Bitcoin Forum

Single
Cost of 1 unit = $599 @ 832 megahash/s @ 80 w/h
Cost of electricity per 1 unit per year = 700,800 watts or 700.8 kilowatts x 0.055 cents(price of electricity) = $38.544
Cost of operating 120 units or 100 gh/s x 38.544 = $4,632.69
Production Goal = 100,000 mh/s or 100 gh/s
Profits per 1 year based on 120 units or 100 gh/s = $127,239.312500

Cost of machine per megahash = $599/832 mh/s = 0.71 cents per mh/s

In conclusion. Lower cost of 1 unit(and total units) and lower electrical usage per 1 unit(and overall) per year. Higher cost of operating 120 units at $4,632.69.

RigBox
Cost of 1 unit = $29,890 @ 50,400 megahash/s @ 2500 w/h
Cost of electricity per 1 unit per year = 21,900,000 watts or 21,900 kilowatts(or 21.9 megawatts) x 0.055 cents(price of electricity) = $1,204.5
Cost of operating 2 units or 100.8 gh/s x 1,204.5 = $2,409
Production Goal = 100,000 mh/s or 100 gh/s
Profits per 1 year based on 2 units or 100 gh/s = $127,239.312500

Cost of machine per megahash = $29,890/50,400 mh/s = 0.59 cents per mh/s

In conclusion. Higher cost of 1 unit and higher electrical usage per 1 unit per year. Lower cost of operating 2 units at $2,409.


WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK ABOUT ALL OF THIS?

Production Goal = 1 th/s or 1,000 gh/s or 1,000,000 mh/s
Profits per 1 year =1,272,393.125000 (remains the same for either units)

Single
1,000,000 mh/s /832 mh/s = 1,201 units required top produce 1 th/s
Cost of electricity per year per 1,201 units = $38.544 x 1,201 units = $46,291.344
Cost of units = 1,201 units x $599 = $719,399

Conclusion. Higher cost of energy. Higher cost of units.

Rig Box
1,000,000 mh/s /50,400 mh/s = 19 units
Cost of electricity per year per 19 units = $1,204.5 x 19 units = $22,885.5
Cost of units = 19 units x $29,890 = $567,910

Conclusion. Lower cost of energy. Lower cost of units.


Cost of units: 1,201 units of Single would cost $151,489 more.
Cost of electricity: 1,201 units of Single would cost $23,406 more per year.

I initially thought that the RigBox was the clear cut winner between the two, but apparently there is only very little difference between the two when you do the math.

The Single is definitely cheap to start off with at $599 and only costing you about $38 in electricity per year, but once you require more and more processing power then the price of the units and overall energy costs goes up substantially.

The RigBox seems expensive at first at $29,890 per unit and costing $1,204 in electricity costs per year, but it's alot like buying processing power in bulk. In the end you save on the overall price of the units AND the overall energy costs.

So it's up to you which one you choose.

Production Goal = 10 th/s or 10,000 gh/s or 10,000,000 mh/s
Profits per 1 year =$12,723,931.000000 (remains the same for either units)

Single
10,000,000 mh/s /832 mh/s = 12,019 units required top produce 10 th/s
Cost of electricity per year per 12,019 units = $38.544 x 1,201 units = $463,269
Cost of units = 12,019 units x $599 = $7,199,381

Conclusion. Higher cost of energy. Higher cost of units.

Rig Box
10,000,000 mh/s /50,400 mh/s = 198 units
Cost of electricity per year per 198 units = $1,204.5 x 19 units = $238,988
Cost of units = 198 units x $29,890 = $5,918,220



Cost of units = Single would cost $1,281,161 more.
Cost of electricity = Single costs $224,281 more per year.

I bet the rig-box doesn't exist and when it will exist, the specs will be completely different.

lollll it's already around

where?

The issue you have here is that the risk involved due to hardware failure, coupled with the last of supplies and production that the manufacture has making a RMA a bit of an issue, could go poof in a second.

I personally if given the opportunity, would go with the singles because of their point of failure. There is a much higher chance that you may lose a whole rigbox due to a catastrophic event. In the case of the solos, you would only risk the solo unit in the catastrophic event.

