The $22,484.00 Butterfly Labs Mini Rig bitcoin miner is a huge, broken, unstable piece of shit.
Butterfly Labs has a long and horrible history with their mining rigs. They started taking pre-orders over a year ago, with a ship time sometime in late July. After numerous delays in production, shipping problems and general incompetence, the only thing they’ve managed to get out the door are some of their tiniest miners, the Jalapenos. And those mainly ended up in the hands of reviewers and blogs in order to keep pumping the Butterfly Labs hype train and securing millions of dollars of pre-orders still in limbo.
Lucky BFL forums user Luke-JR however scored a sweet Mini Rig from Butterfly Labs (it’s just a coincidence he’s a driver developer for them I’m sure). This rig was originally promised to produce 1500 GH/shashing power at 1500 watts for $30,000, but has since seen it’s hashing power slashed to a third of what was promised and it’s power consumption increased 75%, now just offer 500 GH/s at 2400 watts. They’ve promised to make good on pre-order buy sending out 3 rigs to match the initial hashing rate, so now it’s only 1500 GH/s at 6900 watts, a reduction in GH/Watt by a factor of 5.
So what does $22,484 buy you? Take a look!
Minirig is here!
Today, my Minirig arrived.
FedEx apparently dropped it somewhere along the way, and the weakest part of the case, the thin metal part around the back of the PSU, broke.
I’m not sure how sturdy the back side was supposed to be, but its two pieces aren’t quite together either.
The power supplies (EVGA 1500W) also created havoc interfering with the neutral on the power line. This disrupted X10 communication significantly enough that the pool overflowed because the system controlling it was unable to turn off the pump. Workaround: This PSU supports 240V, so we rewired the outlet. 240V does not use neutral, so now all should be okay.
Edit: 240V workaround is only partial. Still having problems
But the good news is, it all seems to be working for the most part.
Next up, installing it in the window so the heat goes outside
A twenty two thousand dollar box of electronics that is broken out of the box, that required the guy to do a sketchy electrical workaround to getpartiallyworking, that he is going to install in a window… and he’s happy about it?
In case you didn’t notice it, the delivered unit is different than the picture on the website. They had to install 2 power supplies instead of 1 and had to modify the case to fit. Also, if you didn’t notice, the LCD/Phone thingy in the front has been replaced by … a piece of cardboard spray painted black. Wonderful.
You could maybe chalk this up to a careless Fedex postman, but when you’re shipping something that costs as much as a mid-sized sedan, how bought putting a little more effort into packing? Dell and HP can ship bigger and heavier servers across the world without this kind of problem.
The unit had to hit its huge power draw increase by putting dual EVGA consumer grade power supplies in the unit.We’re talking almost a 75 amp load (6*1500/120), disregarding power factor. He could very well overload the circuit panel and trip the main breaker for the house.
Let’s take a look inside this guy. This is from an earlier version of the Minirig (note the single power supply)This is apparently from an earlier FPGA but it will give you a good glimpse at what kind of craftsmanship you can expect from a computer that is half the average household income in the United States.
You can view the entire album here.
Despite all that, this thing can still mine bitcoins and it should be profitable. Keep in ind that many people jumped in on the preorders a year ago when bitcoins were still hovering around $6.50 per. Meaning customers paid 1562 bitcoins for that particular piece of shit, which at today’s value is $156,200. Aston martin money. How long will it take them to make their money back? If the difficulty didn’t change, they would make 37 bitcoins a day and recoup the initial investment in 124 days. Difficulty is jumping pretty much 20% every 12 days or so, so in the next week before adjustment, they’ll make 259, the next 12 days 369, the next 12 days 312, then 256, then 213, etc.
So by day 127, they’ll be halfway to breaking even, but by day 151 they’ll be making less than 5 bitcoins a day, and even if difficulty stopped rising at that point(which it won’t), it would take another 435 days for a total of 586 days to break even. If difficulty kept rising at the same pace, by day 200 they’d be making 2.4 bitcoins per day, and it would take 1024 days to break even with no difficulty increase. Assuming 25 cents per kw/h, and $100 a bitcoin, it would cost 0.43 of a bitcoin per day in electricity which means the unit would no longer be profitable on a power usage basis by day 307, at which point it will have produced 2620 bitcoins.
