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NOTE: In this review, I play around with swapping out the stock fan for quieter ones. After ~24 hours of tinkering or so, I've concluded that it's best to leave the stock fan on if you are running default 350MHz clocks and above. Adding a pull fan makes little to no difference with the stock push fan. These units appear to perform best when run at a board temperature below 60C.

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Full Disclosure: I was offered a preview unit but did not feel right accepting one as I have been critical of the S3 launch. I purchased two Batch 1 units with the aim of replacing two older A1 28nm rigs, and hopefully getting it quiet and cool enough to run in a bedroom (tl;dr: Not likely even at 54dBA with quieter fans in push/pull)

Background: I’ve been involved in home mining in since May of 2011. CPU mined my first block as a curiosity in August of 2010.

Started with a dual AMD 7970 rig in 2011 and grew my farm out from there after learning of the Bitcointalk forums. Have been practically living in the Hardware section ever since, trying to keep up with the shifting landscape of mining hardware suitable for use in North American homes running on standard 115VAC residential circuits.

My farm today: I’m practically at the limits of what my home is able to reasonably power, which gives me an approximate hash rate of about 12THs spread across Bitmain S2’s, Bitmain S3’s, A1 Clones, and SPTech SP20E's.

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Unboxing photos.

https://i.imgur.com/9ufz9EB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/CmFTuDP.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/BBqy6Bo.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HZo8IEY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/d3WlRqX.jpg

Stock fans are indeed loud. Way too loud to be near a bedroom (Measuring ~74dBA)
https://i.imgur.com/E5LYPKR.jpg

Off to experiment with some other fans.

https://i.imgur.com/TjNtYY6.jpg

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Yep, that's better. Still too loud to be in a bedroom, IMO, but quiet enough to put in the living room.

https://i.imgur.com/xRPLInq.jpg

591W at the wall

https://i.imgur.com/z3R1bpq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/32S8sI2.png

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Much better with some different fans with manually adjustable flows. Have it set up nicely in a push/pull configuration.

https://i.imgur.com/DWh8Dl0.jpg?1

Board temperatures have settled at 63/58 at room temp of 25C pulling 592W from the wall using a Corsair TX750M Bronze power supply.

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Initial Thoughts:  Lots of room for improvement making the units quieter, but it performs to spec, and has lots of room for modding and tweaking.

Will update this thread as I play with them more. Will definitely be looking to acquire a few more of these.

Bitmain has another winner on their hands, and looks like the production issues faced with the initial S3 batches have been largely resolved if we take other reviews into consideration.

Cheers, Bitmain !

Other reviews:

philipma1957 - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=907219.0
klondike_bar - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=908494.0
bgibso01 - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=908483.0
Syke - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=908126.0

Great review!
Care to mention what fans did you use. One looks like Cooler master, but which model?
In addition, how do you power them up. It looks like you don't power them off the miner connector itself.

Using a Thermaltake for push, and an Antec for pull (the Thermaltake fans rub up against the mounting screws when used for pull).

The Thermaltake fan has an adjustable RPM knob, and the Antec is a 3 speed adjustable fan.

Powering them via Molex adapters - Not connected to the S5 controller at all.

Antec pull fan : http://www.amazon.com/Antec-TriCool-LED-Cooling-3-Speed/dp/B00066FHEW/
Thermaltake push fan : http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Blue-Eye-Adjustable-Control-AF0026/dp/B003IWN23O/

Great review. It would be nice if Bitmain made note of these mod's and incorporated them into future products so that they have the best miner on the market out of the box.

The SP20 design is ideal since it can stack in any direction as all ports are on the front, and the unit is a long 120mm tube. By replicating the S1/S3 board design Bitmain has somewhat limited themselves, and ideally the next revision will include a 4" PCIe extension to allow plugging power in the front side.

as for noise, try the stock fan at 5V. it pushes a lot of air but becomes reasonable volume (still quite loud though)

How do I adjust the stock fans to operate this way ?

