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Topic: Butterfly Labs - Bitforce Single and Mini Rig Box - page 4. (Read 186898 times)

legendary
Activity: 916
Merit: 1003
I'm not quite sure what you guys are expecting.

That's a thought I have quite often on this forum.

It's pretty clear that some guys are simply using these forums to turn a quick buck in any way possible.

Quote
If anyone would like to sell their FPGA mini rig order -> https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/wtb-your-bfl-mini-rig-order-92917
vip
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1000
AKA: gigavps
If anyone would like to sell their FPGA mini rig order -> https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/wtb-your-bfl-mini-rig-order-92917
legendary
Activity: 1022
Merit: 1000
BitMinter
Just take off the case and mine without it. My bottom fan died after about one month of usage Undecided. At first I was pissed about the quality and that I had to fix it but the show must go on. I like them better naked...


Are the temps lower or higher with the case off?

I can't stand the misalignment (random disconnects) and would happily shed the case if temps are same (or lower).

The temps are lower with the extra fan. I also turned the top fan around.
legendary
Activity: 1820
Merit: 1000
I'm not quite sure what you guys are expecting.

That's a thought I have quite often on this forum.
mrb
legendary
Activity: 1512
Merit: 1027
That's interesting; so they are using USB hubs instead of the "X-link" board that we saw that has SATA connectors. I wonder if the SATA is for a different application or if USB was deemed more reliable or what.

Of course not.

I am sure that BFL were initially planning to use the X-link board and Raspberry Pi to make a much more polished mini rig, and then decided to do without them in order to cut corners and not be (more) late on their schedule.
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1000
I owe my soul to the Bitcoin code...
I am not even looking for perfection, just a bit of elegance that shows some thought and love went into the current box. Kiss

The next go round will be the next go round albeit cleaner I hope.
vip
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1000
AKA: gigavps
Of course you guys are fully satisfied with your rigs, you have to be.  You plunked down treasure, waited seemingly forever and finally were rewarded with gold in a box.  You better be satisfied by this point.  Wink

The perspective from the outside though is that when one plunks down 15grand or better yet 30+ as you both have shown along with darkice that you get something that is a little more polished as well as 'just works'.

My thoughts are that they just don't have the time/resources to put a nice coat of polish on the insides as they are constantly in the innovators seat which moves fast. I don't imagine we will see newer revisions of these rigs because ASICs are getting closer every day supposedly and that will be a whole new ballgame.

perfection === iteration

Do you think the ASIC rigs are going to use multiple PCBs in a box? If so, it's the next iteration of the previous design.
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1000
I owe my soul to the Bitcoin code...
Of course you guys are fully satisfied with your rigs, you have to be.  You plunked down treasure, waited seemingly forever and finally were rewarded with gold in a box.  You better be satisfied by this point.  Wink

The perspective from the outside though is that when one plunks down 15grand or better yet 30+ as you both have shown along with darkice that you get something that is a little more polished as well as 'just works'.

My thoughts are that they just don't have the time/resources to put a nice coat of polish on the insides as they are constantly in the innovators seat which moves fast. I don't imagine we will see newer revisions of these rigs because ASICs are getting closer every day supposedly and that will be a whole new ballgame.
vip
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1000
AKA: gigavps
Personally, I was totally satisfied with what I found inside.  Nothing breaks when I move them around and they're practically maintenance free.  This one chassis is far superior to anything I'd have come up with to fit 50 GH/s worth of Singles into a small space.

I paid the money for hashing power, which works awesome...No regrets.  I LOVE my mini-rigs!

1000% agreed. I'm not quite sure what you guys are expecting. It's not like BFL has been in business as long as Apple and has as reality distortion field.  Tongue

I'm sure in a couple iterations of the case and connections, you'll see a much improved mini rig.
sr. member
Activity: 348
Merit: 250

Thanks. Not too impressed with the velcro and hot glue solutions, and wire-out-the-hole-in-the-back. The chassis though, looks like a sturdy well built box. I hope BFL will put some resources into getting the cabling and build quality for the ASIC units, and not all on the chips. The PCB and cooling in my single is great. Too me it looks like the build quality of the single is better than the minirig.

That looks like a nightmare inside. Not what you'd expect from a $15,000 piece of hardware. Yeeesh.

Personally, I was totally satisfied with what I found inside.  Nothing breaks when I move them around and they're practically maintenance free.  This one chassis is far superior to anything I'd have come up with to fit 50 GH/s worth of Singles into a small space.  Just gotta get the one faulty USB-to-Serial adapter replaced this weekend and I'll be back to 100%.

I paid the money for hashing power, which works awesome...No regrets.  I LOVE my mini-rigs!
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1000
I owe my soul to the Bitcoin code...
I would expect more myself.
legendary
Activity: 1274
Merit: 1004

Thanks. Not too impressed with the velcro and hot glue solutions, and wire-out-the-hole-in-the-back. The chassis though, looks like a sturdy well built box. I hope BFL will put some resources into getting the cabling and build quality for the ASIC units, and not all on the chips. The PCB and cooling in my single is great. Too me it looks like the build quality of the single is better than the minirig.

