Topic: Hello (Read 506 times)

Well, it's a cool night and I have a sliding door wide open ~10ft away. I also have a 120mm fan on one side, and a small case fan on the other. The Oreck air cleaner was on that table beforehand, but it kinda sucks away a bit of air. It feels cool to the touch, and the wiring is all cold too. I'm a designer by trade, very comfortable messing around with software, but the hardware stuff scares me a bit. It almost seems like I could run another blade off this PSU, but I don't want to push it without getting a qualified opinion on that first.

EDIT: Just realized I didn't have my blade pics here and you are probably asking about the Raspberry rig. They get a bit warm without the fan, but with it they stay cool and my errors are low. It's very stable, even if/when my internet gets knocked out it reconnects automatically. I would not run them without a fan though, from what I've heard the errors go way up if they get hot.



I got the BFL Jally for $260, local pickup the following day. It might have been upgraded as it's rock-solid 7.5gh/s 24/7, awesome unit.
The Raspberry Pi and all the USB erupters were bought through Amazon with credit card points. So it was a choice between this cool little project, versus more books that I don't have time to read or a giftcard for a fancy restaraunt. The Raspberry Pi rig was like a personal goal, just to see if I could do it. I must say, it looks awesome on my desk and the BTC ticker is cool to have on the LCD.
I got the ASIC blade for $230 off Ebay, all the connectors, fans, and PSU were sitting in my storage unit from a PC I used back in 2006.
The question about it paying for itself really depends on where BTC trades against the dollar at a future time. Knowing that the cost of inputs has increased, shifting the supply curve left, we see the expected result of demand being met at an elevated price. I see an upwards trend and remain bullish based, assuming fundamentals of continually increasing inputs creating a shortage in the market. However, this is just speculation, but the way BTC trades it's foolish of people to measure sunk costs if they are trying to build a long position. I'd rather pay the power company every few weeks and build a position over time, maybe sell or trade in and out when the timing is right. The equipment costs for me are a hobby, everything else sits naturally with my interest in speculative investing and economics. Someday people might decide BTC is a scam, and if demand drops the valuation will plummet. On the other hand, if the trend continues there really is no maximum value, it will all be tied to supply and demand. If BTC starts to become more ubiquitous we can probably expect trends over time to show a rise in value. I've been trading equities for around 15 years and right now just wanted something different, the fact the exchanges stay open all weekend gives me something to watch, not much of a football fan or anything

I guess I paid $490 cash and the equivalent of ~$130-200(?) in reward points.

EDIT: Again, I've added my blade in that total. The BFL was $260 and the rest was more important than my other options for the points available 


So far, just entering week number 2 here and I took a .05 payout and have .04 sitting with my pool. I think by Monday at the latest I'll have .1. Not much at all but I haven't been at it very long. My personal goal is really to just mine one whole Bitcoin, by the time that happens I have no clue what it will be trading at, but there's half the fun- not knowing is exciting! Anything beyond the first coin I'll just keep going, maybe add more blades along the way if I can get this first one to be stable. I'd rather be in than out, too much upside to just ignore it, and it's (very) interesting to read about/discuss (for me).

nice! do you happen to remember how much it all cost you? and how soon do you expect to pay for itself (unless it already has)?

Awesome! I just got mine a few days ago and I'm mining at a solid 7.5

Haha, glad it worked out for you! 

Just curious, how bad is the heat without the fan?

Yes but I just got my ugly blade up and running a few minutes ago!

A few weeks ago I was mining with my GPU just to see if I could figure it out, got sucked in while blowing off an assignment for an Econ class. Then all this ended up giving me good material for my essay so it all worked out, serendipity

Not bad! Is this your first rig?

Somewhat of an Econ nerd here, also enjoy technology but not much of a hardware guy. Haven't been mining very long but so far it's been a great hobby. Longtime lurker but finally registered.

Here's my small gear:

Built this last week:




And got this for less than retail with local pickup a few weeks ago:


Wanted to introduce myself. Current project right now is a new ASIC Blade.