Just got over a million credits by grinding in my Sidey and have had my eye on the CobraMK3 as a good jack of all trades starter ship being that I'm not sure which way I'm going to go in ED. I saw this article in Reddit a few days ago where the post was 3 years old which was a Cobra build for under 1 mil credits. Just wondering if this build is still doable for a 3 year old post? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
The ship progression for my first account was: Sidewinder, Cobra Mk3, Asp Explorer, Krait Mk2, Python (as a mission/cargo runner while the Krait remained as a combat ship), Imperial Cutter. Then many others followed - generally speaking past this startup ship progression, i would be building dedicated ships for each role i needed
On an alt account, my ship progression was: Sidewinder, Adder, Cobra Mk3 (combat) / Type-6 (cargo), Dropship (combat/cargo/missions) then the rest of the classics (Krait mk2, Python, Cutter, Corvette)
Regarding the ship, I would advise you to make more credits before attempting to jump ship if i may say so.
And regarding the build, i would go for something
like this - sure it's more expensive but credits are not that hard to get by* - but i would not get that ship unless i have at least the required price and cash for at least 4-5 rebuys (so 3-3.2 millions)
Regarding outfitting, generally speaking you'd want the smallest A-rated power plant that can support your power needs, the best A-rated FSD, while everything else can be D-rated - that is for core systems. One mention for Power Distributer - sometimes is recommended to A-rate the PD too - at least till you unlock engineering - for more often boosting and for combat.
*(take your sidewinder in a High Res, wait a bit for the local pirates to start messing with the natives, then watch the System Authority ship clashing with the pirates and tag the pirates ship when they are low on hull - when they explode, you will get the bounties too. Alternatively, settling in a system and running missions can get decently lucrative once you get allied with the local factions)