[Review] Apollo BTC - Full Node + Miner in a box

[ABCbits]

Forgetting the mining part, if someone would like to have own node, electrum server, rcp browser and even maybe something like btcpay server, why not to buy „tiny dektop computer” like for example Lenovo M72e? I see you may get one on ebay for around $50 (+ probably better disk).
I think I will try to buy one and to configure as a personal node.

On their website[1], they advertise Apollo as ready to use device though. It's more fair to compare it with product such as myNode One[2].

Forgetting the mining part, if someone would like to have own node, electrum server, rcp browser and even maybe something like btcpay server, why not to buy „tiny dektop computer” like for example Lenovo M72e? I see you may get one on ebay for around $50 (+ probably better disk).
I think I will try to buy one and to configure as a personal node.

Absolutely; a SBC gives you the advantage of size and power consumption, but I'm a big fan of x86 nodes.

FYI, i just checked Lenovo M72e[3] and it's closer to Intel NUC rather than SBC. It use Intel processor.

[1] https://www.futurebit.io/
[2] https://mynodebtc.com/products/one
[3] https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/withdrawnbook/M72e.pdf

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[dkbit98]

For anyone who is interested... I just saw someone selling Futurebit Apollo BTC devices in Goods/Computer hardware section.
It's newbie member without any reputation, but if deal is good and if seller is real, maybe someone can get a decent price, instead of paying full price and wait many months for delivery.
n0nce what do you think about this?

[bearsVSbulls]

Is there any point in going into mining now? I only see news about miners surrendering and selling their equipment

[n0nce]

For anyone who is interested... I just saw someone selling Futurebit Apollo BTC devices in Goods/Computer hardware section.
It's newbie member without any reputation, but if deal is good and if seller is real, maybe someone can get a decent price, instead of paying full price and wait many months for delivery.
n0nce what do you think about this?

I have no idea; they gave no price and I'm not sure I trust many users in here for $1000 or more - especially newbie accounts.
I'm looking to sell my full unit myself fairly soon, but will most probably do so in P2P fashion without shipping.

Since you can get the miner new from Futurebit, I'd personally do that instead of buying used.

Is there any point in going into mining now? I only see news about miners surrendering and selling their equipment

You have to ask this in Mining speculation, my friend..

[dkbit98]

Since you can get the miner new from Futurebit, I'd personally do that instead of buying used.

I think it's currently out of stock so you could only preorder it, and you would probably have to wait for months to receive it, if you ever receive it.
Just finished talking with one tech guy from China, and he told me that situation with chip supply shortage is not getting any better.
They can't even make simple boards now and it's unclear when situation will get better, maybe next month but nobody knows exactly.
That is why I think that purchasing used stuff is good option in this case, if devices are in good condition.

[n0nce]

Since you can get the miner new from Futurebit, I'd personally do that instead of buying used.

I think it's currently out of stock so you could only preorder it, and you would probably have to wait for months to receive it, if you ever receive it.

My last information was that it is technically a preorder, but there's a relatively guaranteed lead time of just 1 month, which is very reasonable in the ASIC market.

The issue with used devices is that users are usually able to overclock and / or under-cool the ASICs through manual controls and there's no way of knowing whether that happened.
But if you do want to get one from Europe and trust me more than other sellers (I always used Futurebit presets), you can always send me a DM, dkbit - I'd make an exception for you and sell the device online..

[jstefanop]

I must say that $300 for adding this SBC and SSD is steep. The 'hashboard only' option can be acquired for $524.99 right now, whereas the 'full unit' runs you $824.99. Buying an Orange Pi 4 and the exact same SSD right now, runs you pretty exactly $200, so it's a 50% premium. I'm not sure if you can just buy those yourself and mount them into a 'hashboard only' unit, or if there are missing mounting spots or holes on those. But from pictures, they look exactly the same. Just throwing an idea out there.

Just saw this thread, thanks for the honest review. I do want to provide transparency whenever I can especially when it comes to comments like above when most people have no idea costs/development involved with a product like this.

We call it "our" controller because it truly is, and there is nothing else on the market that even comes close to its performance for a Pi sized computer and thats mostly from the innovation with our custom SSD controller. AFAIK its the only SBC on the market that has 1TB R/W speeds which is why its so much faster than a PI when syncing. Sure the base board is off the shelf (we have custom changes to this as well), but we put in a lot of work to the overall system with the SSD components.

Pricing, here is the our overall bulk costs we paid for Batch 2 and 3 for these components
SBC:95
SSD:90
SD Card: 9
Custom SSD card: 19
Heatsinks/Fans/Wire harnesses and other small components: 25

Thats 240 and does not include imports costs/shipping costs/assembly/R&D etc etc.

When all that is factored in we actually make a net loss on the full node units in relation to its price premium. The little profit we make is from the hashing unit itself. 300 is a steal for what you get, especially when compared to other full node only competitors.

FYI most of the other issues especially around upgrade the base OS and security issues have been fixed in the latest image release.

[MrMik]

Make your own judgement (maybe let me know what you think about this), but to me it appeared it's something custom, maybe even tailor-made for this application. Instead, it's the Orange Pi 4, which has less software and community support than a Raspberry Pi, and has unnecessary hardware like a GPU.

Thank you for this detailed review and the other related threads, my laptop is aching with all the open tabs that I want to read and use later on!

However, there is at least one difference to the Orange Pi4 board which I spotted while trying to move the WiFi antenna to outside of the metal container:

The 5VDC outlet is missing and there are cables soldered and glued instead of it, going to the hashboard instead of to the outside of the metal container.
I wonder why the hole is in the container and why it is labelled 5VDC OUT.
I think the board design was changed after the housing design was finished and so the hole was left in the box.

This former 5VDC outlet hole come in handy for routing the WiFi antenna to the outside. A rubber grommet helps to prevent chafing against the metal edges.