Fpga bitcoin mining available?

[Myrddindc]

Bit of a newbie question but here goes:

Given that I cannot buy Asic hardware, and I want to move from GPU to the next level (although the price rise in bitcoin has more than compensated for the difficulty rise my gpus face). Is there anywhere I can buy FPGA miners from, that will actually be delivered in a timely fashion (i.e. in stock)?

I did not get an avalon (did not have the btc to hand) and they probably wont offer a batch 4.
I no longer believe BFl will ever deliver Asics.
I want to own the device (so asicminer shares are a no go)
I dont want to buy bitcoins with fiat.
I have fiat and want to generate bitcoins, as I currently do with my gpus, but with Fpgas (preferably 800mhs+)
I want to buy the Fpgas with fiat.
I am semi tedhnical with gpus, but have no experience with fpgas. So they would need to have bitcoin mining hardware available and be reasonably well supported (ie usb drivers for windows pcs).

Any currently in stock fpgas available? Or opinions on this?

Thanks!

Myrddin.

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[dogie]

I recently went through all the various options.

1) ASIC: The holy grail.
Good points: Highest perf per watt, lowest investment per hash, best density per hash.
Bad points: Limited availability, Expensive minimum investment, 0 resale value if bitcoin goes poof, if the hardware breaks then who knows.
Note pretty sure HorseRider still has some share units from his 50 unit order you could get in on.

2) GPU: A safer option.
Good points: High resale value which isn't linked to bitcoin, great support, great availability, easy to maintain and construct. Can be put on litecoin if bitcoin difficulty skyrockets. Available today to rub yourself on.
Bad points: Low perf per watt, will likely not be profitable if you pay for elec for much longer. Problems with heat on larger farms. Not amazing perf for investment, but good minimum unit investments.

3) FPGA: Neither.
Good points: High perf per watt.... that's it.
Bad points: 0 resale if bitcoin goes poof, high investment price way above GPUs, large area needed for farms, complicated for farms, highest investment per hash. Stuck on 256. More complicated (in farms) than any other solution. Pretty hard to find used (decent price).
Note nelisky has a decent amount he is open to offers on.

My choice:
20GH share investment on an Avalon 3, China based.
1.5GH GPU upgrade for my gaming machine.
No FPGA. Considered it, but it doesn't make sense.

The 4th solution is to invest in one of these processing power pools by getting some shares - I forget their name.

[Turbor]

http://www.ztex.de/usb-fpga-1/usb-fpga-1.15y.e.html

[dogie]

http://www.ztex.de/usb-fpga-1/usb-fpga-1.15y.e.html

*http://shop.ztex.de/product_info.php?products_id=74&language=en

[Myrddindc]

Thanks, but this page is partly the reason I posted to ask. I had found these (google is good) but they are not in stock and not due in stock until april.

[Myrddindc]

I recently went through all the various options.

1) ASIC: The holy grail.
Good points: Highest perf per watt, lowest investment per hash, best density per hash.
Bad points: Limited availability, Expensive minimum investment, 0 resale value if bitcoin goes poof, if the hardware breaks then who knows.
Note pretty sure HorseRider still has some share units from his 50 unit order you could get in on.

2) GPU: A safer option.
Good points: High resale value which isn't linked to bitcoin, great support, great availability, easy to maintain and construct. Can be put on litecoin if bitcoin difficulty skyrockets. Available today to rub yourself on.
Bad points: Low perf per watt, will likely not be profitable if you pay for elec for much longer. Problems with heat on larger farms. Not amazing perf for investment, but good minimum unit investments.

3) FPGA: Neither.
Good points: High perf per watt.... that's it.
Bad points: 0 resale if bitcoin goes poof, high investment price way above GPUs, large area needed for farms, complicated for farms, highest investment per hash. Stuck on 256. More complicated (in farms) than any other solution. Pretty hard to find used (decent price).
Note nelisky has a decent amount he is open to offers on.

My choice:
20GH share investment on an Avalon 3, China based.
1.5GH GPU upgrade for my gaming machine.
No FPGA. Considered it, but it doesn't make sense.

The 4th solution is to invest in one of these processing power pools by getting some shares - I forget their name.

Thanks dogie,

I may look at what nelisky has and would be interested in the 20gh share of an avalon.

Great post!

Ta.

Myrddin.

[neoivan1987]

what about this product?

Nexys3 Spartan-6 FPGA Board


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CEQVV6/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=neo04-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B005CEQVV6&adid=09T5ZCGSEV4HP0AEFRWP&

I don´t know if we can use it for mining, i am a newbie too

[dogie]

what about this product?

Nexys3 Spartan-6 FPGA Board


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CEQVV6/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=neo04-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B005CEQVV6&adid=09T5ZCGSEV4HP0AEFRWP&

I don´t know if we can use it for mining, i am a newbie too

No, that's a teaching platform

[hm]

search "FPGA" at bitmit.net, there are some offers

[Entropy-uc]

I believe Enterpoint has plans to do more production runs, so you should check with them.  Yohan is their representative on the board.

I have been selling off my boards, but I pulled my offer after someone stepped in with a bid of 7 BTC / board for most of them.

If you are eager enough to match that number, we could talk.  :-)

[billotronic]

This is a real hard time to be looking at hardware. So many unknowns about the near and not so near future. Here is a mind melter, imagine that in light of ASIC's apparent sex appeal, there is secretly 4 independent makes of ASIC being developed with a goal of 2013-14 launch. Ever shop on deal extreme? Asian manufactures are SMART SMART SMART and who knows what could be going on.

Full disclosure, I am on the list for a bfl product like most others, but this is my first financial commitment to mining and my only. To much uncertainty to really go face first into anything.

Still, I feel your pain. Every whiff of sexy hardware makes my balls hurt.

[hardcore-fs]

go onto ebay buy some scrap FPGA boards

here is a set I have my eye on:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/140939400094?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

That gives you Two V5 with power supplies at about $70 each!!!

there is also some other  working "scrap" currently selling at about $30, which gives you a  V6.
Just needs ISE & a jtag adaptor.........

There is someone else in HK buying up all the cheap FPGA on Ebay as well........

[razorfishsl]

Lets just say as usual Hardcore is wide of the mark!!!!!!

If you actually check the link given.... you will see that one V5 is a 110T the other is a 50T

"Xilinx Virtex-5 XC5VLX110T XC5VLX50T"

You can get a double hashing core into the XC5VLX110T.
I have just finished research which gets the hashing rate upto 370MH/s per chip at a little over 10W per chip.(why?, because i'm bored)

As for the XC5VLX50T good luck with getting any decent hash rate out of that!!!!, because you would have to go with a nested core and not an unrolled one.

So actually if you buy that board, we can see from here:
http://tpbitcalc.appspot.com/

That at 200Mh/s which is a public bit file, you would need about 85 days to recover the cost, and since  Avalon and BFL(most probably)
will have dumped a shit load of ASICS in the next 3 months, it is unlikely you would see any decent return.


I myself have indeed been buying up FPGA's at stupid prices, but that is for a project on litecoin, but first I will mine bitcoin to recover the cost of the XC5VLX110T's.