I have $2,500 to spend?

[NineLives]

Hi guys,

I want to invest this money into the Bitcoin world and preferably in my own hardware.  I'm not interested in crappie USB sticks or home made rigs.  I would consider shares.

Hardware:  What can you recommend to a semi novice
Shares:  Legit, without being scammed?

I'm an IT engineer and this is fascinating..

[1714863050]

1714863050

[1714863050]

1714863050

[adnanabbas]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=287379.msg3090481#msg3090481

[will1982]

I'd spend it on a nice miner or a bunch of BTC. Their value will rise.

[NineLives]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=287379.msg3090481#msg3090481

Great, Thank you.

[DoogieHouser]

Hi guys,

I want to invest this money into the Bitcoin world and preferably in my own hardware.  I'm not interested in crappie USB sticks or home made rigs.  I would consider shares.

Hardware:  What can you recommend to a semi novice
Shares:  Legit, without being scammed?

I'm an IT engineer and this is fascinating..

In April 2012 I purchased a couple of FPGAs from Butterfly Labs, and they worked great! When I went to order more hardware in July 2012, ASICs were available for pre-order, and they had an upgrade offer for FPGA customers. So, I got the upgrades, thinking "BFL orders take two months to ship, which would make it September if I ordered more FPGAs, and the ASICs are 75x faster than the FPGAs -- what's another month for that much more hashing power?"

My ASICs finally arrived about two weeks ago. The day after they shipped, I got an Email from BFL, advertising pre-orders for the 600 GH/s Monarch 28nm ASIC, with expected shipping date in December. Pfft! I'm with Scotty on Star Trek, "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Don't get me wrong, my ASICs will pay for themselves in about a month, but they could've paid for themselves in two days if BFL had met their shipping promises, and the last increase in difficulty was 34%--three days after I hooked up my ASICs. I went from earning ~1 BTC/day to 0.67 BTC/day, which is what my FPGAs were earning when I started.

I did some research, and I discovered HashFast. They have a 400 GH/s 28nm ASIC that is supposed to ship in October, and it is backed by their Miner Protection Program, which means if your miners don't pay for themselves in 90 days, they'll ship you the hardware it would've taken, in addition to your original order, up to 2 TH/s. If the difficulty skyrockets, HashFast will cover you for up to 5x the hardware you purchased. None of the other vendors offer that, and the price is competitive with BFL. Plus, you can read about who is behind HashFast on their web-site, unlike BFL & others....

See if you can go in for shares on a HashFast miner. It seems to be the best deal available, right now.

[smoothie]

Buy bitcoin and hold. That is my view.

[User705]

Hi guys,

I want to invest this money into the Bitcoin world and preferably in my own hardware.  I'm not interested in crappie USB sticks or home made rigs.  I would consider shares.

Hardware:  What can you recommend to a semi novice
Shares:  Legit, without being scammed?

I'm an IT engineer and this is fascinating..

In April 2012 I purchased a couple of FPGAs from Butterfly Labs, and they worked great! When I went to order more hardware in July 2012, ASICs were available for pre-order, and they had an upgrade offer for FPGA customers. So, I got the upgrades, thinking "BFL orders take two months to ship, which would make it September if I ordered more FPGAs, and the ASICs are 75x faster than the FPGAs -- what's another month for that much more hashing power?"

My ASICs finally arrived about two weeks ago. The day after they shipped, I got an Email from BFL, advertising pre-orders for the 600 GH/s Monarch 28nm ASIC, with expected shipping date in December. Pfft! I'm with Scotty on Star Trek, "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Don't get me wrong, my ASICs will pay for themselves in about a month, but they could've paid for themselves in two days if BFL had met their shipping promises, and the last increase in difficulty was 34%--three days after I hooked up my ASICs. I went from earning ~1 BTC/day to 0.67 BTC/day, which is what my FPGAs were earning when I started.

I did some research, and I discovered HashFast. They have a 400 GH/s 28nm ASIC that is supposed to ship in October, and it is backed by their Miner Protection Program, which means if your miners don't pay for themselves in 90 days, they'll ship you the hardware it would've taken, in addition to your original order, up to 2 TH/s. If the difficulty skyrockets, HashFast will cover you for up to 5x the hardware you purchased. None of the other vendors offer that, and the price is competitive with BFL. Plus, you can read about who is behind HashFast on their web-site, unlike BFL & others....

See if you can go in for shares on a HashFast miner. It seems to be the best deal available, right now.

For the life of me I can't understand why you think just because its a different company name anyone will sell you a device for X price that can generate said X price in a few days time?
For OP, the best advice is to go with what you know.  If you are a trader then trade, if you are a retail guy see if you can resell things, if you are in IT there's plenty of projects that will pay you in BTC or are involved with BTC.  But don't spend it all on coin.  Save some cash to average down if rates drop.

