New or used: how to decide, and what to ask

The choice between new and used comes down to one question: is capital or electricity your scarcer resource? New machines buy efficiency, which pays back slowly and steadily over the lifetime of the fleet. Used machines buy terahash cheaply today, which pays back quickly if your power is inexpensive.

Where used hardware makes sense

The pattern is consistent: used hardware wins wherever the electricity is cheap enough that efficiency stops being the binding constraint, or wherever the time horizon is too short for an efficiency advantage to accumulate.

• Sites with very cheap, curtailed or otherwise stranded energy, where a low price per terahash beats a low joule per terahash.
• Operators expanding in steps who want to prove out a site before committing capital to hardware of the current generation.
• Projects with a short or uncertain horizon, where the payback window is shorter than the efficiency advantage takes to accumulate.

Where new makes sense

The mirror image. Where every watt is expensive and the fleet is meant to run for years, the efficiency gap compounds into a number far larger than the difference in purchase price.

• Sites on the grid paying commercial rates, where efficiency dominates the cost structure.
• Hosting arrangements priced per kilowatt, where every watt you spend has to earn its place.
• Fleets you intend to run for years, where the efficiency gap compounds.

Why we say used and not refurbished

"Refurbished" is not a regulated word, and its meaning varies wildly between sellers. For some it means a full rebuild with replaced components and a documented burn in. For others it means the machine powered on once. We call our stock used for exactly that reason: it is previously operated hardware, function tested before dispatch, with the condition written on the quote. Where a batch has had components replaced, the quote says which ones.

• Hours and history. Ask what the units ran and for how long. A seller who cannot say does not know.
• Test records. Ask what testing was actually done, and ask to see the record before you commit rather than after delivery.
• What was replaced. Hashboards, fans, PSU, or nothing at all. All four are legitimate answers, but you should know which one applies.
• Warranty wording. Used units rarely carry manufacturer warranty. What replaces it, and for how long, belongs in writing on the quote.