Bitcoin Forum

Hi everyone, I'm still new to this forum and want to know ur thoughts and opinions about the antminer s3.

Since I'm new here and didn't do mining before, but got all the info about it. For the pool, e-wallet, market etc too.

Do you think one antminers3 would be enough to participate in a efficient pool and about how much time it could take to get my money back in mining bitcoin with it, and if I may, if one wont be enough, could I trust some of the virtual calculator on some website ?

Thank you.

anyone ?

antminer s3 is too expensive now.

you can find much better options in stock :)

used hardware is also way to go.

i got farm of btc gardens and i love them
got some AM tubes too.
if you have good power price you can go into BE200 chip, if not, forget about mining until BTC goes up :)

i had get rid of dragons (1 left of plenty), ccdesks, s1

Ill be ok for one antminer s3 without loan...But Ill be more likely to farm litecoins cause too much people are on bitcoin now.

Is it possible with one s3, with pain and hard time, with a pool, to start something out of the shadow ?

You can get an Antminer S3+, just for shits and giggles, just for fun and educational purposes.

You will never ROI and make back the investment in fiat or BTC that you'll put into buying an S3+, PSU, and electrical costs a month.

But for fun, sure go for it.  Get an Ant S3+, a 550 W PSU or higher 80 Bronze rated minimum, either online wallet(Blockchain.info), or software wallet(Bitcoin Core or Armory), internet connection, and join a mining pool like Eligius, BTCGuild or Multipool.

You won't make your money back no matter what, but if you go in with that expectation already, Bitcoin mining can be fun with the tweaking and educational hobby aspect.

And for litecoins ?

Don't buy LTC anymore, it unpaired from BTC awhile ago(early June?).  Last I checked it was like sub $5.  Not worth mining any alts really, for the electrical costs.

Ok.

any other opinions ?

sure for opinions   I have lots.

but first a question what does power cost for you?

At 15 cents a kwatt mining must be very small scale as it will almost surely lose money.

At 10 cents a kwatt mining may make you some money.

At 7 or 8 cents mining should make some money for you. I some times sell gear here and on ebay. I like to help miner get started> I try to offer some setup instruction and sell good gear at good prices.

If I sold you an s-3 for .6 btc and mailed it on weds from New Jersey to Lets say ohio and you pay 10 cents a kwatt it might make money.

But the projections are at a 15% diff jump 10 cents a kwatt and a 480 usd btc price it will cost 288usd/.6btc and lose 104usd/.22 btc

5,57 ¢/kWh ( CAD )

 good   that is about 5 cents usd


 if you can get one for .6 btc   shipped to your house bt this friday or sat you should make money.


I get  you in the black if coins stay at 480 usd  and diff is 13%    that could happen.  If I got that power price instead of 15 cents usd I would be buying gear.
For ltc  let me do a gridseed blade calc for you.  If you get a gridseed blade at 100 usd and that is cheap you will most likely lose money if you only do ltc.

All my calcs are assuming you have psu's and do not have to buy them.

Allright thanks a lot dude :) Ask me any question you have in mind cause I'm serious about this project and will start in about 5-6 days :D  And yes i would greatly want to buy you some stuff to get equipped before the mass mailing of the s3.

Just under 0.06/CAD/kw/h is a really good price I would agree but insofar as actually turning any kind of profit with an S3 at current prices I would say your chances are slim to none.  I would second the earlier fella's suggestion of looking into purchasing used hardware as well if your hooked on the mining thing.  If profit is your motive then simple buy and hold would more likely suit you better.

S3s are still somewhat profitable when used in groups. Not so much single units. You can get 4 of them now for what it costs to get for a little more a 1Ths unit from a competitor. And with 4 you get roughly 1.8Ths. All things considered thats not too shabby.

All things considered unless your paying less per unit as a result of buying in bulk, if you aren't able to ROI with a single unit, you'll not ROI roughly the same amount with multiple units.

As far as what's out there though I agree with the not too shabby part (as far as what's available).  Personally I'm running two S3's which I purchased for 1.28 from bitmain directly.  I pay ~0.08/kw/h and I doubt I'll ever ROI (in a BTC sense) with them unless I find free electric somewhere.

Good miner.  But have taken a while to go from S3 to S3+.   Will be interesting on S3+ second batch price.

Single unit is still profitable, just find a really cheap power supply..

Even without factoring in the PSU an S3 will not ROI for the majority of people.  If difficulty didn't increase then it might, but people were getting used to 4% increases and the last 2 have been over 15%.  You can't compete with large companies who make the miners themselves.

Thank you everyone.

I like my two S3's... I also like my 4 S1's.  F ROI I mine for mining.

Expensive hobby

Not really, spend more on golf I do.

Have to agree. Golf has cost me more $$$ than any of my mining!  :P

I'd rather go with 3 S1's rather than 1 S3.

You are right airpline1, anyway I chosen Hashlet instead.

It all depends on the price of electric in the area where you live. 3 S1s definitely make more noise too

Not if you undervolt them.

Undervolt = less mining.

It may be better to undervolt them to get lower wattage and temps.

You mine for bitcoin right ? If ur undervolt, ok less wattage and less temp but...less bitcoin too.

Anyway, like I always suggest here, go to gawminer, no worry about that and ur worker always work for 24h/24