Be careful... one of the mods here is linked to bitmain's code. I had posts deleted for saying things along these lines. You'll be "hushed" up.

Quite correct and power supply efficiency is not typically linear, and most will have their best efficiency way under 100%. If you intend to run at 100% or near, a server based or something with a long warranty would be ideal.

I too debated this with dogie a while ago. He is based in the U.K so has little first hand knowledge. He argued that most have no idea and the standard was 110v. The best way to describe the layout in the U.S is split phase 220. ie. 110 each split phase. (source, electrical/electronics engineer in the U.K, Australia and the U.S). As long as we aren't talking about 3 phase (which is becoming more common around the world in domestic premises), most single phase power supplies will work happily at home. I say most as some still have the tendency to produce that magical smoke at near full loads.

One of the quickest ways ... (for today's gen with short attention spans)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc2en3nHxA4

exactly. Don't forget, Bitmain now have a very large percentage of mining revenue. They are directly competing with YOU and lets be honest, they will always take the highest profit they can. The only choice you have today is a company that doesn't self host or design your own miner.

Have to agree. The ONLY reason you'd want to buy an S4 at that price is if you had FREE power and a guarantee for replacement power supplies and Fan's for the next 10 months.

I know a few teachers/professors who whilst teaching about cryptocurrencies, they would bring in small ASIC examples, power them up and hash away. Naturally some of these items would "disappear" so anything cheap that worked was logical.

yep. 2.56 S3's are required for same GH. =
$385
$135 shipping (for 2 only)
520 Total

vs

S5
$408
$47.90 shipping
455.90 Total

Include efficiency, it makes no sense to buy the S3's at a higher cost than the s5's. You are actually losing money.

Firstly, Kudos on a great post Philip!

The form factor, the power cables still enter from the now open top. Ether on the end. With plastic sides, this makes, the form factor is rather different. Almost impossible to stack the s5's?
The SP20 has the edge here, fully enclosed and easily stackable with cables all on one end.

It sounds as though Bitmain and the s5 followed AM's one fan option to dump a lot of heat. We know that didn't work out too well long term.

With the small price difference, lets be honest, I'd prefer something that is a Ferrari, over a plastic sided heater.

An afterthought, cooling is easier also on a large scale with stackable single end entry.

Have to agree. From memory, didn't Bitmain at one stage talk about covers on the s3, how it was beneficial for air flow over the non-covered s1?

Unless of course you live where the humidity is typically <30% on average. Temps year average 12c. Hint... take a look at where all the new (google, facebook, etc) data centres/centers are located.

so both of you could afford a beer at the end of the day A way to cut costs... hearing is overrated from a designer/engineer perspective. Cost from a managerial perspective. 

I stand by the APC 3000VA UPS's on ebay. Cheapest option for decent reliability. The downside, the batteries will need replacing every 3 to 5 years.

Alternatively you could invest in remote power point/outlet, so if the S2 doesn't reboot correctly you can force a power cycle on it.

I've had s3's after a brown out, that will "mysteriously" keep the IP network settings but reset the mining config to bitmain's. So when you walk past them, they all appear to be working but in fact, they are farming for bitmain, not you. 2 ways to fix that, a monitor on each worker from the pool you are using, and/or add specific routes to your router to redirect or null route bitmain's default mining config.

Likewise... however on topic, reducing the airflow with a quieter fan, you may end up only fanning the flames.

If anything perhaps bitmain could suggest a mod for two quieter fans to replace the stock single fan which would surely increase heat dissipation across the entire miner.

Yes, of late bitmain employees have been getting rather desperate in both their sales techniques and support or lack there of. Easy to ignore them.

As pointed out by Roadstress, the only decent miner on the market for the low end is the sp20.

Just remember, no miner is future proof and new miners are due out soon enough in the new year.

Unless you are looking at purchasing a large quantity of psu's that can go down to 9v, it is simply both a waste of money and too expensive to being with. If you intend to throw the power supply away in a few months or think that bitmain will build all their new miners around the variable voltage supply design, then go ahead. However it's not an industry standard so if will be difficult to sell those power supplies in the future and likely won't work with any other manufacturers.

I concur. SP is the most transparent for both upcoming tech, support and refund policies. They continue to keep the industry notified and always respond usually within 24 hours to anyone's comment.

Whilst other competition is coming along nicely, they aren't transparent and simply don't communicate keeping us up to date. We get an email once a week if we're lucky, usually once every 14 days or so. This level of communication isn't satisfactory in today's highly competitive market.

If AM could either hire additional staff, or devote more time themselves, that could answer our questions, openly and in a timely manner, then they are likely to receive a warmer following and brighter future. SP is the leading example in all these areas. Bitmain towards the top, now falling like a stone. AM whatever you do, don't follow bitmain's example, rise above, communicate with us and show us what you can offer.

 

You have to love bureaucracy and the pessimistic nature of those that work there.

Kudos on a great review!

Sadly at some point there are people in this world that are not worth spending time and energy on. As you can see, many here have meet these people and are done wasting our lives with them. The only solution is to make others aware of this problem. We are done with condescending and terse replies from people like Dogie and others.

S4's catching fire. My Asic Miners (not the prisma line) are more reliable and less smokey. Point being, each brand has it's issues and they all go through various stages. The exception seems to be spondoolies as they are clearly frontrunners.