I'm a first time miner who is thinking about getting started with mining bitcoins. I did research but there is an overwhelming amount of info out there and a lot of it is contradictory. I have never done GPU mining as my computer does not have the proper hardware.

My budget is $500 so building a rig is not really am option and I have been looking into getting an ASIC miner, specifically the eruptor USB at 300 mh/s as it seems to be reliable and they are shipping.

My questions are:

1. Does it make sense to invest in an ASIC miner right now? Will I be able to make up the money in a reasonable amount of time and start turning a profit soon? I am mot looking to make a ton of money from this but more so to learn. However i do not want to lose money in the process. Excluding energy costs as they are free since I am at college.

2. Is the Eruptor USB a good choice for a miner and is it reliable or is there a better option that fits my budget?

3. For ASIC mining, are there any hardware requirements for the host computer, in terms of CPU/GPU or anything else?

Thank you for all your help.