I've had this in my bookmarks for quite some time.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ultra-low-cost-diy-fpga-miner-175mhs-1mh-44891
Have never gotten around to reading it though.
Topic: Newbies for FPGAs (Read 2633 times)
I too like the look of the BFL unit mainly because of Mhash/$ this makes payback assuming constant difficulty and my power cost with 6$ per BTC 4.63 months, at 3$ per BTC it is 9.7 months. I realize that difficulty is dynamic and lower prices cause a drop in GPU because of profitibility and higher prices will undoubtedly push payback beyond 5 months.
Your numbers are a bit off. At 832Mhash/s and a difficulty of 1250757 (current) and a BTC price of $6USD/BTC, you will generate exactly $4.01USD per day. At $0.10/kWh, electricity costs will eat $0.12USD per day, making your profit $3.89. That makes payback at current levels in 154 days (5.1 months).
In 9 days when difficulty increases by 10%, you will generate $3.49 per day, for a payback of 172 days (5.7 months).
Keep in mind that the above numbers are overly optimistic; the calculated payback periods assume difficulty and BTC price will remain relatively constant. More realistic, however, is that if the BTC price stays at the $6-$7 level, you can expect difficulty to rise further over the next few months. It is overly optimistic to expect/ssume difficulty will remain constant.
Back in September 2011 when BTC prices were hovering in the $5-$8 range (as they are now), difficulty was 1750000. That's 40% higher than today. It may be wise to assume that if today's BTC price holds for any length of time, difficulty is likely to reach 1750000 again.
And in that case, any payback period will be extended by 40%. So instead of 5-6 months, you are looking at 7-9 months. And that's *if* BTC price stays at $6/BTC during that period.
I too like the look of the BFL unit mainly because of Mhash/$ this makes payback assuming constant difficulty and my power cost with 6$ per BTC 4.63 months, at 3$ per BTC it is 9.7 months. I realize that difficulty is dynamic and lower prices cause a drop in GPU because of profitibility and higher prices will undoubtedly push payback beyond 5 months. That having been said Since my DVR runs an ATOM and adding a different card for a GPU is impossible adding a power supply, MB, Ram, case and card I am sure it will get clost to 600$ (price of BFL unit) since I would not have to expense these things I can make a reasonable profit of 90% per BTC with my power and at 6 it is more then 95%. I am not saying the GPU folks are wrong. If you have a new enough computer it may cost you 0$ for one card (included) and a couple hundred for each additional card up to your third if you are lucky. My hardware is unprofitable or a little old for upgrades so building a rig or adding FPGA is about the same to me cost wise, but cheaper power wise. Again at current prices GPU and FPGA will pay back GPU likely faster, long term FPGA will have more profit per BTC.
Is there a list how the difficulty will be a few months from now and how long it will take to get a BTC?
There are many online BTC calculators around. Try this one: http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator.php
There is no list of what future difficulty will be. No one knows that, and there is no way to predict. But you can run a few scenarios with the BTC calculator to see what effect it will have.
For a historic record of how difficulty has been evolving (for the past 15 months), check out the graphs here: http://bitcoinx.com/charts/
The above site will also tell you what the estimated NEXT difficulty change will be (currently estimated to go up 7% in about 10 days from now).
Thanks for the link.
I did stumble in that topic before and found the 6500 who i am interested in. https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/x6500-custom-fpga-miner-40058
They are also willing to make new software for it but i find id scary that when they stop i have a useless FPGA or at least one with old software or with bugs.
Also the 580 dollar is a lot for 7.33 BTC a month max.
When taking 580/44=13.1 month before you have the money out when calculating with 6 dollar a BTC.
Also i don`t know how the difficulty will be in those 13 months.
Maybe you get less then 44 dollar a month and it will take you a lot longer.
Is there a list how the difficulty will be a few months from now and how long it will take to get a BTC?
