Newbie here - which low budget miner to get?

[cero9]

Hi all,
I'm new to this world and would like to get an ASIC miner, just for fun: I don't need one to earn, but I'd like it to pay its current bills and, on long time, to pay back its price, maybe.

My choice is between two devices (of course suggestions are welcome):

- Dragon Miner T1 - 1TH/s and 1kW, low price, seems great but I'm still unsure about its overall quality.
- 2x Antminer S3 - 450GH/s and 350W -> 900GH/s and 700W in total. More GH/s per W, but price is slightly higher and the external power supply might be "unhandy"

What is your suggestion? Any experience with the Dragon T1? It seems like a Chinese miner (while I don't expect the Antminer to be USA-made ).
Another question, what is the difference between the S3 and S3+? I might get the S3 or the S3+, the seller is not clear, is this a deal breaker?

Any help or suggestion is appreciated!
Thanks

[1715506777]

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[1715506777]

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[1715506777]

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[VirosaGITS]

Hi all,
I'm new to this world and would like to get an ASIC miner, just for fun: I don't need one to earn, but I'd like it to pay its current bills and, on long time, to pay back its price, maybe.

My choice is between two devices (of course suggestions are welcome):

- Dragon Miner T1 - 1TH/s and 1kW, low price, seems great but I'm still unsure about its overall quality.
- 2x Antminer S3 - 450GH/s and 350W -> 900GH/s and 700W in total. More GH/s per W, but price is slightly higher and the external power supply might be "unhandy"

What is your suggestion? Any experience with the Dragon T1? It seems like a Chinese miner (while I don't expect the Antminer to be USA-made ).
Another question, what is the difference between the S3 and S3+? I might get the S3 or the S3+, the seller is not clear, is this a deal breaker?

Any help or suggestion is appreciated!
Thanks

There's no difference between a S3+ and a S3. Beside the first batch of S3. Some S3 and S3+ overclock better than other, either way its something you need to individually check with the seller before buying, its not specific to the + or non + version.

I would probably go with the S3's because they're more handy.

[RichBC]

Hi all,
I'm new to this world and would like to get an ASIC miner, just for fun: I don't need one to earn, but I'd like it to pay its current bills and, on long time, to pay back its price, maybe.

If this is your aim then the data you are looking at is missing the two of the most important parameters. The efficiency of the Miner in J/GH and your Electricity cost in Cents / KWh

You must use these to work out how much money you will be making at the current difficulty, and then factor in Difficulty increases and the all important Halving that will take place in the first half of 2016.

Someone will point you at an online calculator to help you in this.


Rich

[philipma1957]

Hi all,
I'm new to this world and would like to get an ASIC miner, just for fun: I don't need one to earn, but I'd like it to pay its current bills and, on long time, to pay back its price, maybe.

My choice is between two devices (of course suggestions are welcome):

- Dragon Miner T1 - 1TH/s and 1kW, low price, seems great but I'm still unsure about its overall quality.
- 2x Antminer S3 - 450GH/s and 350W -> 900GH/s and 700W in total. More GH/s per W, but price is slightly higher and the external power supply might be "unhandy"

What is your suggestion? Any experience with the Dragon T1? It seems like a Chinese miner (while I don't expect the Antminer to be USA-made ).
Another question, what is the difference between the S3 and S3+? I might get the S3 or the S3+, the seller is not clear, is this a deal breaker?

Any help or suggestion is appreciated!
Thanks

 

the s-3's are better in the sense they are light and easy to move.  they run pretty quiet and there are low cost fans for it to be even quieter.

 if you are in the usa lots of good psu's are around. you will need cheap power for these units. if you want to earn a profit.

[cero9]

Hi all,
I'm new to this world and would like to get an ASIC miner, just for fun: I don't need one to earn, but I'd like it to pay its current bills and, on long time, to pay back its price, maybe.

If this is your aim then the data you are looking at is missing the two of the most important parameters. The efficiency of the Miner in J/GH and your Electricity cost in Cents / KWh

You must use these to work out how much money you will be making at the current difficulty, and then factor in Difficulty increases and the all important Halving that will take place in the first half of 2016.

Someone will point you at an online calculator to help you in this.


