After the significant drop of Ethereum price, many people are switching to other cryptocurrencies to mine. DASH became one of the main targets after Baikal, Bitmain and now Innosilicon released new powerful ASICs for this coin.

As I analyzed in the other reviews, Dash mining difficulty will more likely experience a steep increase in the next couple of months. The new ASIC models are somewhere between five and ten times more efficient than the previous gen ones. Seeing is believing, so why won’t we take a look at the A5 DashMaster specs:

A5 DashMaster Specs

The specs speak for themselves. No other miner on the market can reach the 38 GH/s mark. As for today, according to cryptocompare, the ROI of the A5 DashMaster is less than two weeks.

It won’t last long, though. Those new miner models created a gold (Dash) rush. Once more people get their hands on new-gen Dash miners, mining difficulty will go up. This will of course decrease the profitability of the new miners. In some months their ROI will more likely drop down to 8-9 months, which is a norm for Dash ASICs.

We can also notice that the A5 DashMaster produces a lot of heat. If you are going to mine at home, make sure your rooms are properly cooled. Also, if you are experiencing overheating issues, it might be a good idea to switch from overclocked to normal miner mode.

INNOSILICON A5 DashMaster ASIC Dash Miner

Innosilicon A5 DashMaster DASH ASIC Miner Profitability

Price and Availability

The A5 DashMaster costs 4.22 BTC, 254.23 LTC or 10.000 dollars at Innosilicon official website. Until not long ago, there was a minimum amount of units you could purchase – You had to order at least three units; now there are no limitations regarding quantity.

The company has a first pay, first served policy. Once all the units are sold out, the sale is closed. The first shipments are expected to be the October 10th, 2017. Alternatively, you can buy the miner from third-party sites; however expect to pay a higher price.

Innosilicon A5 DashMaster vs Bitmain Antminer D3

The AntMiner D3 seems to be the only decent competitor to the DashMaster. People usually compare the two and conclude that the Antminer D3 has better ROI. However, the D3 is now out of stock and no one knows when the next batch will be available for preorder. The DashMaster on the other hand is still available for sale and it looks like there are many units in stock – otherwise the company would not make discounts to incentivate sales of the product.

Where to Buy!

In Conclusion

As usual, Innosilicon advertises their products as the best on the market. Say, according to the official website, “[The DashMaster A5] possesses >3.2x mining efficiency and up to 2.6x Hash rate advantage over its closest competitor”. While this is of course a bold claim that has no back up, the DashMaster A5 is still a great miner that can be considered a solid alternative to the Antminer D3.