Advice On Bitcoin Miners.

[ScottishSecurity]

H guys.

I am looking for some information on btc hardware,  I have a small group of colleges who are interested in opening a bitcoin mine here in the UK.
After doing lots of reading we are wondering what the best miners available are at the moment.

We have a budget of almost £20k GBP to open the project up.

what is the best miner on the market at the moment in terms of hashrate / cost.


thanks

Scottish Security

http://scottishsecurity.net
https://facebook.com/scottishsec

[tmfp]

The immediate problem you will face will be the cost of electricity. How much do you pay?

[ScottishSecurity]

The immediate problem you will face will be the cost of electricity. How much do you pay?

Electricity cost is not a issue. have permision from a large factory to use there power suppy for a small % of the total coins mined over the project, The factory is a very large industrial factory so electricity is no issue for us.

The real cost is setting up and buying a good solid miner that will last and keep up with the movement in the network,

[tmfp]

The immediate problem you will face will be the cost of electricity. How much do you pay?

Electricity cost is not a issue. have permision from a large factory to use there power suppy for a small % of the total coins mined over the project, The factory is a very large industrial factory so electricity is no issue for us.

The real cost is setting up and buying a good solid miner that will last and keep up with the movement in the network,

That's a good start. 
I shall leave you with the hardware experts now.
There are two factors to bear in mind, the possibly imminent limited release of Bitfury's much promised 16nm gear and the effect of the halving on projected income.
Good luck.

[merelcoin]

You can easily use this link to simulate the average profit/loss you'll make:

http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator

Be carefull tough, it's an estimation of the variables AT THIS MOMENT. In a couple of months, there'll be a block halving (effectively halving the ammount of coins you'll mine with the same hashrate) and AFAIK, the difficulty is still rising.

you can plug these values:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison
Into the link above to calculate everything

[ScottishSecurity]

Thanks for the info,  We don't see the halving to be a issue for us as we are not paying any running cost for the farm. So the halving of the reward should not be a issue for us, Unlike some farms who will suffer dew to the decresed amount being distrubuted.

We would like more information on the hardware side of things.

What would be a "sensiable" investment?
What features should we be looking for?
What is the biggest hashrate for any single miner at the moment.

Thanks in advance.

Scottish Security

[ScottishSecurity]

You can easily use this link to simulate the average profit/loss you'll make:

http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator

Be carefull tough, it's an estimation of the variables AT THIS MOMENT. In a couple of months, there'll be a block halving (effectively halving the ammount of coins you'll mine with the same hashrate) and AFAIK, the difficulty is still rising.

you can plug these values:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison
Into the link above to calculate everything

Thanks to be honest we do not really need to caluclate much, Most of it is down to the power you use but as we said we have a offer from a large factory to split the rewards with them, So power cost dose not come into the equasion.

Its really the hardware we need a nudge in the direction of.  info on whats being developed, whats available now, what people are running and what sucess they are having is a big factor for us to consider right now.

[merelcoin]

You can easily use this link to simulate the average profit/loss you'll make:

http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator

Be carefull tough, it's an estimation of the variables AT THIS MOMENT. In a couple of months, there'll be a block halving (effectively halving the ammount of coins you'll mine with the same hashrate) and AFAIK, the difficulty is still rising.

you can plug these values:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison
Into the link above to calculate everything

Thanks to be honest we do not really need to caluclate much, Most of it is down to the power you use but as we said we have a offer from a large factory to split the rewards with them, So power cost dose not come into the equasion.

Its really the hardware we need a nudge in the direction of.  info on whats being developed, whats available now, what people are running and what sucess they are having is a big factor for us to consider right now.

That part was also in my answer
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

If you don't care about the power, i guess you'll need the miners that generate the most hashes per dollar of hardware.

Altough, i would do the complete math, it might take a really long time to ROI on the hardware, even when not factoring the power cost...

[philipma1957]

You can easily use this link to simulate the average profit/loss you'll make:

http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator

Be carefull tough, it's an estimation of the variables AT THIS MOMENT. In a couple of months, there'll be a block halving (effectively halving the ammount of coins you'll mine with the same hashrate) and AFAIK, the difficulty is still rising.

you can plug these values:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison
Into the link above to calculate everything

Thanks to be honest we do not really need to caluclate much, Most of it is down to the power you use but as we said we have a offer from a large factory to split the rewards with them, So power cost dose not come into the equasion.