Rich

That is scaring me a bit. I rent a 1800GH/s miner for a day and earnt about 6€, so I guess that a 900GH/s machine would produce roughly 3€/day. Given the price for my current, I pay 1.1€/day to keep a 700W miner running, so I could get about 1.9€/day.
The halving means that those 3€ will became 1.5€? That might be pretty bad

[VirosaGITS]

Hi all,
I'm new to this world and would like to get an ASIC miner, just for fun: I don't need one to earn, but I'd like it to pay its current bills and, on long time, to pay back its price, maybe.

If this is your aim then the data you are looking at is missing the two of the most important parameters. The efficiency of the Miner in J/GH and your Electricity cost in Cents / KWh

You must use these to work out how much money you will be making at the current difficulty, and then factor in Difficulty increases and the all important Halving that will take place in the first half of 2016.

Someone will point you at an online calculator to help you in this.


Rich

That is scaring me a bit. I rent a 1800GH/s miner for a day and earnt about 6€, so I guess that a 900GH/s machine would produce roughly 3€/day. Given the price for my current, I pay 1.1€/day to keep a 700W miner running, so I could get about 1.9€/day.
The halving means that those 3€ will became 1.5€? That might be pretty bad

Your electricity cost is way, way too high then. You'd have to go for something more efficient and even then, if you can't ROI before the halving, you probably wont at all. You could run the Math with a S5, see if you can get your return before then.

[cero9]

Your electricity cost is way, way too high then. You'd have to go for something more efficient and even then, if you can't ROI before the halving, you probably wont at all. You could run the Math with a S5, see if you can get your return before then.

I might be able to lower the electricity cost, but I don't want to count on that. I'm working on the "worst case".
S5s are really harder to find.

Given that, even with the halving, I will still gain a minimum by the difference. How much will difficulty increases affect the revenue?
How are hardware prices related to halving? I know this is just the second one in history, but I guess that a mining machine, after the halving, will be much less valuable than now, isn't it?

[VirosaGITS]

Your electricity cost is way, way too high then. You'd have to go for something more efficient and even then, if you can't ROI before the halving, you probably wont at all. You could run the Math with a S5, see if you can get your return before then.

I might be able to lower the electricity cost, but I don't want to count on that. I'm working on the "worst case".
S5s are really harder to find.

Given that, even with the halving, I will still gain a minimum by the difference. How much will difficulty increases affect the revenue?
How are hardware prices related to halving? I know this is just the second one in history, but I guess that a mining machine, after the halving, will be much less valuable than now, isn't it?

The halving is kind of distant right now, but when its close, a ton of people are going to dump their hardware.

So whatever you get now, you need to plan to get your ROI before then.

And for difficulty. A 100% raise equal a 50% loss in BTC income. Effectively the same as a halving.

[sgi02]

I would go with the Antminer setup, the S3's are built like tanks, and (if good ones) will overclock to 250mhz for roughly 1TH of performance.

[megatron1337]

I would go with the Antminer setup, the S3's are built like tanks, and (if good ones) will overclock to 250mhz for roughly 1TH of performance.

I would go with an s3 also.  I have one and it really runs great, not to loud either.
I am not sure about 1TH performance but I would suggest you overclock it to a setting that gives you as less HW errors as possible and not to overclock it for the most TH that you can get, you will only compromise it's lifespan.  Every S3 has it's sweets pot.

[philipma1957]

I would go with the Antminer setup, the S3's are built like tanks, and (if good ones) will overclock to 250mhz for roughly 1TH of performance.

I would go with an s3 also.  I have one and it really runs great, not to loud either.
I am not sure about 1TH performance but I would suggest you overclock it to a setting that gives you as less HW errors as possible and not to overclock it for the most TH that you can get, you will only compromise it's lifespan.  Every S3 has it's sweets pot.

He meant 250 freq gets 500gh

Op wants 2 thus 500 + 500 = 1000


@ op my worst s-3 was about 425 gh but I had many that could do 500gh

[megatron1337]

I would go with the Antminer setup, the S3's are built like tanks, and (if good ones) will overclock to 250mhz for roughly 1TH of performance.

I would go with an s3 also.  I have one and it really runs great, not to loud either.
I am not sure about 1TH performance but I would suggest you overclock it to a setting that gives you as less HW errors as possible and not to overclock it for the most TH that you can get, you will only compromise it's lifespan.  Every S3 has it's sweets pot.

He meant 250 freq gets 500gh

Op wants 2 thus 500 + 500 = 1000

Oh my bad!
May I add that at the frequency 237.50 I am getting roughly 500ghs with HW errors in the range of 0.0120%/0.0110%
Again every s3 responds differently to overclocks.

