I think what makes this edition "Special" is it's price. Beyond that, the specs look virtually unchanged from the Non-special versions that were produced 6 months ago.

This isn't a complaint, it just a recognition that this is more "Marketing" than "Technical" in nature.

You might want to "open" up the file and see what's inside. I don't mean try and install it, but within a file named like <blah>.tar.gz there can actually be multiple files. While it might be a stretch to hope for, many companies will include a TXT with info about what's changed and possible installation info.

You can't count on Bitmain to do that, but it won't hurt to look inside.

If you are a Windows centric person, 7-Zip can help out.

Start by reading the half dozen other threads that are similar in nature in this forum. Picking a target income level is probably a poor way to approach this "hobby" (IMHO).

So, 7.35 BTC/month (30 day month). Does the "earned 0.245 BTC per day" include the running costs (e.g. electricity and cooling)?

Using those figures, OP would need roughly 13600 S9's to produce 5000 BTC/month. Anybody have an idea on how many S9's have been sold by Bitmain already?

And don't forget that every month your BTC income (NOT profit) will likely decline by about 4%, possibly more. This is called the difficulty adjustment.

I usually use the "Bitcoin Calculator" on bitcoinwisdom.com, and start filling in numbers for prices and stuff. You can get accurate values for cost, and electricity usage, and running costs. The other questions you need to ask yourself:

1) Can I stand the heat generated? It's like a 1500W heater running full blast 24 hours per day. I have no idea where you live.

2) Can you stand the noise? Think hair-dryer running 24 hours per day.

3) Will the environment remain under 90F where it's running?

The biggest unknown, besides possible breakdown, is the difficulty change that will happen over the next year. Assuming a value of 0 (i.e. No difficulty change) would be foolhardy. I can assure you that difficulty will increase over the next year. I would not be surprised if it's 50% higher (or more) 12 months from now.

I would encourage you to read the S9 thread in the "Hardware" sub-forum. Yes, it's long, and there is some useless stuff in there. It is also a way better view than a smattering of YouTube videos (IMHO).

Is there anything available to elaborate on this? Is this from a private contact, or something more visible to the community at large?

$.03/KWh is a very good price. Do you have a reliable Internet connection, and a way to keep things cool? Also does it matter if you have a device that is loud and you can run it 24 hours per day?

You might well be able to make a small profit if all of the above are true, and can afford the initial investment.

+5.2 = alh

Thanks again for doing this Phil!!!

While I do I hope the A7 does come to fruition, I think it's important to remember that NOBODY has paid for an A7 yet. Any "deadlines" are/were completely speculative as far as I know.

Could you elaborate on the reason for a "Cloud Mining" recommendation? If it's to make money, then your goal will almost certainly NOT be met. If you just want to spend money, and participate in Bitcoin, there are a variety of ways to do that. The may not be any more profitable.

Otherwise, I would suggest that you spend you money on something else.

You initial statement suggest that you already know the answers you'll get, so why ask the question?

The "Next Difficulty" website paints an even darker picture +11% (range of +8 to +18) using their algorithm and numbers. The BTC price is also still holding in the range of $600-$610. No major changes on the price front for weeks, isn't it?

http://www.nextdifficulty.com/

Could you perhaps elaborate a bit on this?

With regard +5V for the GPU, I am about 99% certain that it does NOT come through the PCIe connector. My recollection is that the PCIe connector has NO +5v power pin on it. This is why you will regularly see PCIe USB cards which have a supplemental power connector (e.g. a 4-pin Molex) on them. That's to supply the required +5v that's needed on the USB connector. When you look at the pinout for PCIe socket, you'll see +12V and +3.3V, but no +5V.

Yes, I was completely flabbergasted when I heard that there is no +5V on the PCIe socket specification. I thought the guy telling me that pulling my leg.

Never married, or no longer married? 

(Don't know if the above should include a smiley face, or a frowny one)

+4.3 = alh

Offers that look too good to be true, usually are just that (i.e. NOT true).

Nobody earns 1BTC/week with no risk and or no investment.

I think it might be more accurate to think of it like:

Current S7's get replaced, and then sold to a current S5/SP20 owner (NOT scrapped).

The new S7 owner then sells their S5/SP20 to a current S3 owner. The S5 does NOT get scrapped.

The previous S3 owner might scrap their machine, though they might also sell it to a current S1 owner. The S1 does get scrapped.

This isn't meant to be a precise sequence, but a different way to look at. It might be more accurate to think of the S9 as replacing S3's or even S1's. In that case, the disparity of the S9 to what is actually getting scrapped (e.g. an S3) is huge. This overall sequence obviously includes other vendors gear (e.g. Spondoolies, InoSilicon, Avalon, etc).

Obviously hash rate is being "destroyed" more slowly that it's being "created". So in aggregate it looks like a "new " farm, but isn't actually a new physical installation.

Assuming the title is accurate, it is an S5+, not just a plain S5. As I recall that is the "Triple wide S5" package with different boards and a heatsink setup more like the S7 and S9.

While it was a smidge more efficient than the original S5, it's still too costly to run at $.09/KWh.

Just like like the SP20 and original S5, the S5+ is a "cheap electricity only" class of miner at the current BTC price.

With all due respect, I must disagree with the view of GPU's being competition for Bitmain. Using a GPU to mine a different coin, which is then exchanged for BTC isn't really the same thing as buying a Bitcoin miner. Yes it may be a cheaper way to acquire BTC, mining another coin and exchanging does nothing in terms of the network, difficulty, and the like.

To some extent folks that might have spent their money on a Bitmain product, maybe it has a tiny impact. If there was a wholesale rush to mine-XXX/exchange, folks with actual BTC mining hardware might benefit from a long term stability or reduction in difficulty. The value proposition also is at the whim of the exchange rate, and longevity of the the XXX coin. I always wonder what happens to all those XXX coins that are exchanged for BTC. Who gets "stuck" with them?

Besides, Bitmain doesn't seem to have any difficulty selling their miners at the price they want, regardless of what folks do with their actual fiat money (e.g buying a GPU based system).