Bear in mind this is only for the first few units, and that’s running 24/7 pumping out around 24,000 BTU, so yes, medical bills from heat stroke will be on top of that.
But Alas, the chips don’t run nearly as well as they’re supposed to, frequently running too hot and giving multiple hardware failures. Coindesk noted in one of the first ever runs of the Minirig by hosting provide gigavps that it was running much too hot and erroring out.
At the time of posting, gigavps warned that the unit would be repeatedly shut down while ckolivas, who was assisting, modified the machines software to optimise performance. After some tweaking, the device was said to have been left to run continuously for two hours, and was shown to have an average hash rate of 478.1 GH/s. As you can see in the table below, ASIC number four (of a total of eight hashing chips) ran significantly hotter (86 degrees) and consequently gave the highest hardware (HW) error rate.
So, what happens if you just decide you don’t want this, you don’t want to wait over a year to get a $22,000 broken piece of shit? Nothing, because BFL won’t let you cancel your preorder because they’re now “shipping”, i.e. they sent out one unit to their own company shill.
Which is of course illegal regardless of what Butterfly Labs may say.
So in summary: Don’t buy anything from Butterfly Labs … ever.
UPDATE:Butterfly Labs get a miner seized in Germany for faking CE certifications.
Cuw
July 3, 2013 @ 12:33 pm
This is incredibly dangerous since it is doing neutral line loading. If that is fucking with a dudes pool then it is sourcing current from neutral which is a big no no. It is a really easy way to start an electrical fire. I am actually wondering if this has to pass UL or CE testing to ship legally in the US or Canada because when it starts a fire in some dudes house and he finds out he can’t claim insurance because he was running this he will be unhappy as hell.
mmxbass
July 4, 2013 @ 9:10 am
Yeah I’d lay odds 10 to 1 that there is absolutely no UL/CE testing of any kind that has been done on these things.
BitCoin > Fiat
August 18, 2013 @ 12:14 am
http://www.butterflylabs.com/monarch/ Better start freaking out BitCoin Haters lol
BitCoin > Fiat
August 18, 2013 @ 12:16 am
http://www.butterflylabs.com/monarch/ Dont freak out now BitCoin Haters;3
Hash Tag
August 21, 2013 @ 4:10 pm
Dude you’re a mega sperg. Wow.
BitCoin > Fiat
August 24, 2013 @ 10:26 am
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Butterfly-Labs-Mini-Rig-SC-Bitcoin-Miner-/121163756459?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item1c35ec33ab
Oh no, Making $500 A day, What A scam. Have fun being left behind 😛
Fluxity
August 24, 2013 @ 10:31 am
I’ve told you to stop spamming ebay links in the comment so get the fuck off my site you furry piece of shit.
BitCoin > Fiat
August 25, 2013 @ 9:39 am
Lets think about how much this person is making a month…
BitCoin > Fiat
September 1, 2013 @ 11:38 am
BFL was so yesterday news. Its all about CoinTerra ;P
http://cointerra.com/shop/
ShameonMe
September 6, 2013 @ 5:57 pm
And how he’s crowding out people like you? Unless you’ve been in the game since the beginning or have huge investment funds, you aren’t going to make jack shit in Butts. Maybe you can join a pool to rival that, maybe.
John Weaver
July 3, 2013 @ 12:47 pm
2,620 BTC at today’s market price is about $210,000. 2400W equals about $3,153 in electricity – and lets just say it costs the same amount to cool the house. So total cost during teh cost of teh year will be about ($30k + $3.1k + $3.1K) is $36,000ish.
That means a net profit of around $175k and an ROI of about 577%.
I think that is ABSOLUTELY worth the above calamities.
Fluxity
July 3, 2013 @ 1:15 pm
I’ve edited the post to better reflect that fact that the pay back is based on if you pre-ordered the machine a year ago when bitcoins were still $6.50, not at current rates.
