and what about pricing?
will the 10 chip board coast like the 20 chip board?
if so, it will be very expensive.
read OP, it says 80
I read it, but the question remains, because the same 20 chip PCB will be used for 10 chips version.
That is your assumption. Two type of boards were planed to be developed, and so far 20 chips version is finished.
It is unsure is there going to be 10 chips version.
From perspective of economy and material used it would be strange to use same board and than populate it with only half of it's chips capacity.
For the production, such a board would be waste of space, so design should be different.
burnin said somewhere these boards will be 20 chip only, and for me OP is quite clear on that having in mind burnin doesn't offer chip sales.
But the material used isnt the main factor. The main factor is time and the price of production. Producing a small number of different pcb's wont bring an advantage. Its maybe the same price then. So its better to use the same pcb, get a lower price for producing it and populate it only with half the chips.
And i think users that order the bitburner X wont have problems with the space anyway. If they would have many miners they would order bitburner xx.