Anyone own these miners?
Like I mean an actually paying customer.
Want to get some feedback from them on the experiences with this company.
Hi I am an actual paying customer. For full disclosure one of my gadget companies GeekZen is also now an authorized distributor of BitCrane as well. I only entered into the distributorship after I had purchased the miners myself and was happy with it.
I have bought two of these units mainly for fun as a BitCoin enthusiast and I wanted to be an owner of one of these sweet machines. To be honest, the reason why I bought two was because I wanted to use their EZ Stack system.
I made a video of this as well which I just uploaded today.
http://youtu.be/OCaC9v_XyUwShippingSuper fast shipping and they really make it a point to get them out as fast as possible. When there was a China public holiday upcoming, they did their best to rush it out and send it to their courier before they closed for the holidays (and kept me informed throughout the process).
SetupSetup is as painless as it can be and is almost plug and play beyond the setting of IP and pools. DHCP is still not an option with these miners due to a lack of a LCD (which should be incorporated given the premium price point).
Hashing SpeedHashing is stable at 1075-1095. No issues reported with a variety of pools. Slight loss with P2Pool (but what miner doesn't lose speed on P2Pool nowadays).
These things run super hot and in an air conditioned environment run about 85C according to the interface which is pretty safe according to BitCrane. The chips are safe until about the 110C mark after which it will shutdown and reboot the miner. Air coming out of it is actually not that hot probably due to the water cooling system.
Hardware error rates (if DH is what it means) is about a stable ~0.14%
InterfaceSimple and fuss free. Their own custom interface which displays just the necessary. No password protection however.
Uses a Cubieboard controller with SSH access available and unlocked.
Noise LevelNoise level is average for a miner, the T110 doesn't have any dynamic fan control unlike its brother the T110S and therefore runs at a fixed noise level. Quieter than an A1 Dragon miner. The T110S is a slightly lower clocked version (around 900+ gh) with dynamic fan control and better power efficiency and quieter hashing (due to the lower clock) and has full CE certifications for the home. I haven't tried the T110S personally though.
The T110 will not bother you if you put it in a separate room.
SupportThe support provided is very good. I ran into a problem with one of my units whereby one of the hashboards was not properly being detected. The guys at BitCrane teamviewered me and had a really fast response time. The issue was pinpointed to one of the water cooling heads thermal paste being not so evenly spread and hence one of the chips was overheating. According to them, this was the first time they've encountered such an issue. Since I've reapplied the thermal paste with Prolimatech PK-3, temperatures have been stable and low and no issues with hashing. One of the best if not the best support I've experienced from a BitCoin mining machine company. They've also informed me they're looking into their thermal paste application process (which is done by machine) to avoid such problems in the future.
DesignThe design is really gorgeous. The EZ Stack system is pretty simple but innovative and allows it to be stacked up to 4 high. However it does result in a slight increase of temperature for those units being stacked under due to one of the side vents being obstructed. It shouldn't pose an issue though.
SummaryI would highly recommend adding them to the manufacturer trustworthiness guide as a stand up provider with a proven ship record. I have also sold a few units as well and all my customers received their miners without incident and very quickly.
My only complaint would be that they are rather expensive and that the warranty doesn't bear the cost of shipping back to China (unlike Bitmain). The build quality however is pretty amazing and the amount of thought they put into the design is outstanding. I am looking forward to their new miners which should be just around the corner.
If you're after profit solely, then these not miners are not for you of course (as are most miners if not all miners on the market right now not being profitable) but if you're after a solidly built miner from a reliable company, then I would recommend them highly. With all the other miner manufacturers cutting cost, it is refreshing to see a manufacturer that bucks that trend and insists on putting out quality products. It is actually quite sad sight to see when previously good companies cut corners such as the Dragon A1 miners steadily declining quality and Bitmain's recent issues with their S4 but it is understandable given that they want to get miners out as cheaply as possible to increase the chance of ROI. For those of us who are in it for the fun of it and want a solidly built machine that you'll feel proud to own, BitCrane is an excellent choice.
I was not paid for this review nor given any free units.
I have personally tested, bought and used several versions of A1 miners (From LKTec, Bit-Winkor and FZ49), ASICMiner Block Erupter Cube and Tube miners, Bitmain (S1, S2, S3 and S4) so have a good basis of comparison.
