When comparing ASIC miners, people still tend to focus on the purchase price or headline hashrate first. In practice, I think energy efficiency is becoming the more important metric, especially for miners who are not operating at very low industrial electricity rates.
A simple comparison illustrates the problem. Two machines can deliver similar hashrate, but if one consumes several hundred watts more continuously, the difference becomes significant over a full year.
For me, the key metrics when evaluating hardware are:
- efficiency in J/TH;
- actual wall power consumption rather than manufacturer figures alone;
- electricity price;
- expected network difficulty growth;
- machine reliability;
- cooling requirements;
- resale value after 12–24 months.
The interesting question is where the break-even point is.
For example, would you rather buy an older ASIC at half the price but with noticeably worse efficiency, or pay more upfront for a current-generation machine?
I am especially interested in opinions from people running miners at different electricity costs.
At what electricity price do you personally stop considering older-generation ASICs?