Bitcoin Forum

Ok, it is final. I am getting a miner.  ;D

But now, I need to know which one I should get.  :P

I am getting the BFL Jalapeno (https://products.butterflylabs.com/homepage/5-gh-s-bitcoin-miner.html) or a USB Miner (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=231673.0).

Here are the pros and cons of each:

BFL:

Pros:

• 5Gh/s
• Only $275
• Same price as USB miner, more value

Cons:

• Arrives LOTS later
• Uses more power
• Not as space Efficient(compared to the USB
• Doesn't have share notification light

USB:

Pros:

• Space Efficient
• LED light
• Arrives day after I order it

Cons:

• Much less value
• You need to buy 50 unless you are in a group buy
• Fragile

Thanks for the advice!

Anyone that says 'You will not make a profit' is going to get removed.

If you're that picky, wait for someone to start making the K1 boards. I bet those will sell like hotcakes. Very similar to the Block Erupter, about the same 280-300MH/s, but uses Avalon chips instead of the ASICMiner chips, and is going to be a lot cheaper. Last I had heard, the prices were around 0.3BTC + the Avalon chip (which is less than 0.1BTC). You could have one for less than 0.4BTC. It won't get here tomorrow like the ASICMiner one, but it will prolly get here sooner than your Jalapeno (depending on how soon you expect BFL to catch up).

With those options, wait. Prices will drop. Other options will come available with a better return/ timeframe to delivery.

If your only options are BFL Jalapeno or a USB Miner , pick the USB Miner any day. Atleast you "know" when it will come. With BFL you are going to spend next 2 (or 3 or 4 or 5...) months F5 raping this board anxiously.

That's some choice!

If your PC can handle it, get a couple used Radeon 7970 graphic cards for about $300 each. That will give you about 1.4GH/s now.

(FYI, I have 2 7970 cards and also several ASIC USB miners.)

ps-if you're dead set on an ASIC device and willing to wait and gamble consider:

https://www.kncminer.com/products/saturn

Sound like turtle83 speaks with a voice of experience...

I'm sorry, but I'm not paying $200+ for 300MH/s. Not when the difficulty is this high.

Nopes, never ordered BFL. The only pre-order ive ever participated in is Avalon chips. With Avalon chips the anxiety is a lot lower than what it would be with BFL

Don't buy any miner. It's too late. You won't make your investment back no matter which one you buy unfortunately.

You can not "get" BFL miner. There are no BFL miners you can order today, you can only pre-order some which may (or may be not) shipped sometime in the autumn. Or maybe in the winter when there are less cooling problems.

My view is you are entering mining too late for this asic mining life cycle i.e. waits for version 2 Asics. All miners are currently over priced.  BFL product at best will be in 90 Days away – usb Block erupter is too expensive for only 330 MH. KNC group buy may be ok but is high risk.  I believe the right time to buy will be about November this year – bitcoin network hash rate will be around 1200 TH about 157,413,798 in difficulty and new generation miners should announced or prices of miners will be a lot lower.

You wish they were only 300$.

You need to wait.

Right now bitcoin mining is 'go big or go home'

There are a couple of exceptions to this:

1. Go BFL if you already have enough of an income from mining to be able to make a series of orders from now until BFL ships on a regular schedule (1 per week, 2 per month, etc...)
2. Go USB (be) If you need to replace existing gpus to kill your electric consumption, @2btc you recoup the costs from not paying electric bills quite quickly. And get to profit-take from gpu sales.
3. Go best mh/$/J If you just don't care and want to make fractions of a bitcoin as a very long term investment... then it doesn't really matter what you get assuming you never spend earnings for decades or longer.

In the case of #3 - it doesn't really matter when it's delivered only that it is - at some point delivered.

~

Personally I'd think long and hard about how much money I'd want to invest long term into mining, then setup a buy schedule. If you can devote enough fiat every month to place an order and do that indefinately - eventually you'll grow an income stream for yourself from all the mining hardware. If on the other hand you can't devote money over time in this way, you should probably just buy and hold bitcoin - then sell it later when it's worth more.

+1

...but ASICs v2 might still be months away then.

Actually, you can easily find used ones for less than $300 even $250 (check eBay or bitmit). Trouble is they use a lot of power compared to the ASIC options, so unless you have free electricity...

The Avalon guys have made lots of money -- they don't say much till they have a product --- would think they will announce asic V2 by November with delivery early 2014 . New asic need to be at least x 10 faster and  x 10 less power  to keep up with current network growth rate

also look at

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=209750.0

try and buy a device with a lot of green

but they could be high risk

Both are dead end in a couple of months. They are collectors novelty items.

Haha... yeah, and those in green also happen to be vaporware with the MOST risk due to the norm of delivering hardware late.  It's also going to be sad when a percentage of all those companies turn out to be scams and people lose their hard-earned money.  

Of course Metabank (top of list) only ships to Russia unless you go through a middle man which increases the cost and risk...

if terrahash can make the august time frame may be ok as the asic is avalon  it is a smaller risk--- but still some risk but I think less than the others

The Klondike timeframe of November is unrealistic. Sample chips are in EE's hands so the design will be tested shortly. And if samples have arrived, chips should follow in less than 6 weeks.