Wow those look really tempting now. Pretty close to a 5970 / 6990 but without the power, heat, or noise. But as was said, they're only *just* slightly more efficient for MH/$.
I'm not sure slightly is the right word here......
BFL Single 813Mh/80w = 10Mh/1w
At
BEST, a 5970 can
MAYBE to 5Mh/1w when it is underclocked / undervolted.
So if you consider
DOUBLE the Mh/w to be
slightly, then maybe I'm dumber than I have been thinking.
Ultimately what this means is, a BFL single will be profitable a lot longer when the next significant downward event happens in price or subsidy.
Sorry Giga, I think I was focusing on price moreso than efficiency. Obviously your #s are right and no a 5970 wouldn't be anywhere near close.
I was wondering to myself though if FPGAs can still be used for anything else except mining. I know the market will continue but if it were to crash, I'd believe GPUs to have some resale value vs FPGAs which I don't know what else you could do with.
FPGAs are good for people who have high power costs, not great areas to mine with cooling, and perhaps a lack of space though. 4 of them would edge out the price of one (full w/case) rig + 3 5970s pretty well (let's estimate 3,200 MH VS 2,200 MH) by quite a good margin, though 3 FPGAs and you're kind of close there. I would again just wonder what else they could be used for before turning my entire operation into FPGA blocks.
Actually with the price of 5970's at a little over 400 dollars right now + MB/CPU/Memory + PSU you are looking at an investment of about 1700 bucks (for 3 5970's).
3 of these are 1800 bucks... pretty close comparo if you ask me