I've read great things about the Avalon's reliability and not so great things about Antminer's, but it will vary depending on who you ask. Some people have batch 1 (Q3 16' I believe) S9s still running fine, and others get machines DOA.
In terms of downtime, it's a problem for everyone, not just the "average person". For example, if 5% of your machines arrive broken and you ordered 20 machines then odds are 1 will be DOA, if a farm orders 200 then odds are 10 would be DOA. I guess the bigger problem for the little guy would be if they ordered 2 machines and 1 was broken, versus if a farm ordered 200 and 10 were broken. Little guy's batch is down 50% on mining power versus the farm's which is only down 5%.
Other than reliability the thing I like more about Canaan than Bitmain is that when it comes time to order a large number of machines I can place a bulk order with the manufacturer, versus having to fight with smaller miners to get a piece of the batch. Currently, if you are ordering less than 60 machines you have to go through an authorized reseller. Also I like that Canaan accepts wire transfers and not only BCH like Bitmain does which is bullshit.
My .02
In terms of downtime, it's a problem for everyone, not just the "average person". For example, if 5% of your machines arrive broken and you ordered 20 machines then odds are 1 will be DOA, if a farm orders 200 then odds are 10 would be DOA. I guess the bigger problem for the little guy would be if they ordered 2 machines and 1 was broken, versus if a farm ordered 200 and 10 were broken. Little guy's batch is down 50% on mining power versus the farm's which is only down 5%.
Other than reliability the thing I like more about Canaan than Bitmain is that when it comes time to order a large number of machines I can place a bulk order with the manufacturer, versus having to fight with smaller miners to get a piece of the batch. Currently, if you are ordering less than 60 machines you have to go through an authorized reseller. Also I like that Canaan accepts wire transfers and not only BCH like Bitmain does which is bullshit.
My .02
I do like that Canaan accepts wire transfers. I think Blokforge will even take a credit card order. That makes it a lot easier when you don’t have much crypto. I only ask because I can’t just throw 20 grand at buying miners. I only started this a month ago and have to earn the money to pay for the miners. I only have one miner so far and it’s an S7. If I can gather the funds to get another one. I just want to make sure I choose wisely. If that’s possible.