A resistor cable (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Akasa-AK-CBFA05-05-Speed-Reduction-Cable/dp/B00B4T2CPM/ref=sr_1_25?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1420114759&sr=1-25&keywords=fan+speed) is the simplest. I'm not sure what this one is rated at, but they usually step down to 9V, 7V or 5V. Also be careful that they can take the current especially with these big boy fans.

Next step up is a fan controller (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zalman-Fan-Speed-Controller-FANMATE-2/dp/B000292DO0/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1420114744&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=fan+sped), can get some pretty cheap/small ones but again make sure its rated high enough to take the current. Fan controllers have the benefit that they're variable voltage.

Both of these waste some energy. [No affiliate links]

Thanks for the review. I've sold one of my miners and now looking to get something more efficient and juggling between the SP20 and this. Seems both are very loud, both require a PSU but each has its own other pro and con.

In regards to fans, are they just standard 120mm fans you can use? Do you think if you shield the top and bottom of the unit that a push and pull approach will greater improve heat displacement considering the air will be channeled in a streamline fashion?

I'm interested to see how these will treat a 240v PSU.

Thanks for the review. Have you try to clock it up yet and see how those fans do?

Here's the cooler of the two units overclocked after 10 hours

https://i.imgur.com/bEbF53P.png

One unit is running hotter than the other with identical fans at the default 350 clock. Might just slap the stock fan back on that hotter unit and see if that doesn't help things. If I get some time, I might decide to re-paste that one hotter unit as well.

Sorry, I was never involved in computer modding before bitcoin, hence molex adapters are unfamiliar to me.
Do you mean molex to SATA like radioshack ones below?
http://www.radioshack.com/radioshack-molex-to-sata-power-cable/2780030.html
Thanks

I've not yet had to deal with returns or warranty issues (I say this right as one of my B1 S3's has decided to fail hashing above 420GHs @ the default 218.75 clocks. All chips appear to be fine with no x's showing..)

What methods have you tried to get this issue resolved ? It was to my understanding that Bitmain's warranty coverage and DOA policy was fairly decent, so I'm concerned by your report.

I ended up slapping the stock push fan back on the hotter of the two units (left the Antec pull fan on for shits and giggles) and the unit is running ~7-10 degrees cooler without the Thermaltake push fan. Will monitor throughout the day.

It appears that keeping the S5's under 60C board temperature is ideal.

Thanks for this Xian01.  We have had similar mining hobby tracks and I have always kept an eye on your posts for up to date info.
I ordered 4 of these but given the noise I'm sending two into my datacenter cabinet and will play with the other two in my office.  I ordered two of each of your fan recommendations.  I love philipma1957's tinkering, but trying to pull the best single solution out his review is challenging.
I am glad to hear from everyone that the first batch appears solid from a performance spec standpoint.  I'm in batch three and hoping for an ontime ship date of 1/4.

The Thermaltake fan has the molex adapter built in, and the Antec ships with a molex-to-3-pin-adapter as the Antec fan uses a 3 pin adapter at it's base.

for the fan noise - try running the stock fan at 5V using one of these (or wire it yourself)
http://www.moddiy.com/product_images/j/547/T1JRxJXglbXXce7cAT_011207__14471_zoom.jpg

5V is sufficient for running at 381.25MHz/1255GH/63C/58C when drawing in air thats about 5C. In the same conditions 7V is about 30% louder and brings the temps to 57C/53C.
for room temperaure intake, 5V probably isnt suitable for running above 350MHz

do you have this product link as there are 12 pages related to molex
awesome site!
thanks

no clue on a product link, but im sure ebay/google/amazon/newegg would have some viable options. Alternatively you can rewire any old molex adapter if you're half-decent with tinkering, just GND to GND and 12V to 5V

edit: http://www.amazon.com/BitFenix-Alchemy-Multisleeve-Triple-Adapter/dp/B00HVBOW3W/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1420147992&sr=1-2&keywords=5v+fan+molex
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812311003&cm_re=5v_fan_molex-_-12-311-003-_-Product
the newegg one could operate multiple fans. Im sure cheaper options are available, maybe even at a local outlet

edit2: http://www.directron.com/zmmc1.html?gsear=1 (thanks IItravel01)

has anyone stopped to think about what temps these are going to run at in the summer time??

my s3s are 38c in the winter.. they hit 45-50 in the summer..

the s5s seem to already be at 60+

will i see temps in the 100c in the summer??

