btt

[thehun]

I like the move by AM to lower the price of blades, but I think we can find better opportunities to purchase HW. We should see some results from Bitfury shipping products for August delivery very soon and knc shortly after. I'd like to see how it plays out.

Hi JimiQ84. That's correct, there hasn't been much to vote on. Our last pre-order was for an Avalon B3 and we've been tacking on Avalon & BFL gear from the secondary market since which was approved by shareholder vote.

Cheers.

I believe in this moment time is gold and the immediate availability of the AM blades is a very important point to consider. It's no use if the bitfury/knc miners have better specs if we don't know 100% when they will be available.

[creativex]

I believe in this moment time is gold and the immediate availability of the AM blades is a very important point to consider. It's no use if the bitfury/knc miners have better specs if we don't know 100% when they will be available.

Hi thehun. Perhaps I wasn't clear in my wording. It's not necessarily that I want to wait and purchase a mess of new bitfury/knc products to add hashes, but I do want to see what effect bitfury's August shipments and their rapid deployment to their self mining pool (ghash.io) will have on the secondary market. If it further erodes the resale price of used Avalon or BFL gear then that may make more sense. Avalons overclock better and have similar efficiency and while BFL gear doesn't overclock well it's more efficient than any of the currently available options for immediate delivery.

Cheers.

[thehun]

I believe in this moment time is gold and the immediate availability of the AM blades is a very important point to consider. It's no use if the bitfury/knc miners have better specs if we don't know 100% when they will be available.

Hi thehun. Perhaps I wasn't clear in my wording. It's not necessarily that I want to wait and purchase a mess of new bitfury/knc products to add hashes, but I do want to see what effect bitfury's August shipments and their rapid deployment to their self mining pool (ghash.io) will have on the secondary market. If it further erodes the resale price of used Avalon or BFL gear then that may make more sense. Avalons overclock better and have similar efficiency and while BFL gear doesn't overclock well it's more efficient than any of the currently available options for immediate delivery.

Cheers.

Ok I see your point.

Just one correction though: if this calculation is correct the AM blades are more efficient than the BFL singles:

Price for 4xBFL Single: 4x$2499 = $9996 for 200GH.
Price for 20xAM blades: 3.9btc x 20 x $119 = 9282$ for 200GH (potentially overclockable).

P.D. what do you think about these Bitfury boards?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=281996.0
Edit: I just realized delivery is due for October so I guess it's not worth it

[creativex]

When I speak of efficiency, I'm referring to power consumption. BFL's 65nm based products are somewhere between 50-60% more efficient than ASICMiner's current 130nm offerings. While this hasn't mattered much in the past as operating costs are currently negligible, this will change as operating margins for miners continues to contract. Eventually all but the most efficient ASIC gear will be forced offline as they'll cost more in electricity than they're generating in revenue. Bitfury's 55nm gear shipping is significant in that it's the first gear to take the efficiency lead away from BFL.

As you said, the auction that you linked is for Oct/Nov delivery. Dave at bitfury has suggested that bitfury chip orders would ship early in October and finished products would likely ship toward the end of October. This is one more link in the chain we'd have to rely on and the potential savings we'd get by going with Barntech's auction over a direct pre-order purchase at megabigpower would seem to offer  a poor risk/reward profile. 

Cheers.

[guitarplinker]

Creativex, out of curiosity and if you have the time to answer, how much are the power costs per Kw/HR where all the miners are set up at?

[creativex]

Hi guitarplinker. I pay a staggered rate for power ranging from $.08/Kwh and $.11/Kwh depending on usage. I believe the rate was lower in the fall/winter last season, but I'd have to check on that.

Welcome aboard btw.

[AngelSky]

@creativex: btw where do you host your miners ?

[creativex]

Hi AngelSky. I host them myself in MI as opposed to a contracted colo. This is much cheaper and I can therefore keep purchased gear online longer. Plus I'm a tinkerer by nature.

Cheers.

[N_S]

creativex, I've wondered this before, but haven't found any info - it seems like you're a solo operator (although I could be misinformed), but what's the plan if you're injured/unable to tend to the farm? Do you have a back-up person capable of making informed decisions?

