We are now shipping from standing stock.Updated details at
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=637595.msg8961301#msg8961301We at Gekkoscience don't really like to do preorders. We've never done one before, because we much prefer to only take money from people when we can immediately ship them the purchased product. This time around though, we have to do things a bit differently and we're gonna try our best to make sure it's better for everyone.
We've assembled and successfully tested our prototype DPS-2000 interface boards, and we've contacted a few people who will be receiving a handful of boards in the next few days to use and test; we'd appreciate if some of them were to post reviews of the product so it's not just us talking about it.
The DPS-2000BB PSU requires a 240V input and is rated for 12V 165A output, but is capable of sourcing about 200A continuous. Our board is rated to handle 240A throughput. The board has 12 screw terminals per rail, so it can support 12 DC power cables without doubling up. The DPS-2000BB has no internal fans, but our boards have a 4-wire fan controller built in (with two 4-pin headers) for full-range PWM control of server-grade fans. The board also has the same pin header as our D750 boards, allowing external fan control, current sense output, 3.3VSB, 5V2A, POK, external turn-on, and current-share for load balancing.
(here's a top view of the new board lookin' all sexy)
(snuggled up against the power supply)
(outputting a sustained 196A while powering four OC'd S1 and two custom-OC'd Cubes)
Development has been stalled so far, sometimes by other projects and sometimes by lack of funding, so we're behind on our expected timeline for the actual production run of these boards. We might have a single large customer, but we also have had a jillion people asking about these boards over the past couple months so we know we'll have a multitude of small orders as well, which must not be neglected.
Additionally convoluting the process, is this board will likely have two variants. I don't know how many people actually utilized the feature, but all of our D750 boards shipped with the ability to measure output current. We designed the same feature on the DPS-2000 board. Unfortunately the parts are more expensive, because it takes a different sort of hardware to compactly and efficiently measure 200A. Because of this, we'd like to offer a version of the board without current sense as well. Unfortunately that also sorta means either a lot of extra work during assembly, or a second run of PCBs. PCB pricing is heavily dependent on "economy of scale", sometimes to the point that an order of 25 boards actually costs about the same as an order of 100. So here's the plan, as we're thinking about it right now.
We'll offer preorders on boards, with the option to request any number of Current-Sense (CS) boards at $75 apiece, or Non-Current-Sense (NCS) boards at $60 apiece. Bulk pricing will apply for these, as seen in the price table at the bottom. General pre-orders for NCS boards will be open indefinitely, but CS board preorders will only be available for two weeks, ending June 17th. We'll require a minimum number of CS sales before placing the materials orders for those boards (probably at least 100), so if we don't meet that threshold we won't be offering CS boards. Anyone who purchased a CS board will have the option to either a) cancel the CS order and receive a full refund
for the original amount paid, in the original currency paid, or b) transfer the order to NCS boards and receive a partial refund for the price difference
based on the original amount paid, in the original currency paid, or c) transfer the order to an equal dollar amount of NCS boards
based on the original amount paid, in the original currency paid, with the difference to be paid or refunded as negotiated.
As several other buy threads have done for things like this, I'd like to keep track of the current queue of orders based on First-Come First-Served, using a public list of what's been purchased using what currency. We'll be basing the BTC price off Coinbase sell-price exchange rate at the time of order, and we'll also accept PayPal transfers. All the funds will be held until after June 17th, at which time we'll determine whether we can make the CS boards or not. Once the initial preorder period has passed, it'll be 5 to 7 weeks before we start shipping boards, to allow for all the large parts orders to come in and we start production.
To respect our possible Large Single Customer, as well as all the preorder customers, we'll be dividing up the boards as they come off the line. If the LSC orders what amounts to 50% of the total order volume, then as boards come off the line, 50% of them will be held for the LSC and the other 50% will be shipped out to preorder customers starting at the top of the queue. That way the big guy still gets boards in a reasonable time (as we'd probably divide up shipments into smaller lots) and preorder people don't get stuck at the end of the line.
We're also working on cable supply, and will continue to stock and offer the standard 18" PCIe 6-pin 16AWG cables for $3.50 apiece. We'll also have 36" PCIe 6-pin 16AWG cables for $4.50 apiece.
| Quantity | Price |
| 1-5 | $55 |
| 6-24 | $52 |
| 25-99 | $50 |
| 100+ | $48 |
Shipping will have to be figured on a per-order basis. Up to 4 boards and 48 cables will fit in a Regional A box and ship for $10. Past that and we'll have to estimate a quote. For ordering info, either PM me or email
sales@gekkoscience.com and make sure to include1) your forum nick
2) the country we'll be shipping to
3) how many of each type board you'd want
4) how many of each length cable you'd want
5) if you'd prefer to pay with BTC or PayPal
So here's the deal. What do people think of that deal?
