Does starting FPGA mining now make sense?

[matthieu11]

Hi guys

I'd like to ask for your advice if starting FPGA mining right now makes sense? I've got an opportunity to buy ztex fpga ( ~1Ghps ) for decent price, and i'm not sure weather it is a waste of money now.


How much will the difficulty increase per additional 1Thps introduced to the network?


Tanks for your advice
Matthieu

[AmDD]

I would say no. With Avalon "Shipping", BFL planning on "shipping" soon and ASICminer being testest I would say difficulty is going to skyrocket within the next 2-3 difficulty changes. Unless the FPGA is dirt cheap I doubt you will break even.

[matthieu11]

Price is around 800$. When you say "skyrocket" you mean like 100% / 200% increase in difficulty? Or more?

Is there any reasonable alternative for mining now? I can't afford buying ASIC but i'd like to take part in bitcoin minig as i'm thinking in long term perspective. Like in 5-10 years how much will 1BTC be worth?

[hundenapf]

At this point it is all just speculation, anything related to bitcoins and especially mining should be considered a risky investment. On the other hand of course you have struggling and bankrupt Euro countriens which make "classic" investments look equally risky. But it's all speculation really.

[brie]

Price is around 800$.

If you've got $800 to spend on mining hardware you may as well buy an ASIC and stay competitive.

[Korbman]

Price is around 800$.

That's more than enough to purchase an ASIC device, at least through Butterfly Labs. At this point, purchasing a FPGA may not be the best idea.

When you say "skyrocket" you mean like 100% / 200% increase in difficulty? Or more?

When Avalon and BFL start shipping their units (and when ASICMiner is fully online at 14TH/s or so), these sort of increases will happen. When all is said and done for the first round of shipping, difficulty could be upwards of 1000% of what it is now.

Is there any reasonable alternative for mining now? I can't afford buying ASIC but i'd like to take part in bitcoin minig as i'm thinking in long term perspective. Like in 5-10 years how much will 1BTC be worth?

Thanks to the recent (and vast) increase in USD/BTC price, GPU mining is know profitable again (for the majority of people, including myself).


On another note, Welcome to Bitcoin!

[MrTeal]

You should be able to buy quad LX150 board for in the range of 250-300 right now. Anything more than that is overpaying for it.

[mjc]

http://bitcoinsbs.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/how-much-mhash-does-it-take-to-mine-1-btc/

http://bitcoinsbs.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/btc-mining-considerations/

[polrpaul]

Price is around 800$.

That's more than enough to purchase an ASIC device, at least through Butterfly Labs. At this point, purchasing a FPGA may not be the best idea.

When you say "skyrocket" you mean like 100% / 200% increase in difficulty? Or more?

When Avalon and BFL start shipping their units (and when ASICMiner is fully online at 14TH/s or so), these sort of increases will happen. When all is said and done for the first round of shipping, difficulty could be upwards of 1000% of what it is now.

Is there any reasonable alternative for mining now? I can't afford buying ASIC but i'd like to take part in bitcoin minig as i'm thinking in long term perspective. Like in 5-10 years how much will 1BTC be worth?

Thanks to the recent (and vast) increase in USD/BTC price, GPU mining is know profitable again (for the majority of people, including myself).


On another note, Welcome to Bitcoin!

^^ What Korbman said.

[matthieu11]

You should be able to buy quad LX150 board for in the range of 250-300 right now. Anything more than that is overpaying for it.

The $800 is for Ztex 1.15y board. So you say i shouldn't buy it?

Price is around 800$.

That's more than enough to purchase an ASIC device, at least through Butterfly Labs. At this point, purchasing a FPGA may not be the best idea.

Butterfly BitForce Little Single SC is really nice, but from what I hear it's a scam...

On another note, Welcome to Bitcoin!

Thanks for the welcome, and for your thorough reply!

[MrTeal]

You should be able to buy quad LX150 board for in the range of 250-300 right now. Anything more than that is overpaying for it.

The $800 is for Ztex 1.15y board. So you say i shouldn't buy it?

Absolutely not. There's not enough resale market for such limited FPGA hardware, and you won't be able to hash enough to make it worthwhile. Even with the current difficulty, price and free power it would take 300 days to pay off that hardware. Even if BFL is a scam, Avalon has shown working hardware and ASICMINER has shown 2.5TH/s of power that isn't in the current difficulty with plans to bring on 12TH/s short term and another 50TH/s in a couple months. You will never see your investment back.

[Skrivitor]

I spent two days looking at FPGAs from a PCB design view and it seems that Altera and XILINX have retreated into their respective caves to build something new.  FPGA is going to be a big black hole until miners get ASICs and start working.  I think in the future ASICs could be replaced by more specialized, high gate count FPGA devices from the big chip houses.

Viva Bitcoin!

[Milkshake]

If you like Throwing your money away