Off-Topic

[newmars]

Maybe a milk crate? 

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[davecoin]

and it does seem terrahash has most of his ducks in a line, except of course the first one - BKK has not tested his own pcb yet.

Now I have great faith in BKK and am sure he will get us there in the end - I just wish terra would hold back from pre-order until there is a hashing psb. Mostly because I promised my wife I would not spend any more until there was products shipping..(i`ve already broken that promise twice now i think) shhh

This is why I'm bummed to see pre-orders happening.  There simply isn't a timeline available to the people who will be throwing money at TH. I am excited to see a pcb finished, but there is still a lot of work to be done.  

As of 15 hours ago, BKK's readme shows that the following still need to be done:

More hardware testing including ASIC communication, chaining and overall board operation.

Testing and debugging I2C chaining firmware.

Creating firmware configurations for K1 and K64 that optimize code.

Combined USB / I2C bootloader firmware.

Set up HEXMATE scripting to insert serial# for supporting I2C arbitration.

Write cgminer driver and support for other host miner software.

Integrate cgminer into the repository properly for ARM cross compiling as right now it's not forked.

Testing cgminer with driver on a Raspberry Pi for a low-cost, low-power platform.

Testing with a TL-WR703N router containing purpose built OpenWrt firmware.

Stress testing and reliability in over-clocking situations.

[ranlo]

Maybe a milk crate?  

Yeah, that too. I'm just wondering what the benefit is in getting a $1200 case, over just letting the board(s) hang out.

[justmyname]

Why is the case just by itself cost $1200.00?

If you run it yourself you will have to research exactly how to connect the boards together. And then properly connect to a computer. It will cost a lot more (in time alone) to design something like that. I'm thinking of having them host the boards instead. The power supply and the fans. Sounds like a real hassle to me. Not some simple little case.

Since I haven't done any mining. I'm wondering how much trouble it will be to configure  to a mining pool? Get it running for the first time? My power company likes to gouge you if you use too much electricity instead of a linear charge per Kilowatt. In my situation it might be more practical to have them host the boards.      

[ranlo]

Why is the case just by itself cost $1200.00?

If you run it yourself you will have to research exactly how to connect the boards together. And then properly connect to a computer. It will cost a lot more (in time alone) to design something like that. I'm thinking of having them host the boards instead. The power supply and the fans. Sounds like a real hassle to me. Not some simple little case.

Since I haven't done any mining. I'm wondering how much trouble it will be to configure  to a mining pool? Get it running for the first time? My power company likes to gouge you if you use too much electricity instead of a linear charge per Kilowatt. In my situation it might be more practical to have them host the boards.       

Ahh, I was under the impression it'd basically be just getting the board and hooking it to a normal PSU.

The power is an issue here as well, and ours also increases depending on how much is used (because the power company has to buy outside power when overusing).

[fasmax]

and it does seem terrahash has most of his ducks in a line, except of course the first one - BKK has not tested his own pcb yet.

Now I have great faith in BKK and am sure he will get us there in the end - I just wish terra would hold back from pre-order until there is a hashing psb. Mostly because I promised my wife I would not spend any more until there was products shipping..(i`ve already broken that promise twice now i think) shhh

This is why I'm bummed to see pre-orders happening.  There simply isn't a timeline available to the people who will be throwing money at TH. I am excited to see a pcb finished, but there is still a lot of work to be done.  

As of 15 hours ago, BKK's readme shows that the following still need to be done:

More hardware testing including ASIC communication, chaining and overall board operation.

Testing and debugging I2C chaining firmware.

Creating firmware configurations for K1 and K64 that optimize code.

Combined USB / I2C bootloader firmware.

Set up HEXMATE scripting to insert serial# for supporting I2C arbitration.

Write cgminer driver and support for other host miner software.

Integrate cgminer into the repository properly for ARM cross compiling as right now it's not forked.

Testing cgminer with driver on a Raspberry Pi for a low-cost, low-power platform.

