Q: Most reliable SHA-256 Asic Miners

[DaveF]

Side thoughts.
I have found that some gear is more temperature sensitive then others. As the temp climbs some will draw more power (bitmain) some will slow down a bit (Avalon) some will do both (Whatsminer )
At least that is what I have found with VERY LIMITED use of the older gen stuff. So, depending on power vs cooling it's another data-point to think about.

Bitmain / Whatsminer are more plug and go. Avalon which I do like better and do find more reliable does tend to require a bit more setup knowledge.

-Dave

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Ya mainly 2-3%, any firmware that asks for more should be avoided, and I don't think it "periodically changes", at least not for Vnish, they claim "Parallel mining"

I used 'periodically changes' as a simple way to describe it. They use a stratum security hole 'feature' called xnsub to seamlessly redirect where some shares are received from/sent to (DevPool) without actually resetting/restarting a miner like changing a pool would do. The effect of using xnsub in that manner does not show up on any miner GUI or monitoring software as all it knows is that the miner is hashing at x speed.

Aside from dev fees, the main use of xnsub is to allow rental places like NiceHash to have (rented) miners point to wherever the person renting it from them wants without forcing the hardware to constantly restart. Another example would be if you point a SHA256 miner at Slush and let them mine other SHA256 coins as well as BTC, again, xnsub lets them switch the work between different coins w/o restarting cgminer.

As to modern miners all using custom PSU's - ja I see that as a major 'gotcha'. Aside from the higher efficiency gained by eliminating secondary on-board Vcore regulators, the only other advantage to them is eliminating the field of PCIe power connectors that can often burn up by replacing the power connections to hash boards with solid bus bars. I'm rather surprised that no PSU manufacturer has stepped up to address that point. After all, it is simply a programmable PSU that either responds to a 0-5v signal or I2C command to set the output according to what the controller tells it to put out. All the PSU maker needs to know is the input commands used, expected voltage output range and max wattage.

edit: as Mikey pointed out later, it was (probably) xnsub - not #xnonce I was thinking of. Corrected that. Thing is, #xnonce does come up on searches as being similar crypto function. Move further discussion on this to https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5312770.msg56205843#msg56205843 which Mikey started up as we are getting OT here...

[philipma1957]

I have newer avalon the a1041 and the a1066

I had an a1066 psu die. So far 110 days lost waiting for a new psu.

I should get on next week.

If it were an s9 psu or a721 or a841 or a921 I would have switched in a new one.

new gear has these bespoke psu’s and it is extremely annoying to deal with.

[cryptostashman]

yes grab those 821's they are decent gear.  good price. they use 100 watts a th

so 11 of them is about 100th and uses 240kwatts at day

Aren't they 11.5th @ 1200W? Or these are another marketing numbers?

Where can I get a good deal of the 821s with bulk order?

Newer gear has a second issue all the psu's are bespoke ie they must be a perfect match or they do not work.

the Avalon 821's do not have this issue. any 1600 watt or larger 12 volt psu should be good.

This is a very helpful info. I really didn't know this, since I have been reading about old gears they seem all familiar with the 6-pin connectors.

Side thoughts.
I have found that some gear is more temperature sensitive then others.

This might be a small problem for me as the temperature in summer here reaches upto 47 degrees. Celsius. Yes you read it right. But I think I can compensate it by adding an AC if the swamp coolers don't do a good job (but I think they can do a pretty job) I got a friend which has a mixture of gear like s9, L3++, and some s19s. I would be doing the same cooling setup, but the thing is according to the datasheet of the avalons, their max temp is rated @40 degC, while the bitmains are mostly 40.

Bitmain / Whatsminer are more plug and go. Avalon which I do like better and do find more reliable does tend to require a bit more setup knowledge.

Do you mean like the array connection of the miners using the AUC3 cables, AUC3 converters, and the controller? Or are there more to it?

[HagssFIN]

@cryptostashman
See my reviews/guides for Avalon, they are not too hard to setup and operate.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Do you mean like the array connection of the miners using the AUC3 cables, AUC3 converters, and the controller? Or are there more to it?

That is mostly it. Thing is, some folks also have issues with setting up Ants and those are as simple as it comes... With the Avalon's the spot some folks have a problem with is either burning the SD card or dealing with the initial default static IP address. What I do is:

 burn a micro SD card
 change your PC LAN connection to use 192.168.0.101 or any address on the 192.168.0.xxx range EXCEPT for .100
 plug in the micro SD card and fire up the controller with it
on PC log into 192.168.0.100 and change pool and user settings to what you want
 change from static to DHCP or set a different static address (I prefer DCHP)
 Save and apply changes
 Power off controller
 remove SD card and plug back into card reader
 read card and create an image file with the new setup
 Then use that new file to burn cards for your other controllers

Plug sd cards into controllers and power up. Now being DHCP look for the controller on your router and log in to check miner operation.

As for temps, the Avalons have a few ways to deal with that. In the more options field you can use --avalon8-temp <nnn> to have them throttle back to hold at any temperature you want. I've ran mine up to 42C ambient temp without using that temp limiter with the miners reaching 105C and no problems.

Just refer to Hagss setup guide for the A8's and you should have no problems.

[cryptostashman]

@cryptostashman
See my reviews/guides for Avalon, they are not too hard to setup and operate.

Would definitely look into it. Thumbs up 👍.

[...]

Thanks a lot for the details. Honestly, never had my hands on one but since being an IT guy, I would say it won't be that hard specially with your instructions.

As for temps, the Avalons have a few ways to deal with that. In the more options field you can use --avalon8-temp <nnn> to have them throttle back to hold at any temperature you want. I've ran mine up to 42C ambient temp without using that temp limiter with the miners reaching 105C and no problems.

Just refer to Hagss setup guide for the A8's and you should have no problems.

That's great, if it runs perfectly @42 it's perfect. I won't let the room temp reach it. Will have some swamp coolers to cool down the area. According to some basic designs, it won't. Unless I'm missing something. I really don't know how much heat will be created by the miners (don't know the calculations) but I think for an area of 90m^2, 2 to 3 swamp coolers with both cold and hot rooms fully isolated will do the job to keep the room cool during the summer where outside ambient temp is around 45c.

[kano]

it is amazing how i managed to be 17 for 17 on my s17pros. still all work just fine.
...

It's also amazing how many problems are reported by others about the BM 17 range.

Yesterday I had a deal for 821s @85 CAD.

I'd say take it. The 821 is only about 1-2 THs slower than the 841 though again, remember you cannot mix different models on 1 controller.
...

Also important to note that running too many miners on one controller can have a noticeable increase in stale shares.
The controller USB has a limit to now many I/Os it can perform per second, which is separate to the total Bytes/second.

If you have a lot of miners, you can trial this by running a few controllers with say only 4 miners on them, to see if they get lower stales.
It's also a must to run miners on separate USB ports rather than all on one port.