SFARDS: Results of “Speaking IMHO”- The Best Miner is…Contest [Update 26/5/2015]

[intron]

Try to operate the ASICs in a 'string' like the bitfury chips,
and then get rid of the DC/DC converters.

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[sambiohazard]

IMHO the best miner is the one that preserves the very basis on which whole community & industry is dependent.

A miner should thus have following parts/functionality:

1. A full node embedded in it that can be turned on/off or programmed to use certain amount of bandwidth/data (yes, not all people have unlimited bandwidth). This will support the network.

2. A miner that allows user simple options to set it at different power consumption levels e.g. 100W, 125W, 150W instead of dealing in GH/s. This will allow novoice miners to make a choice based on their ability to spend on power. Also, for seasoned miners most important stat for making decision is power consumption. So instead of seeing hash rate, if we can see power consumption & ROI in $/day on a LCD display, then it will be much better.

3. Miner should come by default configured to run on p2pool so that anyone who wants to mine for supporting the network can just plug & play the miner. Even better if miner s/w can determine nearest p2pool node based on IP address(Yes, i want unicorns!! )

4. Miner software should allow to configure miner/full node to run until certain conditions are met, e.g. run until power bill for today is $X or Bandwidth usage is X MB. This will allow customers to make decisions w/o monitoring things all day.

5. You can create a line of miners with each one targeting specific group.
   i) For Home miners & bitcoin believers - 50 to 200GH/s or 25 to 100W miners
   ii) For individual investor - 300 to 1500 GH/s or 150W to 1000W miners
   iii) For industrial miners above 2TH/s

I want more unicorns but you might be short on supply so this should suffice for now

If you like my idea, my address is in my sig.

EDIT: My LTC addy: LT2N1oqmrGy1Cd5bDSDZxFHizLzamjtueN
         My DOGE addy: DTMfFPxD6QB7LduEPMT7hyoaqSmX5FKSgs

Regards

Sam

[dunand]

-Silent
-water coolable

[klondike_bar]

The 'ideal' unit would be something small enough for home use, but large enough that it could be used in larger farms profitably. This is best seen as:


1) 1500-5000GH/unit
2) $400-1500/unit
3) external (user-provided) power supply, hopefully drawing less than 250W/PCIe connector
4) rack-mount dimensions (2U-4U) and stackable. Half-depth would be a smart way to keep the unit small but remain rackmountable.
5) fans that are less than 70dB. That should make it reasonable for home use (at least in a spare bedroom or basement). This means ideally 120mm or 140mm fans only.

6) string design for chips - this is >10% more efficienct
7) design the webUI similarly to what spondoolies-tech built (very detailed settings, stats, logging, scheduling, etc)
design the ability to modify BOTH the voltage AND frequency, as well as the fan settings if possible. this allows wider range of users to run it at peak or in quieter modes.

9) basic outer case. put the power and ethernet connections on the same side, use a basic sheet metal enclosure. 2-4 leds is sufficienct, anything more becomes 'too blinky'. something like the SP3x design is ideal.
10) consider a small screen that can readout hashrate and/or IP address.


MY 'DO-NOT' LIST:
1) fans <80mm are loud
2) miners <1500GH mean buyers end up with a huge stack of units. dont build anything with <$400 MSRP
3) miners >40 pounds (~16kg) can be a bit heavy to move around
4) miners that act as nightlights. all i want is a singlular LED that is lit solid in normal operation and isnt blinding.


-Klondike

[philipma1957]

My first entry moved from here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=985400.msg11343009#msg11343009

D8jxCiXXCPn1fzE3vzywTf9DhPWEv4gtB3  = Doge


LMUmaAu2i194Vod4Pr8j3KDBXQ2zTVtiJb = LTC



My entry is as follows:

The ability to scale the miner's watts per gh  rather then flat line  watts per gh , IS really important.

I want a miner that has a huge freq range and a huge volt setting range.
This allows for maximum flexibility for every miner using it.
Cooling and fan speeds need to be able to scale wide. Thus a quiet highly efficient miner is one and the same with a loud high hashing power hungry miner.   Just depends on what you need for your setup you get to set it the way you need it to be.

 Lastly  the gui should have 4 or more pools not 3 or less pools. With balanced option or rollover option.

