So philipma1957, on top of that, my next question is how would I also weigh machines on longevity? Like say which machines would still be useful a year or 2 from now as hashes go up? Would you think that mining altcoins with these same machines would be practical over time? I know over time hashes get harder but it seems that more types of e-currency come out the better it is for those mining. Truthfully there isn't as much profit as it would seem from your numbers. Ok so what am I doing wrong
Here is what the calculator puts in for my estimates. I input litecoins
Hash Rate (GH/s): 4096
Power (Watts): 2275
Power Cost ($/kWh): 0
Pool Fees %: 0
Difficulty: 51,485
Block Reward: 50
Exchange Rate (USD): 3.78
Hardware Costs (USD) 3100
and it says i will make the money back in a day? how do i use this calcutor
You are mining sha 256 not litecoins with that kind of machine. And no one can tell you what 2 years from now will be. I think you are looking to far in future, mining technology changes in generations. It's hard to tell what NM chip we will have in 1 year especially 2.
Philipma's numbers were very good on sharing correct info. Run miner through bitcoin not scrypt and you will see numbers like he mentioned earlier.