KnCMiner has cut the price of its mining rigs by as much as 28%, with the Saturn now on sale for $2,995 and the Jupiter for $4,995.
The company also revealed today that the Mercury bitcoin hardware miner has been discontinued (this previously came with a price tag of $1,995).
All orders placed from today will be delivered from mid-November, but existing orders will be shipped no later than 15th October.
| Miner name | Old price | New price | Price decrease |
| Saturn | $3,795 | $2,995 | 21.1% |
| Jupiter | $6,995 | $4,995 | 28.6% |
| Mercury | $1,995 | Discontinued | N/A |
Sam Cole, co-founder of KnCMiner, said the company decided to cut the prices after covering its non-recurring engineering costs and deciding it would like to pass on the cost savings to its customers.
When asked whether he thinks some of the company’s existing customers, who paid the higher price for their rigs, would be annoyed that the prices had been cut, he said: “There is a one-month shipping gap between the last order going out of the existing sales (15th October) and the new deliveries at the reduced price (mid-November) so we don’t think people will be too annoyed.”
KnCMiner’s latest update said those who haven’t yet placed an order may still have the chance to get their hands on miners that are in the batch set for October delivery:
“There currently exist a few unpaid orders which are marked for October delivery. If these orders remain unpaid, they will become available for purchase again, unless payment is received.
The devices will then be added back into our site on a daily bases. The same procedure will also be in place for refunded orders. So keep an eye on our site for any October deliveries.”
It goes on to suggest existing customers will go to the top of the queue when the company releases new bitcoin mining devices.
New slogan chosen to be printed on PCB
KnCMiner’s original Mars PCBs carried the phrase: “Bitcoins make the world go around!”. Given this grammatical faux pas, the company decided to offer its followers on the BitcoinTalk forum the opportunity to choose the new slogan for its controller boards.
On Friday (30th August), KnCMiner selected the winning slogan, which it hasn’t revealed yet.
“We won’t release the winner or the slogan until we have the boards in hand. There are a few other nice surprises on the boards for you all to see when they ship,” Cole said.
Here are some of the suggestions that KnCMiner liked, but didn’t quite make the cut:
- Commanderuk – Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.
- 600watt – Mine the Gap.
- Kaerf – “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on the brink of second bailout for banks”
- The joint – where zeros and ones become heroes and fun.
- The Avenger – “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is a reality” – John Lennon