I've been checking out antminers for some time now. What's the general opinion on the new Canaan Avalon Q US Plug miner?
The Avalon looks way simpler to set up and manage.
Any suggestions for other miners that are just as easy to use?
About to your thread title, what type of Antminer (e.g. S21 XP) you're talking about? While i can't give detailed reply since you didn't mention any detail, Canaan Avalon Q have lower energy efficiency (at 0.019W/GH) compared with more recent ASIC. So don't expect any profit unless you have access to really cheap electricity.
Canaan Avalon Q is a home miner with a small hashrate. Other Antminers have better price per terahash, energy efficiency, etc., but they are not home miners.
In the setup, everything seems relatively the same to me.
In terms of setup:
Both are really easy to configure and get started to mine.
For Antminers, everything crucial and a bit more can be configured in the web interface.
For Avalon Q, there is only an Android/iPhone App with VERY limited configuration options.
If you want to manage your miner with a SmartHome solution, Antminers are way better as the Avalon Q lacks interfaces to interact with.
The real upside of the Avalon Q is the very low noise level. It's a home miner after all, where the Antminers are industrial miners and loud as f***.
So the question is: Where do u want to place your miner? Do u want to use the "waste heat" to heat up a room or two?
Whatever you plan to do you will get the same result becaise they are both Asic miners and the difference is that one hash rate is higher than the other and also energy consumption. We can't tell you which one you should buy because at the end of the day you will be the one to plug them under your roof.
Antminer are full Asic miners, they consume higher energy and they make alot noise too but in return you get higher hash rate than the Avalon Q, if this is left for me to figure out I will choose base on energy bills.
The only thing that makes mining interesting is affordable of the energy bill, the cheaper it is the better for your mining operation, if not then both are not going to make any sense, you are free to pick anyone that you want.