Qarnot QC-1 Claiming to be the First Crypto Heater

11 Mar
2018

All crypto miners know that the heat produced by their mining equipment is one of the biggest challenges they need to overcome in order to have problem free mining. The heat is essentially not used for anything and becomes a waste product, though some people manage to find clever uses for heating in the winter for example or other interesting ideas. It has however been a problem for a commercial solution to be available to both mine and properly utilize the excessive heat produced, up until now it seems. A french company called Qarnot is releasing what hey call the first crypto heater, a mining device that also doubles as a heater, so you can make heating a source of revenue and not an expense.

The Qarnot QC-1 is essentially a specially designed mining computer with two video cards and a large passive cooling solution, so it is silent while operating and also doubles as a heater with up to 650W capacity. Not to mention that the whole device looks nothing like a mining computer, it comes with great looking design and even includes some extra useful features. The only problem is what to do when you do not need heating like in the summer for example, well you will need to figure this out as with mining it is not seasonal. Still the company apparently has previous experience with their QH-1 design that combines a heater and a high performance computing server, though a crypto miner makes much more sense.

Qarnot QC-1 Technical Specifications:
– Computing 2 GPU: NITRO+ RADEON RX 580 8G, 60 MHS
– Dimensions: 65×62.5×15 cm
– Power: 650W in total (450W in mining mode + 200 in booster mode)
– Weight: 27 kg
– Materials: Wood, Anodized aluminium
– Noise: 0 dB
– Connections: 110/230V AC, RJ45 Ethernet
– Interfaces: Capacitive touch, Mobile app, Web app
– Communication: Ethernet
– Github: Temperature and LED management

Qarnot are currently taking pre-orders for their mining/heating device and if you book your QC-1 before March 20th it should be delivered before June 20th according to the company… right in time for the summer heat, not for the winter cold. The price of the Qarnot QC-1 is currently 2900 EURO without the shipping and you can pay only with either PayPal or a bank card, no crypto currencies are being accepted.

– For more details about the Qarnot QC-1 mining computers and heaters in one device…

Nvidia P102-100 Crypto Mining Cards Are Coming to the Market

9 Mar
2018

We got a tip that that Nvidia P102-100 GPUs are starting to hit the market and they are going to be interesting for miners similar to the P104-100 as they are offering a custom configuration for the memory and faster performance, unlike their desktop GeForce counterparts. We got information about an Inno3D P102-100 GPU and the specifications of the mining card as well as some preliminary performance results coming from the manufacturer, so if you are interested you can check out the specs and hashrates below. Unfortunately the initial photos of the Inno3D mining GPU show that there are no video output connectors (kind of expected for a mining GPU), but there is also no backplane for attaching the video card to a mining frame or a case easily and that is more of a problem (though they mention Standard PC Bracket as an accessory?). Gigabyte did that thing back when they released the first revision of their Nvidia P106-100 Mining GPU, but later on they have added a backplane in the next revisions.

Inno3D P102-100 Specifications:
– GPU: P102-100
– CUDA Cores: 3200
– Base Clock: 1582 MHz
– Memory Clock: 11 Gbps
– Physical Memory Size: 5 GB
– Memory Type: GDDR5X
– Memory Interface Width: 320-bit
– Memory Bandwidth: 400 GB/s
– Bus Support: PCIe Gen1 x4
– Card Size: 21.5 cm length, 12.5 cm height, dual slot
– Max TDP: 250 Watt
– Power Connectors: 2x 8-pin PCI-E

Inno3D P102-100 Hashrate:
– ETH: ~47 MHS
– ZEC: ~660 Sol/s
– XMR: ~879 H/s

The hashrates cited are from Inno3D directly and are for reference only, there is no mention if these are at stock frequency or after overclock or any user optimizations (could they be stock?). Judging from the number it seems that the new P102-100 GPUs are optimized and will be great for mining Ethash coins, but not that good for others compared to what you can get from a GTX 1080 Ti as a comparison. We do hope that soon we will be able to do a detailed review and have some firsthand performance numbers for the P102-100 mining GPUs, but for now it is only what we are getting from manufacturer specifications. Another very important thing is the pricing of these new GPUs, but unfortunately at the current market conditions we do not expect to find them that much cheaper than what a GTX 1080 Ti goes for.

Halong Mining DragonMint B52 Blake2b ASIC Miner for Siacoin (SC)

8 Mar
2018

Just after the announcement of their new DragonMint B29 Blake256 ASIC Miner for Decred (DCR), Halong Mining has also started taking orders for a new DragonMint B52 Blake2b ASIC Miner for Siacoin (SC) or other Blake2b POW coins. The hashrate of the new ASIC miner is cited as 3.83 THS for Siacoin mining at 1380 Watt of power usage, so a serious device in terms of hasrate compared to other alternative options from Bitmain A3 (already available) and Obelisk SC1 (upcoming).

Where the Halong Mining DragonMint B52 Blake2b ASIC Miner is suffering is the price, although almost half of the Decred miner they started selling, the B52 Blake2b ASIC miner is still pricey at $5549 USD. Even when considering that the price includes a power supply and free shipping it is pretty steep for an ASIC miner that can be used for just one cryptocurrency for the moment. Halong Mining should start shipping these new miners by the end of the month, so you can expect a pretty big jump in term of the total network hashrate for mining Siacoin.

– For more details on the DragonMint B52 Blake2b ASIC Miner for Siacoin (SC)…

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