I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was considering doing a long-form post about my experience with a FutureBit Apollo bitcoin mining rig. There was some interest, so here it is.
Choosing an option
FutureBit offers the
Apollo mining rig in several configurations:- A bare-bones hashing machine ($524.99USD)
- Same as 1, but with a FutureBit-made power supply ($599.99USD)
- The same hashing machine as 1, but with a built-in "controller" which can act as a desktop computer (their words). ($824.99USD)
- Same as 3, but with a FutureBit-made power supply ($899.99USD)
For (1), you need an external power supply and a computer to "drive" the hashboard. This is only recommended for advanced users, while (3) has software provided and pre-installed, so it's more n00b friendly.
For a few different reasons, I chose option 1:
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This was the cheapest option, so naturally I wanted to see if this would work for me, to help lower my cost for entry.
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I already have a server from which I can drive the hashing machine. I don't have a need for another general purpose "computer". I consider myself enough of a power user to figure out how to drive the hashing machine from an external computer.
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The power supply available from FutureBit would only supply enough power to drive the hasher at 3 TH/s, while the hashing machine is rated to go up to ~3.8TH/s. I didn't want to be limited by the power supply in that way.
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I could actually get a more powerful power supply for lower cost, so either way, I wasn't planning to buy either package that included the FutureBit power supply.
Some additional considerations:
- If you buy one of the Full units (with the built-in computer and control software), you are strongly discouraged from updating any system packages, the OS itself, or the NodeJS engine which is what the UI app runs on. There's supposedly some incompatibility issues that breaks the functionality of the miner if you do this. I was not a fan of this, since it ships with old, outdated software, which can expose security vulnerabilities over time.
Making the purchase
I originally wanted to buy using bitcoin to help preserve privacy. I thought through this some, and realized I'd still need to ship it somewhere where I could pick it up. I couldn't figure out a way to receive the shipment without tying to my identity, so I gave up on that. I emailed support asking if there was any option to buy/pick up in person, either at their distribution center in California or at their office in Brooklyn, NY, but the answer was no.
I also tried to buy using bitcoin but their bitcoin payment plugin was broken, so that option was off the table. I emailed support about this, and they said they could provide a bitcoin address to send to, but I opted against it. I was afraid that the out-of-band communication would not be honored somehow, it just made me uncomfortable.
All that being said, I just paid using normal payment rails and had it shipped to my house. Sorry, sorry :D
Shortly after I made the purchase, FutureBit was running a 10% off sale. I emailed customer support to ask if they would consider retroactively applying the discount, and they did! That was very nice of them.
Setting it up
The physical setup isn't bad at all. You plug the PCI-E power cables in the ports in the back of the miner, along with the micro-USB plug to control the hashboard.
One issue I ran into was despite connecting the power supply to the board and turning the power supply on, the board was not powering up. I emailed support and they led me to the solution, that I needed to jump the CPU power cable on the power supply. Since I was using a power supply meant for an entire computer, it needed to be "tricked" to think it was connected to a motherboard, etc. I guess had I bought the power supply from FutureBit, I wouldn't have run into this issue.
Since I opted to not buy the "Full" edition, I also needed to figure out how to run the mining software. The binaries can be found here. Pick the right version based on the OS you're using, and follow the instructions to set it up/configure it. Down-side: it's not open source :(. The configurations of the software allow you to essentially determine the hashrate you will mine at and which pool you will use.
I also ended up writing a very slim, bare bones UI app to make it easier to control the mining software from my home network. Maybe I'll open-source it one day, but I haven't yet. Essentially it's a web app wrapper around running shell command to launch the mining software. I also ended up eventually creating a linux service to run the miner at boot, to help improve resiliency and up-time in case I ever rebooted.
Choosing a mining pool
Long story short, I ended up using Braiins Pool because it was KYC-free and used PPLNS for payout, which is "real mining", not just selling hashrate for a fixed fee. I explored several other mining pools and felt most comfortable with Braiins.
I did try NiceHash but I found their UI to be not very useful, so I couldn't easily determine how my miner was performing. I also saw a lot of errors in the logs when I was pointed to NiceHash, which made me suspect that I wasn't going to get the full value of my mining efforts in that pool. One nice thing about NiceHash is the Lightning payouts, something I wish Braiins supported.
Running it long-term
I've found the stability to be very good. I've had a few blips here and there, but mostly due to internet outages at home or things like that, so nothing really to do with the miner itself.
I did run it at a higher hashrate than the OOTB UI will allow you to do, so I could achieve 3.5TH/s hashrate. At this level, it was consuming about 250W of power, compared to 200W of power producing 3TH/s of hashrate. Depending on your goals, you can run it at various rates and get sats at the corresponding speed.
Then there's the noise and the heat.
I found that running the machine anything above the "medium" level was a noticeable level of noise, and probably not ideal for a room where you spend a lot of time. Cranking it up to produce 3.5TH/s was definitely noisy. I decided to get 2 Noctua 120mm computer fans to help cool it down. I put one underneath, and one on top of the miner, both pushing air up. My goal was to make the internal fan have to work less hard to keep the device cool, and with this setup, it definitely worked.
Currently, I run the device producing 3TH/s 24/7 and it sits around 55C in temperature, with the internal fan speed around 2500rpm. Without the extra fans, the internal fan speed exceeded 3000rpm, if memory serves. That seems to have made a big difference in noise.
As for the heat - this device will definitely warm up a room if it's enclosed. I had it in a larger room for a while and it wasn't terribly noticeable. I assume it's significantly cooler than any "pro" miners like an S9 or whatever, but it isn't negligable.
What did I spend, and what have I earned?
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I paid $493.16 for the hashboard, including shipping, tax, and sale discount.
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I paid $73.05 for a EVGA power supply to drive the miner
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I paid $34.22 for the two Noctua fans
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I paid $6.42 for a power adapter to drive the external fans from my power supply
So a total of $606.45USD for all of the above, NOT including electricity to run the miner.
I've been running the miner more or less 24/7 since July this year. My Braiins Pool account currently sits at around 82,000 sats. I can't withdraw until I hit 100,000 sats, with a 10,000 sats fee.
At current fiat exchange rate, 82,000 sats roughly equates to $31USD.
I provided these numbers so you can see that this is clearly not going to become "profitable" any time soon. However, I am earning KYC-free sats, so a premium is to be expected. Also, I am contributing to the distributed mining network, and ultimtely, I'm a nerd so this is just a fun experiment. I've also learned a lot during this process, and I value that.
Conclusion
If you're with me this far, thank you for reading!
I probably won't break even or make a profit any time soon, but this has been a worthwhile experiment for me. I'd do it again, but I probably won't buy another unit to expand my mining capacity.
Let me know what you think, and if you have any questions! I am sure I left some details out that folks might be interested in knowing.