Second hand ASICs from China

[MadMac]

(Posted this in the Deeponion boards, but here it's probably the better audience.)

There are a lot of cheap ASIC boards and miners on the market now, previous generation something, not profitable enough for the Chinese whales. However those look still pretty powerful and maybe worth an experiment.

Just the cheapest I could find from Aliexpress right now, I'm not affiliated with them, just an example, there are many more.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-Gridseed-2-6-3M-USB-ASIC-miner-Scrypt-Miner-litecoin-mining-the-PCB-with/32622806629.html (Free shipping Gridseed 2.6 3M USB ASIC miner Scrypt Miner litecoin mining the PCB with thermal conductive silicone pad-in Servers from Computer & Office on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group)

Has anyone tried one of these boards or miners before, does it make sense to let's say spend 100$ on one set of them and let them run for a while? I guess it may break even, maybe a tiny profit. But I still contemplate to get my hands on one of these.

Has anyone tried that and what are your experiences and/or recommendations? Does it make any sense at all?

Cheers.

[jekecoin]

That Gridseed is too expensive IMHO, and don't have the headsink.

[MadMac]

That Gridseed is too expensive IMHO, and don't have the headsink.

I could not hold my feet still and ordered one, 2 blades, with heatsink and PSU for 100US$. Can't beat that. Was 1500$ not so long ago. They phase it out in China, not profitable enough but may still be good enough to experiment with different coins. Looking forward to the new toy.

[Jake052478]

Nice try, you may find gold in a trash.  I hope you can have break even in your investment.  Not all made in China are easily worn out.  There are products from them that has also of high quality.  They say, you must have the guts to succeed... Cheer up for you man...

[br1mcoin]

(Posted this in the Deeponion boards, but here it's probably the better audience.)

There are a lot of cheap ASIC boards and miners on the market now, previous generation something, not profitable enough for the Chinese whales. However those look still pretty powerful and maybe worth an experiment.

Just the cheapest I could find from Aliexpress right now, I'm not affiliated with them, just an example, there are many more.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-Gridseed-2-6-3M-USB-ASIC-miner-Scrypt-Miner-litecoin-mining-the-PCB-with/32622806629.html (Free shipping Gridseed 2.6 3M USB ASIC miner Scrypt Miner litecoin mining the PCB with thermal conductive silicone pad-in Servers from Computer & Office on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group)

Has anyone tried one of these boards or miners before, does it make sense to let's say spend 100$ on one set of them and let them run for a while? I guess it may break even, maybe a tiny profit. But I still contemplate to get my hands on one of these.

Has anyone tried that and what are your experiences and/or recommendations? Does it make any sense at all?

Cheers.

You should get the one with heatsink

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/btc-miner-Gridseed-Blade-G-Blade-Scrypt-Litecoin-ASIC-Miner-5-2-6Mh-s-Full-Solution/1786221137.html?spm=2114.10010108.1000023.8.f2b4a6boMfl5d

[MadMac]

Yep, that's the one. The heatsink and fan are probably worth already half the price. May get another newer ASIC board when they become available.

[leowonderful]

When the LTC price jumped and difficulty was still low a few months ago it was possible to turn a tiny profit but nowadays the newer ASICs with better efficiency outperform this to the point that this is no longer profitable. Besides this, this doesn’t belong in the Bitcoin Hardware section.

[br1mcoin]

When the LTC price jumped and difficulty was still low a few months ago it was possible to turn a tiny profit but nowadays the newer ASICs with better efficiency outperform this to the point that this is no longer profitable. Besides this, this doesn’t belong in the Bitcoin Hardware section.

true, it's not longer efficient, however, u can use such miner to mine new unlisted coins.

[leowonderful]

When the LTC price jumped and difficulty was still low a few months ago it was possible to turn a tiny profit but nowadays the newer ASICs with better efficiency outperform this to the point that this is no longer profitable. Besides this, this doesn’t belong in the Bitcoin Hardware section.

true, it's not longer efficient, however, u can use such miner to mine new unlisted coins.

Why would you when you can get bigger miners for less per megahash and way better efficiency or just rent hashpower from Nicehash for that? This makes no economical sense anymore and the people who own these are just trying to get rid of them. Unless you already have one don’t use or buy it.

[Librium]

imo its very risky to jump into buying something from China without warranty. Could be gold, could be trash.

Aliexpress is usually pretty good at protecting you against DOA. Beyond that who knows...

[piratek]

I bought a couple replacement boards some months back.  Worked like a charm!!

[MadMac]

Why would you when you can get bigger miners for less per megahash and way better efficiency or just rent hashpower from Nicehash for that? This makes no economical sense anymore and the people who own these are just trying to get rid of them. Unless you already have one don’t use or buy it.

What can you do wrong for 100$ incl. shipment?

[oddity2505]

Why would you when you can get bigger miners for less per megahash and way better efficiency or just rent hashpower from Nicehash for that? This makes no economical sense anymore and the people who own these are just trying to get rid of them. Unless you already have one don’t use or buy it.

What can you do wrong for 100$ incl. shipment?

The problem is that this asic can only bring you 10-20 cents per day. And with the increasing difficulty it won't have time to even pay for itself.

[freshstorm92]

I have some contact in china, they said these cheap machines is very dangerous. Because people will over-clock ( don't know if it's right, my English is not good enough) these machines and make it work hard in a short time ( like 3 or 4 months), because warranty time of Bitmain and Asic manufacturer is only 6 months, they will sale off these machines after using about 3-4 months, or even worse, they  use in a long time and then give them to some factory to re-new the machine and then sell out to the market. the point is, Bitmain will not warranty for these machines, and buyer will facing with high risk

[MadMac]

Short update on this one, the older Gridseed G-Blade miner arrived yesterday. Condition is pretty good, although it's of course used. Came with a new 100W PSU (LED type) and full set of cables and connectors.

Got it running in no time, although the USB config is slightly tricky, but there are enough guides around on how to do this. Right now I'm playing a bit around with cgminer, bfgminer I haven't tried yet, the latter should be a bit newer.

Need to do some exploration on scrypt coins that are worthwhile to mine, I don't really mean from a value perspective but to get at least a few thousand out of it. Certainly not easy to break even, if at all, but that was not the intention anyways.