Is it better to start small or buy into cloud pools?

[hevers1981]

So I have an investment coming up and I'm not sure which would be best, should I buy 4 USB antminers running at 1.6 GH/s each or should I take the money and buy a fraction of a bitcoin with it so I can invest it into the cex.io mining pool?

I already have a cex account but having the freedom to switch pools with the antminers seems attractive but they won't be as fast as the amount of GH/s I can get at cex.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

[odolvlobo]

I would determine which will get you the highest GH/s.

4 Antminers cost 0.324 BTC ($275), and give you 6.4 GH/s.
6.4 shares of cex.io cost 0.304 BTC and give you 6.4 GH/s.

If I had to pick one, I would pick cex.io then because it is cheaper and you can start mining now.

However, the best choice is neither. 6.4 GH/s costs 0.304 BTC, but it will mine no more than 0.13 BTC over several years, so you will lose about 0.17 BTC overall if you try to mine it.

Buy the BTC directly and you will come out ahead.

[hevers1981]

I would determine which will give you the highest GH/s.

Well, that's .42 BTC if I invest into cex which is around 9.54GH/s, if I go with the antminers thats 6.4GH/s and 8GH/s if they're overclocked.

I'm just wondering if its more beneficial to have the antminers in-hand or the additional speed from cex.

[sniksen]

I would determine which will give you the highest GH/s.

Well, that's .42 BTC if I invest into cex which is around 9.54GH/s, if I go with the antminers thats 6.4GH/s and 8GH/s if they're overclocked.

I'm just wondering if its more beneficial to have the antminers in-hand or the additional speed from cex.

The way people earn money with cex is by trading mining shares, just like trading altcoins. Would you hire out your mining power with a loss? Neither will cex.

[hevers1981]

I would determine which will give you the highest GH/s.

Well, that's .42 BTC if I invest into cex which is around 9.54GH/s, if I go with the antminers thats 6.4GH/s and 8GH/s if they're overclocked.

I'm just wondering if its more beneficial to have the antminers in-hand or the additional speed from cex.

The way people earn money with cex is by trading mining shares, just like trading altcoins. Would you hire out your mining power with a loss? Neither will cex.

So I've noticed...  If I were to stick with cex I'm thinking of just long term investing into it and not trading any GH/s, just building it up with my payouts until I have a comfortable amount and then doing daily or weekly payouts to a private bitcoin address.

[hevers1981]

I would determine which will get you the highest GH/s.

4 Antminers cost 0.324 BTC ($275), and give you 6.4 GH/s.
6.4 shares of cex.io cost 0.304 BTC and give you 6.4 GH/s.

If I had to pick one, I would pick cex.io then because it is cheaper and you can start mining now.

However, the best choice is neither. 6.4 GH/s costs 0.304 BTC, but it will mine no more than 0.13 BTC over several years, so you will lose about 0.17 BTC overall if you try to mine it.

Buy the BTC directly and you will come out ahead.

My plan is to re-invest the payouts into additional GH/s so that my overall payouts increase by their rate of occurrence and volume. just not sure if I can do it fast enough to keep up with the difficulty changes...

[odolvlobo]

Consider this: you lose money if you hold cex.io for any significant period of time, but cex.io mines more than an Antminer for the same price. Thus, you lose money even more if you mine with an Antminer. At the current prices, you should do neither.

To make a reasonable profit by mining, you can't pay more than 0.015 BTC per GH/s.

My plan is to re-invest the payouts into additional GH/s so that my overall payouts increase by their rate of occurrence and volume. just not sure if I can do it fast enough to keep up with the difficulty changes...

You can't keep up with the difficulty because the price is too high and the mining revenue is not enough to buy the lost mining capacity.

[hevers1981]

Consider this: you lose money if you hold cex.io for any significant period of time, but cex.io mines more than an Antminer for the same price. Thus, you lose money even more if you mine with an Antminer. At the current prices, you should do neither.

To make a reasonable profit by mining, you can't pay more than 0.015 BTC per GH/s.

My plan is to re-invest the payouts into additional GH/s so that my overall payouts increase by their rate of occurrence and volume. just not sure if I can do it fast enough to keep up with the difficulty changes...

You can't keep up with the difficulty because the price is too high and the mining revenue is not enough to buy the lost mining capacity.

Thanks for the advice, I'll take all of this into consideration before I make a decision.