You could approach 21 Inc, and see if they will be building anything larger than a "toaster miner". Supposedly they have really efficient chips, though it's not clear if they have built a miner or what. If you throw enough money at them, they might consider something besides "A miner in every cable box". This would reduce your electrical infrastructure costs, though probably still well outside the "Do it in my garage" plan.

Is your 6TH/1600W miner the Uranus miner of some kind?

This all really looks excellent. It makes me wonder why Bitmain skipped the option of adjustable voltage in the original S5 design. They would have the same insight into the chip that sidehack does. Maybe they just assumed that a massively adjustable power supply would materialize (i.e the whole 9v thing that evaporated).

This is almost certain to a positive increase in difficulty. It's probably going to feel like a "gut punch" based on the relative calm of the last few months. It's also possible that "ASIC Arms Race" will resume later this summer, which would be a real shame. While I'd like the next 3 months be like the last 3, I think that's not in the cards.

Just my rather dour outlook. 

I'll throw my hat in the ring as a 2nd round tester.

Does it help that I am a Rolla graduate from last century? 

Congratulations as well. I hope that Bitmain is willing/able to deliver chips at a reasonable price and volume.

I'll bet that any color PCB costs more over the common Green one, if it's even available from his favorite fab house.

Any chance that Miasma is an account that was sold? I've never understood the motivation for selling you account, which I vies as your "Bitcoin identity".

My view on a product like the BitFury bulb is that if you are interested in Bitcoin and mining, there several ways to mine more efficiently and at lower cost in the long term. If you aren't interested in Bitcoin (i.e. 95% of LED bulb buyers), then it will appear like a massively over-priced LED bulb (which it is), and never get purchased. If it is somehow subsidized to bring it into parity with a "regular" LED bulb, it likely won't get configured to actually do anything. If it somehow prices out OK, and requires no configuration, then it will almost certainly be doing mining on behalf of some "pool" associated with the vendor. At that point the "decentralize to secure the network" argument collapses.

I should probably just shut up about gadgets like this, though it might be fun to own one. 

KNC and a new Antminer (aka S7) will likely have an impact. The BitFury bulb is strictly s stunt in my opinion. I expect it will have zero impact on the difficulty this calendar year (probably ever).

It seems too that it's impossible to separate out the effects of the following items:

- Normal Bitcoin variance (i.e. statistical).
- Addition of new hardware, or removal of old/obsolete hardware (no longer profitable).
- Relocation of a mining facility. Hashrate is "disappears" while in transit, but then returns.
- A mining firm (e.g. cloud miner), just goes under and their hashrate disappears.

The relative stability in difficulty is also probably due to the large numbers involved. To seriously "move the needle" now requires multiple Petahashes. Even with "Super Deluxe 21 Inc." hardware that's no mean feat in terms of facilities creation and setup. There a fewer and fewer places where it's reasonable to even start such a facility. That was less true 18 months ago when BTC was $1000.

I think in many cases it's more of an education process rather than berating somebodies ethics. We've seen more than once an inquiry about Bitcoin mining with "free electricity". The poster may think it's free because they don't explicitly pay for it (e.g. dorm room, apartment, etc). This would even probably be fine if they were talking about running 3 USB sticks. It all becomes way different when somebody thinks "I'll just run 3 S5's and make some good money". They don't realize it's like turning on a hot plate or heater and leaving it on 24 hours per day. Virtually every situation where the electricity is included, there are also some non-obvious clauses on acceptable use. Even in commercial rentals, it's possible to run afoul of the landlord's feelings regarding a Bitcoin mining operation.

I completely agree that if you have a legitimate agreement that provides for "no additional cost" electricity, then all is good. You'll still likely find that there are limits on how much you can use, either contractually or infrastructure limited. Sometimes this education isn't always done so gently, but it still needs to happen.

Unfortunately, at the present time, there are very few non-scam, delivering hardware vendors. The only two that spring to mind are Bitmain and Avalon. While I love my SP20, Spondoolies has discontinued that product, and may or may not be selling to individuals in the future.

The primary benefit of a used miner is that there is rarely any hint that it's "New", and you know it exists. At least I haven't seen anybody to try and sell a "used pre-order machine".... 

Uh Oh, I may just have given BFL a new idea!

Hopefully some time prior to shipment! It seems to me that questions that involve "when" are better asked in the "Speculation" sub-forum where the premise (i.e. speculative guesses) are the norm.

In the world of Bitcoin, some common English words may have a different meaning:

New = May or may not have been run for weeks by the manufacturer. Probably owned by the manufacturer.

Used = Probably run for weeks after shipped by manufacturer, who ran it for weeks.

Per-Order = Early investor that thinks they are a customer.

Refund = Not completely clear this word exists (e.g BFL)

The S5 is a real device that exists and is NOT a scam.

There is a "Mining --> Hardware" sub-forum with lost of discussions regarding a variety of miners. You should probably read a bunch of stuff there.

I've made up for that by having my lucky PSU attached to my lucky SP20, AND I'm wearing my luck socks to boot! 

Seriously, though where did 20% of the hashrate go from Slush?

I am curious as to what motivates the question? Is this a hypothetical question, or are you really contemplating this? Part of my reason for asking is your Newbie label?

While I would always defer to sidehack electrical experience, it seems like it's just fraught with peril. One mistake and it would seem like you could seriously damage some valuable equipment.

Just my $.02.

How quiet are the platinum server PSU's? While I know they are reliable and efficient, I have this impression that they are usually quite noisy with the little whiny 40mm fans. I ask only because it would be a shame to get a relatively quiet miner coupled to a noisy PSU.

Maybe my impressions of a server PSU are just obsolete?

I think it's going to be an increase this time, though probably not as big as my guess. I'll take:

+2.76 - 3.00%

Thanks again Phil.

Depending on how handy you are with a soldering iron, you might be able to replace the PCIe power connectors. I think they can be difficult source. I did see one posting about a guy who just gave up on the PCIe connector and directly wired his PSU. He was way past warranty, and just wanted it to work. There is nothing "magic" about a PCIe connector, it's just a readily available connector on ATX class power supplies. You can improvise other things if you don't care about resale value and are willing to take care.

My thinking is that the PSU is the LAST place to skimp on money. In general it can be used in the future with new mining hardware, or for some other use. If it's a high quality PSU it will hold it's resale value way better than the mining hardware. Solid fitting PCIe connectors and 16AWG wire is a winning combination. I would also never push the PSU beyond 90% of it's rated load on an ongoing basis. Anytime anything is marginal with the "power supply chain" (i.e. PSU, AC input, connectors, and cables), you can fight all kinds of "gremlins". In my opinion saving money on the PSU is "penny wise, pound foolish".