$6k to invest in miner today. DIY or Commercial? Suggestions?

[toothpick]

I am a computer tech, programmer and electrical engineer. I have all the tools and skills required to design (using Eagle CAD) my own PCB boards and have a great fabricator who makes me VERY high quality boards for crazy prices, like $30 per board with 1 week turnaround! I am especially interested in a total DIY project from schematics. And, the Avalon ASIC chips are available right now so I hope to find a way doing this. Getting started THIS MONTH is critical due to difficulty increases. BTW, on what day does the difficulty increase?

The vague and lengthy shipping times of the commercial ones are the biggest drawback right now. But I am considering some of those also.

So my question is, for around $6,000, what is the best open source/DIY schematics design available and where can I get the details? Also, anything I might be overlooking? TIA for all advise from this GREAT community!!!

BTW: I am NOT interested in selling them if I do make one. I just want to mine for myself and am looking for the best options. I've read for months and have my own opinions but am wanting other's.

[toothpick]

Here are some of the commercial options I am considering, along with their max projected profit according to the G. Block:

Cointerra TerraMiner IV or II (Jan) - $488
HashFast Baby Jet (Nov or Dec for 2nd batch) - $50/$0
BitMine CoinCraft Desk 800 (Dec) - $2460
BitFury Full Kit (Oct) - $3410
KnC Miner Jupiter (Nov) - $386

DIY/Open Source:

Klondike 64
Bitfury chips - (with a different board design I hope. They charge $500 for a blank PCB! INSANE!)

[darkfriend77]

BTW, on what day does the difficulty increase?

On fridays if the sun shines ... otherwise on mondays ....

sry... I had to write that ... the evil part of my self ...

[Buffer Overflow]

If you've got $6k to spend, you might as well just buy $6k worth of Bitcoins.

[toothpick]

If you've got $6k to spend, you might as well just buy $6k worth of Bitcoins.

What makes everyone so sure the value of bitcoin is going to climb? I remember not long ago, when BTC was LESS popular, it was over $200/BTC. Now, with all the attention, it seems to be holding steady, if not falling slightly. I know nothing about projections on these matters. But it SEEMS a more sure bet that I will make $ mining than to guess on what the market will do. Am I wrong?

[pand70]

If you've got $6k to spend, you might as well just buy $6k worth of Bitcoins.

What makes everyone so sure the value of bitcoin is going to climb? I remember not long ago, when BTC was LESS popular, it was over $200/BTC. Now, with all the attention, it seems to be holding steady, if not falling slightly. I know nothing about projections on these matters. But it SEEMS a more sure bet that I will make $ mining than to guess on what the market will do. Am I wrong?

He suggested to you to buy bitcoins directly instead of mining them.
It's better to buy 50 bitcoins, with 6k , instead of a miner that will never make you more than, lets say, 40 btc.

Also difficulty changes every 2 mondays at 9:00 am UTC+0

[toothpick]

If you've got $6k to spend, you might as well just buy $6k worth of Bitcoins.

What makes everyone so sure the value of bitcoin is going to climb? I remember not long ago, when BTC was LESS popular, it was over $200/BTC. Now, with all the attention, it seems to be holding steady, if not falling slightly. I know nothing about projections on these matters. But it SEEMS a more sure bet that I will make $ mining than to guess on what the market will do. Am I wrong?

He suggested to you to buy bitcoins directly instead of mining them.
It's better to buy 50 bitcoins, with 6k , instead of a miner that will never make you more than, lets say, 40 btc.

Also difficulty changes every 2 mondays at 9:00 am UTC+0

Ahh I C. Well, I said I have 6k to invest, not to spend. Its my life savings and I can only put it somewhere where it will grow. Everyone advising against mining so thats got me doubting it all... I know nobody can know this, but do you think the value of will go up as BTC gains popularity?

[inspiredinvestor]

If you've got $6k to spend, you might as well just buy $6k worth of Bitcoins.

+1

[marcotheminer]

Just buy $6k worth of btc and wait for it to grow and/or gamle 1k of it!

[dragonkid]

Buy Bitcoin, don't mine.

[polarhei]

Bet on commerical first. Suggest to spend 2K on cloudhashing. Then find me as I have link for pyramining.

[polarhei]

Buy Bitcoin, don't mine.

May be a good idea.

[AndrewWilliams]

+1 for buy Bitcoin. Hold.

[VeeMiner]

I am a computer tech, programmer and electrical engineer. I have all the tools and skills required to design (using Eagle CAD) my own PCB boards and have a great fabricator who makes me VERY high quality boards for crazy prices, like $30 per board with 1 week turnaround! I am especially interested in a total DIY project from schematics. And, the Avalon ASIC chips are available right now so I hope to find a way doing this. Getting started THIS MONTH is critical due to difficulty increases. BTW, on what day does the difficulty increase?

The vague and lengthy shipping times of the commercial ones are the biggest drawback right now. But I am considering some of those also.

So my question is, for around $6,000, what is the best open source/DIY schematics design available and where can I get the details? Also, anything I might be overlooking? TIA for all advise from this GREAT community!!!

