Leaving aside the BM1384 Bitcoin ASIC, is there anything that makes the R1 superior to most other Wifi bridge device, such as:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UAKCS6?keywords=iogear%20wifi%20bridge&qid=1445405932&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Is it important to "register" my small donation using the .alhdonation suffix? While it was only 1+ TH for a little more than 2 hours, I thought I would ask. It seems that the CK pool software recognized and recorded info for it.

Mostly the camaraderie....

And of course the hot babes that are anxious to meet men with "Compac Sticks"!  

P.S. Don't tell my wife about the latter!!!

Group buys carry some risk. Pre-orders carry risk. Put the two together, and the probability of failure just goes too high for me. I been in a couple and the best outcome was a small profit, only because we were able to sell the hardware to somebody else at a profit.

Actually to be accurate, Bitmain did sell many (a 1000?) of BM1384 chips directly to sidehack (Gecko Science). So far Bitmain hasn't sold him any BM1385 parts (unless they have, and he can't comment because of NDA). He didn't seriously consider any of the Spondoolies chips as I understand it for a variety of reasons.

While you are shopping, you might try down-clocking to see if that allows it better tolerate the PSU voltage issue.

As I read the announcement, it was .87 BTC per miner. This is for a re-order, so take that for what it's worth. If they actually were to deliver 3TH for .87 BTC, that would be massive "shot across the bow" at Bitmain. The S7 is priced at well over 3x that. I didn't see any other details, but it would really upend S7 sales if true, and on time.

As I understand it, the Bitmain miners had the following ASIC chips:

BM1380 = S1/S2
BM1382 = S3/S4/U3 (maybe S4+?)
BM1384 = S5/S5+ (Also GeckoScience Compac stick miner).
BM1385 = S7

There were also the Dragon miners with Insilicon A1 parts.

Where did the BabyJet's originate from? Where those also KNC?

I don't know how you would begin to get an accurate count. I also think there were additional Spondoolies products beyond those you listed.

I also don't know where the bitFury ASIC's fit into the picture or the miners they showed up in.

Did you folks with 3.0 Kg orders also have Power supplies? There are reports that Bitmain will ship PSU's in advance of the miner itself.

I would think 3.0 Kg as being "light" for the miner.

So is the "surprise?" mentioned in the title, a small or negative difficulty change? 

What did you know Philip, and when did you know it? 

While interesting, the discussion of what price your friend's S5 units will fetch isn't really relevant. While an S5+ looks and kinda sounds like it's three S5's that are bolted together, that isn't accurate. each third of an S5+ has three hashing boards( the regular S5 has two), and there are many more chips on the S5+ boards, each dissipating less power than on an S5 board.

Similar name, but not really all that similar when you look into them (i.e. S5 -vs S5+).

If you had purchased $400 of BTC on September 21st, you would be "money ahead" in terms of dollars. You would almost certainly be ahead of a "Cloud Mining" service as well.The last 30 days have been kind to "Buy and Hold" kind of folks. 

The "21 Bitcoin Computer" is literally the following components (mostly):

- Raspberry Pi 2 Model B (Quad core, 1G Ram, etc)
- 128GB MicroSD card
- A power supply
- A 21Inc special ASIC mining board that sits atop the Raspberry Pi, and includes some kind of shroud with what looks like a small 4mm fan. This board almost certainly powers the Raspberry Pi and is driven via the GPIO pins on Pi.
- Their special software that allows it connect with their servers.

21Inc. makes no specific claim for it as a miner. Should be shipped in about a month. Look it up on Amazon for purchase details and a link to the details associated with what you are buying.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014RD021C?keywords=21%20bitcoin%20computer&qid=1444879515&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

You decide from that if you want it. Looks like you won't be required to buy with BTC, but can us a CC. If they don't ship, I'd expect you'll get a full refund.

Just to be picky, if sidehack built a BM1385 based miner, it might more likely be an S7- . Based on what we have seen, I think we all know what an S7+ will look like (i.e. a lot like an S5+).

 

Do you have any M600 or 600M stickers on the hash boards themselves? I think Bitmain is now better screening these boards and applying stickers to "really good" boards.

One small advantage to a single PSU is the "sequencing upon startup" is resolved. Two PSU's require some additional fiddling, some of the time, which wouldn't exist with a single PSU.

How much that's worth is individual choice.

Since I am a complete noob on PacMic, do the prices reflect an "all in" price for a GH? Does the price include runtime costs as well as equipment costs? If the prices are "all in", then the price/GH should be virtually identical, shouldn't they?

Maybe folks expect that an S7 GH will have greater long term value, than an S5 GH (i.e. better resale vale)?

Is there any good reason to have miners with the <blah>donation suffix? I am not tracking on the value of that distinctions. The current/new payout plan really doesn't seem to care.

I assume you still want <blah>stick as the suffix for member <blah> ?

I'll add my 1.2TH for the next 3 hours, just to help out Phil a wee bit.

Best of luck on this adventure. It seems a lot like when the Indiana legislature wanted define the value of Pi to make math easier, decades ago.