Testing with a TL-WR703N router containing purpose built OpenWrt firmware.

Stress testing and reliability in over-clocking situations.

Not to mention the design has not been tested. It would not be surprising if the PCB needs to be turned before mass production to improve reliability/parts shortages/manufacturing/design changes etc.  

[Silvas]

Why is the case just by itself cost $1200.00?

They already said they're running pretty tight margins on boards, and are looking to make more profit on the cases, and especially on complete turnkey mining units ready to run with PSU, case, etc all together with the board.

For those of us who already have a PSU or want to get one of our own, maybe do our own case or fabricate some mounting hardware to mount in something like a rack mount case, this is perfect.
The case they're offering looks nice, and if I had gotten into bitcoin sooner and had a ton of BTC laying around I'd go for it.  But I don't really *need* a nice fancy case and psu and fans and all that.  I have tons of spare parts laying around so having the option to save money is nice

Do you mind sharing on how you will be housing the boards?

I haven't entirely decided yet.  Maybe I'll just buy some standoffs and mount it to a piece of playwood, make sure I have some fans setup to help with cooling and go.  Or I might verify measurements and see about fabricating a mounting plate to put it in a rackmount enclosure or even a desktop or mini tower enclosure

[ScaryHash]

I'm mostly interested in just the empty DX modules. The case does look nice.

Are you planning on offering just the empty modules with mounting hardware and/or any cables for a price?

Is that a standard ATX power supply mounted there?

[davecoin]

Why is the case just by itself cost $1200.00?

If you run it yourself you will have to research exactly how to connect the boards together. And then properly connect to a computer. It will cost a lot more (in time alone) to design something like that. I'm thinking of having them host the boards instead. The power supply and the fans. Sounds like a real hassle to me. Not some simple little case.

Since I haven't done any mining. I'm wondering how much trouble it will be to configure  to a mining pool? Get it running for the first time? My power company likes to gouge you if you use too much electricity instead of a linear charge per Kilowatt. In my situation it might be more practical to have them host the boards.      

The boards will be powered using PCI power connectors like the ones on a regular computer power supply.
The boards will have an I2C connection to chain multiple boards together.  
The boards will connect to a host machine or router with a usb cable.
The boards will work with cgminer, so setting it up on a pool should not be a problem.
The boards will use 32 watts each, so each board will look like a light bulb to your power company.

[ranlo]

Why is the case just by itself cost $1200.00?

If you run it yourself you will have to research exactly how to connect the boards together. And then properly connect to a computer. It will cost a lot more (in time alone) to design something like that. I'm thinking of having them host the boards instead. The power supply and the fans. Sounds like a real hassle to me. Not some simple little case.

Since I haven't done any mining. I'm wondering how much trouble it will be to configure  to a mining pool? Get it running for the first time? My power company likes to gouge you if you use too much electricity instead of a linear charge per Kilowatt. In my situation it might be more practical to have them host the boards.       

The boards will be powered using PCI power connectors like the ones on a regular computer power supply.
The boards will have an I2C connection to chain multiple boards together. 
The boards will connect to a host machine or router with a usb cable.
The boards will work with cgminer, so setting it up on a pool should not be a problem.
The boards will use 32 watts each, so each board will look like a light bulb to your power company.

So even a complete newbie should be able to use/set these up effectively even with the board-only option?

[southerngentuk]

So even a complete newbie should be able to use/set these up effectively even with the board-only option?


Its hard to comment on the intelligence of a newbie, I guess if you can install a graphics card and get it mining then ur probably be ok.

[davecoin]

@ranlo, yes, but you'll need a cooling solution as well. 

I would take some time to review this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=227186.0

[Biomech]

Why is the case just by itself cost $1200.00?

If you run it yourself you will have to research exactly how to connect the boards together. And then properly connect to a computer. It will cost a lot more (in time alone) to design something like that. I'm thinking of having them host the boards instead. The power supply and the fans. Sounds like a real hassle to me. Not some simple little case.

