Do these units come with DHCP configured by default, or do you have to connect with a computer in the same subnet (192.168.1.x?) and turn DHCP on?

Based on their older documentation (the S3 manual is still not posted), I assume that it's the latter.

I'm interested in mining SHA256 on multipool.us, but have some questions regarding Cryptsy integration. Previously I've mined Scrypt on multipools that automatically handle the exchange. I'm hoping to set up a similar kind of "set and forget" configuration because I don't have the time to manage or optimize the exchange process.

I've gone through the Cryptsy integration instructions, including using my API key to populate the wallet addresses in my multipool account. Not all the addresses got populated, but I think that all the SHA256 ones did (which is what I care about). I've also identified the SHA256 coins from the multipool stats page and enabled auto sell (second highest sell bid) for the corresponding coins in my Cryptsy account.

The question is how should I go about setting the autopay thresholds for the non-BTC SHA256 coins on the multipool side? It seems like if there is fluctuation in profitability, these values might become sub-optimal. Further, I'd be concerned that it would be possible for the pool to send to Cryptsy too often, which could be construed as an attack (according to other posts I've read).

Maybe when the Cryptsy integration level is "Full Auto", it handles the thresholds automatically, or otherwise throttles transfers to the exchange? Honestly I don't know what "Full Auto" does nor can I find information about it in the FAQ on the pool site, but I have it enabled for now.

The last question is regarding new coins. When new SHA256 coins are added (which is probably rare nowadays) I assume that any mined coins just sit in the multipool account until such time that I manually add a Cryptsy address. Does the pool notify me about this situation? It would be nice to get an email rather than have to pull the info about added coins from the news feed.

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

It would be nice if Bitmain posted their S3 manual. Then I'd have something to read while waiting for my batch 3 units.

If you're in batch 1, you should be getting your S3's soon. Very exciting. I'll bet there will be a bunch of new threads soon around set up, tuning, etc. The people on the discussion and support thread can barely contain themselves.

The revenue-per power unit angle sounds interesting.

If I go with multipool.us (and the requisite Cryptsy auto-sell set up), I'll gather the numbers and either post them here or send them to you. Maybe I'll point one unit at multipool.us and the other at a straight BTC pool as a mini suchmoon experiment.

That's good info. Thanks for the thoughts.

I have to admit that I'm not looking forward to configuring the Cryptsy auto-sell. That's definitely the downside of multipool.us. I can probably do it, but honestly I've been spoiled by pools like WP and CM that just take care of the exchange.

I may end up chickening out and just pointing at a straight BTC pool. Maybe when Bitmain supports P2Pool (the S3s won't support it out of the box, but they claim to be working on it), I can go that route.

Yeah, disappointed with Scrypt profitability and the current impossible to ROI pre-order product offerings, I caved and ordered a couple of the new Antminer S3s. With projected difficulty, these are on the hairy edge of an ROI, but it's the closest I've seen.

That's why I asked a while ago if you're going to support SHA256. Pure selfishness on my part

In the meantime, I'll probably go with Multipool.us. Poolpicker puts it at the top when you look at the average return.

Now I just have to wait till the S3's arrive (I'm in batch 3 because I moved too slowly).

I've got this great idea! If everyone who got a B1 or B2 order waited until the 20th to fire up their S3's, then us poor schlubs who ordered from B3 would have a shot at decent difficulty, and we can all start up our machines together!

Just kidding folks, of course. I moved too slowly and am jealous.

Looking forward to hearing the first impressions, problems, etc. Hopefully you early birds can work out the initial kinks for us slowpokes

Ah, crap! You're right.

That's what I get for posting before I've had any coffee!

Sorry for the false alarm...

PW, are you aware of the Vertcoin fork that the dev team created to roll back a massive theft transaction from MintPal? Does that mean that you have to update in order to keep Vertcoin working in the Scrypt N pool?

If they are really shipping batch 1, that's exciting because it means they're keeping to their latest announced schedule. Very encouraging.

I'm in batch 3, so here's hoping that they can keep to their schedule and start shipping out the B3 units on the 19th.

In the meantime, I'll be very interested in reading about the experience that B1 users have. Enjoy the relatively low difficulty guys

I went for the refund. The web form is live now and it seemed to work. Or at least it's in the queue with my BTC address.

As far as I'm concerned, the delivery delay and reduced hash rate is going to mess with my ROI. I'd rather have some money back now than wait for an unknown opportunity in the future.

Has anyone seen any reviews of the S3? I searched and didn't find any.

