Are you worried about efficiency and making a profit? If not you could get an S9 and remove one or two boards, that would lower the power consumption (it would run at roughly one third of the total) and earn you something. You might also want to consider the noise if its in the open office environment. I've not experienced an S9 running on one board so have no idfea how it behaves. I used to have an S7-LN (Low noise varient) which is woefully inefficient now but, if you aren't worried about profits too much and using it as a lottery machine, then I can personally vouch for its volume, I had one under my desk at home and could hardly hear it.
yeah, good call, I did think of this a while ago but found out that some versions of s9's dont run without all boards present and exactly the same board revision number, I know this having used a number of units myself and swapping boards around, but cant see any thing definitive on any website, at first I thought it was a batch of bad unit I had, but new ones act the same aswell, have not seen anyone else complain about it so I am at a loss as to whats happening, I am currently chatting a a few people with units I am hoping to nab, I am not worried about efficiency, or noise as I mainly use remote connection to work setup so I dont actually have to be there 90% of time, I heard of the s7-LN but for some reason they sell for as much as a S9 here in UK ^^ so I would rather "one board" a S9 if I can get away with it.
thanks for your response, I should be done if one of the people I am talking to pulls through for me.