BitCoin > Fiat
July 5, 2013 @ 9:28 pm
Oh look its the delete people comments cuz he cant handle the truth kid lol Listen closely you random dumb nobody… Nobody knows the future for BitCoin, Those people who invested into ASIC are smart. The problem some people have with BTC is that they panic sell when the price is going down. So what about all the people who sold the coins they had for $1 each??? You must be 12 and have no common sense :/ Also must be mad that the BitCoin Network is more strong than the top 500 super computers combined ahahhaha true fact look it up 12 year old. Also the other thing is, Even if someone had 1 of these. It would not cause a House fire cuz the circuit bored would trip. If someone if trying and get above normal power consumption like WEED GROW HOUSES DO, they always have the correct electrical set up. Also another fun fact, Every 6 months-year, Is gonna be another faster and cheaper ASIC products will launch. Dont worry BTC going nowhere kinda like how you are going nowhere in life hahahaha Have fun being left behind from something that has changed money forever lol oh btw they should re-name this site to IM-BUTT-HURT-COIN hahahahahahahah
killhamster
July 6, 2013 @ 11:34 am
words words words words go back to bronytown
Jimmy Rustled
July 10, 2013 @ 9:00 am
“Also must be mad that the BitCoin Network is more strong than the top 500 super computers combined”
Lawl. And all it has to show for it is some basement dwelling autistics fighting over digital monopoly money. At least the Top500 supercomputers do useful work.
BitCoin > Fiat
July 10, 2013 @ 1:24 pm
If you did not know, China and the USA are about Half/Half for total Hash Rate so technically its not just basement dwellers like you lol BTC is really the money of the future and everyone who cant understand it is missing out lol
MOD EDIT: Stop with the ebay links you ignorant fuck
Burzghash
July 24, 2013 @ 6:23 pm
Oh wow that’s real convincing I am totally going to listen to what you have to saPFFFTHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
No sperglord, nobody is buying your bullshit XD
BitCoin > Fiat
August 18, 2013 @ 12:17 am
http://www.butterflylabs.com/monarch/ Better start freaking out now BitCoin Haters ;3
killhamster
August 18, 2013 @ 12:39 am
That’s a pretty nice render there. Can’t wait to get in on the ground floor, brony buddy.
Ican Domath
July 3, 2013 @ 12:52 pm
Your math for the return on investment is off by around a factor of 10. 37 Bitcoins per day * 85 $/BTC = $2960 / day. Cost for the machine is fully recouped in 10 days (excluding electricity).
Fluxity
July 3, 2013 @ 1:15 pm
I’ve edited the post to better reflect that fact that the pay back is based on if you pre-ordered the machine a year ago when bitcoins were still $6.50, not at current rates. If you held those coins instead of buying this lump of shit you would have over $150k
Libertardian
July 20, 2013 @ 4:11 pm
Incidentally that’s also why deflationary currencies are a bad idea; EVERYTHING becomes a bad investment given enough time.
mojo
July 3, 2013 @ 1:18 pm
every bit of math in this page is wrong. including the 24,000 BTU. you’re a dumbass.
Hash Tag
August 21, 2013 @ 4:07 pm
Prove it faggot
BFL FAG
July 3, 2013 @ 1:48 pm
Great Report. Always knew BFL are faggots and scammers.
Bob Jones
July 3, 2013 @ 1:59 pm
more junk from BFL… they are incompetent. It doesnt take brains to learn how to hook up electricity…
How can u develop a chip but U dont know how to route 110/220?!?!
and how is it so many arrive broken, seems like a delay tactic.
Icarus
July 3, 2013 @ 2:02 pm
Motherfuckers !
Bob Jones
July 3, 2013 @ 2:02 pm
BFL made millions from collecting those early BTC and millions more from all the late people jumping in… they can delay all they want while they move funds around and then bug out. scammers
Satoshi
July 3, 2013 @ 2:16 pm
This guy is crowd funding for justice apparently
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1fmmgd/crowdfunding_for_bitcoin_justice_the_bfl/
Neal Gafter
July 3, 2013 @ 2:21 pm
Interesting how this article bases its information on year-old photos of an FPGA rig, which is not the same thing as the 500 GH minirig SC that its review starts with.
killhamster
July 4, 2013 @ 10:13 am
“This is from an earlier version of the Minirig” lol reading comprehension.
Fluxity
July 4, 2013 @ 10:34 am
I updated the article but it still shows you how absolute shit the stuff they make is, whether it’s an FPGA or an ASIC.
