Well ASICMiner just gave mini rig buyers a punch in the gut.
Buy from BFL in August 2012. 1x mini-rig 1.5 TH/s @ 3000 BTC
Buy from ASICMiner in August 2013. 120x Eruptor Blades 1.5 TH/s @ 420 BTC
So buy from ASICMiner a year later, no pre-order stress, product will ship in days, spend 86% less, get the same hashing power and receive it sooner.
Things move fast in the mining world so specs only matter if the company can deliver as advertised when advertised. Those that trusted BFL @ 65nm paid the price, now they want to tell you 28nm will be different.
on edit: Fixed a typo 120 boards not 20. The typo seems obvious to me. 1,500 GH/s / 1.25 GH/s = 120 (not 20) boards. 420 BTC / 3.5 BTC = 120 (not 20) boards.
The one problem I have with this analysis is that is it is completely from hindsight. No one had even heard of ASICMiner back in August 2012 to make a choice. He wasn't even a blip on the radar. This kind of math is somewhat useful but not helpful.
The larger point is that ASICMiner wouldn't be pricing the boards at 420 BTC if they felt they are going to produce 3000 BTC. It just highlight how much BFL's failure to deliver has cost those that trusted the company. Nobody paid 3,000 BTC for a mini rig because they believed that it would only produce 500 BTC. They did so because they felt the rig would produce >3000 BTC in revenue. It would have if BFL had "only" been 6 months late.
You may ask why is this relevant? Well if BFL wasn't offering any new products it would be moot. Maybe just a sad irony. However today BFL
IS offering a "new and improved" product for ~40 BTC and saying "trust us" we will deliver on time. If they don't buyers will lose again and who knows maybe months before they actually deliver someone will offer an equivalent product with immediate delivery for 6 BTC.