Custom Rig vs. Antminer S9 in 2018

[davemanet]

Hi All, what's the better investment and why?  Seeing as how ETH might go towards $1,000, I might say custom rig...

[1715103421]

1715103421

[Vann]

The better long term investment is always a GPU rig. ASIC's are at best a short term investment where you hope to make ROI before they become obsolete. Even if BTC goes to $50K, once the new more powerful ASIC's come out, your S9 becomes a door stop overnight. Especially with BTC, which is dominated by huge players with cheap electric. Even if ETH tanks to $150, you can still mine other coins, turn off the rig until it becomes profitable again or resell the hardware to recoup most of your investment.

[Ranger4R]

custom rig can give you a a flexibility to mine whatever you like and whenever you like
I'm mining with custom rigs from July and never had any doubts, so for me choice is obvious - it's custom rig!

[davemanet]

The better long term investment is always a GPU rig. ASIC's are at best a short term investment where you hope to make ROI before they become obsolete. Even if BTC goes to $50K, once the new more powerful ASIC's come out, your S9 becomes a door stop overnight. Especially with BTC, which is dominated by huge players with cheap electric. Even if ETH tanks to $150, you can still mine other coins, turn off the rig until it becomes profitable again or resell the hardware to recoup most of your investment.

I hear this argument alot, but it seems like the S9 has been out for a long long time hasn't it?  It seems whoever got in on it is making a very nice profit now.

[BennyT]

As long as crypto increases long term, you will do well with either. With ASICS it’s helps to get in on the first batch to really maximize that ROI. I like having both an asic and gpu’s. If you can do both, go for it.

[Vann]

The better long term investment is always a GPU rig. ASIC's are at best a short term investment where you hope to make ROI before they become obsolete. Even if BTC goes to $50K, once the new more powerful ASIC's come out, your S9 becomes a door stop overnight. Especially with BTC, which is dominated by huge players with cheap electric. Even if ETH tanks to $150, you can still mine other coins, turn off the rig until it becomes profitable again or resell the hardware to recoup most of your investment.

I hear this argument alot, but it seems like the S9 has been out for a long long time hasn't it?  It seems whoever got in on it is making a very nice profit now.

You hear it alot because that has mostly been the case for as long as gpu rigs and ASIC's have been around. You can't just look back at this year, if anything that's even more reason to go with a rig. The last time GPU mining became unprofitable was at the end of 2014 when ASIC's and multi-pools took over when the marketcap was less than $5B. Those with rigs that kept mining at a loss made the up it 1000's of times and they can still mine profitably with those rigs today, while the ASIC's from back then have long been sitting on a shelf collecting dust.

[philipma1957]

As long as crypto increases long term, you will do well with either. With ASICS it’s helps to get in on the first batch to really maximize that ROI. I like having both an asic and gpu’s. If you can do both, go for it.

For the most part this is a good answer.

I like

 various coins
 cash
 asics
 gpus

I juggle the holdings of all 4.

[philipma1957]

The better long term investment is always a GPU rig. ASIC's are at best a short term investment where you hope to make ROI before they become obsolete. Even if BTC goes to $50K, once the new more powerful ASIC's come out, your S9 becomes a door stop overnight. Especially with BTC, which is dominated by huge players with cheap electric. Even if ETH tanks to $150, you can still mine other coins, turn off the rig until it becomes profitable again or resell the hardware to recoup most of your investment.

I hear this argument alot, but it seems like the S9 has been out for a long long time hasn't it?  It seems whoever got in on it is making a very nice profit now.

You hear it alot because that has mostly been the case for as long as gpu rigs and ASIC's have been around. You can't just look back at this year, if anything that's even more reason to go with a rig. The last time GPU mining became unprofitable was at the end of 2014 when ASIC's and multi-pools took over when the marketcap was less than $5B. Those with rigs that kept mining at a loss made the up it 1000's of times and they can still mine profitably today, while the ASIC's from back then have long been sitting on a shelf collecting dust.

You are wrong now.

Basically gpus were state of the art and using current chips.

Asics were several generations behind. with the s-9 the asics are now using state of the art chips so they won’t go out of date quickly.  My batch 1 s-9 is still working.  June 2016 to dec 2017. 

[davemanet]

The better long term investment is always a GPU rig. ASIC's are at best a short term investment where you hope to make ROI before they become obsolete. Even if BTC goes to $50K, once the new more powerful ASIC's come out, your S9 becomes a door stop overnight. Especially with BTC, which is dominated by huge players with cheap electric. Even if ETH tanks to $150, you can still mine other coins, turn off the rig until it becomes profitable again or resell the hardware to recoup most of your investment.

I hear this argument alot, but it seems like the S9 has been out for a long long time hasn't it?  It seems whoever got in on it is making a very nice profit now.

You hear it alot because that has mostly been the case for as long as gpu rigs and ASIC's have been around. You can't just look back at this year, if anything that's even more reason to go with a rig. The last time GPU mining became unprofitable was at the end of 2014 when ASIC's and multi-pools took over when the marketcap was less than $5B. Those with rigs that kept mining at a loss made the up it 1000's of times and they can still mine profitably today, while the ASIC's from back then have long been sitting on a shelf collecting dust.

You are wrong now.

Basically gpus were state of the art and using current chips.

Asics were several generations behind. with the s-9 the asics are now using state of the art chips so they won’t go out of date quickly.  My batch 1 s-9 is still working.  June 2016 to dec 2017. 

Ah, it sounds like you two are both knowledgable on both sides of the argument.  I do see the point of GPU rigs being solid for a while, but i also see that the S9 has been in business a year and a half and it's still going strong.

So in 2018, what's the smarter investment?

[Vann]

The better long term investment is always a GPU rig. ASIC's are at best a short term investment where you hope to make ROI before they become obsolete. Even if BTC goes to $50K, once the new more powerful ASIC's come out, your S9 becomes a door stop overnight. Especially with BTC, which is dominated by huge players with cheap electric. Even if ETH tanks to $150, you can still mine other coins, turn off the rig until it becomes profitable again or resell the hardware to recoup most of your investment.

I hear this argument alot, but it seems like the S9 has been out for a long long time hasn't it?  It seems whoever got in on it is making a very nice profit now.

You hear it alot because that has mostly been the case for as long as gpu rigs and ASIC's have been around. You can't just look back at this year, if anything that's even more reason to go with a rig. The last time GPU mining became unprofitable was at the end of 2014 when ASIC's and multi-pools took over when the marketcap was less than $5B. Those with rigs that kept mining at a loss made the up it 1000's of times and they can still mine profitably today, while the ASIC's from back then have long been sitting on a shelf collecting dust.

You are wrong now.

Basically gpus were state of the art and using current chips.

Asics were several generations behind. with the s-9 the asics are now using state of the art chips so they won’t go out of date quickly.  My batch 1 s-9 is still working.  June 2016 to dec 2017.  

All ASIC's are sate-of-the-art when they come out and become obsolete once better manufacturing technics become available. It's true the first BTC ASIC's had lots of room for improvement in chip density. Current chip manufacturing technology has reached a limit as to how small it can go, but as soon as improvements are made, as they always are, the S9 will become obsolete just like all the one's before it. At least now you might be able to mine some BTC chain forks. A new GPU rig from today will be able to mine profitably for much longer than a S9 bought today and as such, is a better long term investment.