I suppose I've a skewed perspective...
I was going to buy a computer anyhow...it's just that time. I have a high-end laptop that I was using, but no tower type PC; so, I was buying a computer anyhow (mining or not). And a year ago, I didn't even know what a bitcoin was! However, something I've always known, is that for my primary purposes of using a computer (emails, Word, PPT, watching DVDs, browsing the web), most off-the-shelf computer systems were MUCH more powerful than what I was using them for...
Now enter bitcoin -- at least, in some small way, I can get at a minimum, a novelty return of some sort, even if it's miniscule. However, now that I do know about bitcoin, I opted to get a 'gamer' system, enter the:
CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra 2062 Desktop PC Phenom II X4 965(3.4GHz) 4GB DDR3 1TB HDD Capacity AMD Radeon HD 6870 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit.
I got it in less than 10 days - delivered to a remote Contingency Operating Station in Iraq, with shipping for less than $900. Note that it includes the elusive AMD Radeon HD 6870 - which in none tweaked form, out of the box, in less than an hour, was generating ~300 Mhash/s - just GPU, I've not even start trying to manipulate the CPU cores yet.
It helped that I'd already been experimenting with my laptops NVIDA GX card (a measly 24Mhash on the GPU, 4.1 Mhash/s on the CPU). So now, I'm making like .21 BTC per day; and I'm not paying for electricity, so... I can't complain.
Not for nothing, but rather for $1500.00 - I did actually jumped on that 'bitcoin bandwagon', and to that end, have bought 2 HD 6990 cards (albiet on back order) @ PC Connection. When they come in, I may have to get creative, but the CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra 2062 Desktop PC has the pci slots (and supposedly the harness rotates out) necessary to run these. AND the system even came with all of the Crossfire cabling and mounting brackets I might need (and I didn't even ask them for it).
So far, I'm more than pleased, but back on topic... so suppose someday I do have to return to a land where I have to pay for electricity (at least noone will be trying to launch rockets and mortars at me, so there's some intangible value in that too), even if I do have to pay for electricity, I WILL AT LEAST be making some sort of return! Something, as opposed to nothing, EVEN if it only partially compensates - it's still more than NOTHING!!!
I understand from a purely ROI perspective - but come on guys... You buy cars (video cards) and pay for gas (electricity) to go from point A to B (cruising the web) and MOST people don't stop to think... hhmmmm is my having a car really a money making endeavor?
So money making aside... if you've a computer, and electric service, then AT A MINIMUM what you gain, which is priceless, is a more indepth knowledge of how rpc works, how computers in general work, how to access the cmd window on your GUI based windows box. I think, if nothing else, bitcoin awareness is rising the mark on the 'how a computer works' tideline.
Anyways, I just spent .0022435 BTC worth of electricity typing this so...
Thats my 0.002 BTC worth on the subject.
Happy mining all.
CRYPT