Topic: I have $5,000 to buy equipment and almost free electricity. Where do I start? (Read 4003 times)

I gave BitLendingClub a shot. On I think 7 Loans, 4 or 5 defaulted.

I would avoid.

My thoughts exactly. Defaulting on one loan would mean you have to make money on 20 others to cover that loss. But let us stay on topic.
Maybe you should save your money for the new S6. It should be out by the end of the summer.

Even with free electric, there are probably better miners out there, S3+?

S4+ available for shipping within a week.  2,570 GH/s (2.57 TH/s) @ 1,480 watts.  Stated .58 watts per GH/s.  PSU's are not the same.  They were designed by Bitmaintech.

946 USD ( 4.218 BTC )

https://www.bitmaintech.com/productDetail.htm?pid=00020150420021310934XOpI8PEw0689

I would guess a nonpayment would be hard to get from their FAQ: http://support.bitlendingclub.com/hc/en-us/articles/202164491-Does-BitLendingClub-collect-on-defaults-  They say "No, we do not collect on defaults. The lenders are responsible for arranging the collection of default loans after the borrower information is released."  So basically you are on your own.

I do find it interesting the spreading across so many loans to help with this.  I would have to get a heck of a ROI to risk someone defaulting on a loan.

This seems as an interesting alternative. What about losses, non paying loans?

As far as staying quiet I think S3's that are under clocked will be best.  They are just built like tanks to.  Very well made. 

If you go with S5 you will have more noise compared to under clocked S3.  But you also cannot put as much hashing power as it is not as efficient.  So it has pros/cons to both situations.

I'm in a similar situation and this is my thinking thus far:

Option #1: Buy used S3 or S5 miners since they seem to be the best deal for GH/$ - Using older miners are less efficient but if you are not paying for electricity this wouldnt affect you.
Option #2: Buy S5 miners for the best GH/kW - This option allows you to stay under the radar at your apartment complex just in case they are not happy with excessive electricity usage.

I was in the same boat sorta.  Im worried I'm not computer savy enough to get the most out of mining.  Instead I decided to get into the p2p lending.  I'm using bitlendding club.   Started with 2 btc spread across 12 loans.  I earned $34 in my first month and am now increasing my investments. 

The free electricity is nice but you will blow circuits with multiple miners imo.  I'd run just 1 miner and I bet you can slip under the radar.

If your goal... Which you state... Is to "learn" about mining. You dont need to spend $5000.

Buy some 750ti gpus. An Asrock BTC Motherboard. A 4770k CPU. And build a rig. A 6 GPU Rig that runs SGMiner and will also run ccminer for CPU coins. Learn how to build from scratch, and get it stable and so it runs, auto-reboots, auto restarts, etc... Maintenance free. Build 1 of these.

Then, buy 1 Antminer S5 used.

Then, using any cheap computer you have sitting around, learn to setup your own Stratum Proxy Server, and connect your 2 Miners (GPU Rig and your ASIC) to it, and get it to connect to your pool or client.  

All of what I have listed above you can do for far less than $5000 especially if you buy used.

After youve done the above, you will be well schooled in mining and can make an educated decision on if you want to expand it further.

And if you decide to not expand after seeing just how much work just doing what I have listed above entails- you can likely sell everything you bought for minimal loss if you look for good deals when buying originally.

Lastly, and this is just me, but looking back, it would have been far more profitable and efficient, saving me countless hours, days, weeks of trial and error, of finding an expert miner in this field, and paying them even $1000 for 1 full 10 hour day for in person on location training. If you can find someone in your area and willing.

Just saying, in 1 day the right person could save you what would take you weeks to learn by combing through forums, finding arcane information, etc.

Hope that helps,

Strato

I would suggest that you look at the USB class of miners. That would either be a "stick" type miner (i.e. a USB stick that runs kind warm, and has the SHA256 ASIC) or a small (e.g. R-box) class of device. None of these will generate too much heat, cost too much, or use too much power. None will generate much in the way of Bitcoin either. The costs won't be high, and you can decide the extent to which you want to improve your mining, or reach a state of satisfaction.

I just want to learn some basic mining with my computer.
Not really looking into serious mining at the moment.

Eventually this could cause a limit.  Maverick is very right.  If you want a general idea BE safe but look at breaker and see if it has 100 amp or 200 amp main breaker.

I got lucky I have a 2 lines coming in to my place.  One main has 200 amp, and other main has a 100 amp.  So I am able to expand quite large if I want to.

you have the founds to do some ''serious home mining'', so why not ask around and see how much power you can use without problems....

I would like to learn more about mining though!
Where do I start if I want to mine with my computer?

I will learn more about it and see if it is for me or not.

We have never exchanged messages on here or on skype.... 
I think you are mistaking me for someone else

You will almost certainly see a positive ROI sooner than if you had bought $5000 of actual hardware. If BTC never gets above $250, then your mining would have a failure as well (IMHO).

I think sub $200 will be the price to start buying... and given the fact that summer is coming up - I think an ease in price moving forward may be likely. The traders say - sell in May and Go Away!

Strato

I'm wondering if the OP has managed to get his unit online ok.  He was asking me a few questions via skype last night but given the time difference and the language barrier I'm not sure if alot of what I was trying to convey got through to him.

A lot of ROI depends on electricity price.  I normally say mine.  But BTC is at a attractive price to buy.

Even buying holding a few weeks and then buying gear I think might be best way.  I think we will have a least a small upwards motion in next few weeks.