Bitcoin Forum

Is ASIC like a dedicated server which you can buy and then use online to mine or it is actually hardware that is actually shipped to your address which then you can use to mine?

An ASIC is a chip -- a physical hunk of silicon with metal and wires attached. An ASIC miner is a device containing one or more ASICs that mine. Frequently, people write "ASIC" when they are referring to an ASIC miner.

When you buy a miner, it is generally sent to you and you connect it to your computer, but there are "hosting" services that will put your miner in their data center and you can access it remotely, and there are "cloud" services that install and run their miners and sell you shares of the revenue.

If you just want buy online GH/s....see my sig ;)

ASIC stands for application specific integrated circuit. There are plenty of ASICs that have absolutely nothing to do with bitcoins.

Can we all stop spamming affiliate links already? I'd rather beg for money on a streetcorner...

What's the ROI on ASIC?
I was looking at some websites which tells you how quickly you will recover cost and it looked like I will be doing break even in 5, 6 months. Is this for real? I mean if you can recover your investment in 5, 6 months then shouldn't every one be doing this?
Plus those countries where electricity is free have quite and advantage in case of ASICs.

ASIC = http://runningshoes6.webs.com/Asics%20Running%20Shoes2.jpg

Generally people ship them to their homes but I guess if you work in a datacenter there is no law saying you can't have your ASICs shipped there. 

Serious note the only ASICs you should be buying should look like the photo above.  If you had to ask the question in the OP, buying any other ASIC is likely going to end with you losing a lot of money/coins/sleep/wives.

If you have nothing to contribute then don't bother replying.
This is a newbie forum and I asked a newbie question. Someone has to start from somewhere. I am pretty sure you didn't know about ASIC the day you were born so you learned it some day.

ASIC is either a chip that is made to do a certian job, or those shoes posted earlier.
In this case the ASIC chip is speciallized in doing sha-256 algorithm, so its nearly if not useless to do any other task.
You can buy them online from companies like BFL(they suck), hashfast etc, try google "Asic bitcoin miner". You can also buy online hosting services, where you pay x amount of dollar for x amount of gH/s for a year or ½. But they are often expensive at a price 10$/gH/s/year.

I would say you should wait some month for the $/gH/s to drop, as more and more 26nm chip manufactores comes out on the market.

I wouldn't recommend buying any ASIC as it's rare to make a return on your investment, especially today with mining difficulty being so high.

I'd recommend spending the money you'd intend on spending on a chip on buying Bitcoins straight up.

IF the difficulty stays the same then yes. But difficulty increasing about +30% every two weeks retarget last few months. It means you will mine -30% every next two weeks