What ASIC would you prefer? PCI-Express, Standalone, USB?

[XoreaX]

When it comes to ASIC miners. What would be your preference?

Would you prefer to spend your money on a standalone network device?

Would you prefer to spend your money on a PCI-E device to directly replace your GPU's?

Would you prefer to spend your money on a USB device requiring external power?

Myself, I can't quite decide between PCI-E or Standalone. I suppose as a standalone device it would be dedicated and as such could be located wherever I please, online all the time out of the way. A PCI-E card has the benefit of being able to sit in your main household PC's or directly fit in to any custom ATX chassis you've loaded into your garage.

A usb one... well I don't know, if it looks good on your desktop and can be carted around with your laptop if that's your only online option then it makes sense.

What are your views?

[Gabi]

Standalone. At most USB, but i prefer standalone.

[cardinalG]

Definitely prefer standalone.

[SAC]

When it comes to ASIC miners. What would be your preference?

Already manufactured and in stock for shipping.

[XoreaX]

Already manufactured and in stock for shipping.

Hehe, now now. Don't jump the gun.

[wtfvanity]

When it comes to ASIC miners. What would be your preference?

Already manufactured and in stock for shipping.

lol. The ASIC chips don't need the bandwidth that a PCI-E slot has to offer. I like good old USB. I have a potential of running multiple miners off a credit card size $30 Raspberry pi computer. That's not a lot of space needed. For a 4U size, I could run hundreds of GH/s in that space with a pi or two. Mine aren't going in racks, so the pros of standalone aren't needed for me.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Why would you possibly want PCIe? 

You like higher cost, more complexity, annoying to solve thermal issues, non-optimal spacing, and being constrained by the number of PCIe slots.

Personally I just want to rack mount them in 19" datacenter racks so either a complete rack mountable unit or sell the bare modules so I can rack mount them myself.  Internally if they connect by USB, serial cable, or LPT port I don't really care as long as it is scalable

[XoreaX]

Aren't people are "constrained" by the number of PCI-E slots when mining with GPU's too? I can't see much of a thermal issue with ASIC based PCI-E boards, nowhere near as much of a challenge as GPU's in a gaming machine. Where do you see the issue with spacing when you consider double-spaced GPU's?

I agree with the "professional" miners desire for scalable kit. I put PCI-E in their solely down to the fact that there are thousands of miners with PCI-E GPU's sucking wattage right now that a PCI-E ASIC could directly replace.

Yes, agreed a standalone would replace all kit surplus to the GPU also.

I don't think there would be that much of a consumer demand for rack mount kit to make it a viable commercial option for anybody though? Maybe that's another topic.


I suppose in a perfect rack mount world PCI-E could be scalable and realistic if somebody designed an embedded ARM based main-board with say 8 PCI-E slots. The PCI-E boards could get replaced just as GPU's do at present when newer generation ASIC's are produced. In a perfect make believe world of course.

[tribble222]

I would definitely prefer a standalone. I could just stick my "heater" in whatever room is coldest.

[Superzero]

What does standalone imply? Ethernet?

[panda1]

USB makes it easy to scale.

[XoreaX]

What does standalone imply? Ethernet?

Yes, that's what I was thinking when I wrote standalone. Something with ethernet/WiFi with an embedded OpenWRT/DD-WRT set up.

[Superzero]

Kind of hard to choose because either LAN and USB have their advantages and disadvantages and I guess if you have very few units it doesn't really matter much, right?

[Parazyd]

If ASICs are not a scam  , definitely USB. I would plug it in my Raspberry Pi

[XoreaX]

Standalone network and ethernet seem to be the winners so far. Something with a choice of the two would be the winner then.