That looks like a nightmare inside. Not what you'd expect from a $15,000 piece of hardware. Yeeesh.
member
Activity: 109
Merit: 10

Thanks. Not too impressed with the velcro and hot glue solutions, and wire-out-the-hole-in-the-back. The chassis though, looks like a sturdy well built box. I hope BFL will put some resources into getting the cabling and build quality for the ASIC units, and not all on the chips. The PCB and cooling in my single is great. Too me it looks like the build quality of the single is better than the minirig.
legendary
Activity: 1012
Merit: 1000
Just take off the case and mine without it. My bottom fan died after about one month of usage Undecided. At first I was pissed about the quality and that I had to fix it but the show must go on. I like them better naked...


Are the temps lower or higher with the case off?

I can't stand the misalignment (random disconnects) and would happily shed the case if temps are same (or lower).
full member
Activity: 121
Merit: 100
Sorry for the delay on pics and video.  My wife went into labor the day after I got my mini-rigs and things have been pretty crazy (eg. no sleep) since then.  We've been blessed with a beautiful baby daughter, though!  Cheesy

Quick answers to questions I've seen floating around:

  • The Mini-Rig is about as loud as your average Dell rack-mounted server, such as a PowerEdge 2970.  In a data center with 3 PowerEdge servers, I was unable to tell when I ran a single Mini-Rig.
  • According to my Kill-a-Watt, one Mini-Rig uses about 1140 watts when mining on a 120v circuit.
  • I get about 50.8 GH/s out of my two Mini-Rigs combined, but I've read on the forums that some people get 52GH/s out of two of them.

Video (sorry, some of it's out of focus):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66KHMmbnQ_Y

Pics:
http://imgur.com/a/Uanjr

One of the USB-to-Serial adapters seems to have failed, causing an FPGA to go offline, so I'll probably be getting back into one of the mini-rigs this weekend, just in case there are any additional video/picture requests.
Wow big thanks to you for the photos and video and congrats for your daughter.
sr. member
Activity: 446
Merit: 250
One of the USB-to-Serial adapters seems to have failed, causing an FPGA to go offline, so I'll probably be getting back into one of the mini-rigs this weekend, just in case there are any additional video/picture requests.
That's interesting; so they are using USB hubs instead of the "X-link" board that we saw that has SATA connectors. I wonder if the SATA is for a different application or if USB was deemed more reliable or what.

I may have some comments about this soon. Doing some testing.

hero member
Activity: 628
Merit: 504
Sorry for the delay on pics and video.  My wife went into labor the day after I got my mini-rigs and things have been pretty crazy (eg. no sleep) since then.  We've been blessed with a beautiful baby daughter, though!  Cheesy

Quick answers to questions I've seen floating around:

  • The Mini-Rig is about as loud as your average Dell rack-mounted server, such as a PowerEdge 2970.  In a data center with 3 PowerEdge servers, I was unable to tell when I ran a single Mini-Rig.
  • According to my Kill-a-Watt, one Mini-Rig uses about 1140 watts when mining on a 120v circuit.
  • I get about 50.8 GH/s out of my two Mini-Rigs combined, but I've read on the forums that some people get 52GH/s out of two of them.

Video (sorry, some of it's out of focus):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66KHMmbnQ_Y

Pics:
http://imgur.com/a/Uanjr

One of the USB-to-Serial adapters seems to have failed, causing an FPGA to go offline, so I'll probably be getting back into one of the mini-rigs this weekend, just in case there are any additional video/picture requests.

Thanks a lot for very professional pictures and video  Cheesy. At last, someone made it the way it should be done!
rjk
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250
1ngldh
One of the USB-to-Serial adapters seems to have failed, causing an FPGA to go offline, so I'll probably be getting back into one of the mini-rigs this weekend, just in case there are any additional video/picture requests.
That's interesting; so they are using USB hubs instead of the "X-link" board that we saw that has SATA connectors. I wonder if the SATA is for a different application or if USB was deemed more reliable or what.
newbie
Activity: 36
Merit: 0
Just as a update to everyone, after taking the "if you want something done right, do it yourself" approach and fixing the thing myself it works well so far, the boards seam fine, its when they put them in the cases that things go wrong, probably hiring cheap local labor lolz.
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1000
I owe my soul to the Bitcoin code...
Hey Phantom,  very nice indeed.  I can't believe i squealed like a little girl when I saw you did inside pics.  Embarrassed    Thanks for that.

anyway congrats on the bundle of joy.



EDIT:  Ugh, what a rats nest!!! I thought they had a nice control board with sata ports and would not need hot glued usb hubs (unpowered from the look of it)?

Also the power distribution system could be better. They raped that PSU and used snap together terminals, what is this an 18yr olds car audio system in his mom's oldsmobile?

It is a wonderful piece of hardware guys but please evolve it into something a little bit more elegant for 15grand. Smiley
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