03 Feb 2014 / The Register – Texas-based Bitcoin hardware shop Cointerra has shipped the first batch of its TerraMiner IV $6,000 Bitcoin mining boxes. At a ceremony held at their Texas office they handed one over to local customer Jake Gostylo.
As is traditional for Bitcoin hardware it’s late and below the advertised specification. Yet unlike many of their rivals it’s not that late and even at the sub-par spec it’s still very impressive, at under $3 per GH. First shipments were due in December.
All customers who ordered for the December deadline have now received what has come to be known as “Batch 1” kit, with the original January (Batch 2) customers receiving their gear over the next couple of weeks. Customers who ordered boxes for February and beyond should get the miners on time.
Everyone who received a late “Batch One” machine will get another box (expected to be fully specced) free of charge, says the company.
The Terraminer’s performance is down on the promised 2TH/s, with claims that the current production boxes have been tested at between 1.63TH/s (terahashes per second) and 1.72TH/s. They draw between 1900w and 2100w – again, up on the predicted 1650w. It’s still the first self-contained unit to ship at over 1TH/s and that gives it the lowest price per gigahash.
Cointerra won’t be drawn on return on investment but a quick calculation using the Genesis Block estimates it’s well within the month, probably three weeks. Of course, this is subject to changes in difficulty and the value of Bitcoins.
Cointerra is planning a board redesign to get Batch Three and beyond miners up to 2TH/s but the economics of mining are such that customers are much better off having a 1.7TH/s box now than a 2.0TH/s box in a month. This tweaking and improving is normal; when KnC shipped they were at 425GH/s and are now shipping at 600GH/s….. Read more
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/03/cointerra_ships_bitcoin_miners/