[AngelSky]

Hi AngelSky. I host them myself in MI as opposed to a contracted colo. This is much cheaper and I can therefore keep purchased gear online longer. Plus I'm a tinkerer by nature.

Cheers.

Sounds cool 

[creativex]

creativex, I've wondered this before, but haven't found any info - it seems like you're a solo operator (although I could be misinformed), but what's the plan if you're injured/unable to tend to the farm? Do you have a back-up person capable of making informed decisions?

Hi N_S. The answer is a definite...sort of. I have a fellow crypto currency nerd long time friend who is also among bASIC-Mining's top shareholders that I've called upon to give the gear a swift kick as needed when I was travelling. He has keys to my office and enough knowledge to restart the gear, but I wouldn't describe him as tech savvy exactly, at least not in a hands on sense. He could take over and keep things running fairly seamlessly in an emergency situation as far as the accounting and payouts go, but he doesn't have much interest in keeping abreast of the technological landscape.

Cheers.

[creativex]

Hi AngelSky. I host them myself in MI as opposed to a contracted colo. This is much cheaper and I can therefore keep purchased gear online longer. Plus I'm a tinkerer by nature.

Cheers.

Sounds cool 

You have to either like the sound of fans or have the ability to tune them out...to be sure.

[N_S]

Hi N_S. The answer is a definite...sort of. I have a fellow crypto currency nerd long time friend who is also among bASIC-Mining's top shareholders that I've called upon to give the gear a swift kick as needed when I was travelling. He has keys to my office and enough knowledge to restart the gear, but I wouldn't describe him as tech savvy exactly, at least not in a hands on sense. He could take over and keep things running fairly seamlessly in an emergency situation as far as the accounting and payouts go, but he doesn't have much interest in keeping abreast of the technological landscape.

Cheers.

Thanks for the info - I really appreciate the transparency you offer. I wish you the best of luck!

[creativex]

The new PSUs have arrived and before any of the overworked ones croaked! I've also put off some necessary equipment relocation projects until I could do it all at once and today's the day it seems. I'll try to keep any downtime to a minimum of course.

Cheers.

[guitarplinker]

The new PSUs have arrived and before any of the overworked ones croaked! I've also put off some necessary equipment relocation projects until I could do it all at once and today's the day it seems. I'll try to keep any downtime to a minimum of course.

Cheers.

Thanks for keeping us updated and making sure equipment is in tip-top shape. You have no idea how much it helps a project like this to have good management.

Also, not sure if you're into this creativex, but do you ever buy used ASICs from Craigslist or Kijiji locally? If you're in a larger center chances are there would be some for sale. If you feel like bartering with good reasons chances are you might be able to pick up a couple decent ones for a fair to cheaper price. But again, that's only if people are selling them locally and if you're interested in searching it out.

[Carnth]

Also, not sure if you're into this creativex, but do you ever buy used ASICs ......

Trust me, creativex is all over this.

But if you ever see a deal that would pique his curiosity, post it!

[creativex]

Indeed. Our 2nd ASIC came from a chap that ran an ad on craigslist. I like to keep my eyes peeled for deals, but feel free to alert me if you see something that looks promising.

Cheers.

[EatonABooger]

Hello Creativex,
You probably have a very nice craigslist search engine, but just fyi...
I have found one I like for the android phone called CraigsNotifica 3.27.
It allows for radius searches about a given zip code and multiple saved search groups.  It will scour every local craigslist in the U.S. if you want it to.

it has worked very well for me for the past couple of years.
keep up the great work.

[creativex]

Thanx for the headsup, I'll look into it. I usually use searchtempest and lots of screens.

Cheers.

[creativex]

Mining revenue is off a bit today due to a problem with the computer feeding the minirig and singles. It was down nearly two hours before I could get to it and get it sorted.

Also I've divvied up the disbursement we received from ASICMiner yesterday into 7 equal parts and will add them to each day's dividend beginning with today's. Details are available at the link to the company's shared spreadsheet.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ArTS7AD--9SWdDNfb0lRNElqS1k1eGRoWEw2TGM4NlE&pli=1#gid=0

Cheers.