What hardware would be best for a hobbyist?

[bigreddmachine]

I've been thinking about getting a small miner just to feel like I am a little bigger part of this movement, and was wondering if anyone would have any advice on what hardware to buy.  I don't expect a ROI, though it would be nice, but am looking for something < $500 if possible.  Is there any hardware on the market worth buying at that price point?  I'd consider both SHA-256 and Scrypt ASICs.

The one's I've given the most thought to are the Antminer S1 now that it's on super sale, and the Zeusminer Blizzard.  The antminer seems like a safer bet with  all the huge Scrypt asics coming online soon, but I was wondering if anyone had any input and if I had perhaps missed a better hardware deal.

Thanks!

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[snowcrawl]

I just picked up an Antminer S1 on ebay for the cheapest price I could find (including shipping).  At least for a short time, it will give a little boost to my diminishing bitcoin earnings.  Also not expecting to make ROI, hopefully somewhere above 60% ROI for the total amount I have invested in various bitcoin mining solutions.   You might also consider something more efficient like the Rockminer R3 Box 450-500G, although that pushes you up to about $600.

http://shop.rockminer.com/goods.php?id=41

[j03]

Antminer has been coming through for people. I'd go with them. I'm invested in KnC, and can recommend, but like you said, on the cheap: Antminer IMO

Thanks for the support too. It's nice to see people with your mindset. And who knows, if BTC goes to the moon, you might even make a profit FTW.

[bigreddmachine]

I just picked up an Antminer S1 on ebay for the cheapest price I could find (including shipping).  Also not expecting to make ROI, hopefully somewhere above 60% ROI for the total amount I have invested in various bitcoin mining solutions.   You might also consider something more efficient like the Rockminer R3 Box 450-500G, although that pushes you up to about $600.

http://shop.rockminer.com/goods.php?id=41

Thanks, I'll take a look there.  Hadn't heard of Rockminer.

Antminer has been coming through for people. I'd go with them. I'm invested in KnC, and can recommend, but like you said, on the cheap: Antminer IMO

Thanks for the support too. It's nice to see people with your mindset. And who knows, if BTC goes to the moon, you might even make a profit FTW.

Thanks for the reply!  I've been mining some altcoins with my GPU casually for the past 4 months or so, and thought it was time I stepped up more into the Bitcoin scene.  Yeah, I believe in Bitcoin's future and you are right, if I hold long enough I think ROI is no doubt a guarentee.  Also recognize that I could make more by buying and holding bitcoin if that's all I cared about.  But it's not!

I don't really understand why folks say it is impossible for an average person to get into Bitcoin though TBH... A couple hundred bucks and you can have a small setup just as likely to make money as a scrypt GPU setup 5 months ago.  And it's not like the big investors have hardware that is tons better to beat the little guys with, right?  I mean, they have more hash power, sure.  But they also have much higher costs...

[dogjunior]

The calculators say you won't roi but they don't take into consideration if you solo mine. Yes I know the odds but wtf. Go to bitsolo.net and point your old miner there. If you get lucky and hit a block, you just roi and a bit more. Bet your calculator didn't tell you this.

[xstr8guy]

I just picked up an Antminer S1 on ebay for the cheapest price I could find (including shipping).  Also not expecting to make ROI, hopefully somewhere above 60% ROI for the total amount I have invested in various bitcoin mining solutions.   You might also consider something more efficient like the Rockminer R3 Box 450-500G, although that pushes you up to about $600.

http://shop.rockminer.com/goods.php?id=41

Thanks, I'll take a look there.  Hadn't heard of Rockminer.

Antminer has been coming through for people. I'd go with them. I'm invested in KnC, and can recommend, but like you said, on the cheap: Antminer IMO

Thanks for the support too. It's nice to see people with your mindset. And who knows, if BTC goes to the moon, you might even make a profit FTW.

