The rating is for DC power delivered.  The supply itself consumes power as unavoidable losses, and the wall power is the sum of the two.

When I bought my Batch #2 Avalon, the delivery was estimated for mid March, and the earnings were projected to be $16,000 the first month.  My wife has Alzheimer's, that anticipated money played a large role in my plans;  I have a personal familiarity with the failed hopes surrounding Avalon.

If the continuing negative posts discourage everyone else from entering the contest, I stand to win the contest as the only entrant, but it is dishonorable for me to pursue that approach and I ask you not to bash Avalon in this thread.  With a lot of free chips, I can sell miners that will make break-even for my customers.  If I fail to win, I still have the design.  I have done a previous DIY microprocessor design.  I did it without asking anyone what they would want it to do.  This time I thought I would ask first.

You have the option to be so angry with Avalon that you wouldn't take a life jacket from them if you were drowning.  I think my karate training tells me to approach every attack with an empty mind, and to find where it gives the advantage to me.

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Again, if you could ask for certain things in a design based on a small number of chips, what would it be?

WiFi?
LAN?
USB?

Fan or No moving parts?

Separate assemblies for chip and voltage regulator, to allow stacking?

Daughter board for TP-Link 703n style controller, or custom CPU & system?

I bought the b2 module as damaged, not working, for BTC 2.5.  It has 5 of 8 sub-assemblies working.   Two capacitors and almost all chips in the first sub-assembly are destroyed, and the 1st plug on the header strip seems to be dead.

I don't actually have a sensor in place.  I need to know the connector part number that connects it to the controller, or find a vendor.  I bought an AC desk fan and have it plugged in, and I am hashing at 256 MHz, to avoid overheating.

I am prepared to put my own time into a design.  It is entirely at my own risk.  This thread is an opportunity for people to say what they would like.  The design concepts can be carried to other chips, and are not Avalon specific.

Do you want a small, 1 chip, affordable unit?
Do you want the units to be expandable?
Do you think the ability to directly mine bitcoins is valuable, in case it becomes very difficult to buy them?

If I do make a successful design, you will not be buying from Avalon, but from me. 

Where can I order some already made up?

I did not consider the extra temp sensor requirements either.  The fans won't spin up without them.  It turns out that the wires go into a glob of silicone on the heat sink.

I used the 850 for several weeks, on --avalon-auto.  The frequency stabilized about 355.  It drew about 1030 W from the wall.  I recently replaced it with an ocz zx 1250 and now it only draws 1000 W.  This power supply is a little taller when installed, and the mounting screw for the top plate above the power supply won't fit.  The phrase "whisper quiet" really fits this power supply.

No one knows the future.  Some investors may liquidate their mining farm when it is only making 20% annualized ROI, or people may move end-of-profitable equipment to mine Bytecoin.  I figure I can sell the OCZ for a good price on eBay a year from now.  It also gets -20°F here, so the waste heat has monetary value.  I almost held onto my BTC for HashFast or that startup in Austin, but I thought having a nice, upscale 4 module batch 4 would be cool.  Or FinCEN may start busting unregistered miners next week.

I pretty much agree with you about the LE focus.  However, I don't see an explanation for the DDoS attacks on Mt. Gox & bitfloor the week before bitfloor got notification from their bank and Mt. Gox ran into complications with USD transfers.  Was there a 3rd DDoS attack in early April?

Perhaps they would like for an exchange to be legal and operational. 

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=253861.msg2703403#msg2703403

I have configured one machine as a 3 module Batch #2 unit with a 4th module from batch #3 and a custom ribbon cable.  It has been operational this way for weeks.
I bought Luke Stokes's Batch #3 case, controller, and TP-Link, and 1 damaged module, then bought a batch #2 PDU and controller, and I am running it with an external fan and partial capability on the damaged module.

This week, I bought a Batch #2 upgrade module.  When it and the temperature sensors arrive, I will have a 4 module all Avalon batch #2 machine, and a Frankenstein batch #3 machine.

It isn't their MO.  Their MO is what they did on SR.  The logged in as a user under cover, they copied the whole thing so they could analyze it in their own lab, and when they were ready they seized the site.  There was never a defacement & inconvenience phase.

DDoS on exchanges may be in their MO, as evidenced by a cluster of (DDoS, bank account closings, and legal action, calendar time) against unlicensed BTC exchanges.

I haven't audited the pin-outs.  I do note that one of the voltages is 0.9 V, and I assume that can be handled rather easily with the specification of a few resistors in a voltage divider.  Is there a pin with a deeper incompatibility?

Burnin has done an outstanding job, and it would be very satisfying if he won the chips.

However, there must be at least 3 ways that his, or anyone's, design concept could be improved. 

Several people have done this.

I have applied to be a participant, and I have been accepted.  This puts me into a conflict of interest situation if I trash talk Avalon and actively discourage other entrants.  So again, please, stay on topic in this thread.

Avalon has announced a design contest.

The timeline is very compressed.  I thought this would be a good place to gather any thoughts that potential customers have for design elements, and any comments that other designers / contestants have to make.

The break-even time matters as well.  More cool features cost design delay and component cost.  A URL for a pre-populated calculator might help the designers decide whether to push an adequate design out now, or spend more time cutting costs.

The only design element that is fixed is the 55 nm Avalon ASIC chip.  Everything else is designer's discretion.

This is a self-moderated thread.  Please stay civil and on topic.

The chip is specified as 1 GH/s @ 2.05 W with 128 Hash units on the chip.

I have not noticed any pricing information.  You might want to submit a URL for a profit calculator that will suggest the time to break even that you consider realistic.

Yes, there, at BTC 4.2.

I am assuming that the 55 nm chips will directly replace the 110 nm chips, at significantly less power draw and significantly more hashing power.  I don't know if it is feasible to swap the chips out on the existing miners,
but that is influencing my decision. 

This calculator says I will not make breakeven.   I don't really know what parameters are realistic to put into it.

I bought a 4th module for my Batch #2 Avalon yesterday.  I have a DHL tracking number at this time.

Auctions have a paradox.  Items that have a lower starting bid fetch higher prices.  He started too high.  He should have started with no minimum bid.

I signed up.

Thunderstorm with hail & lightening.