Thanks, I'll look into this one.
That EU site is sold out unfortunately.
EDIT: They'll have a newer 2x one in stock at the end of Feb.
The new one give you the ability to change the clock rate and voltage a bit which means it could draw more than the maximum current of a standard USB 2.0 port which is 0.5 watts so it would be better to use it in a USB 3.0 port which has a max current rating of 0.9 watts.
I'm currently looking for the same thing. However, I too plan on using a laptop however it is a nice laptop with a 1060 gpu that I just purchased for gaming/work. I'm afraid that using a USB miner will burn the
components and cause damage. Will using a USB miner cause this kind of harm to my laptop or no?
Version 1 of the miner should not harm your laptop even on a USB 2.0 port but it draws 2.5 watts so it will drain your battery so you shouldn't leave it running if the laptop isn't plugged in to external power.
If you get version 2 of the stick miner, it would be better to use a USB 3.0 port or a powered USB 3.0 hub if you plan to play with the settings because that one could draw more than the rated current on a USB 2.0 port and potentially damage your laptop.
I think the whole point of a USB ASIC miner is to take the hard work away from the GPU (or CPU).
Unless there's a way of running separate mining jobs on both GPU and ASIC, I don't think a USB miner will damage your laptop at all, as the GPU won't even be used.
Whether a USB miner does a better job than a GPU for mining I don't know. It's certainly more customised for mining than a GPU is, and I'd imagine far more efficient.
But I don't have enough experience on this and welcome any corrections. Perhaps a GPU is still better in terms of raw hash rate.
These stick miners are specifically designed for SHA256 (like Bitcoin) mining. They will kick the ass of any GPU in existence for this purpose. The chips on the miner do all of the hard work but you still have to run a small program on your computer in order to send work to it and connect to a pool for mining so there is a requirement to use some of the CPU cycles of the connected computer.
