for 500 dollars what would smooth david or ezih buy (other than investing, as investing is beyond most normal human beings, let alon investing in cryptocurrencies.)
At the $500 price point you are likely talking about one computer.
That being the case, I would buy a computer you could use for other things. Then you get the mining gear for free, and no one can compete with that.
If it were specifically for mining you want to maximize your mining power for the absolute minimum cost, which means you want a decent CPU but not a high end extreme model. I would build my open rig (don't waste money on a case) get a very basic motherboard, ideally with integrated video (again don't waste money on a video card) and minimal RAM. Run linux on it.
Also, take a look at whether you can get more output with two $250 systems (lower end CPU) instead of one $500. I'm not sure. Once we have a good performance chart it will be easier to figure this out.
If you want to spend more and go bigger then, at some point, you need to deal with hosting issues and are better of with rack mounted servers, possibly blades. I think they have a bit of a price premium though. For a while stick with cheap open rigs.
VPS may make sense short term but if you are in this for the long term buying hardware (efficiently) is quite a bit cheaper than VPS, even if you end up having to rent space for your farm. This likely requires good skills in getting back value out of reselling used gear when you upgrade.
In summary mining is all about cost efficiency above all else. If you were around at all during the big GPU mining phase of bitcoin and altcoins then it is really the same principles, except with the GPU. You can look around at how people save money by not spending it on inessential components (cases, etc.), finding promotional deals, etc.