Since I haven't done any mining. I'm wondering how much trouble it will be to configure  to a mining pool? Get it running for the first time? My power company likes to gouge you if you use too much electricity instead of a linear charge per Kilowatt. In my situation it might be more practical to have them host the boards.       

The boards will be powered using PCI power connectors like the ones on a regular computer power supply.
The boards will have an I2C connection to chain multiple boards together. 
The boards will connect to a host machine or router with a usb cable.
The boards will work with cgminer, so setting it up on a pool should not be a problem.
The boards will use 32 watts each, so each board will look like a light bulb to your power company.

So even a complete newbie should be able to use/set these up effectively even with the board-only option?

I am a newbie. I tried several miners with nothing but trouble. Cgminer worked the first try.

[justmyname]

So even a complete newbie should be able to use/set these up effectively even with the board-only option?


Its hard to comment on the intelligence of a newbie, I guess if you can install a graphics card and get it mining then ur probably be ok.

I work on aerospace instruments for a living. You could hook it up yourself but you may run into a snag. If I buy from them,  I'll be ordering the plug and play instead of risking it. A little static electricity could damage a board. The parts you need might not be available etc etc etc.     

[ranlo]

Why is the case just by itself cost $1200.00?

If you run it yourself you will have to research exactly how to connect the boards together. And then properly connect to a computer. It will cost a lot more (in time alone) to design something like that. I'm thinking of having them host the boards instead. The power supply and the fans. Sounds like a real hassle to me. Not some simple little case.

Since I haven't done any mining. I'm wondering how much trouble it will be to configure  to a mining pool? Get it running for the first time? My power company likes to gouge you if you use too much electricity instead of a linear charge per Kilowatt. In my situation it might be more practical to have them host the boards.      

The boards will be powered using PCI power connectors like the ones on a regular computer power supply.
The boards will have an I2C connection to chain multiple boards together.  
The boards will connect to a host machine or router with a usb cable.
The boards will work with cgminer, so setting it up on a pool should not be a problem.
The boards will use 32 watts each, so each board will look like a light bulb to your power company.

So even a complete newbie should be able to use/set these up effectively even with the board-only option?

I am a newbie. I tried several miners with nothing but trouble. Cgminer worked the first try.

The question was in relation to these boards, not miners in general, :p.

[newmars]

I think the board will be supplied with the heatsink, is it?

@ranlo, yes, but you'll need a cooling solution as well. 

I would take some time to review this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=227186.0

[Silvas]

I think the board will be supplied with the heatsink, is it?

@ranlo, yes, but you'll need a cooling solution as well. 

I would take some time to review this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=227186.0

Earlier in the thread Terrahash did state that all boards would come with heatsink.  That alone may or may not be enough though, so I'd plan on having something to supplement just in case.

@Terrahash: That hasn't changed has it?

[ranlo]

I think the board will be supplied with the heatsink, is it?

@ranlo, yes, but you'll need a cooling solution as well. 

I would take some time to review this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=227186.0

Earlier in the thread Terrahash did state that all boards would come with heatsink.  That alone may or may not be enough though, so I'd plan on having something to supplement just in case.

@Terrahash: That hasn't changed has it?

Even if a heatsink were enough, adding more cooling could only help. Even a small drop in temperature can add a lot of life to the electronics.

[newmars]

If the heatsink is provided, then I can try the 20" box fan bought for my GPU  

I think the board will be supplied with the heatsink, is it?

@ranlo, yes, but you'll need a cooling solution as well. 

I would take some time to review this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=227186.0

Earlier in the thread Terrahash did state that all boards would come with heatsink.  That alone may or may not be enough though, so I'd plan on having something to supplement just in case.

@Terrahash: That hasn't changed has it?

[crazyates]

The boards will use 32 watts each, so each board will look like a light bulb to your power company.

Lol a power company can't tell what you're using the power for. However, they might see an increase of 1,000kWh per month, and they might know you're up to something.