Jhansen
July 3, 2013 @ 6:36 pm
This is a biased piece of shit article that unfairly categorizes the entire thing. Maybe you should change your name to Butt Hurt Coin, because you are obviously butt hurt about something to want to destroy your own credibility by writing such one sided crap.
killhamster
July 3, 2013 @ 6:59 pm
Hi BFL_Josh!
killhamster
July 3, 2013 @ 7:00 pm
Sorry, I meant FUCKING HI YOU SHITFUCK ASSBAG MOTHERFUCKER FUCK YOU NO REFUNDS
Fluxity
July 3, 2013 @ 7:02 pm
Perhaps you have me confused with a real journalist? This is BUTTCOIN, not NYTimes. Common mistake.
John Andersson
July 4, 2013 @ 9:56 am
ahhahahhahahahaha credibility
R U Kidding
July 4, 2013 @ 5:56 am
People, That is an FPGA unit. Not a Mini Rig. He’s lying to all of you. What a complete ass…
killhamster
July 4, 2013 @ 10:12 am
“This is from an earlier version of the Minirig” lol reading comprehension
Fluxity
July 4, 2013 @ 10:32 am
I misspoke and have edited the article. Doesn’t change anything about how shit all their stuff is.
Cuw
July 4, 2013 @ 11:24 am
Yo I did some new maths because the 75amps sounded completely absurd. So here’s some maths. Assuming 100% efficiency(not real but ok) conversion of 120v AC and the Power Factor = 1(it isn’t since we have a clearly a reactive load but again i am making maths easier)
P=Vrms * Irms
Irms = P / Vrms
Irms = 1500W / 120Vrms = 12.5A
Irms = 1500w / 240Vrms = 6.25A
So for a purely resistive load we are looking at 12.5A maximum. Now this is the pretty math and this thing is clearly not pretty. This thing has hella amounts of reactive power which means they are returning power to the source either leading or lagging the main 120Vrms sine wave. This is a BIG deal and most power companies and all countries have laws regulating what amount of reactive power you are allowed to throw back into their systems before you start balancing it with expensive filtration circuits(in purely capacitive or inductive loads this wouldn’t be required but this is a complex SMPS load).
Why the PSU’s loading the neutral line at all is beyond me since any modern PSU should have PFC default especially if they are shipping to the EU(who says you can’t throw more than X amount of power back at their systems). But here’s a fun snippet from wikipedia on why you want your powerfactor close to 1.
[/b]”This creates extra load on utility lines, increases heating of building wiring, the utility transformers, and standard AC electric motors, and may cause stability problems in some applications such as in emergency generator systems or aircraft generators.”[/b]
In conclusion, you put more than 1 or 2 of these in a place and goodbye house. You will either burn out the building wire or the transformer on the pole and be in deep shit with your power company. If you are in the EU zone get this checked by your power company before you even plug it into the wall in your home because getting a huge fine for loading the system irregularly isn’t ideal. If you are using Uninterruptable Power Supplies make sure they are PURE SINUSOIDAL before you plug this thing into them, if it uses the much cheaper estimated sine wave system where it adds some harmonics to a square wave you will either kill the UPS or kill the PSU in the system and if you are super lucky kill all your baby ASICs. So take it from me an internet EE, don’t buy this.
BUTTCOIN SUPERIORITY!
mmxbass
July 7, 2013 @ 4:03 am
Minor factual correction: The PSUs in these photos are Thermaltake, not EVGA.
It still looks like a pile of shit though.
Fluxity
July 7, 2013 @ 7:37 am
EVGA is used in the first ASIC miner photos (with their handles removed too), Thermaltake is used in the second set of FPGA PICS.
mmxbass
July 7, 2013 @ 8:23 am
They probably used whatever brand was on sale on Newegg that week.
Fluxity
July 7, 2013 @ 8:48 am
Ah yes, the BFL ” Shell Shocker” special.
d
July 9, 2013 @ 2:53 am
who paid 22K $ for this ?
Internet Browser
July 10, 2014 @ 3:13 pm
a lot of dummys
BitCoin > Fiat
July 11, 2013 @ 3:59 pm
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=237710.0 I wonder if this guys house is on fire yet. Oh wait its not :C
Ayrat Bulatov
July 15, 2013 @ 2:13 pm
I paid for 1 pre-ordered mini rig $10k (one third of a 1.5Th box for $30k). Currently it makes $900 a day ($1.2k/day at last difficulty). Should I complain that its metal case is not polished enough? Don’t think so. You can check its real value on eBay, I think its self evident.
