Archive for the ‘Mining Hardware’ Category

Using Samsung Galaxy A14 5G Smartphone for VRSC Crypto Mining

12, Dec 2023

We put another budget-oriented smartphone to the test of crypto mining VerusCoin (VRSC) with it, this time around it is the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G. After the recent disappointment that the Samsung Galaxy A13 5G turned out to be with a 32-bit OS and unable to be used for mining we were a bit concerned about the A14 5G, but still decided to give it a go and risk it after seeing a good price deal on the Total by Verizon Samsung Galaxy A14 5G, 64GB, Black – Prepaid Smartphone (Locked) over at Amazon, was temporary down to $59 USD, though it seems to be back at $79.99 USD now. Specification wise the A14 5G did seem interesting and the nice price drop did get us to pull the trigger, but the question at hand is was it able to deliver. Read below to find out what you can expect from the Galaxy A14 5G if you plan on using it for mining VRSC…

The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G seemed a bit bulky when we got it and opened it up, it is a large smartphone with a 6.6-inch display, a device announced earlier this year. It does seem to have two versions though, one with Mediatek Dimensity 700 (the one we got) and another with Exynos 1330 chipset that will probably do a bit better than what we got as results. The Mediatek Dimensity 700 (7 nm) chipset has 8 ARM CPU cores (2x 2.2 GHz Cortex-A76 and 6x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55) and Android 13 and the good news here is that unlike on the A13 5G model here we do have a 64-bit OS making it suitable for crypto mining. At least that is good news, but the results are not exactly as what we have expected to see from the device unfortunately.

And while the Galaxy A14 5G does work for crypto mining and provides decent hashrate mining VerusCoin it is probably not the best choice price wise and performance wise out there for sure. Initially it peaked with higher hashrate, but then stabilized at just around 3.8 MH/s and we had it running for quite some time just to be sure because of the initial fluctuating hashrate. That performance is paired with around 3.8 Watts of power usage measured at the wall, so slower and less efficient than other devices we have tested not to mention more expensive as well, so not the most suitable choice. We kind of expected to see better performance out of it, maybe the version with better specs that uses the Exynos chipset will be more interesting for crypto mining, though it is more expensive and harder to find.

The Urlacher Makes a Full S19k Pro 115T ASIC Miner Run on 120V

8, Dec 2023

The Loki Kit by Pivotal Pleb Tech has made it easier for crypto miners to get creative and run various configurations of Bitmain S19 ASIC miners on 120V power, meaning home mining for these devices was made possible in US and other countries using this voltage. There are number of products already available using Loki and single S19 mining boards to make a good space heater for the winter such as the BitChimney Space Heater and StealthMiner, but now there is a new interesting option available as well called The Urlacher. The device is named after LuxOS engineer David Urlacher who first built this configuration, and is a triple hashboard Loki Rig with fully functional Antminer S19k pro that runs on 120V power at lower hashrate. We are working on a review of the BitChimney Space Heater already as we have ordered a unit a while ago and it has arrived, so we are already playing around with it.

The Urlacher is interesting due to the fact that it runs a regular S19k Pro miner with all of its mining boards at lower operating frequency to achieve high hashrate and high efficiency for home mining and it comes as an easier modification that can be quickly applied. No need to disassemble the whole miner to take out hashing boards or to build custom cases and it is easier to return the miner back to its original form that will hash at full speed with the regular non-120V power supply. You can get the complete miner with the modification or just the modification kit to apply to your own miner if you have one, or you can build one yourself with just a Loki Kit, a Bitmain APW3++ PSU and some other accessories to connect and make everything work. The Urlacher does 56 TH/s at 1200 Watts of power usage with 53 dB noise level, though you can play with settings to achieve different results as long as you fit in the total power capabilities of the power supply.

– For more information about The Urlacher available from Altair Tech…

FutureBit Apollo II is More than Just a Bitcoin ASIC Miner for Home Users

27, Nov 2023

The new FutureBit Apollo II has been officially announced and it is going to be available in three different versions with shipping starting in Q1 next year (2024) with preorders expected to be available from December 8th. We are not sure how to talk about this device as it is more than just a Bitcoin miner designed and made in the USA and targeted for home users… although the Apollo II Standard ($799 USD) is essentially a cool looking USB-based Bitcoin ASIC miner capable of delivering up to 10 TH/s hashrate with about 400 Watts of power usage and that device can be plugged in to an older Apollo node or a newer Apollo II Full Node or a computer or a RPi thus adding new or expanding existing hashing power. The new Apollo II Full Node ($1099 USD) as the name implies includes a Full Bitcoin Node and the device itself is a Miner + Full Node + Linux Desktop System all in one with the mining part essentially the same as the standalone device. With the Full Node you also get a built-in modern ARM based controller with 4GB of RAM and up to a 2TB of SSD storage that has a pre-installed dedicated Apollo OS 1.0, that allows for built in zero config solo mining directly to your node. And the third version is the FutureBit Apollo II Founders Edition ($1999 USD) that has all of the Full Node features, but with additional extras such as cooler looking orange case with transparent top, and you would be able to get it shipped first with a limited number of units available.

We remember first hearing about FutureBit back in 2016 on Bitcointalk where jstefanop announced that he is working on a USB-based Scrypt ASIC miner and soon after that we got our hands on the FutureBit MoonLander USB Scrypt ASIC Miner to test it. We really liked the design and how the device worked back then later on came the improved FutureBit Moonlander 2, after that the Apollo LTC miner and then the upgrade kit to bring it up to a Full Node and the Apollo BTC miner and Full Node, and now comes the next evolution with improved hashrate and power efficiency as well as features. The miners from FutureBit have always been for home users and not for large mining farms and are designed around the idea of quality and reliability, silent operation at home and useful additional features. So do not expect these to be rivalling the latest generation of ASIC miners designed for big Bitcoin mining farms, although efficiency wise the Apollo II does compare very well efficiency wise to the current generation of Bitcoin mining ASICs on the market.

– Check out the official FutureBit website for more details about the Apollo II…


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