Red Fury & Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency has taken off in the last few years now to the point where everyone is talking about it, even my 60 year old Dad who has never turned on a computer in his life. Months back only one RHR employee knew anything about the world of Cryptocurrency now more than half our team has taken the plunge into this exciting world.
The Red Fury USB Miner is the perfect starter item for anyone wanting to get into the World of Bitcoins and SHA-256 Crypto-Currencies.
The large heatsink makes for a very cold running miner with no added noise. The extremely small form factor and the fact the USB port is built into the Red Fury makes for one of the most universally easy miners on the market today, many miners use multiple Red Fury’s to make for great low cost mining farms.
In our testing we found the Red Fury to be the most stable using bfgminerWin, while using this software we found the setup to be extremely simple and straight forward.
A Closer Look
Above: The Red Fury with With Well painted Read heatsink
Above: The heatsink is perfectly flush with the PCB board on all sides but where the USB plugs in
Above: Program and Reset buttons for easy access by the USB and a city of capacitors and resistors surrounding the ASIC
Above: Due to the fact the Red Fury is s flush with the PCB standing the USB upside down is no issue an gives lots of great options for a custom tech bench and cooling
Above: Lastly well done large solder points and a strong feeling USB port leave the Red Fury feeling like money well spent.
Asic Comparison
| Bitcoin double SHA256 ASIC mining hardware | |||||
| Product | Advertised Mhash/s | Mhash/J | Watts | Price (USD) | Comm ports |
| AntMiner S1 [1 | 180,000 | 500 | 360 | 615 | Ethernet |
| AntMiner U1 [2 | 1,600 | 800 | 2 | 29 | USB |
| AntMiner U2+ [3 | 2,000 | 1,000 | 2 | 17 | USB |
| Avalon ASIC #1 | 66,300 [4 | 107 | 620[4 | 1299[5 | Ethernet, Wifi |
| Avalon ASIC #2 | 82,000[5 | 117 | 700 | 1499[5 | Ethernet, Wifi |
| Avalon ASIC #3 | 82,000[5 | 117 | 700 | 1499[5 | Ethernet, Wifi |
| Avalon2 | 300,000 | 3075 | USB or Ethernet(Power by OpenWrt) | ||
| Avalon3 | 800,000 | USB or Ethernet(Power by OpenWrt) | |||
| bi*fury | 5,000 | 1,176 | 4.25 | 209 | USB |
| BitBurner | USB | ||||
| Bitcoin Ultra Enigma 1 | 750,000 | 1000 | 860 | 3200 | USB, Ethernet |
| BFL SC 5Gh/s | 5,000[6 | 166 | 30 | 274[6 | USB |
| BFL SC 10 Gh/s | 10,000 [7 | 374[7 | USB | ||
| BFL SC 25 Gh/s | 25,000 [8 | 166 | 150 | 1249[8 | USB |
| BFL Little Single | 30,000[9 | 649[9 | USB | ||
| BFL SC 50 Gh/s | 50,000 [10 | 166 | 300 | 984[10 | USB |
| BFL Single ‘SC’ | 60,000[11 | 250 | 240 | 1299[11 | USB |
| BFL 230 GH/s Rack Mount | 230,000[12 | 4255[12 | USB | ||
| BFL 500 GH/s Mini Rig SC | 500,000[13 | 185 | 2700 | 22484 | Wifi |
| BFL Monarch BPU 300 C [14 | 300,000 | 1714 | 175 | 1497 | PCIe, USB |
| BFL Monarch BPU 600 C [15 | 600,000 | 1714 | 350 | 2196 | PCIe, USB |
| BitFury S.B. | RPi GPIO | ||||
| Bitmine.ch Avalon Clone 85GH | 85,000 | 650 | 6489[16 | Ethernet, Wifi, USB | |
| Black Arrow Prospero X-1 | 64,000 | 1777 | 36 | 239[17 | Ethernet |
| Black Arrow Prospero X-3 | 1,344,000 | 1792 | 750 | 3999[18 | Ethernet |
| Blue Fury | 2,500 | 1000 | 2.5 | 140 | USB |
| Block Erupter Blade | 10,752 | 129 | 83 | 350[19 | Ethernet |
| Block Erupter Cube | 30,000 | 150 | 200 | 550[19 | Ethernet |
| Block Erupter Emerald | 336 | Promo | USB | ||
| Block Erupter Sapphire | 333 | 130 | 2.55 | 20[19 | USB |
| CoinTerra TerraMiner IV | 2,000,000[20 | 2200 | 5999[20 | Ethernet | |
| CoinTerra GSX I PCIe Card | 400,000[21 | 450 | 1599[20 | USB | |
| Drillbit | USB | ||||
| Extolabs EX1 | 3,600,000[22 | 1895 | 1900[22 | 9499[22 | USB, Ethernet |
| HashBuster Micro | 20,000 | 869 | 23 | 688 | USB |
| HashBuster Nano | USB | ||||
| HashCoins Apollo | 700,000[23 | 1436 | 600[23 | 2499[23 | USB |
| HashCoins Hermes | 1,000,000[24 | 1179 | 850 [24 | 3299[24 | USB |
| HashCoins Poseidon | 2,100,000[25 | 1436 | 1500[25 | 6899[25 | USB |
