More profitable than GPU mining. Not ASIC mining!
GPU mining as I type is more profitable based on price of the coins over the cost of equipment when you factor in longevity of the hardware due to diff potential rise. the cost of electric, won't be a factor for the next few months for GPU or Asics, his won't come into play again until march 2014, when 1st batch Avalons will start to become obsolete, followed by BFL's, blades and USB asics. As we all know this will be a game of attrition, In the end mining will only be where electric is free.
Now...
£2500 gets you (Saturn) 330Ghs = 0.25 BTC a day = £164
£2500 gets you (13 x 7950) 7000Khs = 5 LTC a day = £110
in 3 months the drop in returns for the Saturn will be much higher that the drop in the 7950's, unless there is some new hardware which is doubtful in that time scale. Over a 3 month period a GPU farm would be more profitable IMHO and will remain so for longer. Also the GPU will have sell on value after it becomes obsolete for mining. Of course none of this can be taken seriously, there are just too many possible factors to account for that we have no control over, because tomorrow BTC could be $10000 and LTC $10. As it stands, GPUs look more attractive to me. If LTC does end up as .25 of a BTC what then? those 100 LTC start to look a lot more attractive and it will be another case of people looking back and thinking "what if"...
I for one won't be buying a Neptune (can't afford it at the moment). I will wait for a credible Scrypt asic or fpga to emerge, it won't be long now. and as soon as it does happen and GPU's are no longer effective, scypt-jane coins will get all the GPU power.
Just my thoughts.
KnC any new plans for a scrypt-fpga?
My sentiments exactly. If you pre-order a Neptune now, you tie up $10,000 until March or April 2014. You will not be able to reap any benefits from this tidy sum until March or April 2014 at the earliest. If you spent $10,000 on HD7970s you will start mining LTC next week and with 4 7970s you are currently earning about 1.5 LTC per day, which at $30 - $40 per coin would earn you about 120 - 150 LTC by March 2014. You would probably be at break-even after 3 -4 months and at the current price of LTC power cost is negligible unless you run a farm. Besides, you can trade your LTC for BTC and at the current exchange rate less than 20 LTC buys a Bitcoin.
I was in Zephyr's Avalon group buy batch 5, but we never received the chips. Thankfully we were refunded in BTC, and that was my luck as just keeping the coins turned out to be a much better investment than pursuing any Asic mining equipment. I had pre-ordered a Jupiter but decided not to pursue it while watching the dramatic difficulty increases in BTC mining.
At the same time I started to run an LTC rig in May (3 HD 7970s) and have completely recovered my cost (about $2,000.-) and with the current prices have almost tripled my original investment. The 10 BTC that not so long ago only bought 100 Avalon chips are now enough to buy a KNC miner. But if each coin cost $5,000 in two years you will be sorry as you will lose money. LTC mining with GPUs is currently the most profitable mining. In addition, when I started in May 2013, the difficulty in LTC mining was around 500. At this time it is 1500 and will climb to 1700 because of the recent price push. Compare this to the BTC ASIC arms race and you see the difference. The only people that make money in this arms race are the ASIC miner vendors and large ASIC mining farms. In LTC mining there is a chance for the small miner, there is none in BTC, especially now.
If you decide to buy a Neptune, please use Fiat, otherwise you will hate yourself later.