Thanks for the reply!  I've been mining some altcoins with my GPU casually for the past 4 months or so, and thought it was time I stepped up more into the Bitcoin scene.  Yeah, I believe in Bitcoin's future and you are right, if I hold long enough I think ROI is no doubt a guarentee.  Also recognize that I could make more by buying and holding bitcoin if that's all I cared about.  But it's not!

I don't really understand why folks say it is impossible for an average person to get into Bitcoin though TBH... A couple hundred bucks and you can have a small setup just as likely to make money as a scrypt GPU setup 5 months ago.  And it's not like the big investors have hardware that is tons better to beat the little guys with, right?  I mean, they have more hash power, sure.  But they also have much higher costs...

Wrong... kinda.

They may be using the same machines as the general public since many of the massive mining operations are the actual manufacturers of the ASICs. This means they get the newest generation sometimes months before the general public and they get them at cost. And then they turn-around and sell the used gear to the general public and profit AGAIN again after weeks/months of mining with customer's preordered miners.

They also have their own super-efficient datacenters with cheap electricity and cooling. In many cases, the cooling is free because of their geographic location, i.e. the Arctic Circle.

The playing field is most definetely not even. And @home miners are soon to be a memory once the difficulty adjustments make it impossible for anyone who pays for electricity to make a penny in profit. Coming very soon!

[madsusies]

I don't think so, as home miner i lose just couple of $ each diff jump, but as a mining farmer you can lose more than 10 000$ each jump not mentioned the hardware, cooling, electricity cost

[ALToids]

I don't think so, as home miner i lose just couple of $ each diff jump, but as a mining farmer you can lose more than 10 000$ each jump not mentioned the hardware, cooling, electricity cost

The farm is not losing if the farm happens to be the manufacturer and they sell them to end users and ship them off 

[ThomasCrowne]

Might want to consider a USB nanofury miner.  If your already familiar with difficulty increases, decreasing profitability, etc. then why not minimize your losses why still supporting the network a little?

Pretty sure you can find them for <$500

[madsusies]

I don't think so, as home miner i lose just couple of $ each diff jump, but as a mining farmer you can lose more than 10 000$ each jump not mentioned the hardware, cooling, electricity cost

The farm is not losing if the farm happens to be the manufacturer and they sell them to end users and ship them off 

Cheap China vs Expensive Sweden vs USA Btc taxation, what's your favorite poison ? Plan B (we give you our ols used Jupiters instead new Neptune)

[TheJohn]

USB miner just for fun. Please take note you won't make any money out of it.

[bigreddmachine]

USB miner just for fun. Please take note you won't make any money out of it.

Yeah, I've looked into them before, and I think I would like to at least have a chance to make a little bit.  Also, the USB miners are so small that I wouldn't really be making any dent at all on hash rate either, even for a scrypt coin.

[ALToids]

USB miner just for fun. Please take note you won't make any money out of it.

Yeah, I've looked into them before, and I think I would like to at least have a chance to make a little bit.  Also, the USB miners are so small that I wouldn't really be making any dent at all on hash rate either, even for a scrypt coin.

Well you asked for a hobbyist level entry.  You could get an Rbox that does 33-35GH/s and those are pretty cheap and have all the whirling noise of a miner.

If you're expecting to make a dent in the network, you're asking to be 0.1% of the network, which right now would put you at 130TH/s (which some people do have at home).  That would set you back about $125K in mining eq alone 

[xstr8guy]

I just picked up an Antminer S1 on ebay for the cheapest price I could find (including shipping).  Also not expecting to make ROI, hopefully somewhere above 60% ROI for the total amount I have invested in various bitcoin mining solutions.   You might also consider something more efficient like the Rockminer R3 Box 450-500G, although that pushes you up to about $600.

http://shop.rockminer.com/goods.php?id=41

Thanks, I'll take a look there.  Hadn't heard of Rockminer.

Antminer has been coming through for people. I'd go with them. I'm invested in KnC, and can recommend, but like you said, on the cheap: Antminer IMO

Thanks for the support too. It's nice to see people with your mindset. And who knows, if BTC goes to the moon, you might even make a profit FTW.

