What option does he have if he wants to mine right now though? ASIC stuff is INSANE prices now--plus most are delayed till who knows when. Unless you got in on that first buy, ASIC is pretty tough to jump into at this point.
I thought he wants to profit, not to mine for the sake of it. It's a good time to wait and have some change when the avalon chip designs are available for sale in a couple of months. I don't know about other cryptocurrencies so if LTC is worth it then go for it.
Personally I bought some avalon chips and think gpu's are on there way out. Maybe it will take 6-12 months but we'll get there.
technically they pay themselves back within the first 6 months so ROI and profits are possible considering he can always sell the hardware after breaking even and still making profits.