BITMAIN AntMiner APW3-12-1600 PSU Series

[sidehack]

No, I stand by what I said. It'd be fun to see someone hook one of these up to a Neptune thinking "oh, 1600W is plenty" and see the jackets on the 18AWG wires wilt off within a few seconds before the whole thing starts burning. The PSU itself might survive but not the cabling. It's a terrible idea (I can't in good conscience ever recommend anyone run Neptunes) but if someone does it I'd like to see video.

Be much less fun if it had 16AWG wires. 150W on 18AWG is probaby okay. 8-pin PCIe for GPUs are probably mostly 18AWG and those are rated for 150W by the standard, which means they're probably capable of more, and 8-pin PCIe only has three power leads.

[LordPaco]

These power supplies are great but it highlights the need for bitmain, and other miner manufacturers, to continue to produce miners without power supplies. I'm sure we are getting a bottom price or close to from Bitmain. But we can still do so much better with recycled server equipment. Here are some numbers:

Bitmain PWS: 1600w $155 or .096875usd per watt

2880w IBM Server PWS:
$40 for power supply
$60 for breakout board
---
$100 or .034722usd per watt, and, you get better efficiency, these are actually rated titanium 80plus level so >96% eff at 50% load. Better fans, 3 of them for redundancy when one burns out. You also get to choose the gauge of wire for your pcie and it is not hardwired but modular. You also get to support the smaller bitcoin guy with the breakout boards.

I'm sure bitmain is not charging us 3x their actual cost. And I'm sure IBM paid a lot more than $40 to manufacture those 2880w power supplies.

[dogie]

No, I stand by what I said. It'd be fun to see someone hook one of these up to a Neptune thinking "oh, 1600W is plenty" and see the jackets on the 18AWG wires wilt off within a few seconds before the whole thing starts burning. The PSU itself might survive but not the cabling. It's a terrible idea (I can't in good conscience ever recommend anyone run Neptunes) but if someone does it I'd like to see video.

Be much less fun if it had 16AWG wires. 150W on 18AWG is probaby okay. 8-pin PCIe for GPUs are probably mostly 18AWG and those are rated for 150W by the standard, which means they're probably capable of more, and 8-pin PCIe only has three power leads.

But remember that there are two 8 pin PCI-Es per cable rail = 'rated for 300W' on 18AWG. We're running a single PCI-E per cable rail on this PSU.

[MRKLYE]

So, does this mean that you will only provide support for people using Bitmain^(Tm) power supplies for future miners?
Or is this just me being paranoid?

Extremely paranoid As long as you're not using a 300x 12V rail PSU made by SUPERHIBIGPOWERWOWLED corporation, I'll help out where I can.

Holy shit.. Be careful with these things guys... I'd advise everyone to be careful as hell if you are buying these and make sure you inspect them inside and out.

It has short circuit protection, as it worked in this case. I'm not sure what the point of that drilled hole was, but it will get fixed.

Regardless of short circuit protection or not that's pretty shit workmanship not to mention quality control if they are letting garbage like that past.
I've owned Bitmain devices in the past (I think you help me set them up actually Dogie) and found them to be of decent quality..
Seemingly not the case with these power supplies though.. :/

[sidehack]

No, I stand by what I said. It'd be fun to see someone hook one of these up to a Neptune thinking "oh, 1600W is plenty" and see the jackets on the 18AWG wires wilt off within a few seconds before the whole thing starts burning. The PSU itself might survive but not the cabling. It's a terrible idea (I can't in good conscience ever recommend anyone run Neptunes) but if someone does it I'd like to see video.

Be much less fun if it had 16AWG wires. 150W on 18AWG is probaby okay. 8-pin PCIe for GPUs are probably mostly 18AWG and those are rated for 150W by the standard, which means they're probably capable of more, and 8-pin PCIe only has three power leads.

But remember that there are two 8 pin PCI-Es per cable rail = 'rated for 300W' on 18AWG. We're running a single PCI-E per cable rail on this PSU.

Depends on implementation. All I can speak for is 150W per 8-pin, and the PCIe standard doesn't actually have provision for 2x 8-pin per card last I checked. I would not run 300W through 18AWG wire. I would run 300W through 16AWG wire, but I would never run more than 300W through a single PCIe 6-pin no matter what wire is behind it. But 150W through 18AWG is no problem at all.