Thanks for the reply!  I've been mining some altcoins with my GPU casually for the past 4 months or so, and thought it was time I stepped up more into the Bitcoin scene.  Yeah, I believe in Bitcoin's future and you are right, if I hold long enough I think ROI is no doubt a guarentee.  Also recognize that I could make more by buying and holding bitcoin if that's all I cared about.  But it's not!

I don't really understand why folks say it is impossible for an average person to get into Bitcoin though TBH... A couple hundred bucks and you can have a small setup just as likely to make money as a scrypt GPU setup 5 months ago.  And it's not like the big investors have hardware that is tons better to beat the little guys with, right?  I mean, they have more hash power, sure.  But they also have much higher costs...

Wrong... kinda.

They may be using the same machines as the general public since many of the massive mining operations are the actual manufacturers of the ASICs. This means they get the newest generation sometimes months before the general public and they get them at cost. And then they turn-around and sell the used gear to the general public and profit AGAIN again after weeks/months of mining with customer's preordered miners.

They also have their own super-efficient datacenters with cheap electricity and cooling. In many cases, the cooling is free because of their geographic location, i.e. the Arctic Circle.

The playing field is most definetely not even. And @home miners are soon to be a memory once the difficulty adjustments make it impossible for anyone who pays for electricity to make a penny in profit. Coming very soon!

please  home miners will always exist .  just in the right spots.  an s-3 running at 400gh and 240 watts will earn money well into feb of 2015.

it will then find spots that offer free power. or low cost power.  large data centers will kill each other off mining in greenland and iceland.  they will all have some kind of .2 or .3 watt a hash gear with no competitive edge on each other.  small miners running gear in free power spots or low power spots will always be around.

and 2 businesses.  food dehydration  along with kiln dried wood will join up with miners.

I dry a few hundred hours a year maybe 2 weeks.  i use a 300 watt machine.  

I can just as well dry with a s-3 24/7/365   .  I am working on a design as I type.  

You're just all over the place today with your "free power", lol. Face it, you're one of the lucky few. This "free power" you speak of isn't available to most of us. So essentially the vast majority of home miners will just disappear. And new mining gear will not be sold to the masses... since there won't be any "masses" left.

[Netamer]

Even if you find a reliable way to get free power, You won't be able to scale it very far.

[cinnamon_carter]

If you enter now have fun like some of the others said don't 'expect' to earn a large amount of btc unless you have big time firepower.

Difficulty is certainly going to continue to rise.

As mentioned above the manufactred ites you 'pre order' are usually not shipped until obsolete from a profit standpoint.

No shortage of mining equipment to pick up second hand as many people have got some bitcoin and are satisfied and just sell off and move on.

[Netamer]

If you want to take part in the fun, buy a share of a mining contract. But don't expect to break even with that either.

[ALToids]

If you want to take part in the fun, buy a share of a mining contract. But don't expect to break even with that either.

There is no point in buying a mining contract.  You're not decentralizing the power.  You're not supporting the network.  You're not making a profit.

All you are doing is giving money to a mining company.  If you want to mine but not commit, buy something small like a RBox and point it at a small pool.

[R4v37]

If you want to take part in the fun, buy a share of a mining contract. But don't expect to break even with that either.

There is no point in buying a mining contract.  You're not decentralizing the power.  You're not supporting the network.  You're not making a profit.

All you are doing is giving money to a mining company.  If you want to mine but not commit, buy something small like a RBox and point it at a small pool.

Nice..
i prefer the one from BTCgarden
kind of shining, its best u place them beside ur aquarium LOL

[xstr8guy]

If you want to take part in the fun, buy a share of a mining contract. But don't expect to break even with that either.

There is no point in buying a mining contract.  You're not decentralizing the power.  You're not supporting the network.  You're not making a profit.

All you are doing is giving money to a mining company.  If you want to mine but not commit, buy something small like a RBox and point it at a small pool.

Nice..
i prefer the one from BTCgarden
kind of shining, its best u place them beside ur aquarium LOL

If you want boiled fish for dinner, perhaps.