No because they will shut down at 80c

 I agree with you the review got too long and has more then 25 pages of info.
 I am going to lock it over the weekend.
 Frankly I am still not happy with any set of fans I have used.

these come on monday I suspect they will be the best fix.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191443200211?

I did not see a voltage regulator (buck convertor). Are there any or has the design of the chip changed fundamentally?

How much noise is reduced with 5V ? can this controller works?

http://www.dx.com/p/12w-speed-controller-for-heatsink-cooling-fan-dc-5-12v-171354#.VKbWK9KG95M

its all in series now. 12V dived over 14 chips (plus some other components) results in about a 0.8V operating voltage (which is good for 0.5w/GH). 9v would provide about 0.6V/chip or 0.3w/GH

problem with your link is its a 1A controller, whereas the fan is likely 1.3A rated. So if you used that controller at 5V it would run slower than allowing the fan a full 1.3A at 5V

5V is about 1/3 as loud as 12V. The noise is similar to a microwave or a window-mount A/C - not silent but at least reasonable for a spare room or a corner of the living room.

The fan won't pull 1.3A at 5V, it'll probably pull 1/2 amp or less. How much will depend on the exact fan, but I just did a quick test on one I had laying around and it pulled 463mA @ 12V and 167mA @ 5V.

That's very nice, similar to the Bitfury chips. This should remove the buck-converter losses ~10-20%.

Been using these fan as described on two of my S5's in an enclosed office closet.  Not my permanent setting, just for now.
I have each set to Freq. 318.75.  They are hashing at 1050 Gh/s with temps between 56-59.  With the fans on the same EVGA 1300 G2 it's pulling 1054w, or about 525w per miner.  Pretty happy with that.

My Bitmain AntMiner S5 reviews and Noise optimization

http://www.cyber.pe.kr/2015/01/antminer-s5-reviews-and-noise.html


thank you.

Anything in English? Are the pictures supposed to convey all your thoughts on this?

I will write for a break. thank you

7 minutes is not much of a test.

Agree as most have a board dropping off after a prolong amount of time...mine had one board stop hashing after 28Hrs at normal 50/49 temps. Took a while and a couple of reboots to get it going again.

Hmm, Bitmain has removed several items from the web interface I considered quite useful with the Antminer S3:

(a) Cronjobs are only available via SSH or SCP. The file is located in:
/var/spool/cron/root
If you edit it locally — i.e download it to your computer and edit it there with a text editor of your choice as vi probably isn't everybody's darling — make sure you transfer in text modus both directions.

(b) Voltage adjustment isn't public any more.
The corresponding file for the most important cgminer settings is:
/config/cgminer.conf
It's basically a JSON file now containing pools and other data as we well know it from other miners, too ... however:
The last two relevant lines in this config file read:

"bitmain-freq" : "4:312.5:0c02",
"bitmain-voltage" : ""

Due to noise issues I've taken two very silent (< 30dB) Noiseblocker fans at both ends, one drawing, one blowing (as with the Antminer S3) and underclocked the device to 312.5 MH/sec to keep temperatures at ca. 60 °C.
Okay, 4 separate units at 312.5 MH/sec — but what the heck does '0c02' mean?
And in which format should I enter the voltage — probably could be a bit below the standard 0.75V due to underclocking. But how to tell my Antminer without unwittingly bricking it?

Thanks in advance for any hints!

Regarding hash rate dropping or one board going offline I've taken a little cron job that has originally been developed due to hash rate dropping issues with several firmwares on the Antminer S3(+) that checks every 5 minutes (or as you like) whether the average hash rate is still high enough. If not, it initiates an automatic reboot without any need to babysit the device. Here it is:


mingh is the minimal hash rate below which the miner should reboot.

cgminer-api delivers status infos on the momentarily state — what is shown in the web interface via Miner Status -> Summary. The output is searched for the average hash rate and cut in a way to only return the mere number. If smaller than the defined limit a reboot occurs. The double round brackets in the third to last line are inevitable to make clear we've got a math expression and not a text string.

