1% difficulty increase is a non-starter. Even with the very low diff increases since around turn of the year the AVERAGE has been close to 1.6% so far this year, and the last month that's been ramping up and seems like to STAY ramped up some for a while due to deployment of "next gen miners". I've been using 2% for my recent estimates on ROI and even THAT might be a bit on the low side for the rest of this year.

 This miner might sell for $3000 as specified (Lketc does have a decent track record on that) if it's available in the next month or two, but IMO it would be better priced for a reasonable chance at ROI at $2499 WITH SHIPPING if available by the end of August, then drop that at least 5% per month after that.

 The .2GH/W figure seems a bit iffy though, given Innosilicon is only CLAIMING a 60% lower power draw over the A1 in their post. VERY nice if it actually happens and seems to be possible though given the process (half the process size as a general rule should yield ballpark 4x lower power draw at the same clock, though somewhat less in recent years as semiconductor process technology has entered the realm of quantum effects being significant).

 Lketc has been around long enough and has delivered enough on it's claims that I'm willing to say this is probably a "waiting on chips to hit production" preannouncement and NOT a scam. I'm mostly just waiting to see (1) what the price ends up being to the end user, (2) what the specs and price on the S7 ends up being, and (3) when this stuff finally hits end-user sales.



 I would anticipate a few years for the current "in the works" tech to try to ROI, as BitCoin ASIC in this generation catches up with the "leading edge" of semiconductor tech in general, and given that the pace of semiconductor tech generations is slowing down noticeably due to increasing quantum-level issues. We're still a few generations away from "one electron = flip the gate" but that light IS visible at the end of the silicon tunnel.....

If the S5+ is real (it's still being debated in the actual S5 thread), it's well within published specs for the BM1384 chip itself.

 If it IS real, my main worry about the thing would be heat dissipation - they packed the small heatsinks in so tight there's very little room for airflow, the "outlet" end is going to run a LOT hotter than the "inlet" end (kind of like the SP20 but a LOT worse).

 I also find the form factor odd, and it's going to have issues clearing customs at the posted pricing.

 RoI on the thing is .... NOT likely, too expensive and NOT enough more efficient than a S5 to be viable much past late July of next year when the next Bitcoin block reward halving is currently estimated to happen.


 Would have made a LOT more sense to run 2x20 strings per board instead of 3x16 IMO, MUCH more efficient and a lot more likely to hit ROI despite the lower hash rate due to the MUCH greater efficiency.


 Personally, I'm waiting for the S7 and machines based on the Innosilicon A3 before I even consider buying any more miner hardware.

The Molex spec on the CONNECTOR commonly used for PCI-E 6-pin connectons states 8 amps per contact. 3 contacts for +12v = 24 amps = 288 watts per connector (the ground connectors carries the SAME current as a different part of the same circuit, so you can't count those into the total).

 190 watts per connector is actually fairly conservative based on the CONNECTOR specs.

 The PCI-E spec is actually INCREDIBLY conservative on usage of the connectors for both the 6-pin (75 watts) and the 8-pin (150 watts) varients.

 The PCI-E 8 pin connectors have the SAME limit as the 6 pin, as they STILL only use 3 pins for +12 - the extra 2 pins are BOTH ground, which IMO is just dumb.


 300 watts per connector like SOME miners needed (certain melt stuff fire-hazard KnC designs come immediately to mind) is stupid.



 The actual contacts used in those connectors are specified at 11 amps max, but that's an open-air rating and has to be derated when used in a multi-pin connector due to heat retention of the connector itself unless you WANT to melt the connector and end up probably shorting stuff out.



 I don't think "most" folks run an S5 on 2 PCI-E connectors - you pushing their limits hard stock clock, and OVERSTRESSING them if you overclock significantly with a SERIOUS risk of failure. You're be seeing a lot more "KnC Neptune / Titan" meltdown type complaints if this idea was common. Also, MOST power supply PCI-E cables aren't designed to handle that load per wire which would be a common issue even if NOT overclocking.


 The curved fin heat sinks aren't significantly IF ANY more efficient than a straight blade design with the same fin thickness in the same overall depth. A "tapered fin" design is MORE efficient than either, due to better heat conduction at the base evening out the heat transfer along the length of the fin - that's the design my one "oddball" recent used S5 has, and probably cools better despite the actual fin length being a hair shorter than the older "curved fin" design.


 If this thing is real, I'd STILL be worried about the heat dissipation - the airflow through the unit is NOT a good setup, though it appears that the heatsinks on the hashing chips themselves are bigger than most of these pictures suggest.

Be nice if everyone would report the spam from this "Marcy" - they appear to be spamming enough to have hit "Senior Member" level in post in an amazing under 1 day JUST spamming every thread all over.

