Biostar BTC-24GH Bitcoin Miner Review

[infoporter]

Woops, I meant to add the price and forgot. I have updated the post with price.

tl;dr = $599.99

For those wondering, I am an independent hardware reviewer and not affiliated with Biostar in any way.

It's great to see Biostar responding to feedback in this thread. My hope is that they take our feedback and make something that puts all the pre-order ASIC manufacturers to shame.

They have the technology. They can rebuilt it.

[1715119816]

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[1715119816]

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[1715119816]

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[Sophokles]

Woops, I meant to add the price and forgot. I have updated the post with price.

tl;dr = $599.99

For those wondering, I am an independent hardware reviewer and not affiliated with Biostar in any way.

It's great to see Biostar responding to feedback in this thread. My hope is that they take our feedback and make something that puts all the pre-order ASIC manufacturers to shame.

They have the technology. They can rebuilt it.

That's 25$/GHash then. Current generation of miners is 1-3$/GHash. No one will buy this device. I wonder what's the point of taking it to market. Probably the increase in difficulty was not taken into account when calculating the business case for these. But still, I am curious about the next gen. Hope it'll be 28nm technology with a competitive price tag.

[dimke_yu]

I am also curious about GEN2... it is very nice that company like Biostar is interested in developing ASIC devices. With their distribution and service it would be easy for a lot of people to acquire miners for themselves and support the network. It would be also ql if they implement some small quantity of ASIC chips on their mainstream products like combo devices and such 

[TR8888]

Great to see Biostar making ASICs! Hopefully they can get 20nm out the door ASAP and make a real impression on the market.

[Gogreen]

I am also curious about GEN2... it is very nice that company like Biostar is interested in developing ASIC devices. With their distribution and service it would be easy for a lot of people to acquire miners for themselves and support the network. It would be also ql if they implement some small quantity of ASIC chips on their mainstream products like combo devices and such 

Sorry how do you get the avatar below your username?

By the way  if they can produce something like s3

[Beastlymac]

I am also curious about GEN2... it is very nice that company like Biostar is interested in developing ASIC devices. With their distribution and service it would be easy for a lot of people to acquire miners for themselves and support the network. It would be also ql if they implement some small quantity of ASIC chips on their mainstream products like combo devices and such 

Sorry how do you get the avatar below your username?

By the way  if they can produce something like s3

Avatars where disabled months ago because of a security breach. You need to have uploaded one before they where disabled.

[dropt]

That's 25$/GHash then. Current generation of miners is 1-3$/GHash. No one will buy this device. I wonder what's the point of taking it to market. Probably the increase in difficulty was not taken into account when calculating the business case for these. But still, I am curious about the next gen. Hope it'll be 28nm technology with a competetive price tag.

These have been around since at the least March of 2014.  But you're right, and they were still expensive then.

[navigator]

I found this address in the manual last time this was posted
http://eligius.st/~wizkid057/newstats/userstats.php/17V2jhDpwEEGLxDJgbKXfTgEtob9EScRT
http://bitinfocharts.com/bitcoin/address/17V2jhDpwEEGLxDJgbKXfTgEtob9EScRT
First payment last christmas. Maybe this address is setup on some demo units?

I'm not usually a fan of biostar but very interested in what btc hardware the may make. I would feel 100% confident ordering from a well-known manufacturer.

[dropt]

As a heads up to anyone who may have been "selected" to receive a review machine from "Biostar"....

Return-Path: <sales@biostar-usa.com>
X-Original-To: xxx@xxx.net
Delivered-To: xxx@xxx.net
Received: from emkei.cz (emkei.cz [46.167.245.72])
   by xxx.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3C94A5421C58
   for <xxx@xxx.net>; Fri,  1 Aug 2014 17:32:01 -0400 (EDT)
Received: by emkei.cz (Postfix, from userid 33)
   id BF9266BD0D; Fri,  1 Aug 2014 23:32:59 +0200 (CEST)
To: xxx@xxx.net
Subject: Shipment of 2 Dev Miners Payment
From: "Daniel Laidlaw" <sales@biostar-usa.com>
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Importance: Normal
Errors-To: sales@biostar-usa.com
Reply-To: sales@biostar-usa.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Message-Id: <20140801213259.BF9266BD0D@emkei.cz>
Date: Fri,  1 Aug 2014 23:32:59 +0200 (CEST)

It's a scam.

