How long would it take to pay for itself if we assume bitcoins will be at $800 in six months.
Would we be better off joining a mining pool or do it on our own?
Or maybe it might be better to buy equipment for the same amount and litecoin mine instead?
My advice is to compare how many bitcoins you can get now with how many you can expect to mine if you bought the device. Therefore, it doesn't matter what the exchange rate is going to be in the future.
Today you can buy 15.1 bitcoins on bitstamp for $13000.
According to bitcoinwisdom mining calculator, a 3000GH/s delivered on 1st April 2014 with 25% difficulty increases from now until then will mine between 14 and 15 bitcoins.
You have to decide whether you think 25% is too much or too little, or whether 1st April is a likely delivery date, to come up with a conclusion.
Based on these figures, on 1st April 2014 a 3000GH/s device will mine 0.4 bitcoins a day. You do not want to mine solo because the probability is against you that you will find a 25 bitcoin block. That would be gambling. Mine in a pool.