How about miners that have wifi built in? I don't need to install this thing at my desk necessarily...
Also - I'm not planning on stealing electricity. Our Company gets a fairly significant discount on kW.
Well... If you're not stealing, you could potentially just do the math...
Look for deals on the forum, see how much the hardware would cost (include import tax and shipping), puch in the miner's specs and cost in the coinwarz calculator:
http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator Add about 20% to the current diff, just to be sure, and see if you'd roi in 6 months... If you have the hardware payed back in 6 months, i would go for it, if not, i wouldn't even consider starting.
This being said: you'll need dozens of sidehack compac's to even start mining, if you run just one, it'll take you months before you have enough satoshi's to ask for a withdrawal.
I've done the math for a single compac, running at 16 Gh 24/7 at diff + 20% without any power cost, hw cost or pool fee:
http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator/?h=16&p=0&pc=0.0&pf=0.00&d=270999446615.46000000&r=12.50000000&er=620.72590000&hc=0.00This basically means that if you're paying more than $1.5 for a compaq, i personally believe you shouldn't have bought one.
I really like compac sticks, but i see them as more of a learning tool, or as a way for a private individual to help secure the network (even in a tiny way), and not as a means to make money...
I've seen some people selling old S1-S5's for very reasonable rates... Those things could actually ROI on free electricity, but they're big and loud.
For example, and S5 running at 1155 Ghs, could potentially mine around $240 a year (if the diff doesn't rise to much, and the btc price remains steady)
http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator/?h=1155&p=0.00&pc=0.00&pf=0.00&d=270999446615.46000000&r=12.50000000&er=620.72590000&hc=0.00 I think it would be possible to pay around $150 for one, and make a profit... Albeit, you defenately don't want to run one in the office