I just got my solo 5-chip gridseed in yesterday, and being the elec engineer that I am, I thoroughly inspected it and couldn't help but take it apart for inspection. I can tell you that it has been used, for how long I don't know, but it was longer than a simple functional test should be. I could write my name in the layer of dust in and around the fan. took it apart and you can see the accumulation of dust adhered to the thermal padding extruding from actual heatsink area. I cleaned it well and replaced the the thermals with some that I know have a high thermal conductivity. I don't know much about gridseed itself, but I ordered from hash-master.com and it came with no documentation at all. I wasn't going to pay for all the extras (like the PS) since I have a slew of multi-sized dc jacks i can use on my own for free. But with the lack of documentation, I had to disassemble in order to make sure it is the common center positive connector, or if it had a bridge where it polarities would really matter (it did not btw).

My main concern is that these units might have been for some amount of time before reselling them to maximize their profits .I assumed it was new, as the "used" word was never mentioned anywhere on their sales website. I tried calling but the mailbox was full, but he did try a call back later which I missed, called again and haven't heard from him sense. Guess I'm pissed cause I didn't think of buying the hyped asics bulk, and then reselling the used ones before the super asics become available. Not sure what the costs were back then, but I paid around 190 for mine. Full disclosure would have been the most ethical business pratices IMO, but this is after all, surrounding cryptos, which has many unethical people.

All in all it seems good once you setup the drivers correctly and find compatible mining software. Good for now I mean, when the super asics come out my biggest use for these would be to reuse the fan and or heatsink for something else, like paper weights. Knew this ahead of time, but its my hobby and I was curious about these lil guys. Took a buncha pics if anyone cares to see them disassembled up close.

DOA failures could be due to poor assembly houses building these boards, as I found a few solder balls hanging out too close for comfort to the asic chip itself, and then the fan connections are hand soldered and were very close to being shorted out. I have many closeup pics if anyone cares to see them...