Quote from: ATC777 on December 24, 2012, 03:00:14 AM

Quote from: panda1 on December 24, 2012, 01:56:03 AM

Building a fpga rig is very straightforward. This is what you do:

1. Buy one or more of the fpga products, ie, BFL bitforce, Icarus, or modminer quad. If the company doesn't sell them anymore you will need to buy from another person.
2. Plug them into your computer's USB port. Buy a hub if you run out of ports.
3. Join a mining pool and run the mining software.

You now own an fpga rig.

Ok... I already know this... What I want to know is where do I buy the damn thing? I'd prefer to do business with an established company with a track record than a stranger on the web. Every day I spend a good 1-2 hours "Googling" FPGA miners and can't find anywhere to order one. Looks like no one makes them anymore.

The second thing I want to know about is building my own from parts... How/where do I acquire the correct parts/chips and where can I learn more about building them.

Those are my questions. Not how to plug in a USB cable or open my DVD drive.

You need to use the right terminology. A rig usually means a computer hooked up with a bunch of devices such as video cards and/or fpga devices. What you want to do is build your own fpga device.

Your googling does not appear to be productive if you google up to two hours a day and can't find any answers.
You will probably find your answers quicker and learn more if you read through this forum and the bitcoin wiki. The mod miner appears to still be available from the company btcfpga.com. But you don't want that, you want to build your own.

If you want to build your own from scratch, here is a list of fpgas with additional information.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#FPGAs

You need to decide which chip to buy. By chip I am referring to something from Altera or Xilinx.

It takes considerably more effort so ask yourself if you are willing to spend the money and energy.