[faetos]

As a heads up to anyone who may have been "selected" to receive a review machine from "Biostar"....

Return-Path: <sales@biostar-usa.com>
X-Original-To: xxx@xxx.net
Delivered-To: xxx@xxx.net
Received: from emkei.cz (emkei.cz [46.167.245.72])
   by xxx.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3C94A5421C58
   for <xxx@xxx.net>; Fri,  1 Aug 2014 17:32:01 -0400 (EDT)
Received: by emkei.cz (Postfix, from userid 33)
   id BF9266BD0D; Fri,  1 Aug 2014 23:32:59 +0200 (CEST)
To: xxx@xxx.net
Subject: Shipment of 2 Dev Miners Payment
From: "Daniel Laidlaw" <sales@biostar-usa.com>
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Importance: Normal
Errors-To: sales@biostar-usa.com
Reply-To: sales@biostar-usa.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Message-Id: <20140801213259.BF9266BD0D@emkei.cz>
Date: Fri,  1 Aug 2014 23:32:59 +0200 (CEST)

It's a scam.

From OP "For those wondering, I am an independent hardware reviewer and not affiliated with Biostar in any way." That's fairly obvious from the mail header - Received: from emkei.cz (emkei.cz [46.167.245.72]).

[Gogreen]

I am also curious about GEN2... it is very nice that company like Biostar is interested in developing ASIC devices. With their distribution and service it would be easy for a lot of people to acquire miners for themselves and support the network. It would be also ql if they implement some small quantity of ASIC chips on their mainstream products like combo devices and such 

Sorry how do you get the avatar below your username?

By the way  if they can produce something like s3

Avatars where disabled months ago because of a security breach. You need to have uploaded one before they where disabled.

I see did they patch up the simple machine ?  Why don't they use vbulletin  they can import the data over to vbulletin

[Pjones]

Yes, it does.  Half node die shrinks are pretty easy, but going from 110nm down to 28nm requires pretty much a redesign of the entire chip.  If your (Biostar) engineers have not done 28nm products before, they will have a big learning curve.  The licenses for the tools they need are also more expensive and complex, and the design rules are vastly different at the smaller geometries.

I am very pleased to see a major, well-established vendor get involved in this space.  Please consider a partnership with one of the existing SHA256 ASIC vendors, and leverage your supply chain capabilities to bring cost and power effective products to the market.

At 5W/GH/s they're running more expensively than Avalons and BFl 65nm gear - which can had for more or less free nowadays.  Thanks for the review but this item is dead before it even hit the shelves.

if this is 110/130nm technology efficiency doesnt matter much - consider it as a small-batch test of thier design. If they go and replicate into 28nm they could catch up to the market quicly, and the review indicates a stable unit once mining. For a company like biostar playing catchup will be easier than it was for bitcoin manufacturers to oranise and fund thier first die-shrink


who knows - maybe a BTC-240GH is on the horizon at the same power draw (would require 28nm assuming this was 110nm)

I was under the impression from other EEs on the forums that shrinkage required quite an extensive redesign rather just switching the manufacturing process.  If it's not too involved that maybe a quick jump to 28nm with a good design would put Biostar into significant competition with the current ASIC leaders.

[dropt]

As a heads up to anyone who may have been "selected" to receive a review machine from "Biostar"....

Return-Path: <sales@biostar-usa.com>
X-Original-To: xxx@xxx.net
Delivered-To: xxx@xxx.net
Received: from emkei.cz (emkei.cz [46.167.245.72])
   by xxx.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3C94A5421C58
   for <xxx@xxx.net>; Fri,  1 Aug 2014 17:32:01 -0400 (EDT)
Received: by emkei.cz (Postfix, from userid 33)
   id BF9266BD0D; Fri,  1 Aug 2014 23:32:59 +0200 (CEST)
To: xxx@xxx.net
Subject: Shipment of 2 Dev Miners Payment
From: "Daniel Laidlaw" <sales@biostar-usa.com>
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Importance: Normal
Errors-To: sales@biostar-usa.com
Reply-To: sales@biostar-usa.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Message-Id: <20140801213259.BF9266BD0D@emkei.cz>
Date: Fri,  1 Aug 2014 23:32:59 +0200 (CEST)

It's a scam.