I did stumble in that topic before and found the 6500 who i am interested in. https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/x6500-custom-fpga-miner-40058
They are also willing to make new software for it but i find id scary that when they stop i have a useless FPGA or at least one with old software or with bugs.
Also the 580 dollar is a lot for 7.33 BTC a month max.
When taking 580/44=13.1 month before you have the money out when calculating with 6 dollar a BTC.
Also i don`t know how the difficulty will be in those 13 months.
Maybe you get less then 44 dollar a month and it will take you a lot longer.
Is there a list how the difficulty will be a few months from now and how long it will take to get a BTC?
Hello
Also i know nothing about those FPGA programmming and to create a file/bios for it you need a license who is not cheap and that way you have to hope people will build it for you and that is my biggest wurry.
Also i know nothing about those FPGA programmming and to create a file/bios for it you need a license who is not cheap and that way you have to hope people will build it for you and that is my biggest wurry.
People are already working on this.
http://bitcoinfpga.com/
This is a good starting point. Check out the links at the bottom.
Hello
I am not that long busy with mining but those FPGA sound great if you want to start or need to invest in hardware if you have nothing great in your PC.
There are FPGA who do 300Mhash/s and with the curent difficulty you get about 44dollar a month when the excange is 6 dollar.
Those will use about 20Watt so when looking at my HD5670 with 61Watt and a 50% cpu i would do best to get me a FPGA.
But.....what to do when BTC is over?
Also i know nothing about those FPGA programmming and to create a file/bios for it you need a license who is not cheap and that way you have to hope people will build it for you and that is my biggest wurry.
I am not that long busy with mining but those FPGA sound great if you want to start or need to invest in hardware if you have nothing great in your PC.
There are FPGA who do 300Mhash/s and with the curent difficulty you get about 44dollar a month when the excange is 6 dollar.
Those will use about 20Watt so when looking at my HD5670 with 61Watt and a 50% cpu i would do best to get me a FPGA.
But.....what to do when BTC is over?
Also i know nothing about those FPGA programmming and to create a file/bios for it you need a license who is not cheap and that way you have to hope people will build it for you and that is my biggest wurry.
I am interested in replacing my gpus with fpga hashing... hopefully I can increase my total hashing amount when I do switch over.
Yeah, I have FPGA fever... 
Actually I'm considering building a "heater" rig to have running in my summer house during winter to keep the house dry now.
Thx!
Actually I'm considering building a "heater" rig to have running in my summer house during winter to keep the house dry now.
Thx!
What did those rigs cost? ROI?
In which country do you live?
In which country do you live?
Sigh.
Rupy, the thing is that those GPU rigs cost a lot less than the $15k it would take to create an 11Ghash/s farm out of ztex fpga's. ROI? D&T has been around for a long time; his rigs would have long since been paid for by mining profits.
What did those rigs cost? ROI?
In which country do you live?
In which country do you live?
I'm taking your silence as a confirmation that you wasted a lot of money on those GPU rigs, and you keep wasting money on electricity every day. You can't mine on solar and wind and therefor you're part of what I call the old civilization. Tick Tack the counter is ticking.
Sure. Your right. Somehow I lost money on my rigs and then daily I compound the problem by losing even more more despite the obvious solution to simply hit the off switch.
11 GH = ~8.85 BTC daily. 5 rigs @ 870W each = 4.35KW 4.35KW *24 * $0.092 per kWh = $9.60 daily
8.85 BTC daily & $9.60 electrical cost daily.
$9.60 / 8.85 = $1.08 electrical cost per BTC.
Since we all know today the price of BTC was below $1.08 at Mt. Gox I lost money yet again today.
Still maybe I will be "luckier" tomorrow?
I'm taking your silence as a confirmation that you wasted a lot of money on those GPU rigs, and you keep wasting money on electricity every day. You can't mine on solar and wind and therefor you're part of what I call the old civilization. Tick Tack the counter is ticking.
