Topic: Does anybody sell out-of-the-box Bitcoin mining solutions? (Read 1416 times)

Not quite 'out-of-the-box'. I have some.

You cannot 'plug them in' and walk away. You need to get a PC to host them (they don't come with one), you may need to install the virtual COM port drivers (your OS may not have them), you may need to determine which COM port the operating system has assigned (it is different for everyone), you will need to install mining software (they don't come with any), you will need to configure the mining software (RTFM).

The OP is looking for a pre-configured system including software. As Lethos mentioned, I'm also not aware of anyone offering a product fitting this description. All mining hardware (GPU- and FPGA-based systems) all need additional setup and configuration from the user.

Plus the 'simple administration' requirement from the OP is another topic altogether. It may be a simple 'remote desktop' connection to your mining host to 'check up' on it from time to time; it may be akbash to monitor and control things; perhaps gpumon. I'm not sure what the definition of 'simple' is here, but administering a mining rig needs a certain amount of expertise and investment of time which I don't believe can be avoided with what's out there now.

Also just wanted to say, if you buy GPUs with the intent to switch over to Litecoins when GPU mining Bitcoins becomes unprofitable, then you might want to look into which GPUs reaper/cgminer are good at hashing on. For example, people have been having really low hash rates on 7970's. I have a 5970 myself and it does great with mining Litecoins (the Scrypt algorithm).

You'll want to look into custom hardware, like FPGA's or even go into the yet to be released ASIC based products.

FPGA's and ASIC are custom chips, that are very energy efficient when compared to Graphics cards as normally found in most computers.
These custom pieces of kit vary in how hard they are to setup, but very doable and stable for any techy person and can be managed remotely if necessary.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=76.0

The talk about these is all in here. Some of the current FPGA's on the market are more out of the box than others, but I won't really call Bitcoin as a whole out-of-the-box in general.
Enterpoint is popular in Europe since they are based in England. BFL is more popular in the USA since they are based there. Big generalisation, but shipping, duty and taxes on these is not cheap when buying alot of them, so with them both being priced per performance rates about the same it helps to buy local as such. At least that was my reason for going for enterpoint initially.

I do not know the other FPGA's that well I'm afraid. Their is a few ASIC products that are suppose to be released at the end of this year, but their is much speculation that they might not achieve this. Their is the BFL and OpenASIC project that are doing those ASIC based products, which will be even more powerful than FPGA's. Again much speculation about that.

A large scale (as mentioned already) Graphics processor (GPU) based operation is not that efficient energy wise any more, they are often 5-10x more expensive to run unless you have an alternative use for them. It can of course be a little better on ease of use, but the future of GPU mining is probably behind us, unless you make a very large GPU farm and very cheap electricity.

No company right now sells their products all setup to run as you describe, it still requires you to connect up to your computer and do much of the configuration yourself. They often will help with thing you need of course or at least the community will often help answer any queries.
However right now their is a big separation between Mining hardware, Mining Software and Mining pools, so an all in one solution is unlikely to occur right now. This allows choice, which I believe to be a good thing, it has allowed the best to thrive.
If your computers in the office would end up actually using high-end graphics cards as per normal work, you could just use a bunch of ati 7970's, otherwise go with FPGA's or ASIC's and just plug them into a spare computer.

Sorry that ended up a lot longer than I had planned.

Now is not the time really to be looking into getting bitcoin mining solutions involving GPUs unless you intend to switch to mining something like Litecoins in the near future when ASICs hit. That being said, for out-of-the-box mining solutions, the BFL Singles ($600 each) get 0.8GH/s per device, and they sip power around 80W, as opposed to a similar system which might be eating 700-900W depending on other components, etc. They can plug into most any computer so you can run them on a really low-end netbook and mine away. The nice thing about these is that they will soon be able to be traded in for their full value for ASIC (with a purchase, for example if you buy 1 $600 Single, your order to trade in that single must be $1200 or above). However, buying these units now makes it very unlikely that they will be delivered before ASICs come out to the masses, so you might just be best off waiting until the release of ASICs or preordering your ASIC at this time, so you get your spot in line.

BFL FPGA and ASICs are definitely out-of-the-box mining solutions.

I am interested in setting up a mining operation for my company. My offices are in a building with a well-appointed server room with stable power. Does anyone know of a reputable vendor who sells servers configured with dedicated software and simple administration?