[DebitMe]

Something I was trying to get out of Bitmain's U3, and that I think is very practical and could be very useful for home miners is making it into a heater that can be placed throughout your house.  I have an apartment and my windows are terribly inefficient, so I wanted to place the little U3 units two or three to a window sill to fight back some of the cold, the problem was that they needed to be plugged into a computer via USB, and I could never get them running (still can't), so it was kind of a bust.

But, there is an opportunity to make a good product like this.  Make it stand alone so it doesn't need to be plugged into a computer, and make it connect to WiFi so that it doesn't need to be plugged into a router or switch.  You could even make different sizes, like a 1 chip, 5 chip, etc... model, so you could choose how much heat you wanted given off.  Also a 1 chip model would probably need a smaller power cord, which would be less noticeable if your trying to hide them, then it could scale up from there.  Also, it would be neat to put suction cups or something on them so they could stick to windows and be off of the window sill. Just makes it easier to hide them from view.  I would also like something on the end of the miner that you could swivel or adjust that would blow the exhaust one way or another.  For instance, I could angle the exhaust to the left or right instead of straight out the back.

To be able to down clock the miner with a dial of sorts would be very nice.  So for hotter days all I would need to do is turn the dial and the miner would use less power and give off less heat.  It would also be very practical to have a web UI that would detect all miners on my network where I could easily under clock the units for the whole household at once.

I hope you like my idea, I have gone through the last 2 winters without having to run my heater at all by using mining units, and have saved/made money doing it.  This works great for a smaller apartment, but household wide solutions should be the next step.  Noise can be somewhat of an issue too, so remember that most people will pay a little higher price for a better/quieter fan.

Bitcoin: 1GX8hnuuRLfmh3Do8LHMHmENjXDBNUxu1v
Dogecoin: DNAF93Kv2JDC5iTiuCCCbRWeje4TRnNcQ3
Litecoin: LMU7TtpZ9VT9o13GzrkqFsS3grmPP1NDi7

[klondike_bar]

Lastly  the gui should have 4 or more pools not 3 or less pools. With balanced option or rollover option.

a smart gui will have 'n+1' or 'n+2' available pool slots, with 'n' being the number of pools already filled in. most users will only have 2 pools setup, but some advanced users might like the option of 4+ pools, as well as the ability to do load-sharing between them

[helipotte]

A miner that is also an air conditioner.  One that puts out cold air.

IS this possible?

[HerbPean]

I would like to have a home miner that can perform and be quiet at the same time. Not asking perfectly quiet, but at least a unit doesn't required to buy other fans or modification to his original case. Better be putting quality fan and maybe one more then the minimum required.

Also easily stackable.

Thanks ! 

[philipma1957]

my second entry is for

 My controversial design: moved from here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=985400.msg11343104#msg11343104


Would be a  miner that is designed as a usb hub miner but it has 4gb of storage that you can access and program the miner's gui to mine plug n play.

This would mean it would automatically mine in any pc 's usb that you plug it into as long as the pc has an internet connection.  The twister would be it works for 1 hour then turns off for 1 hour.
 So that sipping too much juice from the owner of the pc would be prevented. Kind of a do not be greedy governor.


My doge address is D8jxCiXXCPn1fzE3vzywTf9DhPWEv4gtB3

My Ltc address is LMUmaAu2i194Vod4Pr8j3KDBXQ2zTVtiJb

I am still thinking on the most original design.

[DebitMe]

Most controversial entry:

A miner that will be happy outside.  Probably not something where you just set it in the middle of the yard, but something that can go out on the back porch and have shielding from the elements.  A big problem is heat and noise of miners, and moving a miner outside would provide a ton of benefits.

Make it wireless, so only the power chord is needed. (you could even make some kind of built in housing for the power supply so that isn't exposed either.)  Then make the miner enclosed so that water will be kept out.  Summer heat would be a problem, but with high enough quality components, even running at high temperatures should be fine.

Bitcoin: 1GX8hnuuRLfmh3Do8LHMHmENjXDBNUxu1v
Dogecoin: DNAF93Kv2JDC5iTiuCCCbRWeje4TRnNcQ3
Litecoin: LMU7TtpZ9VT9o13GzrkqFsS3grmPP1NDi7

[LordPaco]

The best miner is, the miner that roi's the fastest. It is all about price point above anything else.
But that aside, here are the details I would like to see in a miner.