Ok, ROI is -12%, but I'm happy with what ever you would call my 88% above, I call it interest rate because I would get like 1% for those 300 EUR in the bank (-2% with inflation) now I get 88% (86% minus inflation).
Instead of laughing at me you could share your ROI so we can have a constructive dialogue about this?
Instead of laughing at me you could share your ROI so we can have a constructive dialogue about this?
I = 300 EUR
R = 52 BTC * 6,5 USD = 338 USD = 264 EUR
Actually it's 88%
R = 52 BTC * 6,5 USD = 338 USD = 264 EUR
Actually it's 88%
LOLZ.
I = 300 EUR
R = 52 BTC * 6,5 USD = 338 USD = 264 EUR
Actually it's 88%
R = 52 BTC * 6,5 USD = 338 USD = 264 EUR
Actually it's 88%
My rough calculus of intrest rate on FPGA is ~ ($ per bitcoin) * 10 = 65% right now.
Care to share that calculus because the interest? ROI% FPGA is nowhere near 65% annually.
What do you think will "try" to replace oil? What do you think is causing the current economical crisis? The fundamentals have been choking our civilization since the seventies but we hid it in the currencies/"exploitation of natural resources" (pollution) and now we see the unwinding of our unsustainable lifestyle.
That's why I'm betting on BTC, because anything other than old civilization fiat is good.
My rough calculus of intrest rate on FPGA is ~ ($ per bitcoin) * 10 = 65% right now.
And that's enough, I don't need another "not work" work trying to get rich to buy more things I don't need. I wan't stability and preservation = I need small scale diversification.
I also have 10+ years of Java development, and I have built my own web server and database abstraction toolkit, if you need large projects (all my projects compile in < 1 sec on the atom) and don't know how to optimize SQL post launch you are probably building it wrong way in the first place.
But you are right Atom is not for learning stuff the hard way, Atom is for when you master your trade and build your own tools. But you would be surprised of the speed of this little machine! I watch 720p flash video, no problem!
That's why I'm betting on BTC, because anything other than old civilization fiat is good.
My rough calculus of intrest rate on FPGA is ~ ($ per bitcoin) * 10 = 65% right now.
And that's enough, I don't need another "not work" work trying to get rich to buy more things I don't need. I wan't stability and preservation = I need small scale diversification.
I also have 10+ years of Java development, and I have built my own web server and database abstraction toolkit, if you need large projects (all my projects compile in < 1 sec on the atom) and don't know how to optimize SQL post launch you are probably building it wrong way in the first place.
But you are right Atom is not for learning stuff the hard way, Atom is for when you master your trade and build your own tools. But you would be surprised of the speed of this little machine! I watch 720p flash video, no problem!
We'll see which PCB's become worthless first. My bet is that peakoil is going to make your PC's and GPU's completely obsolete. Personally I run an Atom machine at 13W for my everything PC (24/7 server AND development station) it's completely silent with a SSD.
Why would peak oil significantly affect the price of electricity given 99%+ of it isn't produced by oil?
I can't imagine many horrors worse than compiling a major project on an Atom processor. Well I take that back yes I can. database query optimization on an atom processor.
DeathAndTaxes: Ah, sorry the 1 BTC is per week.
Epoch: The ztex is great because it's silent, I don't care about getting rich, all currencies make you poor at heart!
Also you only need 1 PC per 127 FPGA's = alot better than GPU mining.
enigm4: We'll see which PCB's become worthless first. My bet is that peakoil is going to make your PC's and GPU's completely obsolete. Personally I run an Atom machine at 13W for my everything PC (24/7 server AND development station) it's completely silent with a SSD.
Epoch: The ztex is great because it's silent, I don't care about getting rich, all currencies make you poor at heart!
Also you only need 1 PC per 127 FPGA's = alot better than GPU mining.enigm4: We'll see which PCB's become worthless first. My bet is that peakoil is going to make your PC's and GPU's completely obsolete. Personally I run an Atom machine at 13W for my everything PC (24/7 server AND development station) it's completely silent with a SSD.
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