My unit arrived a few days ago and I recently started testing it (just the way it comes out of the box); everything's very positive so far. I'll write one of my typical detailed reviews once I have enough information and experience with it, later this month probably.
In the meantime you can check those out if you haven't already:
[Review] Apollo BTC - Full Node + Miner in a box[Review] GekkoScience Terminus R909 home minerI'm also planning to look into ways of tuning mining parameters; whether there's a binary that can take custom parameters or anything like that. There is an SSH server running on the unit, but I couldn't find working credentials yet.
So far, I found out from the log files (and the GUI options) that unlike the only other fully self-contained unit I tested (Apollo BTC), it doesn't seem to be based on a Raspberry Pi / similar 'full' single-board computer, but instead it runs some light Linux distro on a microcontroller. There are mentions of RISC-V in the
syslog and there is no 'shutdown' option in the web UI.
The system doesn't act up or have any issues just pulling the power and plugging it back in, which is quite convenient if you want to use it as a space heater in different parts of your home (e.g. shed, basement, anywhere you quickly and temporarily need some warm air). In fact, it boots up and reconnects to WiFi / resumes hashing astonishingly quickly; something that couldn't be said about the Apollo unit.
I really love how compact it is, while having a very respectable hashrate of over 4TH/s. Keep in mind that it only costs $160 shipped, as of today!
In order to be able to have something relatable / baseline, I did get the 'full set' with their PSU, even though I have other high-power USB-C power supplies already. It's passively cooled, so heating up a bit is expected, but compared to USB-C laptop power supplies, I have the feeling that it gets warmer (lower efficiency). Last I checked, it was pulling about 138W from the wall, while showing me 126W on the device's built-in screen.
This results in a roughly estimated efficiency of 90%, which is not excellent, but totally decent for the price and
not out of norm. For reference, a high-quality ATX power supply like a
Seasonic Prime 850W Platinum tops out at 95% efficiency, but it costs over 200 bucks - more than the price of the whole
Avalon Nano 3.
Just keep this in mind if you're calculating running costs, as always, do measure wall power and not just software-reported 'hashboard power'.
In this case we're talking about ~100kWh a year of PSU heat loss (about 10 to 30 bucks in total, depending on your electricity price).
