[Introducing] The Bitcoin Mining Authority

[mjsbuddha]

ok, more detailed specs are up. I assumed all most people would care about is the hash rate but that's clearly not the case. Sorry for any confusion.

Would anyone be interested in lower end mining machines? If there's an interest we may expand the product line.

[1715258942]

1715258942

[1715258942]

1715258942

[1715258942]

1715258942

[nster]

30GB SSD is a waste of money.... a cheapo 40$ Free shipping 500GB HDD will do great

1KW on the single GPU system is a waste

How is this only a 30% markup?

[nelisky]

30GB SSD is a waste of money.... a cheapo 40$ Free shipping 500GB HDD will do great

What is the speed gain on bootup, anyway? from 20 to 18 secs?

1KW on the single GPU system is a waste

Yep, and you could drive 2x 5970 mildly overclocked safely with a good 850W. Dunno about 6990 though...

How is this only a 30% markup?

My guess is:

6990 retail: $699
Dual GPU: $2698
Single GPU: $2798

diff = $900, which is ~28.5% above $699... so putting it clearly, 30% markup on top of retail.

Just my 2 bitcents

[eleuthria]

I'd actually recommend a 16 gig SSD (Kingston).  I've put them in my mining rigs, they're only $50 (no tax/shipping) on Amazon.  Assuming you're building these as linux boxes, it's more than enough space, almost no power consumption, and the machine goes from off to the Ubuntu desktop in about 8 seconds (less if you use QuickBoot in the BIOS).

[mjsbuddha]

30GB SSD is a waste of money.... a cheapo 40$ Free shipping 500GB HDD will do great

What is the speed gain on bootup, anyway? from 20 to 18 secs?

1KW on the single GPU system is a waste

Yep, and you could drive 2x 5970 mildly overclocked safely with a good 850W. Dunno about 6990 though...

How is this only a 30% markup?

My guess is:

6990 retail: $699
Dual GPU: $2698
Single GPU: $2798

diff = $900, which is ~28.5% above $699... so putting it clearly, 30% markup on top of retail.

Just my 2 bitcents

I'm selling quality machines. The SSD improves boot times over an HDD and has no moving parts to fail, reducing the likelihood of downtime. The power supply is high efficiency and leaves enough headroom for the user to overclock to their hearts desire. The machines actually produce a little over the 600mhash and 1.2 ghash advertised stock but i figured it would be better to round down then round up.

[mjsbuddha]

I'd actually recommend a 16 gig SSD (Kingston).  I've put them in my mining rigs, they're only $50 (no tax/shipping) on Amazon.  Assuming you're building these as linux boxes, it's more than enough space, almost no power consumption, and the machine goes from off to the Ubuntu desktop in about 8 seconds (less if you use QuickBoot in the BIOS).

they are running windows 7 for end user ease of use. literally just plug them in and click and icon on the desktop and you are mining without messing with any command lines. Like Apple products, my machines are high quality and "just work".

[Garrett Burgwardt]

Why should the user need to interact with the mining computer? Most good mining setups I see just plug in and turn on and autostart the mining software. And using windows 7 is just adding to your expenses. Not a very good business strategy, imo.

[mjsbuddha]

Why should the user need to interact with the mining computer? Most good mining setups I see just plug in and turn on and autostart the mining software. And using windows 7 is just adding to your expenses. Not a very good business strategy, imo.

only reason the user has to interact with the machine is to put their info in for the mining pool they are using or their own bitcoin server. after that they can start automatically on after restart.

Listen, this service is for people that have never made a computer, don't know how linux works and just learned about Bitcoin on TV and want to know how they can get in on it simply. Yes I'm making a profit. This is a business. If you know how to make a computer and assemble it on your own then of course its cheaper to buy the parts and make it yourself. The same can be said for Dell or HP machines, or anything else for that matter.

If on the other hand you have never built a computer before, here I am, with a product that just works without any hassle.

www.bc-mining.com

[nelisky]

Listen, this service is for people that have never made a computer, don't know how linux works and just learned about Bitcoin on TV and want to know how they can get in on it simply. Yes I'm making a profit. This is a business. If you know how to make a computer and assemble it on your own then of course its cheaper to buy the parts and make it yourself. The same can be said for Dell or HP machines, or anything else for that matter.

That is a very valid point, and I was thinking to myself "why did this thread ever get derailed into a discussion of profit?"... then it dawned on me, you said you were the cheapest, there, blatantly. We are all nitpickers and given your price / performance ratio, it was just too damn easy to complain

Best of luck with your business, it is certainly filling a niche. Good service, bad advertisement wording.

[nster]

I meant 1800$ for single-GPU or 2700$ for dual, how can it be a 30% mark up vs single parts?