I would have thought that they would get pre-release versions into reviewers' hands well before shipping, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I'm not sure what to make of that, unless they are so confident that they don't need to do much marketing outreach.

In case anyone is interested, I downloaded Corsair's PSU Cable Guide and verified that the CX750M comes with 4 600mm (23.6") PCIe cables.

I knew that the PSU had 4 PCIe ports, but not whether they provided cables for each port (it's modular). Fortunately they do, so there's no new cables to buy to power the S3.

Now we just need Bitmain to ship

Thanks for the info. But I was thinking about getting 2 CX750M units. They've got 4 PCIe connectors each.

I miscounted connectors in my previous post. My assumption based on other posts was that a single CX750M with all the PCIe connectors should be enough to over clock an S3.

Here's a quick question for Bitmain. Does the S3 come with any PCIe cables?

I assume that it doesn't and that in addition to the PSU we'll need enough cables for the target hashrate and corresponding power consumption. If overclocking to the max amount, that means 4 cables (2 per S3 unit) 8 cables (4 for each S3 unit), right?

Probably most PSUs come with the cables built in. But I have no experience with the newer modular units. I'm just trying to make sure I have all the parts pulled together to hit the ground running when the S3 units arrive.

I'd like to see CoinKing please.

Full disclosure that I've tried to mine with them a couple of times based on their advertised performance. But both times I ran into server side issues that resulted in huge reject rates. I came to the conclusion that their services were not ready for prime time and haven't been back.

I think that based on their advertised performance, CoinKing has real potential. Their web interface is also very nice, and they have flexible payout options.

Maybe if you add them to your list, they will have a real incentive to demonstrate that they are a profitable option.

While we're waiting, does anyone have suggestions for the difficulty to set for S3 units (for pools that allow configurable difficulty, of course)?

My current experience is limited to GridSeeds and Scrypt mining. In that case, where multiple ASIC units are effectively behind a single IP address, I have had more manageable results by configuring relatively low difficulty.

What I mean by "manageable" is that I can generally tell at a glance whether my rigs are doing well by how recently they've submitted shares. With lower difficulty, I rarely see the units struggling to submit. With higher difficulty, the GridSeeds would work in some cases for several hundred seconds before submitting. This sometimes mades it difficult to differentiate between a device that has gone non-responsive and one that's just working hard and hasn't submitted yet.

Also, and this is harder to quantify, but since I've moved to low-ish difficulty, none of my GridSeed units have hung. This is after many weeks of continuous uptime. Prior to overriding the difficulty, I'd see a unit go non-responsive (where no shares would be submitted for hours on end) every few days or so. The affected unit was not always the same, which might have indicated a software problem.

Maybe high difficulty, or long times between shares enabled the problem, so this observation might not translate to other rigs. Given that, it's hard to conclude that low difficulty equals stability in all cases. But with my rigs, that certainly appears to be the case.

I realize that from a statistical standpoint that difficulty has no effect on long term profitability. But as I've said, my experience has been that lower difficulty for my current ASIC-based rigs has made it easier to manage and spot problems.

I have no experience with any Antminer units. But if the S3 is made up of lots of ASIC chips, all of which are under the same IP address and effectively appearing as one 500 GH/s unit to the pool, would it be better to set a low-ish difficulty that more matches the compute power of the individual chips rather than the unit as a whole?

Even with the delays and possible loss of ROI, I'm still irrationally looking forward to getting my S3's. I just wish they'd throw us a manual or something else to read while we're waiting.

As it is, this is like waiting at the DMV for our turn. Very boring...

I don't know which I'm bothered by more, the delivery delay or the fact that the S3 will have somewhere around a 1.25 petahash impact on the network. Previously I (and others, I suspect) had assumed that their recent surge in hash rate was due to S3 testing.

Both of these factors work against ROI, which was on the hairy edge anyway. This is disappointing. Just how disappointing will depend on when the units are actually delivered and what the network difficulty will look like then.

It would be great if the new site would remember previously selected options. You could do that through cookies. Or maybe that's what the Settings tab will be used for?

Also, I hate to say it, but you should consider adding SHA256. I know that originally your data was for Scrypt, but that's expanded to most altcoin algorithms, as well as rentals. Plus you mentioned previously that Bitcoin is the winner. Why not represent SHA256 multipools and rentals? Lastly, adding SHA256 would make you competitive algorithm-wise with poolpicker. Maybe that's not that important now, but it could be if you're interested in commercializing your site.

Note that the new Antminer S3 is on the razor's edge of a potential ROI, even with their batch 3. That's faint praise, but probably the closest you can find to profitable SHA256 hardware nowadays.