So, in brief, 53 pages of hope, sweat and tribal dancing is ended like ROI=never.
This is awesome. The fewer people that get involved, the better. I hope the FPGA community stays small, so profits don't get diluted.
To clear things up about the power & modifications I posted an update to the Downloads page:
http://zetheron.com/index.php/downloads/Software will be provided that runs on all types of cards (modified and unmodified). Keccak represents the worst case for heat and power consumption. Looking at the chart of performance/profit, you'll see that a majority of the profits for FPGA mining lie in the Cryptonight family of algorithms. These algorithms, being memory intensive, don't consume that much power or generate that much heat. GPU_Hoarder has his CN7 (19.7-22KH/s = 10-12x Vega 64) algorithm running on an unmodified VCU1525. There is always the option of waiting for the Bittware VU9P crypto card as well which can run power-hungry algorithms at full speed right out of the box.
If you are still curious about performance on the heat-intensive algorithms as it relates to the various modifications, the approximate numbers are:
- Out of the box: full performance on memory hard algorithms; 50-60% of speed on power intensive algorithms
- Remove the outer casing and blast a powerful fan (takes 2 minutes to do): 70% of speed on power intensive algorithms
- (+) drop core voltage (no mechanical mod needed) w/powerful fan: 80% of speed on power intensive algorithms
- Advanced/crazy mods: 100% of speed on power intensive algorithms
This only applies to the existing VCU1525. The huge group order being organized by GPU_Hoarder & Senseless already has some of the mods done before you even receive your card, and as I mentioned, the Bittware card (though it costs more) has all the mods already done for you.
Still, despite this information, hopefully people don't buy; the fewer people that get involved, the better.