[Ludwish]

the s-3's are better in the sense they are light and easy to move.  they run pretty quiet and there are low cost fans for it to be even quieter.

 if you are in the usa lots of good psu's are around. you will need cheap power for these units. if you want to earn a profit.

I think you can also mod the s3 to reduce the voltage and frequency so that they are more efficient and last longer.

[toptek]

IF you can get your hands on some S3 ++ id buy them _ . notice i said S3 ++ not S3 +, i could have bought some over the summer but passed it up or saw it to late to buy at least two S3 ++, after, i noticed it said ++. now i can't get any in the US.

[notlist3d]

IF you can get your hands on some S3 ++ id buy them _ . notice i said S3 ++ not S3 +, i could have bought some over the summer but passed it up or saw it to late to buy at least two S3 ++, after, i noticed it said ++. now i can't get any in the US.

I think a few made it stateside.  But it was a very very few on S3 ++ your right on most not making it here to US was not offered on site to US.  With current electricity OP seems to have I would not count on S3 (or plus models) or dragon a1.  I think he will have to go newer if he want's it to pay for operation like he said.

Only thing on S3 dont get batch 1.  It was hit/miss we got refunds as some were a tad slower.  If you go buying and get a S3+ you know it's not a batch one with slower speed (or you can have owner show speed before buying on S3 regular to make sure it is up to speed)

[flikflak]

...Given the price for my current, I pay 1.1€/day to keep a 700W miner running,..

700W = 16.8Kw a day

Paying 110 cents for that = 6.55 cents per Kwh. That is actually quite good for mining.

[RichBC]

IF you can get your hands on some S3 ++ id buy them _ . notice i said S3 ++ not S3 +, i could have bought some over the summer but passed it up or saw it to late to buy at least two S3 ++, after, i noticed it said ++. now i can't get any in the US.

I think a few made it stateside.  But it was a very very few on S3 ++ your right on most not making it here to US was not offered on site to US. 

They were an interesting Miner but not sure that is worth trying to find one. Efficiency will be marginally better than an S3, but if you want string power then better to just go for the S5 with the better BM1384 ASIC, which I think the S3++ was possibly a trial for?

Rich

[philipma1957]

IF you can get your hands on some S3 ++ id buy them _ . notice i said S3 ++ not S3 +, i could have bought some over the summer but passed it up or saw it to late to buy at least two S3 ++, after, i noticed it said ++. now i can't get any in the US.

I think a few made it stateside.  But it was a very very few on S3 ++ your right on most not making it here to US was not offered on site to US. 

They were an interesting Miner but not sure that is worth trying to find one. Efficiency will be marginally better than an S3, but if you want string power then better to just go for the S5 with the better BM1384 ASIC, which I think the S3++ was possibly a trial for?

Rich

  and if he gets a newer s-5 he can under volt for better efficiency you have a long thread on that.

[notlist3d]

IF you can get your hands on some S3 ++ id buy them _ . notice i said S3 ++ not S3 +, i could have bought some over the summer but passed it up or saw it to late to buy at least two S3 ++, after, i noticed it said ++. now i can't get any in the US.

I think a few made it stateside.  But it was a very very few on S3 ++ your right on most not making it here to US was not offered on site to US. 

They were an interesting Miner but not sure that is worth trying to find one. Efficiency will be marginally better than an S3, but if you want string power then better to just go for the S5 with the better BM1384 ASIC, which I think the S3++ was possibly a trial for?

Rich

If I were to guess I would guess it was a trial for internal as much as anything.   It was not really widespread as I think just China's site had it.   So guessing they wanted all the efficiency they could get.

I would agree with there are a TON of S3/S3+ that causes lower price and much easier to find then S3++.  And going up to S5 is not a bad idea that phil mentioned.  All kinda depends on electricity  which his is decent.  With difficulty going up though might be worth looking into S5 or other miners around it.

[Amph]

...Given the price for my current, I pay 1.1€/day to keep a 700W miner running,..

700W = 16.8Kw a day

Paying 110 cents for that = 6.55 cents per Kwh. That is actually quite good for mining.

with the current diff and the future one, i think not even 0.05 will save your ass in the future, the s7 is already doing only 0.03, when it was 0.04, lost 1/4

it's a race war between efficiency and diff, at this point only trading with your hash will save you