Not to mention depending on dorm some have horrible walls where you can hear your neighbors.  So if any sound's I could see some being mad during certain times like studying for test or final week.

I honestly would say send it home and mine it and pay your parents for electricity.  The last thing I wanted to do in my dorm's or apartments during college was have the sound around me or heat.   You pay a small fortune to be there... so making a little bit from 1 S3 is not worth it.

They do start them up on all I think.  Some get a "burn-in" where they truly run them but I don't think all miners get this.  Some get quick test and shipped.    Others could be in data center for a while if batch does not sell quick.

It's kinda funny now talking about no QC running them not long enough, as a year ago most would be talking about miners being used to long on "burn-in's".

The S4 will get you around 2T.  So take times to that is 1200 dollars for around 4T.  So for not much money you can get a S7.

I think 1 is a great idea though gives you experience and testing of area, without chance of a ton of them sitting there not mining due to unforeseen problems.

Almost looks a little like art or a boarder with so many quotes, think that is the most I have seen like that.  Looks nice I think.

And I am an example of someone who thought they would be smart and wait close to end.... and forgot .  So I wont be wrong this week... but wont be right.  Price is 416.... with this difficulty ouch is all I have to say.

Also if your within 90 day's of purchase make sure to make a ticket for help.   If within warranty chances are send it in and they send one out (assuming warranty is in-tact).

If after 90 day's I would email them and ask for cost.  The S7 is new enough getting another board I would think would make sense as long as it's not high priced.

I would think a 30 amp pdu could handle the 1400 watt x 3 pretty easy.  I know I had around 4800 watt's I believe on mine and still had amps to go with 30 amp pdu.

But of-course you need a 30 amp 240 breaker in there as-well. (Or that is how I'm setup at least).

I had a power outage.  The good new's is the S7 seemed to handle it great.  No issues from turning off in not the greatest way, and it booted up and worked fine after power was on.

So it get's some point's for being reliable which is important.

Price is not fun to lose around 15 dollars or so today so far.  Hopefully we see it bounce up a little it seems at 440 it's kinda slowing down on the downswing, but that could be temporary.

I'm just not happy to see a near 20 change again this week. Bitwisdom right now:
Bitcoin Difficulty:    93,448,670,796
Estimated Next Difficulty:    103,833,243,660 (+11.11%)
Adjust time:    After 870 Blocks, About 5.6 days
Hashrate(?):    716,281,040 GH/s

I think it's the most financially responsible.  Being a new miner it sounds like even 1-2 will be a good test of your location.  You can test sound, you learn about electricity possibly.  A lot have went to 220/240 as it can run server PSU's with the extra power and it can save a lot of money vs ATX psu's.

But jumping to 10 of these...  you are talking multiple 220/240 lines, PDU's, it is winter so it's easier but cooling and in summer it's much harder, there is just a lot of a learning curve.  And if you have miners sitting there not mining when you figure it out will kill your ROI depending how long they sit there.    I had trouble with a PDU recently and locally they cost a ton, so I ordered a extra PDU to have.  So I think you will find parts you want to have around with a operation like that.  So again learning curve.

Do you mean blockchain.info?   If so no that is not the best your making a paper wallet for a hot wallet... so it kinda defeats the paper wallet part on security.  It allows you to import it into another wallet if needed.  But you don't have that cold security.

So I highly suggest not getting a paper wallet there if your wanting a true paper wallet, with cold storage.

There is not 1 "ant miner" they have a good amount of different miners.  From old S1 to the newest gen S7.  So you cannot say how much "ant miners" cost without knowing OP's electricity cost and what model.

OP do you have an area sound will not be a issue?  Do you have a situation where you can get/run 220/240?   Or do you need to stick to 110/120?  Also what is your electricity cost?

Those answers will help some.

I hate this thread keeps coming up.  A bitcoin union will not and can not ever work.

On this we would need a great deal of miners in same area and on same power company.  This is not realistic for all miners to be on same.  The data center's that use ton's of power.... tend to go to places with good deals on electricity.     So the places where lots of usage is happening... they already have good rates.

You won't find many in this thread hit up the hardware sales thread.  Also be careful when you list that you will buy 2 there are sadly a decent amount of scammers.  Use escrow if it's needed it can save you from being scammed.

Or ebay has a pretty constant supply of miners on it.  Just tend to be higher on there then forums.

Most manufactures are pretty cautious on operation temperature.    A lot can be pushed much harder and some data centers have done it.   I have not heard anyone putting the Avalon 6 in a stress test though.

Experienced my first problem so pretty good considering a month and like 4 day's of running.  I had a power outage and it seems the RPI picked up both but did not mine on both.   So I can't really blame the miner as it was a power outage.  So for that to be only problem I've had in this amount of time I still consider it to truly be a solid miner.

So he offered to sell it via the US office?  What was price they gave?

I'm surprised but that could be a good surprise if some are able to truly order from them. Them taking paypal is kinda a shocker if true.   That is pretty reversible, which BTC and Wire Transfer (after being processed) should not be.

I don't know about that.  I have a 2 RPI's in my mining area with pretty cold winter air and they are not effected on my Avalon's I run off of them.   I would look and see if there is another possible cause.

I could just be lucky but cold does not seem to effect my RPI's.  (Granted high 30-40's F is coldest it's gotten so nothing to crazy yet on winter).

Those 4 hour's kinda kinda kill most miners as far as running during them.  A quick ROI on S7 B8 I think you could leave running and it will just make very very little but a few difficulty changes might change that.

Your best bet would be scheduling the miner to shut down during that 4 hour period.  I would suggest making sure off hours are right (include taxes and fees), as that to peak is just such a big jump.   I'm surprised at pretty good price going to insane high.

Honestly you might try starting slow if your new to mining.  Get 3-4 and run fewer at first.  It will give you a lot more confidence and also test the area out.   Jumping straight to 10 in a hobby miner setting from none is a decent jump.

If any problems I would rather not have 10 miners setting there not mining.  Or even half if for unseen problem.  Starting smaller and growing honestly is more safe route.  When you talk about 120 that worries me as you are looking at like the 400 dollar EVGA instead of a nice server PSU, or Bitmain PSU running on 220/240.

Also I don't think SP will be interested in selling one at a time, at least at first on SP50.  I see them going for bulk sales, which your right data centers could be the customers they are looking for.  I also think NDA's will keep info on SP50 slow to come out, but hope I'm wrong on that.

OP what is your electricity price? In many cases the gear will last longer then it makes sense to mine it with.  You might be surprised but you might end up selling them after mining a while.  After that you sell to free/very cheap electricity people.

Only thing is a lot of those coming soon we have seen no working prototype (that I know of).  It seems some companies announced very early, and they are slow to come out with products.

I think Bitmain will keep current as long as possible.  The more chips/miners they pump out and can sell the higher profit (most likely) they are able to reach.   They are good that they seem to always sell to home customers/hobby customers, which some companies have no interest in selling to.  I see a lot of the first miners no matter which one being internal or big bulk customers, then going to smaller customers (and some stop at bulk).

I think it is a race to a point.  But there has to be a company that sells to home/hobby customers that has a new chip to really push them. If a company has a chip that is better, and does not sell to smaller miners it does not really push bitmain smaller sales.