There are other variables here you also need to consider.
Is your electrical at a fixed rate or do you pay via a tier? you will cross a user threshold or two.
Do you think either a Solo or Rigbox would last longer?
Can you even obtain the units?
The units do generate heat. It needs to go somewhere.

What you should really do is write up a spread sheet and two fact documents, one doc for every proposal. Then measure every potential risk you can see, and calculate the cost of remedy. That is how to mine. Then choose the least risky if any.

There is a 6 month warranty on both units, so no problem there.

My electrical rates are fixed for 5 years.

I already told BFL that I'm planning on using liquid cooling and they think it's a great idea. They even sent me what the 3rd revision looks like.

I can obtain the units whenever I feel like.

Fairly sure I don't need to calculate anything further.

The rig box is still a hypothetical device, not built yet, and not tested.

Not according to the manufacturer.

True that the singles offer much better insurance to your investment, but the difference lies in the outlay of cash for equivalent performance and space usage. Having 121 units might seem nice but considering that you will have to wire all 121 units to a untold number of hubs and those hubs will have to be plugged into more hubs so on and forth until you get all the units in as few usb ports as you can so you can ideally control them all from a single computer can you imagine all the cables? not counting where you going to stack all those 121 units? 1 or 2 might look cute and unobtrusive but 121 will take a lot of space when you consider the power cables that you will have to plug on all those units. And like I mentioned about the cash outlay since I was told by the company that they don't do multi-unit discount.... 121 x 599 =  $72,479 while 2 Rig units will cost $59,780 or $12,699 less and with that money you can other an extra 21 of the singles and add another 17,472MH/s increasing your total output to 118,272MH/s vs 100,672MH/s for the same money.

Of course the main advantage to the singles would be gradual buildup, if you can't put out 30/60K down on a sucker like the Rig the singles are the way to go since you can spread the pain over time :) Of course you will pay more for them in the end but that is the price of not being able to afford the big guns :p hehe

LOL you don't have to connect every single to a USB port... you can daisy chain up to 100 units together.

I would go with a rig box if I could.

No, you are wrong. You can daisy chain hubs, but not singles.

What risks I see:

• Price per KW/H might rise within the year
• Price per Bitcoin might fall
• When exchanging Bitcoins for other currencies, there are fees you should take into consideration
• I can sense that traditional payment providers will continue the fight against Bitcoin which might make it harder to trade large quantites of Bitcoins
• And of course the risk that Bitcoin is something new and because of that, there is a risk of failing. Although I wouldn't want this and hope it never happens, there are possibilities it might.
• The profit (in bitcoins) of mining is expected to halve soon. If the price per Bitcoins does not double then your total profit gets down

I would go with single ones which I believe will be easier to get rid of when you want to stop mining. Plus what is mentioned above about the single point of failure.

I just ordered a SINGLE and planning to order more after testing the one.
I have a couple of questions:

what is a daisy chain?

do I need a dedicated PC with the SINGLE like with GPU's?


 

"Usage & chaining behavior:

Plug in the USB cable to a host computer and run the supplied software.  Additional BitForce singles can be added to the chain via a USB hub for linear performance multiplication with no overhead cost.  Each additional unit is auto-configured and folded into the workforce without any user intervention required"

http://www.butterflylabs.com/product-details/

He is still using his imaginary 5.5 cent per kWh I see.  
Also assumes 50 BTC per block which is obviously not true.
Should include host cost and hubs (as well as wattage).

Still a lot better than the math fail of the first attempt.

Not sure how this conclusion is reached though

Thanks boconniff40.

I read a lot about BTC, most of the posts,  but only now I decided to mine and ordered a Single BFL just to start.

I would like to understand if I need a dedicated PC with the SINGLE and/or the Rig Box like with GPU's?
if not can I use the PC for web browsing during mining?
if I need a dedicated PC, a laptop could be OK being the units connected via USB?

Any help would be appreciated.

it has to be "dedicated" as in you need to have it on all the time you want it mining since the boxes are not self sufficient, but you can do whatever you want on it while mining, unlike with a gpu you can play games without the hashing speed decreasing. Or you can do the same thing using a dd-wrt e-3000 router https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=76685.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=76685.0) this is quite nice and I might be doing this for when I get my singles.