Its really the hardware we need a nudge in the direction of.  info on whats being developed, whats available now, what people are running and what sucess they are having is a big factor for us to consider right now.

Okay at this moment  there are two pieces of gear

the bitmaintech  s-7
the avalon 6


Both are long in the tooth so to speak  meaning newer gear will be coming soon.

You are in a 'free' power position so buying older cheaper gear  can be a good move for you.

It is in a factory so noise factor is not an issue.

I would suggest  getting Avalon 6's and s-7's

2 of each  would set you back about  2000 usd
power supplies maybe 600 usd
shipping + vat =  600

so 2600 usd is  2260 gbp

this gets you started.

PM me if you have more questions.

[adaseb]

Even with free electricity its becoming a headache pretty much dealing with mining farms.

The latest miners are better because you can run more of them in a facility, however they are expensive and you won't see profits for like 4-5 months.

The older miners are much cheaper, 2 months ROI but you won't make as much because you will run out of power soon because they are inefficent.

The older miners are a safer investment, less risk, less reward.

The newer miners are a little riskier because its next to impossible to predict what will be the BTC price and Difficulty in 3 months or 6 months from now.

[toptek]

Two miners atm are your best bet

The S7 is cheaper but the A6 is built better


Avalon 6  https://ehash.com/  .
Avalon 6  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1257327.0

Antminer S7   https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1165628.0
Antminer S7  https://bitmaintech.com/productDetail.htm?pid=000201603310959482268cfunbq106E5


and listen to these guys so far there right and are giving solid advice, i won't comment to much on the halving that happens in July, that will happen again in four years unless that's changes over time it can happen but for now it's every four years.

This is the main bitfury thread to watch ,

sidehack is our go to guy if he can get chips his miners are solid builds. 

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1291890.0


Welcome to bitcoins and the forums !!!!.

Tip on buying don't buy direct from Avalon for the Avalon 6 you can find it brand new else were for 150 usd or less . they follow the rule you pay ,more buying from them direct unless you talk to them for a big order which right now as some one else said hold off buying to much till the new stuff hits in about a month we should start seeing it a lot unless we were lied to which is a possibility to boost there investment sells .

kast thought forgot this link right here our very own market

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=75.0

with nice deals, some in your area and buying used should not mater to much right now for the S7 or A6 .
cya .

[ScottishSecurity]

Thank you all for this valuable information,

We will take our time to consider all information put to us and make a decision on what is going to be best for our farm.

There are no noise limits as the factory we have lined up have a noisy production line so there should be no issue with noise. As for cooling they also have industrial ventilation system in place we can take full advantage of. and being in Scotland we have the joys of being a relatively "cold" country even in the summer months (which sucks)

Another question is the networking for the miner farm, we noticed on a video on you-tube of a very large bitcoin mine they were controlling there systems via RDP to some other system. is this normal practice for large farms to run RDP control for there systems?

Also running a large farm what management software would best be deployed?

Thanks in advance guys!

Scottish Security.

[spazzdla]

The immediate problem you will face will be the cost of electricity. How much do you pay?

Electricity cost is not a issue. have permision from a large factory to use there power suppy for a small % of the total coins mined over the project, The factory is a very large industrial factory so electricity is no issue for us.

The real cost is setting up and buying a good solid miner that will last and keep up with the movement in the network,

The cost of electricity is THE ONLY ISSUE.... Nothing else really matters.

Grab S7's from bitmain if your cost is sub 5cents USD / KWhour.

[ScottishSecurity]

The immediate problem you will face will be the cost of electricity. How much do you pay?

Electricity cost is not a issue. have permision from a large factory to use there power suppy for a small % of the total coins mined over the project, The factory is a very large industrial factory so electricity is no issue for us.

The real cost is setting up and buying a good solid miner that will last and keep up with the movement in the network,

The cost of electricity is THE ONLY ISSUE.... Nothing else really matters.

Grab S7's from bitmain if your cost is sub 5cents USD / KWhour.

Like I said we have no cost for electricity, Our only factor is equipment and time,  We have a deal with a factory to use there supply and we give them a % of the return from the mine operation.

I had a look at the S7's but I think I might wait untill bitfury come out with there new product after doing some reading.

As much as I like the S7 Batch 16 with 4.73th/s,  is there any other which hash at a higher rate? possibly over 5.00TH/s?

Also power supply for the miners what would people recomend to use? any specific supplys that come highley recomened?

