[Announcement] Avalon ASIC Batch #1 Ships

[PuertoLibre]

Does this come with a port to pump liquid nitrogen inside the case to keep it from melting?

Huh? They've been quoting 400 watts. Who has trouble cooling a 4U case pulling 400 watts?

What is the temperature of the room that this would need to be in?  If you had 50 of them in a room would they be able to cool themselves with just the fans?  You would need at least 10 Tons of cooling and exhaust for the heat.

So 20KW for the units and 20KW for the AC and exhaust.  Not too bad for 3TH+

Wow, thermodynamics.....is not your strong suit.

[1714476201]

1714476201

[1714476201]

1714476201

[Mousepotato]

Wow, thermodynamics.....is not your strong suit.

Shh! First law of Thermodynamics: You don't talk about thermodynamics.

[PuertoLibre]

If the Avalon device is modular....that would make it a killer product in the ASIC market.

Your customers profit is your profit as well. Sell each extra board at $200 and there is a strong incentive to continuously sell/buy more parts. Creating mini-rigs one board at a time.

BFL?

Well, one unit per housing...sucks. You can't build out your kits without forking over the whole amount.

I dunno, but if this is Avalons strategy, then it is a killer strategy.

[smracer]

Does this come with a port to pump liquid nitrogen inside the case to keep it from melting?

Huh? They've been quoting 400 watts. Who has trouble cooling a 4U case pulling 400 watts?

What is the temperature of the room that this would need to be in?  If you had 50 of them in a room would they be able to cool themselves with just the fans?  You would need at least 10 Tons of cooling and exhaust for the heat.

So 20KW for the units and 20KW for the AC and exhaust.  Not too bad for 3TH+

Wow, thermodynamics.....is not your strong suit.

The AC will cycle.  I was talking peak numbers.

[klondike_bar]

Does this come with a port to pump liquid nitrogen inside the case to keep it from melting?

Huh? They've been quoting 400 watts. Who has trouble cooling a 4U case pulling 400 watts?

What is the temperature of the room that this would need to be in?  If you had 50 of them in a room would they be able to cool themselves with just the fans?  You would need at least 10 Tons of cooling and exhaust for the heat.

So 20KW for the units and 20KW for the AC and exhaust.  Not too bad for 3TH+

Wow, thermodynamics.....is not your strong suit.

The thermodynamics is *technically* right, but a proper use of HVAC would need much less power to simply exhaust the heat

[PuertoLibre]

Does this come with a port to pump liquid nitrogen inside the case to keep it from melting?

Huh? They've been quoting 400 watts. Who has trouble cooling a 4U case pulling 400 watts?

What is the temperature of the room that this would need to be in?  If you had 50 of them in a room would they be able to cool themselves with just the fans?  You would need at least 10 Tons of cooling and exhaust for the heat.

So 20KW for the units and 20KW for the AC and exhaust.  Not too bad for 3TH+

Wow, thermodynamics.....is not your strong suit.

The AC will cycle.  I was talking peak numbers.

I apologize, I was thinking of BFL at the time I was writing.

That angst got to me for a minute. hehe. Sorry about that.

[Bogart]

@ BitSyncom
Since you have time to answer all the really nice questions above;
Maybe you have also the time to answer this?
-How many units have you ship so far
-and how much is the expected daily capacity before the CNY?

Or is it a trade secret?
Thanks for your time.

around 12 a day currently, so total about 40, however I am seriously unsure how many actually made it outside of the country, I'll be giving Jeffs tracking number soon as I get it, during business hours I call the people handling the shipping every 2 hours or so for updates.

We are seriously bottle necked by Customs at the moment ( due to upcoming CNY as well ) and are looking for more routes, it isn't really a trade secret as this is honestly beyond our control at this point. God, I hate sounding like BFL.

Thanks, that's the info I was looking for.

When I ordered mine, the site said there were 130 left in the batch to order, so I guess mine is about #170 in line (maybe 150 or better now after some cancellations and unpaid orders).

Assuming the rate stays steady, allowing you guys 2 days off for the weekend, I guess mine would ship out around Thursday Jan 31st.

[SgtSpike]

So, everyone wants more pictures, but wouldn't it be up to the Avalon manufacturer to provide more pictures, not BitSyncom or anyone else on this forum?  BitSyncom would probably rather have said manufacturer focus on shipping units to customers instead of fiddling around with a customer service request to take more pictures.  It's probably not something they're set up to do expediently anyway.

Unless BitSyncom has unit(s) on-hand?

[king_pin]

When I sell something on e-bay, the more pictures I put the better it sells?
Doesn't seem to be the same when it comes to ASICs

Dare to comment avolons

[creativex]

They're not selling anything right now.

[Bogart]

When I sell something on e-bay, the more pictures I put the better it sells?
Doesn't seem to be the same when it comes to ASICs

Yup.  [mining] ASICs are special like that.

