Alright, that's pretty cool, but why do that instead of making a little Rpi rig? Besides that I'd be tough to get a Rpi.

I'm not getting my FPGA probably until months from now. Getting a Rpi should be a lot easier by that time.

What is MPBM, and why shouldn't I use an ARM device?

I doubt even a jailbroken Itouch would ever have mining software made for it.

It's still a good idea, but I planned on getting a Rpi anyway. So I just thought it would be cool to incorporate both of my projects into one.

I'm not big on the whole "code" side of things, but I guess i'll have to if I want to do this project . I commend you for taking initiative, Matthew. I'll be keeping an eye our for your posts.

I will also be keeping an eye out for this new FPGA you speak about. Thank you!

I've come to the conclusion that next month (for my birthday) i'm going to order a butterfly labs single. I am a tad bit confused on how it works though.

First of all, it needs to be plugged into an existing computer correct? So not only would you have to deduct the cost of power from the single itself, but the computer that is running as well.  Knowing this, would it be worth setting up a super low power rig to hook the single up to? This got me thinking about using the Raspberry Pi as a host for a single. After a little searching I did find a similar post https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=55532.0;all, but I couldn't figure out if it was just ideas being thrown around hopelessly, or if mining on the Rpi is a possibility.

So far what I noted is that you would need

1.An FPGA (butterfly labs single)
2.A raspberry pi model B
3.A powered hub (to power the single)
4.A debian ARM based operating system that can mine bitcoins

The only problem I can see is obviously with the operating system. Would the current linux miners work in an ARM environment? Or would new software have to be developed?

In the end, with the proper equipment, would running 1 butterfly labs single on a Rpi ever work?

I'm sorry, when I edited my post I didn't think about this. My original post said 2k per year. A quarter of that for one year would be $500 after power bill and blah blah blah. The calculator I was using was set to $10 per bitcoin as default and I didn't catch that until after I posted.

I know block values are being halved, and that actually raises a question of mine. Since bitcoins would be harder to get after the halving, would they go up in price? If so this would obviously mean that I should buy the single now and start mining, and then sell when the blocks are halved.

I'm sold on the Butterfly single! If bitcoin calculator is correct, you can get 1k USD a year from running a single.

Even if I made a quarter of that i'd still be content. So this thing works just by plugging it in to an existing computer and using the software? Doesn't use any extra resources other than that right?

edit:The calculator I used was set to $10 per BTC, for the sake of accuracy in todays market I halved the amount in order to bring it to $5 per BTC.

You're right, I completely over thought that. I blame it on lack of sleep 

Damn, so no one would want to buy them once bitmining stops.

What would be really helpful is if somebody knew if the money you saved on power over the course of using the butterfly box is MORE than what you would get if you sold your GPUs. You know what i'm sayin'?

If the money I can save with the low power solution is more than what I would get for selling my used GPUs after everything is said and done. Than obviously the low power solution would be the way to go regardless if you were stuck with it after mining stops.

Calculating this though would be a major pain in the ass. It also wouldn't be completely accurate considering you would have to predict when bitcoin mining becomes unprofitable, and how much bitcoins would be worth.

I suppose this is where the real "risky investment" comes into play. Do I choose option A, or option B?

I'm not entirely sure on the price per kwh where I live, but I think if GPU's would be easier to resell once profit dies down then that would be the way to go regardless of electricity price.

But since the butterfly labs use such low low power, they would turn profit much longer than a gpu rig. Bitcoins value would have to crash very very low for the butterfly to not turn profit still.

My only concern with the butterfly boxes is that they won't have any uses when bitcoin mining DOES become unprofitable. When that does happen what would it be good for? At least with GPU mining you can sell the GPUs and make some of that money back.

That's good news! I hope the butterfly labs singles ship soon so I can read up on whether it'd be better to get one of those.

I'm thinking about building a mining rig and upgrading it every few months until all my PCIe slots are full, but I do have some concerns before I order parts.

Is it worth building a mining rig  when the butterfly labs singles are going to start shipping soon? If so, I have one more question

 Is a 16x gpu running in a 1x slot (via a 1x To 16x cable) still capable of the same hash per second that it normally would? (in a x16 slot)
   a. Even in crossfire with other cards?