Save it as hashcheck and upload it in text mode (Yep, that's important!) to
/user/bin
If you're a wizard in vi you can create it directly on the Antminer, too. Not my choice, to be honest.

Make it executable for everyone:
chmod 755 /user/bin/hashcheck
(or in WinSCP right click -> Properties)

Add one line to the file:
/var/spool/cron/root
namely:
5 * * * * /usr/bin/hashcheck

It should now contain 2 lines if you haven't conducted further modifications.

If you edited it locally take care using text mode for re-upping it to the Antminer.

Done.

Can I ask what fans you used and what your hashrate is at 312.5 MH/sec?

How were you able to save this? AFAIK the only folder you can write persistent changes to is /config everything else gets deleted on reboot. S3 wouldn't have this issue since it uses OpenWRT's overlayfs.

Sure!

The blowing one is a Noiseblocker NB-eLoop BP12.
The drawing one is a Noiseblocker NB-Multiframe M12-P.

Both you can find e.g. at:
http://www.blacknoise.com/site/en/products/noiseblocker-it-fans.php (http://www.blacknoise.com/site/en/products/noiseblocker-it-fans.php)

The BGears B-Blaster 120mm or B-PWM 120 mm fans are even stronger
(~100 CFM) and a bit louder (~35-37dB). See:
http://bgears.com/b-pwm.html (http://bgears.com/b-pwm.html)
However it seems a bit hard to purchase them in Europe, possibly an
overseas order is needed and would take two or more weeks to arrive.

Hash rate at 312.5 MHz is at about 1 TH/sec — both Antminer webinterface
and pool statistics agree about that.

The temperature of both chains is at about 60°C, which is stated as a kind
of limit for longevity at the very first page of this AMS5 thread.

Has anyone at all substantiated the 50°C for 'best hashing' mentioned at the same place?

Uuups - that means the miner rewrites its whole system besides the config folder from scratch on every reboot, probably using the latest firmware image!? Holy BS ...
Just performed a reboot and you're right, the files are gone resp. the cron reset. Damn!

Sorry, I definitely wasn't aware of that. Then the only chance would be patching the firmware image before uploading it. Cocksure beyond my scope.

AFAIK it doesn't rewrite the image....its just a ramfs which of course would not store anything to the flash memory permenantly. Its done like this to reduce flash IO in order to prevent disk corruption. This is an issue on S2 S4 C1 and S5. S1 and S3 use OpenWRT so they have overlayfs which makes this a non-issue.

I know this post is old, I am new to overlocking too.

I just picked up 4 of these miners very loud, so will be getting replacement fans.

I have free electricity, does anyone have a guide to how to best overclock these miners? Do I just turn the frequency up? What is the safest level to do so?

Thank you.

Basically, yes, in advanced settings as long as temperatures are at or below 60C (or <65C if you want to push it).
Typically, replacement fans result in downclock, not overclock, but you save your eardrums-a pretty good tradeoff, in my opinion.

Hm and what if i do not care for the sound ?

Are there options to put in more " powerful " fans to bring the temperature down ?

Hi,
I've had one of the S5s for a week now.
I'm not over impressed really. The hash rate starts high then tails off. One blade stops behaving with individual asics dropping out periodically. I've fiddled with swapping psus and leads even moving the stock fan power lead to the other connector. I managed to get it running stable using the 362.5 overclock speed but it still only hashes at around 1050 GHs max. Then tonight it just seemed to die with no access to the control panel via the web interface. I went and checked on it (it's in the garage) and it was alive all lights and fan on but obviously not responding. I had tried a reboot via the control panel but it made no difference. Only a hard power down brought it back up.
Have I bought a lemon ?

OTOH, my two S3s are still hashing away merrily and have been since I got them.

To be honest, apart from the lower power consumption, the S3s do just as much work on average, a steady 400+ each whereas the S5 averages only around 800.

