Originally by: Durnin Stormbrow

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If you really need someone to break it down, here it is: the Hulk is @#$!ing expensive. The cost of your ship is overhead that you need to pay back before you can begin to realize any profits.

Compare these two ships:

[Hulk, Max Mine]
Mining Laser Upgrade II
Mining Laser Upgrade II
Survey Scanner II
Small C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
Basic Heat Dissipation Amplifier
Basic Heat Dissipation Amplifier
3x Modulated Strip Miner II, [take your pick] Mining Crystal II
2x Medium Drone Mining Augmentor I
5x Mining Drone II
5x Hobgoblin II

[Covetor, Max Mine]
Mining Laser Upgrade II
Expanded Cargohold II
Survey Scanner II
3x Modulated Strip Miner II, [take your pick] Mining Crystal II
Medium Drone Mining Augmentor I
Medium Cargohold Optimization I
Medium Cargohold Optimization I
5x Mining Drone II

Assume that both ships have max skill orca support support, and are piloted by max skilled players having these mid-level implants:
Slot6 KMB-50
Slot7 KVA1000
Slot8 Zet300
Slot9 KYA1000
Slot10 HX-1

Here's how the numbers would stack up:

Cov Hulk
M3/min 2316 vs 2845 +23%
Cargo 6745 vs 8000 +19%
EHP 5755 vs 10778 +87%
HP/s 8 vs 63 +788%
Cost 15,3M vs 151M +987% (Jita price, today)
(God, I hate trying to format tables in forum posts)

With the cost of fittings being pretty much the same, I'll assume both pilots only need to pay off their hulls.

IF they're mining in hi-sec, and the Hulk is pulling in 10Misk/hr, then the Covetor is getting 8,140,598isk/hr.
After 1.89 mining hours, the Covetor is paid off and begins earning profit.
After 15.18 mining hours, the Hulk is paid off and begins earning profit. At that same point, the Covetor has earned just over 108Misk in profit.
Catching up at a rate of (10m-8.14m)isk/hr = 1.859isk/hr, it will take an additional 58.18 mining hours for the Hulk pilot's profit to have matched the Covetor pilots.

IF you assume 3 mining hours/day (That's average hours every day spent with beams on rocks, not hauling, moving, hiding, or station spinning) that's 24.45 days for the Hulk to be better than the Covetor. If they both get ganked at any point before that time, the Covetor was better. If they both survive that long, the Hulk was better.

If you adjust for better rocks, the Hulk catches up sooner, but the risk of being ganked goes up too.
If the Hulk's base rate is 20M/hr, the Hulk is better after surviving 12.22 days.
If the Hulk's base rate is 40M/hr, the Hulk is better after surviving 6.11 days.

So, you need to weigh the risk of getting ganked against the value of the rocks you're mining.
If you're in a >0.8 system and Hulks aren't in season, the Hulk is a pretty safe bet.
If you're in a secured 0.0 system with access to ABCM, the Hulk is a pretty safe bet.
If you're in unsecured space, 0.0 with no ABCM, low-sec (lol right), or WH space; you should at least consider a Covetor over a Hulk.

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