| HashCoins Zeus | 3,500,000[26 | 1436 | 2400[26 | 10999[26 | USB |
| HashFast Baby Jet | 400,000[27 | 1143 | 350[27 | 5600[27 | Ethernet, USB |
| HashFast Sierra | 1,200,000[28 | 1143 | 1050[28 | 7080[28 | USB |
| HashFast Sierra Evo 3 | 2,000,000[29 | 1492 | 2200[29 | 6800[29 | USB |
| Klondike | 4,500 | 140 | 32 | 95 | USB |
| KnCMiner Mercury | 100,000 | 250 | 1995 | Ethernet | |
| KnC Saturn [30 | 250,000 | 400 | 300[31 | 2995 | Ethernet |
| KnC Jupiter [30 | 500,000 | 400 | 600[31 | 4995 | Ethernet |
| KnC Neptune [32 | 3,000,000 | 1429 | 2100 | 12995 [32 | Ethernet |
| LittleFury | USB | ||||
| Metabank | 120,000 | 705 | 170 | 2160[33 | |
| Minerscube 5 – 5 Th/s | 5,000,000 | 825 | 4000 | Ethernet | |
| Minerscube 8.5 – 8.5 Th/s | 8,500,000 | 1400 | 6000 | Ethernet | |
| Minerscube 15 – 15 Th/s | 15,000,000 | 2475 | 9225 | Ethernet | |
| NanoFury / IceFury | 2,000 | 800 | 2.5 | USB | |
| NanoFury NF2 | USB | ||||
| Red/BlueFury | 2,600 | 1040 | 2.5 | 640 | USB |
| TerraHash Klondike 16 [34 | 4,500 | 140 | 32 | 250 | USB |
| TerraHash Klondike 64 [35 | 18,000 | 140 | 127 | 900 | USB |
| TerraHash DX Mini (full) | 90,000 | 140 | 640 | 6000 | USB |
| TerraHash DX Large (full) | 180,000 | 140 | 1,280 | 10500 | USB |
| Twinfury | 4,500 | 1174 | 3.83 | 216 | USB |
(Care Of https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison)
Real World Testing
Testing Center
Asus AM1N-A
AM1 5350 Athlong 2.05Ghz Quadcore
Gskill 1866 4GB Ram
WD 250GB Blue HDD
Windows 7 Pro 64Bit
250 Watt Gold OEM PSU
Free Air Techbench
BFGMiner 3.2.0 Software.
After 3 days of testing I was amazed to see the hash rate move from 2.43 as a low and 2.8GH/s as a high. Power draw barely made my wattage tester move when plugging in and turning on the Red Fury. There was a true wattage pull of 1.8-2.6 watts of constant draw.
In testing the Red Fury did heat up if it was covered by another item in the top slot and the heatsink was stuck on a table or carpet. Once you move the cooler to have the heatsink freely get air flow, warming up seems to instantly vanish other than at full load where it can become hot to the touch. The Red Fury has run in my testing for over 2 weeks with little to no issues other then the test bench randomly turning off after windows 7 decided it was a good time to force a update.
Unlike many other Asic Miners the Red Fury is extremely stable and well designed, many articles we read about the Red Fury had it using other software to Mine and right away I say STAY AWAY, stick to Bfgminer as it is designed to have stability in mind.
Conclusion
The Red Fury is a super simple and yet elegant solution to anyone wanting to enter Sha-256 based mining. It truly is a product of quality and craftsmanship even though it is super basic.
The device on its own can get warm peaking at 55c but with even a basic fan it rarely moves above 5-10c over room temperature. The low wattage to medium gain makes it a great performer. Ranging from $45-109 it is truly a low cost great solution to enter the realm of the unknown.
The Red Fury wins our Innovation award for its simple design and yet powerful in its own way. It features an amazingly easy setup and the ability to expand very quickly into a multiple miner setup. Being able to plug into any usb port makes this a great miner for PC,Mac, Linux or even Android setups. For all these great features and design we award it our RHR Innovation Award.
The Power Saver Award is given to items that are designed with power and efficiency in mind. The Red Fury Embodies everything power efficient and is a great started SHA_256 miner for any user. The fact it only draws 2.5 Watts at peak is art in its own due to the fact that that low power draw could save a Crypto-Miner thousands in years of mining. For these great reasons the Red Fury is awarded our RHR Power Saver Award.
The Red Fury in this review was provided by Bitcoin Brains. Realhardwarereviews.com Staff and Reviewers thank them for giving us the chance to experience a new world of computer hardware and enter into the Cryptocurrencies World.
