(04-11-2013, 04:29 PM)LennyLen Wrote: If you're confident of this, wouldn't it make more sense to invest 4K in bitcoins themselves rather than try to mine a few yourself?
Short answer: Financing
It is liquid for purchasing equipment, but not coins.
Its easy to get a no interest consumer purchase loan. Those are offered by newegg , bill me later, and a number of other services. It is rather bothersome to buy bitcoins. Multiple steps involved form a barrier to entry. Currency speculation is also difficult to pinpoint lows vs highs. Standard rules of investment apply. Don't risk anything you cannot afford to lose.
I have investment assets, but it is not purely liquid, so it is not an option for daily investments. As it stands right now, the latest bubble has burst, and we'll see where it will stabilize. It is currently a bear market with the speculators selling. I want to see it close to bottom, then I'll purchase coins. There'll be more bubbles and such, but I want in on this market. The long term trend has shown investment interest has only gone up, and the latest bubble bringing a market cap of 1-2 Billion dollars invested shows serious interest by the world at large. I want in, and am willing to risk a certain amount toward it.
Here's the calculator I used
http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/
I don't know the characteristics of your computer. Always on, off, difference in total power usage vs gpu full vs idle, etc. I use a kill a watt ez myself to monitor power draw from the outlet, but if you input your power usage and hash rate you'll have a fair idea of what your GPU is costing you vs bitcoin mining over time.