[jelin1984]

It is noisy psu???.,

[philipma1957]

Some where I said   2 s-5's at freq 375 would push at these 18 gauge wires.


the s-5 at freq 375 uses 1200 x  .52 = 624 watts  that is 162 watts per cable on the ac side  or 150.88 watts on the dc side

I will amend my statement


two  s-5's at freq 400 would push the 18 gauge wires beyond spec


1300 x .52  = 676 watts x .92 efficient =  169 watts per cable  or 155.48 watts on the dc side.

I have mined 24/7/365 for 3 years.

This psu should have 16 gauge cables.

That said  12 cables 1 power cord 1 year warranty at  155 shipped is not terrible.

Personally there are 4 sellers on bitcointalk

sidehack has server psu's

quakefiend has server psu's

the 2280watt one  is plat jabborwocky? sells it.


pmorici has a very good 1200 watt intel plat that I reviewed  this was 136 shipped for 1 with 4 16 gauge cables. 


I am not sure I need one from bitmaintech with only 18 gauge wires

[Tupsu]

Shipping Cost  0 BTC
 ( 0 USD )

Freight calculation error, please send e-mail to info@bitmaintech.com

[dogie]

Shipping Cost  0 BTC
 ( 0 USD )

Freight calculation error, please send e-mail to info@bitmaintech.com

Can you PM me what you had in basket and going where please?

[alh]

While it's quite possible that all the Bitmain gear has enough PCIe connectors to never draw more than 150W through a 6-pin connector, that's not universal. My experience is that the power supply is usually a better long term investment than the actual ASIC mining hardware. It seems short-sighted to use 18AWG wire instead of 16AWG wire. Of course maybe this will just be an opportunity for somebody else to produce a "kit" that upgrades the Bitmain power supply to replace the 18AWG wires.

Bitmain should reconsider this choice, or offer a "heavy duty" version with 16AWG for a $5 more (IMHO).

[philipma1957]

While it's quite possible that all the Bitmain gear has enough PCIe connectors to never draw more than 150W through a 6-pin connector, that's not universal. My experience is that the power supply is usually a better long term investment than the actual ASIC mining hardware. It seems short-sighted to use 18AWG wire instead of 16AWG wire. Of course maybe this will just be an opportunity for somebody else to produce a "kit" that upgrades the Bitmain power supply to replace the 18AWG wires.

Bitmain should reconsider this choice, or offer a "heavy duty" version with 16AWG for a $5 more (IMHO).

yeah they should  as this psu driving a pair of sp-20s'  can do 750 dc per sp20 which will melt the wires

I have seen a lot of psu stories about melted wires.

worse 1 sp20 maxed to 1600gh will use 1240 watts dc  which would surely melt 18 gauge wires.  so much easier to use 16 guage.


or as alh says a lite duty 18 gauge maybe 12 pcie connects


and a heavy duty 16 gauge maybe 8 pcie connects.

[quakefiend420]

While it's quite possible that all the Bitmain gear has enough PCIe connectors to never draw more than 150W through a 6-pin connector, that's not universal. My experience is that the power supply is usually a better long term investment than the actual ASIC mining hardware. It seems short-sighted to use 18AWG wire instead of 16AWG wire. Of course maybe this will just be an opportunity for somebody else to produce a "kit" that upgrades the Bitmain power supply to replace the 18AWG wires.

Bitmain should reconsider this choice, or offer a "heavy duty" version with 16AWG for a $5 more (IMHO).

I run S3s with only two connectors all the time and they pull 360w or so, so that's 180w per cable right there.  There's a ton of people that do the same thing as me...

The cables that I'm selling with my kits are 16 gauge for this reason and because of what sidehack posted above.

I'll be the first to admit that I have a bit of a conflict of interest seeing as I'm selling mining PSUs myself, but between the pennies scrimped to save on 18 vs 16 gauge cabling, and the QC woes posted just earlier, I have to wonder just how well made these kits are compared to what I or other members here such as sidehack and j4abberwock are selling...

