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When the BitForce Bitcoin Miner is mining, does it have to be connected to a PC all the time?
Has the BitForce Bitcoin Miner be connected to a PC all the time?
Answers
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Yes. Mining devices such as this are merely highly-specialized processors that communicate with a computer via serial over USB. The computer is necessary in order to tell the device what to do, and to get its result to post to the mining system (i.e. a pool or bitcoind).
Really? This means, additional to the energy consumptions of the Miner comes the energy consumed by the PC/Laptop? – powtac – 2013-07-01T22:06:39.493
Yes. There's a bit of an assumption that you'd already have it running 24/7, or that you're running a lower power machine anyway. The hashrate to wattage ratio of an ASIC will always beat that of a GPU. – Colin Dean – 2013-07-02T01:50:40.417
1@powtac Keep in mind that you can have very low power footprint devices connected. ie, android tablet, or phones or Raspberry pi device. There is a article made by a guy from NZ showing his setup using the 5GH/s butterfly lab device running with raspberry pi which was using a total of 44wat IIRC – wired00 – 2013-07-02T04:47:19.840