Hi Zack
check out this mining calculator to see your return on investment for Bitcoin mining.
https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/calculator
Difficulty Increment are tough to estimate I would use 5% not the default 20%
the pool fee of 2% is high I don't mine anymore so I am not up to speed on competitive rates. (some pools don't share transactions fees that's a consideration as they are high and maybe around 5% of income.
This pool is offering 0% fee
https://pool.bitcoin.com (they also mine with BU so are supporting a transaction capacity increase so I'd think a good choice)
If you have free electricity it's a no brainer if you have expensive electricity you may never break even.
The most efficient mining equipment I know that is commercially available is sold by:
https://www.bitmain.com/ efficiency is everything it determines your input cost (how much electricity you use)
Bitmain list the electricity consumed and the hashrate generated. select a product and add that info into the calculator to see your return. you will need to play around but that calculator and the info bitmain website will tell you everything you need to know.
If it's in a garage fan noise is not an issue but if it is in a public space you may want to go for a low fan noise option like the Antminer R4
good luck. FYI the way the incentives are designed just buying bitcoin creates demand for the most efficient miners to secure the network so in an abstract way you are getting the efficiently mined coins when you just buy. I still advocate mining I have done it for years, and its profitable if you are efficient.
