Archive for the ‘Mining Hardware’ Category

BitMain AntMiner U3 Bitcoin ASIC Miner for Home Miners

23, Oct 2014

bitmain-antminer-u3-usb-asic-miner

BitMain has revealed a new 63 GHS AntMiner U3 SHA-256 ASIC miner designed for home users as the successor of the previously available USB stick miners that the company offered. The device is apparently made for home users that do not want serious noise levels or high power usage. It is more of an interesting and affordable device for users that are new to ASICs or just for a fun “toy”, don’t expect the U3 USB miner to actually make you some serious profit or something like that. The Antminer U3 is based on four BM1382 ASIC chips resulting in 63 GHS worth of hashrate and is priced at $56 USD per unit or 0.151 BTC at the moment (without shipping). The AntMiner U3 USB miners (connected to a PC via USB, not powered by USB) should start shipping on November 5th, or with other words less than 2 weeks from now. There is however a catch, if you want to order the BitMain AntMiner U3 directly from the manufacturer you will not be able to get a single unit, the minimum order quantity is 20 units. So this kind of defeats the purpose of directly ordering it from BitMain if you are an end user, but we are probably going to see some of BitMain’s partners also offering the miner for people that might be interested in purchasing single units.


BitMain AntMiner U3 ASIC Miner Specifications:

– Hash Rate: 63 GH/s at 0.75V
– Power Efficiency: 0.8 Watt/GH/s on wall at 0.75V
– Voltage: DC 12V input, 6A
– Chip Quantity per unit: 4
– One 80mm fan
– Noise: ~25 DB at 25 °C ambient temperature
– Hashrate and VDD core voltage can be adjusted via cgminer command line
– USB connection
– 12V AC/DC power brick of 6A, but power line not included
– Certificate Compliance: FCC/CE

Note that the noise level of these should be pretty low indeed at just about 25 Decibels, there is no exact power usage quoted, but it should be less than 70W which the supplied power adapter is apparently capable of as maximum. With the cited power usage of 0.8W per GHS the actual power usage should be close to about 50 Watts for the whole unit or maybe slightly more. The devices should be overclockable apparently through the cgminer command line, so there should be some headroom for increasing their hashrate with the expense of a bit more power usage. Again do note that these miners are low hashrate and low powers, designed to be silent and used by home miners just for fun and not as a means to make profit as they many not even be able to get you a return of investment in the foreseeable future.

– For more information about the BitMain AntMiner U3 Bitcoin ASIC miner…

Rockminer Bitcoin ASIC Miners Now Available from MinerEU

20, Oct 2014

rockminer-asics-minereu

MinerEU is now offering to its customers from Europe some of the Rockminer SHA-256 ASIC miners available at attractive prices and shipped from UK, so no extra taxes need to be paid. The small 100-110 GHS Rockminer RBOX miners are available for $145 USD new, the 480-510 GHS Rockminer R4 used are available for $190 USD and used Rockminer T1’s with 780-840 GHS are being sold for $330 USD. The prices are good for the Rockminer ASICs, however do note that they do not come with a PSU and with a power usage of about 1W per GHS they are already not so adequate for long term mining, unless of course you do not pay the electricity bill. With their hashrate the Rockminer ASICs could be more interesting for people that want to get one for playing with it, not with the idea to use it for mining for profit.

– For more information about the Rockminer Bitcoin ASICs offered by MinerEU…

First AlcheMiner Alchemist Scrypt ASIC Miner Unboxing and Review

20, Oct 2014

Back in April we have mentioned the company AlcheMiner along others that were offering pre-orders for Scrypt ASIC miners. We have warned our readers to be careful with what the company offered back then, though it seems that they have started shipping Scrypt ASIC miners this month, or at least we have a first user review showing one of their products. In September AlcheMiner has released an official video (embedded above) demonstrating one of their products in action, though they have not updated their news section since then with information that they are actually shipping to customers already. So we would still recommend caution since there is still not much information about the company and their products available besides the first unboxing and review linked below.

– To read the first user made AlcheMiner 96 MHS Alchemist Scrypt Miner Unboxing and Review…


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