Bitcoin Forum

Whats the average life span of the S1 antmniner?  As in when it stops working not becomes unprofitable.

I've been running 6 of them overclocked for over 3 months now.

I would imagine environment conditions, quality of power, and stress of overclocking would affect lifespan.

No way to provide a good estimate since there are so many contributing factors.

I am just curious to it's lifespan lol.

It is a solid state device. It should theoretically last forever, or until a component fails.

Guys, I have seen decrease in their hash speed frow week to week when overclocked.

I have 24 working at this moment.

Nothing lasts forever.

If stock, maybe 2-3 years.

If overclocked, maybe 1-2 years.

The electronic components on these boards are cheap components with little to no over-engineering built-in.

I fully agree.

I estimate 3 to 5 years if running 24 hours. The same as a PC.
Overclocked i doubt it will last one year.

this,


  but if you have free power and clock at freq 325 getting 165gh it will last longer. all four of mine run really well at 325 165gh hash rate.

Perfect guys, thanks!!

I've got five total. All OC'd been going for about 2.5 months. I can't imagine an S1 being worth running a year from now let alone 2 or 3 so I'm not too concerned with them lasting that long. If they last a year and then die I think I'd be ok with that.
I should note that although they are clocked all of them have double fans and are in a temperature controlled server room. Ambient temp in the room is kept at 68f and the temps on the devices are all under 40c.

Have you seen any decrease in performance?

Lifespan is either 1) until it breaks down or 2) the energy cost is higher than value of mined bitcoins.

I see #2 as much more likely. May it happen by the end of 2014? I don't know but with many new 1TH/s+ miners at 1W/Gh/s it is obvious the Antminer eventually will become worthless.

There's only one way I can think of to extend its life; underclocking. I don't know how long the W/Gh/s can go but assuming it can mine 50 Gh/s at 50W then it will remain profitable albeit marginally.

No.  If anything they are getting better.  What I mean by that is I did not buy all five at once.  I started with two and added the next three one at a time.  The last one I bought is averaging 204GHs and has run higher than that.  I routinely show over 1THs at the pool (Guild).

I've seen no failures and no decline in performance whatsoever over 3 1/2 months. Multiple units, all stock clocks.

As others said, power cost and profitability will likely take these out of service before they fail in large numbers. When that happens is anyone's guess. If you can predict the price of bitcoin and the future difficulty then you are the only one in the world who can do it. Congratulations.

I wouldn't be surprised if it ran 5 years at the stock clock speed, provided that you replace the fan on a yearly basis and periodically clean any accumulated dust.

You all crazy unless you under clock them for better effeciancy these miners might last years but you won't be making no money on them in less then 6 months !! The difficulty will be way to high so running them would be a waste of power !!!

Didn't think of that.

We will cross that bridge, if and when it comes.

On second thought, I've read somewhere that even IF diff hits 16 Billion, these Antminer S1 units will still be profitable, depending on your electricity rate, of course.

Well that is not true for many of us.  I have access to an office that can run 2 with 0 power costs.  I have access to 3 homes that use electric heat I am attempting to create space heaters from these for next winter. I have been talking with one homeowner and set up  one for her last month. I can use a 16 port switch and place many of them throughout her home next winter.  She is tech savvy and has cable-vision for the net service.

I need to figure out best clocking for her 250 -325 should make these very reliable to run as a space heater.

What u guys should b worried about when ocing is the vrms.  Its the block looking smd.  Throw an adhesives heatsink on that sucker and u should get some further longevity out of the unit.  The vrm would b the first to go

It also depends on exchange rate. But at the current exchange rate, Ants with $.12/kwh power are profitable up to about 50 B difficulty! I think the exchange rate is going to go up this year, and a lot of people have power cheaper than $.12, so a lot of S1 Ants will be good to 100 B or more.

Depends on cooling and overclocking

Run them cool and they will live long.

In EU they will not be very profitable in a year

Who cares? As long as it last until August, when it will be a paperweight anyhow.