[philipma1957]

While it's quite possible that all the Bitmain gear has enough PCIe connectors to never draw more than 150W through a 6-pin connector, that's not universal. My experience is that the power supply is usually a better long term investment than the actual ASIC mining hardware. It seems short-sighted to use 18AWG wire instead of 16AWG wire. Of course maybe this will just be an opportunity for somebody else to produce a "kit" that upgrades the Bitmain power supply to replace the 18AWG wires.

Bitmain should reconsider this choice, or offer a "heavy duty" version with 16AWG for a $5 more (IMHO).

I run S3s with only two connectors all the time and they pull 360w or so, so that's 180w per cable right there.  There's a ton of people that do the same thing as me...

The cables that I'm selling with my kits are 16 gauge for this reason and because of what sidehack posted above.

I'll be the first to admit that I have a bit of a conflict of interest seeing as I'm selling mining PSUs myself, but between the pennies scrimped to save on 18 vs 16 gauge cabling, and the QC woes posted just earlier, I have to wonder just how well made these kits are compared to what I or other members here such as sidehack and j4abberwock are selling...

well I saw the photos of metal shavings in the psu. I left that alone only because the 15 s-1's and 20 s-3's I got  had 1 bad cap.  most likely it was knocked off when it was packed the s-1's had very tight  static bags which I think knocked off a few caps.

Either when packing the s-1's or pulling the s-1's out.

So for quality control on s-1's or s-3's 34/35 worked out of the box.   and of the working 34 every worked and when I sold them every buyer said they got working gear.


But back to 18 gauge wire.  I ran 23 gpus in 10 pc's from sept 2012 to june 2013.  all in my garage pulled 5kwatts or more pretty steady.  long term running 24/7/365 is hard on gear.  wires get soft. shit burns fans fail etc.

my garage is 22 by 24 about 500 square foot concrete slab 5 inches thick.  the entire slab got warm around 40 day into non stop mining  say oct 30 2012.  stayed warm the whole winter and when I sold off all the gear and switched to ASIC MINER usb sticks in June of 2013 the slab still felt warm for about a month.

Point is 18  gauge wire is "stupid cheap" or the polite way "penny wise pound foolish"

I would love to see some first adapters give a good long review on these .  attach it to the sp20 and see at what point the wires melt my guess is 1400gh would take a while to be an issue  but 1500gh to 1600gh and problems will happen.

[quakefiend420]

While it's quite possible that all the Bitmain gear has enough PCIe connectors to never draw more than 150W through a 6-pin connector, that's not universal. My experience is that the power supply is usually a better long term investment than the actual ASIC mining hardware. It seems short-sighted to use 18AWG wire instead of 16AWG wire. Of course maybe this will just be an opportunity for somebody else to produce a "kit" that upgrades the Bitmain power supply to replace the 18AWG wires.

Bitmain should reconsider this choice, or offer a "heavy duty" version with 16AWG for a $5 more (IMHO).

I run S3s with only two connectors all the time and they pull 360w or so, so that's 180w per cable right there.  There's a ton of people that do the same thing as me...

The cables that I'm selling with my kits are 16 gauge for this reason and because of what sidehack posted above.

I'll be the first to admit that I have a bit of a conflict of interest seeing as I'm selling mining PSUs myself, but between the pennies scrimped to save on 18 vs 16 gauge cabling, and the QC woes posted just earlier, I have to wonder just how well made these kits are compared to what I or other members here such as sidehack and j4abberwock are selling...

well I saw the photos of metal shavings in the psu. I left that alone only because the 15 s-1's and 20 s-3's I got  had 1 bad cap.  most likely it was knocked off when it was packed the s-1's had very tight  static bags which I think knocked off a few caps.

Either when packing the s-1's or pulling the s-1's out.

So for quality control on s-1's or s-3's 34/35 worked out of the box.   and of the working 34 every worked and when I sold them every buyer said they got working gear.