Ebay I think. I don't expect to get much joy from Antminer, but I'll try.

Any tips would be nice though :-)

I have. You can look at my S5 overclocking results (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=919018.msg10095258#msg10095258) and see that there is no sence to rise the frequency above 400.

Rabinovitch has a lot good data on that link.  His little table showing the results of various frequency settings I find to be accurate.

Personally, I put all my S5's at 375 with the stock fan.  The temps never get higher than 51 and on average I am getting 1250 gh/s at the rig and that or higher on BAN and Ghash.  I am not a slush fan, though many are, so I don't have any results there.

But I can safely rent these out at an advertised rate of 1.2 Th/s on betarigs and never have an issue.  Unless my renter is using some wacky pool or mining an altcoin or something.  That's on them anyway.  I just report the speed at the rig and the rest is their choice.  :)

Anybody down in Australia got one of these yet?

Just an additional thought since I didn't see anyone else mention it yet.
If you leave the stock fan on the S5 and add an identical (or even similar, I tried 3 different fans that were within the same ballpark with the same results) fan to the back of the unit in a pull so that you have the same high flow fans on front and back since the fan speed (and therefore noise) is temp controlled -- almost too well, it changes speed every 30 seconds in stock config -- I have found that I can both clock up my S5 to 400 Mhz and still run sub 60 degree temps while also running very, quietly with the miner clocked at 300 while still getting 990 GH and drawing less than 550 watts.
At stock speed temps sit pretty steady at 45 on both boards and fans run at 2900 for fan1 and 2700 for fan 2 (pull).

My main criticism of the S5s are the noisy fan and open case. I'd rather the case be completely enclosed with a push-pull fans setup so I could hookup an exhaust pipe to pipe the hot air outside like a dryer does. (I live in the desert where the summer temps can be 115°F and indoor temps almost 80 °F!)

BTW, Happy Easter, everyone!

Hey I installed 2 Antminer S3 fan on a S5. Wondering where in the code we can change de fan top speed ??

That could save me some $.  ;D

That's a good question. I know how to get the fan speed, but not set it…

Late to the party, but... me!  ::)

How did you connect the noctua replacement fan?
Standrad pin layout does not work for me.

thanks

You sould have got the 4 pin molex

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=80&lng=en

It haves also a standard 4-pin fan connector.
the problem was the NF-F12 did not start before the S5 start mining
maybe the voltage at start is to low.

after a few seconds of mining it starts spinning and works great :)

If you want it to spin at 100% all the time, then you have to remove the blue cable from the fan. It's much safer to do with noctua. Sometime the S5 goes in safe mode. Then the fan goes off. But the miner keep making heat. Ore you could power your fan directlie to the power supply.

So i strongly recommend this if you don't want to come home some day to a bieping/burning Antminer S5

I would in no case recommend the noctua fans if you run your S5 in a room temperature environment. If you live in a cold area and run it outside underclocked, it'll probably do fine. The noctuas are really great for S3s inside use, for example as a space heater that makes very little noise (and doesn't change noise level all the time getting on your nerves) as long as you remove the blue cable and let them run full speed all the time. Even at full speed, the sound is quite bearable. Again, not for bedrooms or such, but I'd never run any miner near where I sleep.

If you use bitmain's 1.0 A built-in fans from the S1/S3 series or the "ultra kaze" 3000 rpm 120mm fan with 0.6A that should do a much better and quieter job even in room temperature ambient without going to insane noise levels. I run my S5 with one ultra kaze at full speed connected directly to PSU and the 1A fan at 60% via the S5 itself in an enclosed push-pull configuration using a metal cover from one of the S3s.

Hi,

I am a novice in the business of mining.
I tried to connect 2 good 3 pin fans to the miner, but it fails to operate.
I get beeps!

If I connect the fans to the miner or the a molex, its the same thing. It start, but stops within a minute.
Temperature remains below 50°C!

What am I doing wrong?

regards,
Eric

if its the system and not just the fan..

sounds like your supply cant handle the current draw in watts

does it boot up, increase fan speed some ,  then a while later go full throttle then shutdown the supply?