Bitcoin Forum

https://www.alcheminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/logo3.png
It seems that many people here on the boards aren't familiar with AlcheMiner (http://www.alcheminer.com), a Scrypt-miner company located in Taiwan.

You can see more information about the company at www.alcheminer.com - current pricing is:

96MH/s Alchemist - $1,500  $1,199
256MH/s Alchemist - $3,900 $3,099

This review/unboxing will be focused on the 96MH/s version

Actual Hashrate:
100MH/s @ GHash.io LTC, 50,000 Diff
94MH/s @ Clevermining (still testing), 65,536 Diff

Power draw: 900W (haven't tested at the wall)


With KNC's Titans plagued with such issues, it's been great to see that the Alchemists were made with such high quality.

NOTE: I maintain a business relationship with Alcheminer, so I have a vested interest in the company's success - please take this into account when reading this review. All information here is true and complete, but bias (recognized or unrecognized) is always a possible issue.

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the build quality and, after the last firmware update, the hashing capability.

I received it about a week ago and, after two substandard power supplies, am finally hashing away with no problems.

Finally arrived from Taiwan!


https://i.imgur.com/8uxfOvr.jpg?2


Packed very well -


Box only includes the miner and two screw-on plates (not pictured) for rack-mounting


https://i.imgur.com/84kELNX.jpg?1


Looks very slick; the casing is like a thick computer tower case, not flimsy metal.


https://i.imgur.com/YWXuvy8.jpg?1


The front has three fan intakes - this is the 96MH version, so there is only one set of boards and fan. The 256MH/s model would have all three. The top right hand corner has the LED display screen and the power button.


https://i.imgur.com/99wgxcV.jpg?1


The rear has the fax exhaust port, a PCIE 8-pin power port for the controller board and three more for the mining boards themselves. Last is of course the ethernet port.


https://i.imgur.com/ob5k15c.jpg?1

Looking good with the wireless bridge


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

Get a good PSU!

It will need 900W @ 12v, so ensure that your PSU can handle that - I've got a EVGA 1300W just to ensure that there's enough for the draw. Also, the EVGA PSU came with a pin connector so that you don't have to short the PSU with a paper clip to start it - talk about foresight!


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



The LED fades in and out constantly while it's hashing - you wouldn't want it in your room for this reason... or because it's loud and hot!

The hashrate, when first powered on, spikes up to well above 100MH, but later comes back down to the standard 90 - 98MH/s range. I'll be interested to see if the boards can support higher hashrates with future firmware updates.


https://i.imgur.com/cdojba6.jpg?2



...and he lives in the garage now! 'Wife doesn't like the noise and heat' is almost a cliche on these forums - but it's true! This is best suited to a garage, cool basement, or other area away from main living area. The fan is pretty loud and it does generate a significant amount of heat if kept enclosed with little venting.


https://i.imgur.com/Q0cUGUU.jpg?1


The backend is easily interfaced through a web browser and allows pools settings, hashrate monitor, IP settings, password change, and firmware updates.



Performance


The miner did require a firmware update when I first received it; there was an issue with the pool settings.

After getting everything set up, I was hashing at Ghash.io LTC pool at an average of about 75MH/s - there would sometimes be a ramp up and down, but that was the average after about 24 hours.

Tom, the lead engineer, sent a new firmware update with promises of better performance. After breaking it in for 14 hours, it was hashing at an average of 100MH/s!

You can see here in GHash's performance history - the change in variance is the new update. The miner does better with larger shares (50,000+) instead of smaller shares like 4096 or 8192.

This is the cause of the big variance and the increase in stales/rejects. Even with the increase in rejects, the hashrate is still far better than before.

https://i.imgur.com/Jhs8Aju.png

Clevermining is still coming along as well, but I have yet to get a full 24 hours on the pool.

https://i.imgur.com/PZFXizq.png
https://i.imgur.com/0puEZR7.png



Hope you enjoyed the unboxing! Please let me know if anyone here would like additional pictures or information  ;D

Interesting post twentyseventy, nice with the pictures!
Glad that you got your asic. I stopped ordering hardware after a couple of incidents with BFL... I run only cloud-miners now.

Is the unit up-gradable? There looks like you have room for more chips, or perhaps the unit cannot be rebuilt into a 256 asic?

Thanks! This is my first ASIC purchase - I did a bit of GPU mining back in the Spring, but I was (obviously) too late to the game at that time. I'm wary of the cloud hashing services but it seems that the litecoin community has had more luck with cloudhashing than the BTC community did/does.

The 256MH/s unit has two additional sets of boards, that's the reason for the extra space; I'm not sure if it's possible to add-in additional boards after the fact. I'm going to see how Scrypt profitability does for the time being and maybe ask in a while  ;D

Quick question:
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums/r640/emdje/alchemist_zps4e5d6377.png (http://s1175.photobucket.com/user/emdje/media/alchemist_zps4e5d6377.png.html)

If one chip of 1 MH uses 4.5 Watts, meaning that 98 MH would use 98*4.5=432 Watts in total. How come that the 98MH unit uses 900Watts???!!
Did you measure the power use? Can you elaborate?

