Im seriously thinking about getting some mining hardware.

[Dimelord]

What do you guys suggest? I have a budget of about $500

[miter_myles]

[QuiveringGibbage]

What do you guys suggest? I have a budget of about $500

got $5,800USD more?

[EOI] 3 x SP30 Yukon - Aug. Batch, 3 shares @ ~$6,300USD each, Australia based
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=570864.0

Cheers,
QG

[roy7]

What do you guys suggest? I have a budget of about $500

Could get an Antminer S1 for that price.

[fattypig]

What do you guys suggest? I have a budget of about $500

Erm, buy 1 USB erupter for fun, and invest the rest into Bitcoin

[goose20]

What do you guys suggest? I have a budget of about $500

Erm, buy 1 USB erupter for fun, and invest the rest into Bitcoin

Exactly what I was thinking.

You dont have the budget to play the mining game. And even if you did, you better off buying coin.

[jamesc760]

A fool and his $500 are soon parted, never to see each other again.

[ChuckBuck]

Just buy 1 Bitcoin, and let her ride up the rollercoaster.   

Better off that way, less stress, no maintenance or monitoring, and you don't have to worry about never ROI'ing.

[crocko]

You should consider to invest in  BTL (aka BitLeu) coin too:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=510353.msg6199965#msg6199965

[Dimelord]

Actually, Litecoin mining with a few gridseed miners looks pretty promising in the long run.

[nuff]

Get the S1. Given that you've been seriously thinking about it, you probably know that you won't profit much, if at all, and maybe at a loss too, but you don't really mind all that and you want to tinker with the hardware, the feel of generating 'money', watching your bitcoins slowly accumulate gives you a sense of slow and steady satisfaction, the S1 is currently the only one to get, both for your budget cap and its value proposition.

[Dimelord]

Get the S1. Given that you've been seriously thinking about it, you probably know that you won't profit much, if at all, and maybe at a loss too, but you don't really mind all that and you want to tinker with the hardware, the feel of generating 'money', watching your bitcoins slowly accumulate gives you a sense of slow and steady satisfaction, the S1 is currently the only one to get, both for your budget cap and its value proposition.

No, I dont expect to profit. I have done countless hours of research. I just want to be able to say "yeah, I mine Bitcoin." 

[precrime3]

Actually, Litecoin mining with a few gridseed miners looks pretty promising in the long run.

Long run being until "real" asics hit xD? That's like a couple months buddy no time to recoup costs. Buy LTC if you want scrypt coins, Im predicting prices will go up once ASICS hits. If LTC followed same price pattern as BTC did when ASICS hit.... 50 ish LTC right now will be worth a lot in a couple months......

[Operatr]

Get the S1. Given that you've been seriously thinking about it, you probably know that you won't profit much, if at all, and maybe at a loss too, but you don't really mind all that and you want to tinker with the hardware, the feel of generating 'money', watching your bitcoins slowly accumulate gives you a sense of slow and steady satisfaction, the S1 is currently the only one to get, both for your budget cap and its value proposition.

No, I dont expect to profit. I have done countless hours of research. I just want to be able to say "yeah, I mine Bitcoin." 

Just get a USB miner, invest the rest into Bitcoin itself. You'll never make a profit going big or small at the moment, so you might as well limit the size of what is a pretty poor investment as far as the mining gear goes.

[sidhujag]

Buy 500 bids @ devcoinauctions.com and try to win the http://devcoinauctions.com/blog/auction/sp30-yukon-august-batch-asic-miner-5-4ths/ 5.4th miner valued at $12k... chances are high you will get a good deal.

[Ron~Popeil]

If you are a hobbyist an S1 is good. I am still mining with an old block erupter blade set myself. It isn't going to make me rich obviously, but I enjoy it and i have cheap power.   

[taipo]

What do you guys suggest? I have a budget of about $500

Antminer S1s go for about $208 USD ( 0.468 BTC ), so if you bought 1 BTC you would have enough to buy 1 x Antminer S1, and have some cash left for a PSU, as well as have some BTC sitting in your wallet left over. But do the math for yourself as to what sort of return you will get from a 180 GH/s miner that runs at about 360 watts per hour in a game where the difficulty changes about every 12 to 14 days.

[Shogen]

Get the S1. Given that you've been seriously thinking about it, you probably know that you won't profit much, if at all, and maybe at a loss too, but you don't really mind all that and you want to tinker with the hardware, the feel of generating 'money', watching your bitcoins slowly accumulate gives you a sense of slow and steady satisfaction, the S1 is currently the only one to get, both for your budget cap and its value proposition.

No, I dont expect to profit. I have done countless hours of research. I just want to be able to say "yeah, I mine Bitcoin." 

In that case, a USB miner should be good. Very easy, simple, and low investment (loss).

[fattypig]

Actually, Litecoin mining with a few gridseed miners looks pretty promising in the long run.

Not anymore, look at the 250 MHz asic from KNCminer... Soon the difficulty would go 10x...

[brian_23452]

Actually, Litecoin mining with a few gridseed miners looks pretty promising in the long run.

Not anymore, look at the 250 MHz asic from KNCminer... Soon the difficulty would go 10x...

Oh, you have one of these?