman]

I've done a ton of reading, i think 400 ghz is an accessible entry point for a noob, if i was talking 1,500 ghz and spending $100k in the next few months then that would certainly warrant some skepticism.

It's definitely a risk, maybe litecoin is the way to go.

You still need to do some more reading.  "ghz" is not how it's measured........

[MJGrae]

Do some more reading first. If you come here and talk about mining at 400 ghz, you're not too likely to be taken seriously.
Before spending that amount of money be sure to be ready for anything and be sure you're knowing what you're spending it on.

Don't invest what you can't afford to lose.

I've done a ton of reading, i think 400 ghz is an accessible entry point for a noob, if i was talking 1,500 ghz and spending $100k in the next few months then that would certainly warrant some skepticism.

It's definitely a risk, maybe litecoin is the way to go.

Read a little closer, in the future. No one mines at any ghz. Mining is measured in terms of Mhashes/second or Ghashes/second.

[mp3wizard]

ghs obviously, just waking up... at least it wasn't mhz lol

[Mikez]

I've done a ton of reading, i think 400 ghz is an accessible entry point for a noob, if i was talking 1,500 ghz and spending $100k in the next few months then that would certainly warrant some skepticism.

It's definitely a risk, maybe litecoin is the way to go.

Not sure if troll or...

[mp3wizard]

no no, no troll here, a few weeks ago i didn't know what bitcoin even was so if anything, call me a noob trying to jump on the bandwagon late.

[Mackos]

Don't invest what you can't afford to lose.

So true...
I think that it will be better if you just buy $7000 amount of bitcoins to reach better profit than mining.
But it's up to you.

[mp3wizard]

do you not think the prices will drop though once all this new miners come online over next 6-9 months?

[dwolfman]

Personally, I've already quit mining.  Managed to get about 2 bitcoins total from mining for 3 months on a group of Radeon 7750 and 7770 GPUs (total Mhash/s of about 700 if they were all hashing), but normally only had about 280 to 400 Mhash/s going most of the time.  Since these are all single GPUs in separate computers, it was no longer worth it for me to run them for that.  So I'll be putting money into BTC and treating it like a savings account for now, maybe using a little of it on an exchange with a bot to try and earn a little "interest" for it over time.

And all the coins are gone now anyway.  Sold about 1.2 at Bitfloor on the day they shut down, have yet to see that $105 come back to me (and likely never will, I'm thinking).  Sold the rest through CampBX to pay for food and some bills this last month to hold us over until I start my new job tomorrow.

But I have a plan, like I said.  If you want to see the details of my plan, look at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=246183.0

[dwolfman]

do you not think the prices will drop though once all this new miners come online over next 6-9 months?

Price is not necessarily influenced by the amount of the network hashrate, but it does seem to be the other way around (price goes up, more people want to mine, more hashrate).

[EvilPanda]

Its really a kind of gamble - BTC prices change every day. Most banks give you a steady 3-5% of yearly interest while BTC investment can reach that in one day. On the other hand it can go -5% the next day so there is no guarantee you will earn money mining. Still its a better investment than keeping cash under a mattress.

[Odysseus]

If nothing else, you will accrue experience in the assortment of hardware and software problems associated with mining.  This experience can help inform efforts in mining alt-currencies, or assist in more ambitious enterprises, such as ASIC mining.

[pz8]

Reply button is quite hidden :-)

I've been considering this topic too, and I have to say that it's worth trying. October/November You should have at least 300-500 ghz. I've already started mining, it's a new adventure to me and there's a lot to learn too: what's the best configuration, which mine to use etc. I agree that it's better to invest in BTC than  keeping  money in the funds or socks. As history has showed us - 1 BTC can be worth much more than we can predict. FINANCIAL MARKETS may falter again, banks may go bunkrupt. one must be able to adapt to the changing reality, and this is new way. This sounds futuristic but who knows, maybe it will be sth natural for next generations and I don't wanna be behind the times ;-)

I've also made some calculation about Cost-effectiveness using calculators like this one: http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/
I measure watt consumption and efficiency and I can say - it's worth it but... it's not for everybody.

If know where to buy avalon chips (ready to deliver) pls share this info with me. Thanks.