Introduction
I've been playing around with the Baikal Mini Miner ASIC, so though that I can share a bit more about the device for everyone that is into mining crypo currencies. The Baikal Mini Miner is an ASIC miner with for multiple different mining algorithms: X11, X13, X14, X15, Quark and Qubit. It is portable in size, has a low power usage yet offers a high hashrate, works relatively silent in terms of noise from the cooling solution. The device uses a web-based control interface, so you directly monitor it and control it via a web browser, all you need to do is plug it in your network with a cable.
Baikal Mini Miner Performance Specs:
X11: 150 MH/s @ 40W
X13: 150 MH/s @ 46W
X14: 150 MH/s @ 47W
X15: 150 MH/s @ 48W
Quark: 150 MH/s @ 25W
Qubit: 150 MH/s @ 28W
All in all you may say everything about the miner just looks too good to be true...
What are the Drawbacks
The price on the first place is a bit steep, the device costs about $500 USD or 56 DASH and that price does not even include a power adapter, so you would need to secure one yourself - 5A 12V good one should be fine. Furthermore the device is shipped from China, so additional customs charges and delays are possible, even if the supplier does not declare the full price for the customs.
The miner does come with support for 6 different mining algorithms, but some of them are not very popular and widely used, so you might not use them at all or rarely have to switch to X14 for example. You have to manually switch to the algorithm and pool you want to mine with the miner at, there is no automation available to allow for best algo profit switching.
The X11 algorithm is the most widely used one thanks to the popularity of DASH, but that also means that the hashrate available there is the largest as there are also other ASIC miners available for X11, though there are not yet for the other algorithms (or at least not public).
In order to get best profitability you need to be constantly on lookout for new and trending coins that use any of the supported algorithms and switch to them, this is a time consuming task and probably not worth doing for a single mining device. Alternatively you can go for a safer approach and go for selling your hashrate on a service such as Niche Hash or Mining Rig Rentals.
What Do I Think About It
The device is certainly nice and all, even though the build does look a bit simple, but that also means it could be easier to modify for the people that want to play around with their miners. It works well and is stable, delivers what the manufacturer promises in terms of specifications and the only think not that attractive is probably the price. You are looking at about a year of mining in order to cover the cost of the device, that is if taking into account the current market situation, but as we know things can change very rapidly in the crypto world.
So getting one to play around at home and experiment with the different supported algorithms may be a nice thing to do, without thinking much about making profit from it. Alternatively if you are running a large mining operation you might be interested in purchasing more of these miners and implement a profit-based switching to maximize your income thus making things looking better in terms of return of investment.
I'm a hobby miner and I like to play with new tech and write about it, including ASIC miners, so for me the Baikal Mini Miner is really interesting "toy" to play around with and write about it. If you are running a serious mining operation however the requirements and the things you look at when considering making a possible investment in hardware are different...
If you have a question or want to add something, then please leave a comment below.
Did you like what you have just read? Check my other posts on steemit
