I mean, if you are starting from scratch buying the coin itself is almost certainly going to be more profitable especially if you time it right. Some people are crap traders though, like myself
. And some people, like myself, enjoy the process of building, tuning, and maintaining a rig. IMO building a mining rig is kind of like getting paid for your hobby, which is why its appealing to me. I know its not going to make me a millionaire.
Have you kept your 1070 rig running until now? It'd be interesting to know how much that's made...