1. Fans used should be sourced first to ensure plentiful supply and bang for buck, and should be of the PWM type.
2. Two fans, chip density is such that the heat can still be adequately removed if only one of the fans is active in a 90F(32C) room.
3. Fans are temperature controlled for more efficiency. This control can be modified by the user.
3. Size should be about a shoebox, similar to Antminer S1/S3/S5
4. A Case that efficiently directs the air through and out the heatsink, and is not in danger from clogging with dust quickly.
5. +12V should be powered externally, with 6pin PCI-E as well as a terminal block for powering (similar to antminer S1)
6. Controller should be external to reduce controller redundancy, build costs, as well as allow daisy chaining.
7. Controller software should have the ability to use p2pool.
8. Controller software should have a quick setup network and pool configuration in one spot for plug and play.
9. Management software to configure and communicate to stacks of controllers.
10. That software should also integrate with the bitcoin core to display both bitcoin statistics but also encourage running of a node by improving performance.

[OgNasty]

4 words...

Bitcoin Miner Lava Lamp



BOOM!
No fans, no noise, just heat, lava, and a do not touch warning.    Cheap and appealing.

Bonus points for:

• WiFi
• Integrated P2Pool Node
• Cash Register Noise when a P2Pool Share is Accepted
• Rocket Takeoff Noise & Color Change when a P2Pool Block is Found
• Visible Bitcoin Price Ticker

Bitcoin: 168WXhArv7Fasqvi2xm5MQMfLhG18jifMe
Litecoin: LgPFkqhJoMSYZtwuQhnYaL7woQHSBBuYBW
Doge: D9jQYUxaShK3UAqAHLjEq49yqddpZZMWL7

[klondike_bar]

4 words...

Bitcoin Miner Lava Lamp



BOOM!
No fans, no noise, just heat, lava, and a do not touch warning. 

that would actually be a fun thing to try with some usb miners. only thing is it needs about 25-40W to create the lava, and requires cool underlighting in the form of blinking leds

[erre]

My ideal miner would have an integrated software, and the ability to switch between different mining configurations with one button. The software would be regurarly updated, open source and with a good dev community.
I would like the machine to be modular too, so I can upgrade one outdated part and keep the rest (particularly the cooling system, wich would be very good)

Doge: DT9TYwvCxzCqSB4Jv3xJ8xsyUcdWWMVwmQ

LTC: LaHCcnn5N5Qs7xcnD1ZH3CdCjAm1bZvxNJ

[TheRealSteve]

If anybody made a miner into the base of a lavalamp, they should integrate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavarand as well

( non-participant - plenty of ideas, but I'm largely with whoever's been suggesting small/desktop style miners, which the dev kit pretty much is if connecting the power boards at 90° and putting a case + fan around it )

[ElGabo]

4 words...

Bitcoin Miner Lava Lamp



BOOM!
No fans, no noise, just heat, lava, and a do not touch warning. 

Fuck... that's huge! 

I'm crying.

[notlist3d]

The most creative answer entry 2.

I want a miner that I put it in the ocean and it uses the waves to make it's own electricity!  No electricity cost, just my miner making it's own electricity!   It would use cellular connection to not even need to worry about wifi.   

I want to be able to go out in a boat drop my miner's out in the water, go home and watch the money come in!

[erre]

The human work output in agricolture is about 0.074 kw. I want a miner that can convert human work into hashing. That could be controversial, but a great deal for that zones who have a difficoult access to energy but a lot of manpower. In cold zones, you can use the heat too.

Or you can just convert in hashing the power wasted at your local gym...



Less fat, more hashing!

Doge: DT9TYwvCxzCqSB4Jv3xJ8xsyUcdWWMVwmQ

LTC: LaHCcnn5N5Qs7xcnD1ZH3CdCjAm1bZvxNJ

[jstefanop]

If you want a good miner design look no further than here

http://www.spondoolies-tech.com/products/sp35-yukon-power-shipping-from-stock

2U rack mountable enclosure.
Built in server power supply that is easily changeable
> 5TH output
Easily configurable webUI that can handle mutiple miners at once

Sell all that for less than what spondoolies sold the sp35 and you have a winner.