Bitcoin core, when I can - keeping the bloody thing updated is a pain with my current internet setup though. Once I move, I should have this one up all the time (for P2Pool use) with a second "cold storage" address to dump into at least daily and spend from.

 Electrum the rest of the time.

Innosilicon doesn't seem inclined to go into the farming business.
There is still hope!

I make a serious effort to work against the scammers before hand by duing due dilligance investigation BEFORE I buy from someone.

 It's the ONLY cure!

Caffiene.

 When I'm in pain, my prescription Naproxin and/or Ibuprofin can help some.

 I would anticipate the S7 finally being retailed within a week of Bitmain selling out their last used S5. Possibly up to a week before, more likely the same or next day, possibly as much as a week later.

 The only way I could be more certain that the S7 is in production would be to see operating S7s in the Hashnest farm or in Bitmain's manufacturing place in person - they've got to be replacing those used S5s with SOMETHING after all.

 A Spondoolies SP20E can achieve the same efficiency as this unit claims, which is noticeably better that the S5.
 The new Sfards unit can achieve even better by a bit, though the reliability of that unit is looking distinctly "early Gridseed".

 Is there a reason you insist on selling these in a no-rack-mount configuration despite their rackmount unit sizing? Would make more sense to sell them as individual S5-sized units, NOT as triples.

 The price is WAY too high to ever be able to ROI on the unit, unless the rate of difficulty increases drops to under half of this years "so far" rate, or bitcoin value kicks up a LOT.

 The "cooling" design is a sad joke, the airflow is way too constricted and passes over WAY too many heatsinks to work worth anything for the last couple rows of chips in the air flow path. "push pull" fans do NOT double the airflow, the ONLY thing they do is reduce the back pressure allowing a SMALL flow rate increase.


 These comments assume that the unit is actual, not just a good photoshop job scam or a picture of a prototype concept that is a REAL BAD IDEA at best. <edit> just saw Bitmain confirm the unit is real, which doesn't affect my other comments.
 0.45 efficiency is not enough to make this unit viable for a significant length of time IF AT ALL past the block reward halving next summer, any more than the S5.

 If you wanted to make a unit that WAS viable past the halving, run 20 chips per chain not 16. That would unleash the REAL efficiency potential of the BM1384 and might actually rival the NEXT GEN units that are on the way from Bitmain and Innosilicon (I discount BitFury and KnC as neither sell to end users any more).

Hmmm, given that the site this 3-wide so-called S5+ is comming from is NOT bitmain's site, I'm even MORE inclined to take this thing as either vaporware or a straight-up scam.

 The last end-view pic with no fans just makes me wince - the chips towards the end of the board WILL overheat badly, the airflow through this unit would be a nighmare at best (think SP20/SP20E second row chips run hotter multiplied by about a factor of 10).

 I'm starting to think "nuclear meltdown" after all.

If the SFARDS units were in a reaonable $600-$800 price range, they'd be ROIable. That's why we're interested. On the other hand, we really should be discussing that in THAT thread....

Do you have "Time of Day" rate available to you?

 It might make it possible for you to continue to home mine, on a part-time basis, for somewhat longer.

 Bitcoin Core, which I keep updated.


 Never heard of either, probably because I don't pay Apple inflated pricing and have no interest in anything that runs Android.


 Given how long I've SEEN it take for confirmations sometimes, wherever that "math" came from appears to have at least one seriously flawed assumption involved.

Isn't this sort of how the Avalon and Prism projects got started?

 8-)

I have one miner with cgminer 4.9.0 - it hashes noticeably slower than the others with 4.8.0 at the same clock.

 Newer is NOT always better.

 Not technically true for Innosilicon, but seems to be true of all the others.
 Might be why Innosilicon seems to be about the only Bitcoin or Litecoin ASIC folks that never did preorders.

Saw it over there, but just now got to thinking about heat dissipation.

 No bloody WAY those tiny heat sinks are going to keep a BM1384 running at .75 volts (3 chains of 16 per board is the ONLY viable option that fits the board setup, 2 chains of 24 is below the BM1384 minimum voltage spec, 4 chains of 12 is WAY over) cool, expecially with that many clustered that close together.

 The "3 PCI-E connectors per board" part of the picture fits in with that scenario, which comes down to LESS heat sink area total than on the S5, trying to dissipate about 40% more power.



 Not quite a Nuclear Meltdown scenario, or an Intel Pentium original generation that couldn't run 75 Mhz due to heat issues, but.....

With chained power, more chips per chain = lower voltage = more efficient.

 Nope, not yet. "soon". I'm guessing a month or so, however long it takes them to move out most-to-all of their existing S5 units in their farm.