BTW: I am NOT interested in selling them if I do make one. I just want to mine for myself and am looking for the best options. I've read for months and have my own opinions but am wanting other's.

your best bet is to either buy bitcoins as a speculation or go for Asicminer Blades - shipping immediatelly for a reasonable price

[overunity]

[/quote]

Also difficulty changes every 2 mondays at 9:00 am UTC+0


Ahh I C. Well, I said I have 6k to invest, not to spend. Its my life savings and I can only put it somewhere where it will grow. Everyone advising against mining so thats got me doubting it all... I know nobody can know this, but do you think the value of will go up as BTC gains popularity?
[/quote]

The difficulty increases every 2160 blocks solved, it currently is about 10 days .

Bitcoin will steadily increase in value as it becomes recognised and used .
Bitcoin could possibly drop to zero if a major flaw is uncovered .

In the long term prices are set to rise but the risk is that the this is still experimental and has the potential to drop to zero in an instant ,as adoption grows this gets less experimental and gains trust then there is also a potential of a similar price rise that has been seen over the initial four years ,example :-
year 2009 --value   $0
year 2013 --value   $140 ish .
year 2017 --value   $280 ish .

The next country to do a Cyprus could could skyrocket bitcoin to $1000 very quickly .
If a major foodstore adopted bitcoin  bitcoin value could skyrocket .

The bitcoin market cap is currently 1% of overall fiat .
Every percentage increase of cap will raise the value of bitcoin and reflect a growing trust and adoption.

I feel personally that miners selling there bitcoins could be stifling price .
With the current massive increases in difficulty you need an every increasing mining hashrate to produce bitcoin .

[VeeMiner]

The difficulty increases every 2160 blocks solved, it currently is about 10 days .

Bitcoin will steadily increase in value as it becomes recognised and used .
Bitcoin could possibly drop to zero if a major flaw is uncovered .

In the long term prices are set to rise but the risk is that the this is still experimental and has the potential to drop to zero in an instant ,as adoption grows this gets less experimental and gains trust then there is also a potential of a similar price rise that has been seen over the initial four years ,example :-
year 2009 --value   $0
year 2013 --value   $140 ish .
year 2017 --value   $280 ish .

The next country to do a Cyprus could could skyrocket bitcoin to $1000 very quickly .
If a major foodstore adopted bitcoin  bitcoin value could skyrocket .

The bitcoin market cap is currently 1% of overall fiat .
Every percentage increase of cap will raise the value of bitcoin and reflect a growing trust and adoption.

I feel personally that miners selling there bitcoins could be stifling price .
With the current massive increases in difficulty you need an every increasing mining hashrate to produce bitcoin .

just adding to your very nice analysis - porn industry is starting to look into bitcoin a lot so this could make it very very interesting

[integrity42]

Mining equipment does only one thing.  It gives you bitcoins.

Why would you buy mining equipment that will end up giving you less bitcoins then if you just buy them on an exchange?

If you buy mining equipment, the joke is on you.

[mootinator]

year 2009 --value   $0
year 2013 --value   $140 ish .
year 2017 --value   $280 ish .

Another way of looking at that is:

year 2009 --value   $0
year 2013 --value   $140 ish (∞% gain)
year 2017 --value   $∞ ish .

WE'RE ALL GOING TO BE ∞AIRES!

[terrapinflyer]

If every person that wants to mine instead decides to buy and hold. Never spend there coin only sell if the price rises. How do we expect the currency to grow? Who is spending this coin? It seems to me that one of the driving forces in the BTC world is mining equipment. I understand what you are saying about if I buy hardware it will never have a full return but it seems that there has to be a better investment technique than this simple answer to buy and hold. BTW not I am not saying to buy hardware and Im not telling anyone that they are wrong if they do or not, I simply do not see how the buy and hold approach will work if every person who wants to get into BTC just decides to buy some coin and never spend it.

[edit: I realized I was being snotty and standoffish removed that content, not looking to start a fight.]

[overunity]

The difficulty increases every 2160 blocks solved, it currently is about 10 days .

Bitcoin will steadily increase in value as it becomes recognised and used .
Bitcoin could possibly drop to zero if a major flaw is uncovered .

In the long term prices are set to rise but the risk is that the this is still experimental and has the potential to drop to zero in an instant ,as adoption grows this gets less experimental and gains trust then there is also a potential of a similar price rise that has been seen over the initial four years ,example :-
year 2009 --value   $0
year 2013 --value   $140 ish .
year 2017 --value   $280 ish .

The next country to do a Cyprus could could skyrocket bitcoin to $1000 very quickly .
If a major foodstore adopted bitcoin  bitcoin value could skyrocket .

The bitcoin market cap is currently 1% of overall fiat .
Every percentage increase of cap will raise the value of bitcoin and reflect a growing trust and adoption.

I feel personally that miners selling there bitcoins could be stifling price .
With the current massive increases in difficulty you need an every increasing mining hashrate to produce bitcoin .

just adding to your very nice analysis - porn industry is starting to look into bitcoin a lot so this could make it very very interesting

Porn is a massive market alone, If this happens ,bitcoin value rises, more see mining as viable option it all balanced again lol.

The major downside to porn adopting bitcoin is that it will leave me a lot less bitcoin to spend