I live in a dorm that has untraceable power consumption and since I over pay for the low quality of it I'd like to have fun and tinker with Mining
Currently I have a GTX970 with I7 5280k....it hasnt been rebuilt since moving here. COuld I mine when not using it then keep it as my gaming computer when I want it?
If I was to invest in mining what would be a good set up taking into account energy efficiency is irrelevant...infact with winter coming may need the inefficent power plant to warm up my room
Personally, I think in your situation I would start using winminer right now and figure everything else out as I go. You can download it and be mining in about 5 mins. Very easy, you are paid in USD, you can stop the program anytime you want to game.
From there, I would start looking around for used gear. Once you get past 2 cards it gets bulky and cumbersome. Because you need so little as far as cpu goes, you can find a cheap old Athlon or Dual core and just add cards.
What would be some of the highest output to purchase cost GPUs? I was hoping there would be some powerful ones that go cheap because they are power hogs