[NotFuzzyWarm]

For the S7 and any other miner that uses less than 1400w I highly recommend Bitmains 1600w PSU. A general rule of thumb - for sustained loads eg. mining - always keep the load at 90-80% or less of a PSU rating. I have 25 of them and zero problems. Aside from that they already come with 10 PCIe connectors.

[Erumara]

Batch 8 came in a little over 5TH, but from what I've heard they are slightly less stable, not to mention they are highly sought after and thus will be trickier to obtain.

Power supply is partly preference, my research showed that a retail PSU (I would recommend the eVGA supernova 1600w) runs *significantly* more efficient than the bitmain PSU's, but at over twice the price. With a 10 year warranty the eVGA will likely outlive a generation or two of miners, and 1600w is pretty darn close to maxing out a 15a circuit so it will likely power just about anything for a while to come.
Also the retail units will happily take 120 or 240v vs. Bitmain's demanding a 208v minimum, so depending on your situation the retail unit could be the better choice.

I don't have links to the proof, however based on some videos and other research I saw bitmain units pulling 6A @ 240v vs the eVGA pulling 5.4-5.6A @ 240v, a pretty significant efficiency gain, I wish I had the wattage numbers for you but I haven't gotten around to metering my units as of yet.

To summarize:

Bitmain 1600w PSU - Cheaper, smaller, functional
eVGA 1600w PSU - More expensive, more efficient, 10 year warranty, better resale value

[ScottishSecurity]

For the S7 and any other miner that uses less than 1400w I highly recommend Bitmains 1600w PSU. A general rule of thumb - for sustained loads eg. mining - always keep the load at 90-80% or less of a PSU rating. I have 25 of them and zero problems. Aside from that they already come with 10 PCIe connectors.

Just out of curiosity, do you run them 24/7?  If so what is the average hash rate you see from this setup.
Do you join into a pool or are you solo mining with you s7's?

[NotFuzzyWarm]

For the S7 and any other miner that uses less than 1400w I highly recommend Bitmains 1600w PSU. A general rule of thumb - for sustained loads eg. mining - always keep the load at 90-80% or less of a PSU rating. I have 25 of them and zero problems. Aside from that they already come with 10 PCIe connectors.

Just out of curiosity, do you run them 24/7?  If so what is the average hash rate you see from this setup.
Do you join into a pool or are you solo mining with you s7's?

Of course they run 24x7x365. In mining it usually makes no sense to turn them on and off. Some of the supplies date back to Bitmain's Batch-2 (around a year ago?). Before the s7's came out I was mostly using HP DPS1200 server supplies for the (then smaller) farm of s3, s4, and s5's. Currently per CK pool my total average hashrate is 110THs now running mostly s7's.

Unless you run a peta-hash farm, these days solo mining is more for fun with folks using USB stick miners or other low (ish) power/hashrate device. The odds of hitting a block vs daily power costs even if near free are too high.

[ScottishSecurity]

For the S7 and any other miner that uses less than 1400w I highly recommend Bitmains 1600w PSU. A general rule of thumb - for sustained loads eg. mining - always keep the load at 90-80% or less of a PSU rating. I have 25 of them and zero problems. Aside from that they already come with 10 PCIe connectors.

Just out of curiosity, do you run them 24/7?  If so what is the average hash rate you see from this setup.
Do you join into a pool or are you solo mining with you s7's?

Of course they run 24x7x365. In mining it usually makes no sense to turn them on and off. Some of them date back to Bitmain's Batch-2 (around a year ago?). Before the s7's came out I was mostly using HP DPS1200 server supplies for the (then smaller) farm of s3, s4, and s5's. Currently per CK pool my total average hashrate is 110THs now running mostly s7's.

Unless you run a peta-hash farm, these days solo mining is more for fun with folks using USB stick miners or other low (ish) power/hashrate device. The odds of hitting a block vs daily power costs even if near free are too high.

Thanks, I think we are planning on buying x20 Avalon6 should be around the 70TH/S mark, depending on a few things.

With hopefully a plan to add some of bitfury's products further down the line or when they announce what there next product will be.

We do plan to break into the petta-hash market in the future but for starting out I think 70TH over 20 miners is enough for a decent start at things.

Thank you for the advice and I am sure I will be in contact with you in the near future once we are closer to stating the farm up.

Scottish Sec!

[ScottishSecurity]

Now onto my next question. Were in the UK are reputable sellers of miners? or is this going to be a shipping job for outside the UK?

There are so many sites advertising them knowing which ones are reputable is a bit of a stab in the dark,