Thank you both very much for your advice! I will look into Sidehack projects as well as substitutes to bring the costs down on what I listed above.
FWIW, I forgot to say in the OP but I plan on joining a pool for either Bitcoin or other SHA-256 currencies. Also, my plan would be to start off with one USB miner and pick up miners along the way.
Sidehack sticks are well worth it- bought one so far and I plan on buying one of the BF16s (if you want better bang for your buck wait for the BF16 as it's cheaper per GH and more efficient). You're also supporting the community instead of some company more focused on profit than the miners.FWIW, I forgot to say in the OP but I plan on joining a pool for either Bitcoin or other SHA-256 currencies. Also, my plan would be to start off with one USB miner and pick up miners along the way.
I started with S3's in 2015 and now I have 2 S7s and a S5 in my house hashing away. Glad to see someone taking a similar path as me