[MonsterZero]

When I sell something on e-bay, the more pictures I put the better it sells?
Doesn't seem to be the same when it comes to ASICs

Dare to comment avolons

Of course that's not really the case when it comes to computer parts... most of the images used are in fact stock and not the real item anyway.  All anyone cares about with computer parts are performance.. which no photo will provide (unless it's a pic of a computer screen informing you of stats)

show me benchmarks (It's likely they don't want to be the ones to even bother with them because of mistrust, waiting for 3rd party)

And yes to other peoples points.. they're not selling anything at the moment, so no need to market anything.

I have a feeling they might yet wait to adjust pricing for batch 2, be it up or down, based on the competitive landscape, as small as that is right now.

[Grix]

Don't know if you are sure about/willing to tell about this, but here goes:

When do you think the second batch will open for preorders? Any day now or much closer to March? And you will not be accepting credit cards, right? I'm a little nervous about store large amount of bitcoins for so long with the price fluctuations nowadays.

[creativex]

They've mentioned waiting till after CNY somewhere. Avalon remains the class act of the ASIC vendors.

[Bogart]

They've mentioned waiting till after CNY somewhere. Avalon remains the class act of the ASIC vendors.

Shipment of batch 2 will be after CNY.  I think they will take orders before then though.  I would guess around the first or second week of Feb.

I imagine the payment choices will be BTC or Wire Transfer, same as the first batch.

[SgtSpike]

Article with interview:  http://bitcoinmagazine.com/avalon-ships-bitcoins-first-consumer-asics/

[PuertoLibre]

@ Bitsycncom

Could you talk with Avalon team members about the possibility of establishing a premium or advanced warranty protection service?

For example, if a customers unit fails, they can notify you via email for warranty support. The idea being that the customer can then elect to opt-in  to use a "temporary" replacement unit that will be stored with Avalon at their site. A BitCoin wallet is either generated for that customer or a simple Web interface/portal is provided for that customer so they can place their details on the temporary machine.

Then while the customer ships the defective unit to Avalon for warranty, the "temporary" allocated unit is hashing away at an Avalon facility where the customer can't touch it physically but can only reach it remotely via a web portal to configure it and utilize it until their warranty is complete.

When the faulty unit is repaired and then returned to the customer. They are given a 24 hour notice that their "temporary" remote unit is going to be reset. Or they can elect to press a button on the portal that immediately eliminates their accounts details from the temporary unit and returns it to factory settings.

This solves the "customer issue" with a unit that goes down leaving a customer waiting for a long transit times between for the replacement to make it to their native country to China and back.

-----------------------

The customer could also pre-pay the electrical costs of their temporary use of the offsite and remote replacement.

Or they could go through the normal RMA process and simply sit on their hands and wait it out.

Just an idea.

[Bogart]

We underestimated the shipping cost by like $80 per unit

I would suggest that for the second batch and beyond, for all US orders, that Avalon make one big shipment (or a series of medium-sized shipments) to Yifu in New York, who can then ship them himself (or with an assistant) to individual US customers by UPS or similar.

Maybe I'm wrong, but somehow I think that one big intl shipment plus a bunch of small domestics will cost less than shipping direct to each customer by express intl means.

Of course this doesn't help matters with non-US customers.

[Korbman]

We underestimated the shipping cost by like $80 per unit

I would suggest that for the second batch and beyond, for all US orders, that Avalon make one big shipment (or a series of medium-sized shipments) to Yifu in New York, who can then ship them himself (or with an assistant) to individual US customers by UPS or similar.

I second that, and I'd be curious to know the details. It may not be cheaper, but it might be faster..compared to dealing with customs on a "per ASIC" basis.

[BitSyncom]

Don't know if you are sure about/willing to tell about this, but here goes:

When do you think the second batch will open for preorders? Any day now or much closer to March? And you will not be accepting credit cards, right? I'm a little nervous about store large amount of bitcoins for so long with the price fluctuations nowadays.

We plan to start accepting orders soon as third-part reviews come out. Honestly this is us being nice, to give those who are current in doubt some time to see the truth. I strictly believe that there isn't a "company" and "customer" relationship but rather a buyer and a seller, which is a person to person situation. Avalon can only provide information as it is, ultimately it is up to the buyer to make judgment about their potential investment as with all things Bitcoin.

We don't have time nor wish to "convince" the unbelievers regarding the Avalon Project.

It'll be anyday now, I expect third-party review to come latest by next week.

We underestimated the shipping cost by like $80 per unit

I would suggest that for the second batch and beyond, for all US orders, that Avalon make one big shipment (or a series of medium-sized shipments) to Yifu in New York, who can then ship them himself (or with an assistant) to individual US customers by UPS or similar.

This has been/is being considered as well, trust me when I said when are looking into other routes.