It has been nearly a month. When do you expect that 'final call'?

-OCS

I'm going to have to agree here. Dogie's 'paid position' is technical support and not sales or design. Additionally, in his non-paid role as member of this community, he has been open and helpful about every miner that he is familiar with,  in multiple threads.

I have an S2 that hasn't run right since it was purchased, the S3 line was botched since pre-S3+ (IMHO) and now it looks like the S4 is going to turn out to be a roll of the dice to see whether it can eek out a positive ROI or if it will burn your house down. But let's not take our frustrations out on one of the few people who can voice legitimate concerns straight to the top, and who goes out of his way to help others / noobs when he isn't busy getting beaten up by angry miners.

-OCS

... which confirms once again that you should never, ever buy B1. Pay more, get less. 

Well... I am betting against the S4 due to pricing, but not against my fellow miner. In fact, I commend you for being willing to stand up against the many pages of unhappiness and acknowledging that you are carrying on the pioneering spirit of mining against the odds. I saved up 3.00 BTC in anticipation of the S4 release, having decided that 3.00 was the most I would spend, and then was thwarted by the price coming in over 3.9 including shipping.

I ended up saving some coin by not buying the S3 until the plus was announced. I got a better deal and better equipment... even if a worse difficulty. After seeing the calculations, I am hoping to pick up a used S4 in 2-3 months for 2.5 or less once the first generation of S4 owners become frustrated and sell off their miners to regain what they can from them while they still have value.

It's like buying a previously leased a car. I'm letting the first owner take the hit on it from the car lot finance guy, and then I'll pick it up affordably once it's got some miles on it.

-OCS

Well... at least BitMain should be able to keep up without any shipping backlog. 

That also means they can keep the units in their farm longer without having to uninstall them to ship out. Imagine the labor costs they are saving with their inflated prices. 

Make sure to upgrade your CG Miner. The version shipped by BitMain on S1, S2, and S3, (S4 unconfirmed) has widely documented security holes and BM isn't releasing their code even though it's licensed as open source development.

Instructions here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=671189.msg8731716#msg8731716

I just tried the "Advanced" "Go there anyway" and was still unable to log in with my existing Bitmain account. The website is obviously down due to the rush for everybody to get in on the S4 B1 ordering.  

I am definitely hanging in there for the S2 upgrade kits... the only reason I haven't given up and ditched my units on ebay. I don't have very high hopes though after seeing what a joke the S1 upgrade kit price is compared to a new S3+. I was all set to buy ten of them until I calculated how much I would lose in hashing speed vs. lose in fiat with the upgrades. That's why I own the S3+'s now. S1 upgrades were not a responsible choice.

I was proud of being an Ant farm... now I cannot wait for the next developer to come along. My loyalty has been taken for granted and Bitmain is trying to stick it to everybody, first by driving up difficulty competing and then by their equipment prices and customer standards. I know they are a business out to make money, but they shouldn't then also pretend to be our friend. This is a world of business, and they are simply practicing the hard and shady side of it.

My 0.02.

C'mon manufacturers. Gimme SOMETHING to spend my money on already.

-OCS

I own three S2's (1THs) that run right at 550-720GHs poolside if rebooted twice a week. Otherwise less. One has a hashing board that dies after 5-6 hours (all x's) until it get s hard boot.

I had hoped to bump them out of service, replacing them with S4's. After seeing the initial release price, there's no way I can gamble another round. I got taken once. It won't happen again. Sorry, Bitmain. Not even close to being worth the risk. I see how you treated me on S2's and S3 Batch 1-4. Your customer relations are as shaky as your hardware.

(Full disclosure: I have ten S1's and two S3+'s and love every one of them. The S2's are just absolute dogs and S4 pricing is a farce.)

Here is a FAQ ... what are the specs and why has for sale date you posted passed without any information. 

Got my Batch 8 UPS tracking number too.

Ordered: 2014-08-13 18:57:30.0

In two short days it'll be time to put the ROI to the test, especially with the new CGMiner 4.6 and latest firmware. I'm still a believer, and even if it's only "close" to ROI, I'll be a happy camper. The whole point of a hobby is for it to be fun.

-OCS

It's Wednesday now... Thursday in China. Did I miss the good news somewhere? Waiting with baited breath! 

-OCS

My S2 does that trick when it gets hot. Usually a full 30 second power off fixes "-"s for me. A soft boot doesn't seem to be enough of a motivation. 

N00b question... I would like to 'play' but only have BTC. Is there an easy way to convert to / buy MMXIV?

Thanks for any links / assistance.

Ha! I am praying that it is S3+ testing since it is a new board design. We have seen from B1-B5'ish that shipping untested products can wreak havoc and confusion with 10,000 individual items having a dozen different, sometimes unique, problems. I would rather that they test for 30 days then to send me a miner that is unreliable, quirky, and un-returnable.

My opinion only,

-OCS

Moving away from the negative hopefully.... I have an ROI question that I cannot figure out how to calculate. As I have stated, I am able to set up miners, but not really smart about them.

I own 4.8Ths that is already ROI, including electrical costs. I have pre-ordered two S3+ to (hopefully) ship around Sept 20. They were paid for with 1.16BTC generated by my mini-farm after it reached ROI (free BTC). I calculate them as 450GHs each or 900GHs for the equation.

That will bring my mini-farm up to 5.7THs. It has been established and is almost not arguable that a single S3+ cannot ROI by itself.

My question: As an added component to an existing farm, is it possible for the additional benefit of two S3+'s to the already income-producing condition to 'ever' benefit by 1.16BTC? I don't understand how to calculate existing hashing power into the ROI equation.

Thank you for any assistance. I also would like to apologize to JPChrist. I agree that personal attacks do not benefit the community and I look forward to learning from his helpful posts.

-OCS

Actually I don't present myself as a stand-up guy. I am in fact a n00b who knows very little. Your post caught my attention because I recognized your name from past posts which were both helpful and insightful. That's why I was surprised that your top post here was so hypocritical. You criticize others for buying something pretty much what you are selling.

So now that we are having a calm discussion. You say, "I have NO idea why people are buying batch 8, even with an overclock the units wont even return 50%. " and you say, " I have every right to offer to sell an S3 at a price competitive with bitmains". So, if we should not buy from Bitmain, then why buy from you who is offing a competitive price to Bitmain that still will not ROI? How is buying from you a better decision to save an estimated .08 with figures you provided that show the buyer will ROI at -.2BTC? (Your provided chart.)

But that leaves the .7BTC buyer still behind by .5BTC (.2BTC earned), which JPChrist has 'proven' will still not break even. Yet he peddles his S3's which will not ROI while shouting that the rest of us are fools for buying the S3+ with better specs for about the same loss as he is offering.

In August 19 you posted this...


You must be a real stand-up fellow to try to stop people from buying at .58 while you try to sell at .7

I know... 30 day difficulty, blah blah blah. But for .12 LESS they stand a lot better chance at breaking even.

Pick a side and stick with it already.

-OCS

Okay. I don't want to start rumors, so somebody else, PLEASE investigate...

I ordered from Bitmain directly for the first time within minutes of the S3+ going up for sale. I can now view my order, but the edit button has gone away.

From lurking in the forums, I have read that the Edit button going away always meant that things were about to ship.

The S3+ isn't slated to ship until on or around Sept 20th.

Has anybody else's Edit button gone away for their S3+ order, and could that really mean that things are going to be happening soon??

Interested in the opinion of those who have done this before...

Thx.

-OCS