I don't have a kill-a-watt to measure, but another user (https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=21959.msg212939#msg212939) has reported about 900W-919W.

I'm not an expert on the inner workings, so I'll ask the devs if the rest of the hardware (besides the chips) would be counting towards the rest of the power usage.

Seems to be about the same efficiency as A2 Terminators. Can you post pics of the Web interface?

Talked to Tom about the power consumption; basically the power conversion and power transfer efficiency on the boards make up the remaining ~400 - 500W of power consumption. The chips themselves use ~4.5W each, but there's more to account for than that.


Sure!

It's simple, but effective - here's an album of the screens, pretty self explanatory but let me know if you have any questions about them.

https://imgur.com/a/zrU7R

Running about about 96MH for the last 24hours on Ghash LTC

I've managed to quit messing with the difficulty setting and switching pools long enough to have it hashing for 48 hours straight (hard for me!  ;D) and it's doing really well.

Averages about 96MH - 100MH on the daily average and no restarts or other issues; still performs best with 50,000 Diff; I tried both 65536 and 32768 on LTC Ghash and neither provided better hashrate.

https://i.imgur.com/yJuU2vs.png?1

  nice miner gear but power use too much for 96 almost 1KW and 256 MH 2.2KW that overkill power use.

It's not optimal, but luckily my power costs aren't too high ($0.12 per kWh) and, like I said, it lives in the garage so at least I don't have to cool it.

Thanks for looking!

Agree about the power usage, need it to be more efficient.

I'll be keeping track of the power usage and mining profits closely; the miner is actually on its own power meter so that'll be easy to calculate per month.

Someone asked via PM if the fans could be switched out for 120mm (quieter) Corsair fans. They can be switched, Tom said, but the machine would probably need a cool/colder environment to do so because, obviously, the fans are there to cool the chips. Anyone wanting to switch the fans would nee to watch for a drop in hashrate, as that would show that the chips are not being cooled enough.

Just FYI for anyone in the market:

96MH/s was $1,500 and has been lowered to $1,199

256MH/s was $3,999 and has been lowered to $3,099

Enjoy  ;D

It looks like a nice box, but at even at the reduced price it's just a non-starter.

In order to get to a break even point of 90 days, the price would have to fall to $600. That's as calculated with free power, not including shipping or PS costs, and a 3% difficulty increase. That's close enough that I might take the risk, if the price ever falls that low.

I'm interested in new hardware, but until BTC or LTC goes way up, or hardware manufacturers dramatically cut their profits, I'm just going to keep the miners I have and stay on the sidelines.

I agree. "A" for the effort but still seems to be too expensive for this level of power consumption. If Bitmain and/or Zeus deliver as promised in Dec this will need to cost ~$400 by then to remain competitive.

Keeping close track! Have made about .473 BTC between GHash.io LTC and, now, Clevermining. GH.io was getting really finicky with the hashrate and stales, so I've moved over to CM where I'm getting between 90 - 94MH per 24H.

https://i.imgur.com/ZYTCsen.png?1

https://i.imgur.com/evcB4cr.png

AlcheMiner (http://www.alcheminer.com) Anniversary Sale Part II

AlcheMiner is having an anniversary sale featuring a Buy Two, Get One limited promotion!

All miners are in hand and shipping immediately!

AlcheMiner Alchemist 256MH/s Scrypt Miner
Was $4,497 - Now $1,499 each!

Buy Two, Get One Free: $2,998 + $780 Shipping = 768MH/s for $3,778 shipped!

Ultra Lower Power Consumption: ~2200W per 256MH/s Unit

$4.92 $/MH
8.594 W/MH

To see more information or to purchase an Alchemist, visit www.AlcheMiner.com (http://www.alcheminer.com)! You can also email sales@alcheminer.com!

Is there some in stock ?

Hmm - so it doesn't come with any PSU?  What would you use for 2.2Kw?  And you'd need two separate circuits 15 Amp Circuits (US)?  Sounds a little dangerous unless you get an electrician to wire a special circuit.

Also - this company only accepts BTC?  What prevents them from scamming everyone?

And on top of that shipping of the unit is $260?

Does not seem like that great of a deal in the end - and could easily be an exit scam.

That is why they make 220/240.   You are correct 2.2Kw is not happening on a single 110 even if you used a 20 amp breaker.

what is 96 MH = to in TH .


Just trying to justify buying one of these at 1,119 $. to me it should be more like 499 to tops 700 and even the next one up should only be 1000 $ tops .


Ultra Lower Power Consumption: ~2200W per 256MH/s Unit  that's Ultra Low Power Consumption compared to what ? .

even the titan 300 MH is lower .