[AndrewWilliams]

Hi guys,

I want to invest this money into the Bitcoin world and preferably in my own hardware.  I'm not interested in crappie USB sticks or home made rigs.  I would consider shares.

Hardware:  What can you recommend to a semi novice
Shares:  Legit, without being scammed?

I'm an IT engineer and this is fascinating..

In April 2012 I purchased a couple of FPGAs from Butterfly Labs, and they worked great! When I went to order more hardware in July 2012, ASICs were available for pre-order, and they had an upgrade offer for FPGA customers. So, I got the upgrades, thinking "BFL orders take two months to ship, which would make it September if I ordered more FPGAs, and the ASICs are 75x faster than the FPGAs -- what's another month for that much more hashing power?"

My ASICs finally arrived about two weeks ago. The day after they shipped, I got an Email from BFL, advertising pre-orders for the 600 GH/s Monarch 28nm ASIC, with expected shipping date in December. Pfft! I'm with Scotty on Star Trek, "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Don't get me wrong, my ASICs will pay for themselves in about a month, but they could've paid for themselves in two days if BFL had met their shipping promises, and the last increase in difficulty was 34%--three days after I hooked up my ASICs. I went from earning ~1 BTC/day to 0.67 BTC/day, which is what my FPGAs were earning when I started.

I did some research, and I discovered HashFast. They have a 400 GH/s 28nm ASIC that is supposed to ship in October, and it is backed by their Miner Protection Program, which means if your miners don't pay for themselves in 90 days, they'll ship you the hardware it would've taken, in addition to your original order, up to 2 TH/s. If the difficulty skyrockets, HashFast will cover you for up to 5x the hardware you purchased. None of the other vendors offer that, and the price is competitive with BFL. Plus, you can read about who is behind HashFast on their web-site, unlike BFL & others....

See if you can go in for shares on a HashFast miner. It seems to be the best deal available, right now.

Interesting. Anyone else have some input?

I am an ASIC naysayer myself, disgusted with the way the ASIC manufacturers have screwed their customers, but I must admit, you make HashFast sound prettttty appealing. LOL

[NineLives]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the sound advice.

I'm in a dilemma..

64Ghz Miner  ($1700 - October via a friend) - Butterfly
Buy Bitcoins (and sit on them)
or
Buy Stock (which I have NOOO idea on where to start or look or know if my gamble has a good chance to survive)?

[Birdy]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the sound advice.

I'm in a dilemma..

64Ghz Miner  ($1700 - October via a friend) - Butterfly
Buy Bitcoins (and sit on them)

urghs...Butterfly Labs
they are known to deliver very very delayed.

or
Buy Stock (which I have NOOO idea on where to start or look or know if my gamble has a good chance to survive)?

there is a lot of crappy/scammy stocks out there, be careful.
As trading platform, I have good experience with btct.co .

[Raoul Duke]

Have you had a look into Pyramining (referral link)?
You can checout their FAQ at http://pyramining.com/faq and forum thread at http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=80845

[NineLives]

Have you had a look into Pyramining (referral link)?
You can checout their FAQ at http://pyramining.com/faq and forum thread at http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=80845

Interesting and maybe just what I need.  Shall investigate.

So, is it a NO to an awaiting 64GHz Butterfly for $1700 that may arrive late October / November?

[Meizirkki]

For the love of satoshi if you have 2.5k USD don't under any circumstance use it to buy mining gear. Really. Miners are all fucking stupid. If every miner only got a single USB miner for 80$, they'd all be swimming in moneys. Instead, they all spend thousands and thousands of $$$ battling for the same amount of coins available. Ridiculous.

Let them all shoot their feet off and go buy some coins in the mean time.

[Tirapon]

Just buy some coins and sit on them. Mining is far more effort than its worth, too many delays with preorders etc. and hashrate increasing rapidly.

[NineLives]

OK,

I will listen.

Where can I buy coins at good rates hassle free?

[Birdy]

OK,

I will listen.

Where can I buy coins at good rates hassle free?

depends on where you live.
E.g. in the USA Coinbase and Bitstamp or frequently used.

[NineLives]

I'm in the UK

[rammy2k2]

I have $2,500 to spend?

You ask us ?

[CurbsideProphet]

I'm in the UK

I wouldn't use Mtgox until their issues are sorted out.  Check with Bitstamp, BTC-E, and CampBX to see which has the most favorable deposit method for your area.  Right now the spread between these 3 exchanges is small.

http://trading.i286.org/

[NineLives]

Thank you all