Dang. That's kind of a bummer, but I totally see where you're coming from. I've looked into getting an ASIC like an Antminer S3 because I can pick one up for like $75 with a power source. But the problem there is that the S3 is so slow that it would take about 100 days to pay off the capital investment, and then would only be mining like $0.75 per day, assuming 1 BTC = 2,750 USD. Aaaaaand the S3 is already an older platform, so it would be just that much more obsolete 100 days down the road. I've been told by a friend that Nicehash is the way to go, since I don't have a lot of money to make a big capital investment.
Anyway, you seem like you know your stuff. Follow for a follow?
Have you looked into scrypt miners, like Zeus Miners? They run for about 20 mh/s around $150-$200 used, they don't crank out a lot but a few bucks a day but a good way to start out, I have one running with my pc setup and it adds to it. I just followed you by the way, always down for a follow for a follow lol.
Noice! Haha I returned the favor. I'm actually looking into Gridseed towers right now. They're relatively inexpensive and stackable, so it could be a more spread out capital investment? Have you hear anything good or bad about them?
They aren't bad, takes quite a few of them to stack up to something you can get in the $500 range but if you buy one and add to your collection it should do you great. Biggest thing with mining is it will take money to really make money. I am not in that realm, been buying used miners myself and just growing a collection over time lol. I will say though since I build my gaming rig and put my GTX 1080 to mining with it, thats when it hit me why people build this mining rigs with GPUs lol...$60 a week with one card is great but a few more and pull in almost $200 in Steem Power a week so I make more on articles and upvoting would really end up being an investment later I believe. Its a tricky game mining, I found that out when I bought 2 old antminer s4s and found out my electricity bill was higher than what I made in profits in the first month, I let those 2 sit and collect dust now lol
Haha but part of the problem is that I don't have a collection to add to! I'm about 80% clueless when it comes to mining, but I want to get into it! Especially while scrypt is still still relatively young-ish (compared to SHA-256). I'm looking for the best bang for the buck. Power consumption isn't the biggest issue because I split a bill with several roommates. I really like all of the gadgetry ad flashing LEDs, but I just don't know where to start and don't want to just take a leap of faith and blow a lot of money that only returns losses, ya know?
I would say in your case to maybe go towards getting you a decent scrypt to start out with. Maybe a zeus miner or a used gawminer falcon, thats what I started with and while it doesn't return a lot it does return the investment. To be a serious miner though now a days your looking at a couple grand for something that will actually give you some profits. GPU mining is also another best bet option, but that is about $500 at the moment for a decent card to mine with.