ANTMINER - WORTH IT?

[phoenixsilverbird]

I live in the UK and I am eager to start bitcoin mining.
From what I've heard, block erupters are redundant, as are red/blue fury (and the cost is pretty high too, for the amount of power).

I have been considering purchasing Butterfly Labs 10GH/s and/or 4-5 Antminer US1 ASIC USB miners for use with my Raspberry Pi (plus fan and usb port).

Am I doing the right thing in purchasing these antminers? In the UK, I can get four of these for £240 asking price on ebay, possibly more if I barter considering I'm buying more than one.
However I've seen them for around £35 on here plus shipping, but I'm unsure how I would pay, and if I can trust people on these forums.

Combined, I can get around 7.2 GH/s with these machines for around the same/less cost per GH/s as Butterfly labs, which is especially enticing considering their low power draw.

So yeah, is this a good idea, how can I trust, and how do I overclock?

Thanks!!!

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[s1lverbox]

I live in the UK and I am eager to start bitcoin mining.
From what I've heard, block erupters are redundant, as are red/blue fury (and the cost is pretty high too, for the amount of power).

I have been considering purchasing Butterfly Labs 10GH/s and/or 4-5 Antminer US1 ASIC USB miners for use with my Raspberry Pi (plus fan and usb port).

Am I doing the right thing in purchasing these antminers? In the UK, I can get four of these for £240 asking price on ebay, possibly more if I barter considering I'm buying more than one.
However I've seen them for around £35 on here plus shipping, but I'm unsure how I would pay, and if I can trust people on these forums.

Combined, I can get around 7.2 GH/s with these machines for around the same/less cost per GH/s as Butterfly labs, which is especially enticing considering their low power draw.

So yeah, is this a good idea, how can I trust, and how do I overclock?

Thanks!!!

If you look and search in right place you can get 38Gh/s cube for arrount 1BTc. Do some research and see how much you will pay for one BTC now.
Need more info? Pm me, i will help you start your bitcoin adventure.

[phoenixsilverbird]

I'm sorry, I don't really feel like sending you a PM, as I'm new in this area and I'm not sure what is legit and what is not.
Please don't take it personally.

[Xyver]

If you dont feel like talking to anyone, why would someone help you?

Nothing wrong with PMs.

I also vote cubes, those are good starter units

[Anddos]

if your in UK, i highly recommend this guy

http://www.mininghardware.co.uk/en/200ghs-/30-200ghs-bitcoin-miner.html

[phoenixsilverbird]

Thanks for the useful references.
2.5K is quite a lot to spend for me, I just want to start mining as a hobby and I am not (yet) looking to use it to make serious money.

[pjviitas]

If you dont feel like talking to anyone, why would someone help you?

Nothing wrong with PMs.

I also vote cubes, those are good starter units

+1

[klondike_bar]

cubes wont make back more than 1/2.
an antminer should make back its full price at 3.15BTC. I have the 4.75BTC and 4.25BTC antminer systems for the first auction and first groupbuy and have mined roughly 5.25BTC between them in only about a months time - they will definitely reach profitability by summer. (The 3.15BTC might make 2.75-3.5BTC in my guess)

[pjviitas]

cubes wont make back more than 1/2.
an antminer should make back its full price at 3.15BTC. I have the 4.75BTC and 4.25BTC antminer systems for the first auction and first groupbuy and have mined roughly 5.25BTC between them in only about a months time - they will definitely reach profitability by summer. (The 3.15BTC might make 2.75-3.5BTC in my guess)

I think the OP was talking about antminer sticks.

Your right though...the 180GH/s Antminers at 3.15BTC are one of the better deals out there.

I am suspecting the OP does not have 3.15BTC to spend.

[GoldSeal]

why bother mining bitcoin? asics have ruined it. better off to use gpu to mine script until someone eventually ruins scrpt coins.

[klondike_bar]

why bother mining bitcoin? asics have ruined it. better off to use gpu to mine script until someone eventually ruins scrpt coins.

you have it all backwards. ASICs have 'legitimized' it. who on wall street would invest in a currency controlled by a bunch of geeks with dozens of graphics cards? having an efficient dedicated device makes a lot of sense.

The trick is finding the right device and time to invest, and antminers have been lucky in that noone else is substancially shipping yet. (cointerra is late JAN if lucky, hashfast is being accused of scamming and is still weeks from shipping, and KNC/BFL have a lot to do before they bring thier next gen - BFL promised a product to be ready a month ago already, much like with thier first-gen)

The longer these 2-4PH of hardware are delayed, the longer current miners can enjoy a few small difficulty jumps (the next jump may only be 15-20% looking at the charts) before we have a few 30% jumps in a row from 28nm gear dropping

[goggles1200]

Any of those small usb asic miners are good to start off with to see how things work, but think how much money you would need to spend to get a cube? Ebay is even selling cubs around the 800-900$ mark.

[Xian01]

IMO, you can't go wrong with purchasing a single 180GHs Antminer right now. I currently own a number of them with more on order, and have been very happy with them.

I would recommend avoiding anything Butterfly Labs entirely.

Furthermore, I would recommend avoiding anything using the Avalon Gen2 chips.

[Kenshin]

if your in UK, i highly recommend this guy

http://www.mininghardware.co.uk/en/200ghs-/30-200ghs-bitcoin-miner.html

I think this is also a good value machine, and quite powerful for this price range.

[phoenixsilverbird]

Help appreciated but currently I am looking to spend no more than 150 pounds.

Spending 2K+ on a machine that serves no purpose if/when bitcoins are no longer consumer minable is a huge risk I am not willing to take...

[Jcw188]

Help appreciated but currently I am looking to spend no more than 150 pounds.

Spending 2K+ on a machine that serves no purpose if/when bitcoins are no longer consumer minable is a huge risk I am not willing to take...

You know I actually agree with you that I wouldn't risk much money on something that can someday, possibly soon, be a waste if BTC dies out.  But if you think it will survive it seems like the best way to get the most hashpower is to invest in something that can ONLY mine BTC.  So you kind of have to make a choice.

[phoenixsilverbird]

Why, thanks. Glad to see you agree.

If Bitcoin was to die out or something, would I be able to use my USB U1 Antminers for the purpose of mining other altcoins that require SHA-256 hashes?

[vpasic]

yes, you can mine other sha-256 coins.
but for 150 pounds you can't earn anything. I mean you can start mining with some usb erupters and play a little bit but you will not earn anything.
If 150 pounds is all you are willing to invest then forget about it.
take your wife to a nice dinner, buy her some sexy laundry... it will be much more fun then invest in some worthless mining gear.

[phoenixsilverbird]

You're saying 8GH/s is worthless?

[Xian01]

You're saying 8GH/s is worthless?

 Depends on what you pay for it. Either way, 8GHs is not a significant amount of hash rate presently

 It might not be a bad idea to forego mining altogether, and just purchase BTC outright with whatever you were going to spend on mining equipment.