From OP "For those wondering, I am an independent hardware reviewer and not affiliated with Biostar in any way." That's fairly obvious from the mail header - Received: from emkei.cz (emkei.cz [46.167.245.72]).

No.  Please re read the thread with my statement in mind.  The user "Biostar" is not the same user that started this thread.  Further, if "Biostar" were actually an employee of biostar, he wouldn't need to use a well known email spoofer to send me an email "originating" from a Biostar domain.

But, you go ahead and pay that $200 shipping in BTC, without escrow.  Let us know when you receive the unit.

[Rabinovitch]

What you want as miners from a miner. For example Size, power hookup, Easy to use, lots of fuctionality? You tell us.

Well, my humble opinion - take somewhere AntMiner S2 by Bitmaintech, disassemble it and explore it, and make something your own in the same form-factor and with better specifications (keep in mind that they promised to provide some easy and unexpensive way to upgrade S2s to 1.8 or 2 Th/s) for the same (or better for less) price. Standalone, web-GUI, 0.7 or less W/Gh, a possibility to overclock - it is a minimum of what we need from miner. We also need well-known supplier with wide dealer network, who make his devices in good faith and provide reasonable warranty time...

I do think so. 

[faetos]

As a heads up to anyone who may have been "selected" to receive a review machine from "Biostar"....

Return-Path: <sales@biostar-usa.com>
X-Original-To: xxx@xxx.net
Delivered-To: xxx@xxx.net
Received: from emkei.cz (emkei.cz [46.167.245.72])
   by xxx.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3C94A5421C58
   for <xxx@xxx.net>; Fri,  1 Aug 2014 17:32:01 -0400 (EDT)
Received: by emkei.cz (Postfix, from userid 33)
   id BF9266BD0D; Fri,  1 Aug 2014 23:32:59 +0200 (CEST)
To: xxx@xxx.net
Subject: Shipment of 2 Dev Miners Payment
From: "Daniel Laidlaw" <sales@biostar-usa.com>
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Importance: Normal
Errors-To: sales@biostar-usa.com
Reply-To: sales@biostar-usa.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Message-Id: <20140801213259.BF9266BD0D@emkei.cz>
Date: Fri,  1 Aug 2014 23:32:59 +0200 (CEST)

It's a scam.

From OP "For those wondering, I am an independent hardware reviewer and not affiliated with Biostar in any way." That's fairly obvious from the mail header - Received: from emkei.cz (emkei.cz [46.167.245.72]).

No.  Please re read the thread with my statement in mind.  The user "Biostar" is not the same user that started this thread.  Further, if "Biostar" were actually an employee of biostar, he wouldn't need to use a well known email spoofer to send me an email "originating" from a Biostar domain.

But, you go ahead and pay that $200 shipping in BTC, without escrow.  Let us know when you receive the unit.

I'm totally in agreement with you. Sometimes when I post it doesn't come out right. Sorry, amigo. This whole thread is a scam. My guess is that it's the same account. I'm so sick of the scammers inundating us with crap like this. I really appreciate you posting the headers and warning us.

[HashFarmer]

Lets wait until biostar come out with 14nm...

[Sophokles]

As a heads up to anyone who may have been "selected" to receive a review machine from "Biostar"....

Return-Path: <sales@biostar-usa.com>
X-Original-To: xxx@xxx.net
Delivered-To: xxx@xxx.net
Received: from emkei.cz (emkei.cz [46.167.245.72])
   by xxx.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3C94A5421C58
   for <xxx@xxx.net>; Fri,  1 Aug 2014 17:32:01 -0400 (EDT)
Received: by emkei.cz (Postfix, from userid 33)
   id BF9266BD0D; Fri,  1 Aug 2014 23:32:59 +0200 (CEST)
To: xxx@xxx.net
Subject: Shipment of 2 Dev Miners Payment
From: "Daniel Laidlaw" <sales@biostar-usa.com>
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Importance: Normal
Errors-To: sales@biostar-usa.com
Reply-To: sales@biostar-usa.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Message-Id: <20140801213259.BF9266BD0D@emkei.cz>
Date: Fri,  1 Aug 2014 23:32:59 +0200 (CEST)

It's a scam.

