The only people who got rich during the California gold rush were the ones selling the picks.  Miners all ended up far worse than they were before they arrived.

All my balances are as they were.  I didn't have much activity in the missing five days so no harm to me as far as I can tell.  Already had a few borrowers and bond issuers pay within a few hours of reopening.

Long time member, user number in the low 8000's.  I, too, was more-than-annoyed by the lack of public updates.  Should have sent out mass emails with updates and announcement that they were open again.  Users shouldn't have had to request updates individually.  A mass update would have been less work than responding to a tons of support tickets all asking the same question.

Thunder doesn't strike poles  

Something to remember about surge protectors;  the protection rating is accumulative, not a single jolt.  Tiny everyday spikes will slowly chip away at a surge protector's electronics.  Look for ones that have a "protected" indicator.  They will continue to act as a power strip when the protection is gone but will likely not save your stuff from a nasty jolt.  Look it up yourself - Search "surge protector lifespan."  That time will be less if the power grid in your area isn't clean/stable.

Two or three fans shouldn't matter as long as the pocket of warm air is removed.  There is directed airflow in a closed case.  Open-air frames need more help to push the cloud of warm air away.  A few 120 or 140mm fans mounted nearby should be enough.  My single rig has a linear fan blowing across the whole GPU area so each individual fan is sucking in fresh air.

I Did BURST for a while back in 2016-2018.  Had as much as 80TB across a few rigs.  The build was nice concept - GPUs mining their coins and hard drive's going their thing.

Internal bickering brought down BURST.  Factions had their disagreements that devolved into each scamming the community on their way out.  Wallet was very well done, even had a built-in messaging system and on-line marketplace.  Unfortunately, the marketplace was entirely begging and investment scams.

Made a fair amount of BTC flipping BURST - buying/selling/repeat within a satoshi difference on Polonix.  Could have been done on any coin with enough volume.

I decommissioned the drives long ago.  Few, if any, places to sell BURST.  Most exchanges de-listed BURST after all the infighting.

ASICs being announced now are already running and the pending shitstorm is already baked into the network hashrate.  Units for sale are just a few extras manufacturers don't want to host.  I've been hearing "GPU mining is dead" since 2015.

Most practical choice is the Downton Abbey Blu-Ray steelbook set with souvenir coffee mug.

Should mention these are rated for 1200watts on 220/240v and only 900watts on 110/120v lines.
I have had several over the years.  My last was connected to a 255v feed for over a year with no issues.  Very durable and compact little buggers.

whywefight
Please take a second look at feedback you recently left on my account.  I see the three-year-old post you had referenced; it has been deleted.  That was my first post on Bitcointalk.  I was new to crypto in Feb 2016 - naive -and the post was suggested by a faucet.  I have not promoted crap like that since nor would I now.  Again, the post has been deleted.

I realize there's a complex Butthurt form but it's unnecessary in this case.  We appreciate your efforts keeping the community safe.  Thank you.

I earned my money back on my Z9-Mini within three weeks.
Bought it with LTC and mined on Mining Pool Hub, auto-exchanging back to LTC.  LTC now isn't worth as much in fiat as it was then ($160/LTC) but I did earn back my initial investment, coin-for-coin.  Of course being lucky with a first batch helped.  Anyone ordering a short time later was S.O.L.  Not saying the manufacturer is greatawesomewonderful (I think their marketing practices are borderline criminal), rather highlighting alternative thinking in regards to return on capital.  Mining returns need not always be measured in USDollars.

I can confirm that Windows wallet v3.3.4 works.  Simply replaced the EXE in my folder file and claimed a stake within 30 seconds of relaunching the wallet.    Waiting for confirmations.
Three minutes open and I have 27 connections.  Only averaged 15-17 on 3.3.3.

Thank you, Gentlemen.

Backed-up the wallet file and wiped out the Downloaded Files folder.  Downloaded the whole chain again.  So now I'm up-to-date and available to stake but it's still isn't.  I used to see several stakes a day.  As of now I haven't staked since December 4th.  Was working just fine two weeks ago.  I have to restart the wallet (exit, reopen) every few hours in order to stay up to date.

I cannot sync with the network either.  Out-of-date blocks is nearly 17000 at this point.  I can connect to 15 other users yet watch the out-of-date blocks tick up every minute.  Everything was working fine and staking until the fork.
Downloaded v3.3.3 and deleted the Peers.dat file.  UPnP is checked and it shows as active on my router's UPnP list.  Are there additional ports I need to open?  I had to manually do so when BitBean updated a few months back.

Only thing I haven't tried is starting fresh with v3.3.3 from a wallet backup.  Don't want to wait a day re-downloading the chain if I can avoid it.  Any suggestions would be welcomed.  Thanks.

I have a Batch 1 Z9Mini running at 718 frequency (15.6KH @ 335W).  Maybe I can go higher, haven't tried.  Fan noise is fine even outside a supression box I made of pine and plush carpeting.

What benefits might I see with this firmware?  Voltage tuning?  Finally be able to run on Nicehash?
You say it's a basic mod with no Dev fee.  Just weighing benefits and risk.  Thanks for your help.

I saw a return of capital investment several weeks ago by luck.  Paid for a unit with LTC when it was over 160USD a coin; about 11.5LTC all in.  LTC dropped like a rock to 60USD while waiting for the pre-order.  I figure the best way to judge a return on capital is to auto-exchange the output for the coin spent.  The one little Mini has been averaging .25LTC a day on MiningPoolHub using 330watts (OCed to 15,500 sol/s).  Has generated about 18LTC to date.  I'm still short as of USD but I'd be hurting anyway if I just held (HEDL?) the LTC.  Now I have a profit, coin-for-coin.

.25LTC a day on 330watts?  Eat your heart out, L3++.  Almost like buying Biakal Minis before the Dash price explosion of early 2017.

I think Nelly had a song a while back about the woes in dealing with high temperatures in his mining rooms.  He's quite the forward thinking as it was strangely written before the advent of Bitcoin.

Just gonna say this and leave the thread - those are terrible pictures.  Terrible.  Awful.  Bad.  Boooo!
(as a show of support I will now contribute to the discussion.)
Find another algo that runs cooler.  Or do hashing the old fashion way with pencil and paper, before CPUs dominated the network
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3dqhixzGVo

I'll break even this week.
I paid for my miner with LTC when it was still north of 160USD a coin.  Been mining on Mining Pool Hub with auto-exchange back to LTC.  I'm less than a coin away from my LTC balance being equal to what I paid.  I figure another coin and a half to cover power and customs fees and I'm square.  Made some side cash on the $250 Bitmain coupons as well.

Yes, the value of the miner's output is still a long ways off from the USD purchase price but I would still be out that value had I HODL the LTC.  Here the miner has replenished the bounty used to purchase it.  I just wish I had ordered a few hours earlier to be one of those who got a unit three weeks before everyone else.