Ive had a 110 20 amp run at 3k it actually worked for a while and yes the wires got warm not hot or hot enough to melt them if anything else i had on that line kicked in it would pop that circuit but once i found out how wrong that was I had two 110's put in to use just for mining and just had 2 240 installed one@ 30 amp and one@ 40 amp in a subpanel and planing out how im gonna use those,  just for mining.


Just a warning:  don't try what i did, i did not know any diff at the time and was very very lucky.

We have some brand new Alchemist 256 in stock.
Once we get full payment, we will ship it out within 1 working day.

About the shipping fee,  $260 shipping worldwide is the price after bargaining with DHL.
There is the dimension and weight information in our website.
You could use DHL Taiwan website to get the normal shipping fee.
For example, if you ship a Alchemist 256 from Taiwan to US.
The normal shipping cost is NTD12,842(about $407USD).
So, $260 is the special price that DHL provide.

I don't know how to explain that we are not SCAM and have miners in stock.
If anyone is interested in our product but with worries, you could buy first.
After that, if you pay for the 2nd miner and the shipping fee for 2nd 3rd miner, we will ship the 2nd and 3rd miners together.

How about escrow?

I'm not a PRO but looks like power consumption is high and yes, how about escrow?

I can verify that the miners are shipping I ordered two myself and got a free one , but I did pay for shipping on all 3 though.
shipping was fast took 3 days door to door.

power consumption is high I run each one on two 120v circuits (one for each 1300W PSU)
one is running on a 240V circuit and I plant to get some 96% efficiency PSU's when I get some money.  Apart from the titan these are the most
efficient Scrypt miners right now at around 2400 w for 250-280 or so MHZ  and its nice to have all that power in one box rather than 4 dumb cubes

check this link for review and pics
https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=24945.msg259076#msg259076

Final Sale: Now or several months later!
 
Alchemists are running out due to our anniversary promotion.
Now it’s time for final sale!
You don’t need to pay four-digit price for Alchemist anymore.
It will cost you only US $999 per Alchemist (+ $260 shipping fee)!
 
Seize this opportunity since it will take months before our new batch comes out!

BUY TWO GET ONE FREE plan is still applicable to your prior purchase of $1,499! For instance:
(1)               If you have acquired one Alchemist from our anniversary sale, you just need to pay for one more miner ($1,499) to get additional two miners (in addition to shipping fee for two miners, i.e. $520).
(2)               If you have purchased two Alchemists from our anniversary, you are eligible to get one more miner for free! You just need to pay for shipping fee $260 to get your third miner!
Please write to info@alcheminer.com to claim your right for "BUY TWO GET ONE FREE" plan.

Happy mining!!!
More detail, please see our official website: https://www.alcheminer.com (https://www.alcheminer.com)

http://i60.tinypic.com/16jojsl.jpg

I'm the only one who sees THIS and does the math?

1 Alchemist = 999$
2 Alchemists = 1998$
2 Alchemists + 1 Free = 2998$ - WHERE IS MY 1 F**KING DOLLAR??? :)

Looks like something went wrong...

Yeah something wrong with your maths lolll How about using Escrow?

The activity "buy 2 get 1 free" was ended 2 days ago.
We will modify our website as soon as possible.
Thanks and happy mining.

I got a feeling they are very loud and belong more in a data center or molded room are not intend for home use by the power use .

240 Volts people     240 is the only way to go...    Test 240v for yourself - just run a a heavy duty 10 gauge extension cord (from amazon) from your dryer connection.   hook a couple SP20 or S5 to it and see

- 2200 watts is no big deal.   if you are mining with asics on 120volts, just try 240v.  It really is that much better, and it is safer because there is less current.    A thin (high gauge?)  power cord for an LCD monitor powering a  1000 watt asic  on 120 v will melt.  The same power cord, same load on 240v doesn't even get warm.  i am not advising you to use a tiny power cord - just illustrating the difference.

Install a new clothes dryer connection for this miner. 

Have anyone a valid, working link to MCBIV's 2.0.x firmware?

http://fogcityminer.blogspot.ru/2015/08/asic-scrypt-miner-cont.html (http://fogcityminer.blogspot.ru/2015/08/asic-scrypt-miner-cont.html)

The link in that blog is empty...

Did Alcheminer go under? I can't find them anywhere?

All you can do is to seek for it at the Marketplace (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=75.0). Or try to find some used miners somewhere else.

But the company it self has died then? I have a 256 I want to part with, I wanted to make sure I had the latest firmware.

if you have this firmware then you have the latest greatest .

https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=27370.0


i have a AlcheMiner 256 i use that only has five boards left there is reason for that i won't get into .

but if you have the above firmware on each board not BFG your set .


Yes the company went bankrupt shortly after they said some thing about putting out a AlcheMiner 2 .