From OP "For those wondering, I am an independent hardware reviewer and not affiliated with Biostar in any way." That's fairly obvious from the mail header - Received: from emkei.cz (emkei.cz [46.167.245.72]).

No.  Please re read the thread with my statement in mind.  The user "Biostar" quote author=faetos link=topic=716549.msg8156576#msg8156576 date=1407013154]

As a heads up to anyone who may have been "selected" to receive a review machine from "Biostar"....

Return-Path: <sales@biostar-usa.com>
X-Original-To: xxx@xxx.net
Delivered-To: xxx@xxx.net
Received: from emkei.cz (emkei.cz [46.167.245.72])
   by xxx.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3C94A5421C58
   for <xxx@xxx.net>; Fri,  1 Aug 2014 17:32:01 -0400 (EDT)
Received: by emkei.cz (Postfix, from userid 33)
   id BF9266BD0D; Fri,  1 Aug 2014 23:32:59 +0200 (CEST)
To: xxx@xxx.net
Subject: Shipment of 2 Dev Miners Payment
From: "Daniel Laidlaw" <sales@biostar-usa.com>
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Importance: Normal
Errors-To: sales@biostar-usa.com
Reply-To: sales@biostar-usa.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Message-Id: <20140801213259.BF9266BD0D@emkei.cz>
Date: Fri,  1 Aug 2014 23:32:59 +0200 (CEST)

It's a scam.

From OP "For those wondering, I am an independent hardware reviewer and not affiliated with Biostar in any way." That's fairly obvious from the mail header - Received: from emkei.cz (emkei.cz [46.167.245.72]).

No.  Please re read the thread with my statement in mind.  The user "Biostar" is not the same user that started this thread.  Further, if "Biostar" were actually an employee of biostar, he wouldn't need to use a well known email spoofer to send me an email "originating" from a Biostar domain.

But, you go ahead and pay that $200 shipping in BTC, without escrow.  Let us know when you receive the unit.

I'm totally in agreement with you. Sometimes when I post it doesn't come out right. Sorry, amigo. This whole thread is a scam. My guess is that it's the same account. I'm so sick of the scammers inundating us with crap like this. I really appreciate you posting the headers and warning us.

is not the same user that started this thread.  Further, if "Biostar" were actually an employee of biostar, he wouldn't need to use a well known email spoofer to send me an email "originating" from a Biostar domain.

But, you go ahead and pay that $200 shipping in BTC, without escrow.  Let us know when you receive the unit.

I agree the posted mail is most likely a scam. But the OP looks genuine, and these boards actually do exist (seen on other hardware review sites).
Not sure about user 'Biostar'. What makes you assume that the scammy mails were originated by him?

[klondike_bar]

I agree the posted mail is most likely a scam. But the OP looks genuine, and these boards actually do exist (seen on other hardware review sites).
Not sure about user 'Biostar'. What makes you assume that the scammy mails were originated by him?

the user Biostar sent PMs to me and dropt asking if we would be interested in testing/reveiwing dev batch units, and included a list of specs and claims of the upcoming device.

I asked for proof that they are with Biostar, and have not received any yet. I was offhandedly asked if id be alright paying the shipping for free units (no price given).
Dropt reports very similar experience, albeit complemented by a fake email pretending to be from biostar but actually an email anonymising service. IIRC he was quoted an actual shipping price.

I suspect Biostar is indeed at work on a second generation board - the first one reviews well and is inline with other 110nm efficiency. A drop to 28nm and some redesigns for modularity would allow Biostar to make a good gen.2 in theory.

however, the username Biostar appears to be a scammer, looking for people who might pay shipping costs for a review unit. tread carefully

[Sophokles]

the user Biostar sent PMs to me and dropt asking if we would be interested in testing/reveiwing dev batch units, and included a list of specs and claims of the upcoming device.

Thanks for the clarification that he also contacted you  via PM.

User Biostar = Scammer.

[funnow]

the user Biostar sent PMs to me and dropt asking if we would be interested in testing/reveiwing dev batch units, and included a list of specs and claims of the upcoming device.

Thanks for the clarification that he also contacted you  via PM.

User Biostar = Scammer.

Confirm -> user Biostar Scammer