There's a response from Spondoolies about this on their "official thread" in this same forum. That thread is pretty quiet now, so you won't have to go too far back to find it.

I don't recall the details, but my general impression is that there was no compelling reason to change to 2.7.1. It doesn't sound like it had much testing, and that it was "honest to God, last one".

Please write back here if you come to a different conclusion.

One additional comment. I am pretty sure that the CFM rating of a fan is "in free air" (i.e. without restriction). It wouldn't surprise me if the actual air flow through a miner was way less than the number of fans and CFM rating would suggest. The inside of a miner usually imposes serious restrictions (e.g. the S5).

I think it will be at least as important to make sure the cold and hot air goes the way you want. Air should always follow the path of least resistance, and if there is a way for your cool air to get to the exhaust fan without passing through the miner, you won't get the desired result. I think it's pretty easy to create "dead spots" in terms of air flow, and a miner sitting there. I think well directed and balanced air flow is more important than the total number of CFM.

I am not an HVAC guy, so take this as a simple guys opinion.

While a "not high priced" SFARDS dual-miner would be interesting, I don't think it's in the cards. While I don't think there is definitive word on the miner, we do have some insight beyond the rumored $129 figure. In the "Group Buy" sub-forum, there  an expected sale of chips next month. The quoted figure is $1199 for 40 chips (i.e. $30/chip). Either the dualminer member is trying to make a killing (getting them for say $5/chip), or SFARDS has a fairly high price on the chip. I think SFARDS really thinks this is a unique/premium chip and wants a premium price.

I think they will be proven wrong, and that there is a miniscule market for a $1000+ Dual Miner at the present time. Of course maybe they are hoping for a big jump in BTC/LTC price.

Supposedly we'll have more real info from Bitmain on the rumored S7, by the end of this month. At the present, it's all speculative on a successor to the S5 in terms of specifications, date, and price.

There may be a an actual price on the SFARDS mining hardware next month. Expect it to be high priced.

I wouldn't hold my breath on anything from KNC in terms of mining hardware for purchase. They claim to have 16nm hardware, but there's no verification.

Spondoolies has been pretty quiet.

There may actually be more details next month when things supposedly ship. You would think that somebody who is actually buying something would know the price. Maybe they would be willing to say what the price was.

If you are seriously thinking of a "4-chip" pod, do you want to adjust the poll at the top, or start a 2nd one?

If you go down the "4-chip pod" path, then it's right smack in the middle of the U3 space. While I don't own a U3, what I read makes it sound horribly unreliable, and difficult to get stable. Is it BM1382, and that part of the problem, or what?

My Rbox-little was very stable with a good power supply (i.e. not a 12V brick). It's only drawback was that it was close to 1W/GH at the wall. Once I got 3 working well with my Raspberry Model B (not B+ nor Pi2), it literally ran for 6 months without intervention. it was plenty quiet as well.

While it's obviously your business to do with as you see fit, it would seem that perhaps for the first two weeks after you open your order queue, you put a limit on of say 50 sticks. I expect that are many dozens of folks, myself included that will want to purchase a couple. At some level it would make more sense for you to sell out as a dozen large orders, it would be kinda unfortunate.

Another option would be kinda the opposite of a bulk discount, a bulk premium price. The 1st 20 are at whatever X prices is. The next 20 are at 1.5X, and the next 50 are at 1.75X (or something).

Just some thoughts from a really small time miner that would like not to miss out on a couple.

So sad when a good conspiracy theory gets busted by something more mundane (i.e. facts).  

It would seem that this "timing" or "gaming" of the hash rate can't work long term. Somebody (e.g. SFARDS or 21 Inc) decides to start mining, then either the network grows as a result, or somebody else has to "make room". Seems kinda like OPEC, and then a new oil producing country decides to join in.

I think they are actually researchers. Each transaction really only has a small amount of BTC, and then they ship it back to the originating wallet (or something very similar). Nobody is "spending" or "exchange" Bitcoin, it's essentially a "Wallet to Wallet" test.

This sounds a lot like the "Original R-box". That was a roughly a 4" cube with a fan sitting on top. It had 4 chips under the heatsink, and think they were BE200 ASIC's. This was roughly 32GH and maybe 40W at the wall with a 12V brick. I expect that the "New R-box" was essentially a different board with the equivalent set of parts from three of the "Original R-box".

It's kinda too bad that Rockminer re-used the name the way they did.

I would have thought that at roughly $116 million, 21 Inc. would have the distinction of "Best Funded Miner", no?

Probably best if you take this to an AltCoin centric forum, rather than a Bitcoin centric forum.

EXACTLY!!! Folks with "free power" need to start in a small/modest way to see what else goes along with mining, as well as finding out how much of the "free" power they can actually use.

You probably should get a real number for electricity costs. "Average" really doesn't tell anybody much, and if you actually have $250K to spend, do some due diligence, and figure out what you are willing to do (e.g. move to another state/country, rent/build a suitable space, etc). Just dropping a message here isn't likely to get actually started in a useful way.

If you have no mining experience, then start with a single S5, and see what it's like to set it up, how it behave, how loud it is, how hot it runs, and so forth, That'll set you back a tiny fraction of your bundle. The you can decide what makes sense when you multiply that by 400 for example. Can/will you undertake most of the work, or do you need to contract it out?

There are so many ways to spend $250K on Bitcoin mining, the advice will be all over the map, literally, and perhaps wildly inaccurate for you and personal situation. A dollar figure and the phrase "Go big or go home" isn't really much of a business plan. Also figure the extent to which you can have your $250K "investment" and have turn into a $200K wild goose chase, and the impact on your life.

Just my opinion. 

I'll get right on that, SIR!!!   

While I am at it, would you like me to adjust your weather or electricity price?

Besides price, it would be good to inquire about noise. Given it's size, and the quietness of the 4.1 miner, I would expect it to be a complete non-issue. Nevertheless it wouldn't hurt to ask.

When I can buy one, I'll try it on a Raspberry Pi. I have a very low tolerance for zadig difficulties.

I expect it should be pretty straightforward. Prior to my SP20, I was running a single Pi with 3 of the older R-boxes (the little 4" cubes), and some U2's. I am comfortable enough with Linux, that I expect I can do it.

In case this is new to other folks, I found this website that seems pretty relevant here. I haven't tried to verify it's accuracy, and the projected value does seem high, if I am reading it right. Nevertheless, it seems live a worthwhile addition:

http://nextdifficulty.com/

I kinda liked the little graph, cause it clearly shows the last 7 days, which has a definite upward trend.