[mjsbuddha]

I meant 1800$ for single-GPU or 2700$ for dual, how can it be a 30% mark up vs single parts?

do businesses typically talk about their expenses and markup? ask the guy that runs bitcoin rig how much his machines cost.

[nster]

I meant 1800$ for single-GPU or 2700$ for dual, how can it be a 30% mark up vs single parts?

do businesses typically talk about their expenses and markup? ask the guy that runs bitcoin rig how much his machines cost.

in which case you shouldn't have talked about mark ups.... Anyways, I figured it out kind of for anyone who was wondering

With newegg's prices, 1311$ (-30$ MIR but lets not count that), then add 50$ assembly, HDD image and misc fee, 40$ shipping, and that nets you to 1400$. Or if this includes a DVD burner, then thats another 20~21$ at newegg and take that out of the assembly fee. 1800/1400 = 28.5% profit

I would suggest offer linux instead of windows and take out 50~70$, perhaps downgrading to a 16GB SSD at the same time (ie: linux version is 70~100$ cheaper, but has a 16GB SSD and no windows). I'm correct to assume you are using legal copies of Windows? no pirated or MSDN or TechNet version correct?

When you become more popular, you may also offer a "Special" version that is only rarely available, that is quite a bit cheaper but features a used 5970 instead (ie: 100~200$ at least) whenever you find 5970s at 400~450$. That way, you cheapest version would be 1498~1598$ (5970 with linux version)

and when accepting bitcoin, at least 1.10$ USD per bitcoin seems reasonable, or 10% below Mt.Gox price or something.

just some ideas

[grue]

I don't like the title of your thread, it's VERY misleading. "Mining Authority" implies you're exerting some sort of control over the mining system, which you do not.

I'm selling quality machines. The SSD improves boot times over an HDD

how would that be useful? are you restarting your miner daily or hourly?

and has no moving parts to fail, reducing the likelihood of downtime.

Most servers use hard disks, and they still have 99.99+% uptime

[xenon481]

Purchasing/building a mining rig with Windows and a standard storage device (HDD or SSD) is a waste of money.

Operating System - OS should be some flavor of Linux with a customized first-time boot setup menu questionnaire for easy setup. Even better would be if the rig was completely headless and you wrote a little Windows application that can be run from any PC on the LAN to set it up (similar to many wireless router setups).

Storage - The rig should boot off of a cheap ($5 absolute max) ~1GB USB stick. There is absolutely no reason at all to spend money on any form of standard storage device at all.

[nster]

I don't like the title of your thread, it's VERY misleading. "Mining Authority" implies you're exerting some sort of control over the mining system, which you do not.

I'm selling quality machines. The SSD improves boot times over an HDD

how would that be useful? are you restarting your miner daily or hourly?

and has no moving parts to fail, reducing the likelihood of downtime.

Most servers use hard disks, and they still have 99.99+% uptime

When there are power outages of any sort, or if it is scheduled to run certain hours, you can shave a few seconds.... but you are right, no difference will be made time wise really. MAX 1 minute a week and like 50 minutes a year if you have a lot of outages.

A benefit of the SSD is that if it is practically immune to temp problems and noise problems.... if it is a dedicated miner, SSD or HDD shouldn't make much of a difference, and HDD space could as people may want to use it as a media center as well, so a 40$ 500GB HDD may indeed be better.

[grue]

SSD is better than HDD, but it's just too expensive. the benefits you gain from using SSD for mining is just too little to justify the expense. I agree with xenon481, Mining machines should be using USB for storage.

[nster]

Booting from a USB device is not very smart, as USB devices are not designed for this... Failures would be more common, and accidentally taking it out etc can become a problem. It also kills any versatility for the machine.

[xenon481]

Booting from a USB device is not very smart, as USB devices are not designed for this... Failures would be more common, and accidentally taking it out etc can become a problem. It also kills any versatility for the machine.

In what way would failures be more common?

Even if they are more common, who cares? They are cheap cheap cheap.

And you can work something out to mount the device internally so people don't take it out.

Why does a mining rig need versatility? I don't need 5 rigs with HDDs to be file servers.

Custom Mining Rigs are supposed to be appliances, not general purpose machines.

[mjsbuddha]

When purchasing with bitcoins is implemented it will be at current Mt. Gox exchange rate with a 5%-10% discount most likely.

nster, your obviously not the end user I'm trying to market to, but thanks for trying so hard to make me look disreputable to those I am approaching. I've done nothing wrong, I'm just trying to make my way in life like everyone else and you may have killed the project I've worked so hard on before it's started. Classy.

[mjsbuddha]

But since you've pointed it out to the world, yes your numbers are about right. my cost for the single GPU system is about $1300 and the 2 GPU system is $2000, not including the cost of shipping a 50lb machine across the country that I will be covering to give some extra value to the customers.