To OP: I can buy your asic mini rig for $22k, my offer stands open for one month =)
Joanne D'Orc
July 30, 2013 @ 8:55 pm
“Currently it makes $900 a day”
Everyone on the internet has a ten inch cock, too.
APC
October 26, 2014 @ 2:57 pm
OH HAI, IM FROM INTERNET, I HAS BLU EYS, I IS CUTE AND SLEEP WIT LOTS OF GALS EVRYDAI. ASLO I IS BILLONAIRE, I HAS A MANSION, A FERARI AND A GIANT SWIMNG POL. CAN I BE YOUR FRIND?
mmxbass
July 27, 2013 @ 11:03 am
If you had a dollar for every hit this article got, you could afford…. ONE of these!
Who the hell is seriously buying these things?
BitCoin > Fiat
August 18, 2013 @ 12:19 am
http://www.butterflylabs.com/monarch/ If you delete this again. You must be scared and dumb hahahahaha
Reality
August 30, 2013 @ 4:54 am
There’s a sucker born every minute.
Matt
October 5, 2013 @ 11:50 am
Incredibly interesting and well written! Thank you.
Bitcomrade
February 10, 2014 @ 12:09 pm
This article much better now, properly reflect good quality bfl mining hardware, is very good rig, is very working, is very power good.
TO THE MOON
Fuckyoufaker
July 11, 2014 @ 10:21 am
You must be from BFL…
J
February 21, 2014 @ 9:26 pm
What the fuck is this shit? What happened to the awesome version of this article where the dude was shipped a broken piece of shit?
Old URL: http://buttcoin.org/butterfly-labs-mini-rig-is-a-huge-broken-unstable-piece-of-shit
Fluxity
February 21, 2014 @ 9:45 pm
http://butterflylabssucks.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-2248400-butterfly-labs-mini-rig.html
J
February 21, 2014 @ 9:27 pm
Here is the original article for anyone who isn’t a bit tard.
http://web.archive.org/web/20130805192933/http://buttcoin.org/butterfly-labs-mini-rig-is-a-huge-broken-unstable-piece-of-shit
Bitcoiner
March 31, 2014 @ 4:41 am
Christ, what a scam.
Note to everyone, stay far away from butterfly labs
Wampler Longacre
April 27, 2014 @ 3:49 am
For a little while I felt jealous about that %0.000001 of people in the world who “”made”” “”money”” off Bitcoin in the early years. Then I remembered that I have employable skills that earn me well over six figures every year, and contribute meaningfully to the common good. And you know what that contribution gets me?
FRIENDS.
BiN4RY
July 5, 2014 @ 2:11 am
So how much did ButterScamLabs bribe to have the old article rewritten into this bullshit?
Jerk Waterslide
July 11, 2014 @ 1:55 am
Somewhere south of $35K
suckagiantbagofdicksjeff
July 11, 2014 @ 2:58 am
scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam
google them
July 11, 2014 @ 3:53 am
Butterfly Labs is a scam, and now internet revisionists as well.
zyzz
July 11, 2014 @ 5:30 am
jeff pls go
lololol
July 11, 2014 @ 6:10 am
LOLOLOLOL http://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/2adssm/buttcoin_foundation_rocked_as_founder_exposed_to/
Butterfly Labs are liars
July 11, 2014 @ 7:45 am
SCAM! http://np.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/2adssm/buttcoin_foundation_rocked_as_founder_exposed_to/
Snailman
July 11, 2014 @ 8:24 am
Using money you have scammed from bitcoiners to buy websites to do some ‘reputation management’ for you company is beyond laughable.
I haven’t seen a company as sleazy as BFL.
Gwen Hennessy
July 11, 2014 @ 9:13 am
https://web.archive.org/web/20131109133622/http://buttcoin.org/butterfly-labs-mini-rig-is-a-huge-broken-unstable-piece-of-shit
planecrash
July 11, 2014 @ 9:59 am
https://web.archive.org/web/20131109133622/http://buttcoin.org/butterfly-labs-mini-rig-is-a-huge-broken-unstable-piece-of-shit
Bob
July 11, 2014 @ 10:56 am
http://np.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/2adssm/buttcoin_foundation_rocked_as_founder_exposed_to/
Trainlover2009
October 5, 2014 @ 5:16 am
So the bad news is this article may not rank as prominently as it used to. The good news is that its being bumped by all the news articles on the FTC seizing all of their assets for fraud.