Topic: Has anyone actually got an ASIC based miner? (Read 851 times)

Block Eruptor blades (USB Block Eruptor's big brother) are also available. 

I have been looking at the market for some time now for ASIC based hardware.
There is currently no ASIC hardware available for immediate despatch. All manufactures/vendors are only taking pre-orders. [Excluding the USB Block Erupter - which is available currently].

Thats a good link thanks!

Based on the KNC Mercury should get a few quid in a year http://mining.thegenesisblock.com/a/08859a654e

He's referencing the small USB stick which has an ASIC chip on it. There's a group buy on this forum where a guy (Sonic something is his name) has them for .32BTC right now, which is cheaper than anywhere else. They're fun.


I've got 7950's mining FTC/LTC right now, and am always exploring other currencies for fun. The 7950 isn't too expensive compared to the hash rate in return. It's Scrypt vs BTC's SHA, so it's a bit different game. I've got my 7950 config putting out 625KH stable with 63C* and 0 errors across millions of rounds. I've had it past 650 before but it wasn't stable.

I also have some of the ASICMINER sticks, they're just kindof fun to have, and they hash about 1-10% more than advertised.

I'm in these currencies for the long haul. We shall see how it goes.

Regarding BTC: Keep in mind, difficulty and network hash rate are going to constantly rise over time. So what makes X return now, won't make the same return down the road. AS someone else said on this forum somewhere, unless your equipment returns half of its investment cost within the first month, it likely won't break even ever.

Example: If you got a 25GH unit for $2k, and it arrived by September and it ran with 100% uptime for the whole month of September, presuming difficulty was 50M when you started running and the rise is 43% each time, you'd never break even. If you had 25GH for $1000 then you'd break even.

Check out mining.thegenesisblock.com to see estimation math over the course of time to help you out.

As for me, I'm one of the crazies who's hedging bets with KNC Miner. My reasoning is, like I said above, if you really want to ensure an even breakpoint, you want as much hashing power as you can get the first month, so I'm going to go big with a few of their units. They have a 100GH unit for $2500 I believe, which would (at current guesstimations) break even and make some money.

But there's no guarantees in life.

Thanks for the reply.  What do you currently use / hash at (if you don't mind me asking)?

Unless my maths is screwed, at the current difficulty level / energy costs (0.2$ per kwatt) etc any ASIC based system (>1GH/s) seems profitable ($30month)?  Or am I missing something blatantly obvious?

If you had potentially $2000 to spend what would you opt for and expect GH/s wise and BTC/month wise?


Some on ebay.co.uk in-hand but didnt investigate too much because of the hash rate.

When you say "excluding the USB Erupter", do you mean that there is an ASIC that's actually available and in stock? If so, where to get it (I'm in the UK).

Thanks

If you do enough research you should  know that answer already. To mine BTC, ASIC is what you want to be using--but unless you already have a big unit, or can get one for super cheap/free, you'll be fighting the difficulty level just to break even, much less make anything from it.

BFL and Terrahash aren't the only players either, keep your eye out. Not knocking them. BFL's products are really clean and sharp, but they're too little too late at this point (especially with a year of backorders still being processed). I'm going to get one or two in the future "just to have" as a momento, but I'll get them from ebay for dirt cheap when someone is sick of it not making money.

Good luck with your decision.

Hi,

I've been reading through old posts here and am contemplating getting an ASIC based miner, but with BFL lead time and Terrahash also on pre-order I was wanting to know views on people that have actually received ASIC based miners (excluding the USB Erupter).

Would you buy it again or would you switch to a different vendor?
If it works as expected have you ordered more?
Do you work as part of a pool or solo and why?

Sorry if any of these are n00b questions

BL