But back to 18 gauge wire.  I ran 23 gpus in 10 pc's from sept 2012 to june 2013.  all in my garage pulled 5kwatts or more pretty steady.  long term running 24/7/365 is hard on gear.  wires get soft. shit burns fans fail etc.

my garage is 22 by 24 about 500 square foot concrete slab 5 inches thick.  the entire slab got warm around 40 day into non stop mining  say oct 30 2012.  stayed warm the whole winter and when I sold off all the gear and switched to ASIC MINER usb sticks in June of 2013 the slab still felt warm for about a month.

Point is 18  gauge wire is "stupid cheap" or the polite way "penny wise pound foolish"

I would love to see some first adapters give a good long review on these .  attach it to the sp20 and see at what point the wires melt my guess is 1400gh would take a while to be an issue  but 1500gh to 1600gh and problems will happen.

I have a bunch of SP20s here, if someone wants to send me one I'll take a video and see how long it takes to melt it at top speed haha

[Rabinovitch]

LMFAO!!

how many years in the game and still churning out over-priced, deadly junk???


how much are used server psus?

how much for a breakout board with decent wiring?


it must be so cool to endanger the lives of your customers

I guess that for wholesale buyers the price is more or less acceptable. 

[philipma1957]

While it's quite possible that all the Bitmain gear has enough PCIe connectors to never draw more than 150W through a 6-pin connector, that's not universal. My experience is that the power supply is usually a better long term investment than the actual ASIC mining hardware. It seems short-sighted to use 18AWG wire instead of 16AWG wire. Of course maybe this will just be an opportunity for somebody else to produce a "kit" that upgrades the Bitmain power supply to replace the 18AWG wires.

Bitmain should reconsider this choice, or offer a "heavy duty" version with 16AWG for a $5 more (IMHO).

I run S3s with only two connectors all the time and they pull 360w or so, so that's 180w per cable right there.  There's a ton of people that do the same thing as me...

The cables that I'm selling with my kits are 16 gauge for this reason and because of what sidehack posted above.

I'll be the first to admit that I have a bit of a conflict of interest seeing as I'm selling mining PSUs myself, but between the pennies scrimped to save on 18 vs 16 gauge cabling, and the QC woes posted just earlier, I have to wonder just how well made these kits are compared to what I or other members here such as sidehack and j4abberwock are selling...

well I saw the photos of metal shavings in the psu. I left that alone only because the 15 s-1's and 20 s-3's I got  had 1 bad cap.  most likely it was knocked off when it was packed the s-1's had very tight  static bags which I think knocked off a few caps.

Either when packing the s-1's or pulling the s-1's out.

So for quality control on s-1's or s-3's 34/35 worked out of the box.   and of the working 34 every worked and when I sold them every buyer said they got working gear.


But back to 18 gauge wire.  I ran 23 gpus in 10 pc's from sept 2012 to june 2013.  all in my garage pulled 5kwatts or more pretty steady.  long term running 24/7/365 is hard on gear.  wires get soft. shit burns fans fail etc.

my garage is 22 by 24 about 500 square foot concrete slab 5 inches thick.  the entire slab got warm around 40 day into non stop mining  say oct 30 2012.  stayed warm the whole winter and when I sold off all the gear and switched to ASIC MINER usb sticks in June of 2013 the slab still felt warm for about a month.

Point is 18  gauge wire is "stupid cheap" or the polite way "penny wise pound foolish"

I would love to see some first adapters give a good long review on these .  attach it to the sp20 and see at what point the wires melt my guess is 1400gh would take a while to be an issue  but 1500gh to 1600gh and problems will happen.

I have a bunch of SP20s here, if someone wants to send me one I'll take a video and see how long it takes to melt it at top speed haha

Well dogie got back quick to let us know it was 18 gauge.  Maybe if we complain more they will go to 16 gauge.

[dog1965]

Another Joke from bitmain !

The hell with the PSU and bring out new miners made with newer chips already !

Like the long awaited S6 or S7 !!!

I am tired of BITMAIN !

[klondike_bar]

Its 18AWG.

not good but thanks for an honest answer.

if I buy this with 2 s-5's  I will be pushing the wires at freq 375 and higher.

Why would it be? S6 @ 375 is no more than 600W pre PSU = 150W per cable strand = perfectly fine on 16AWG. On tubes we were doing 250-300W per cable strand on 16AWG which was the sensible limit.

you somehow went from saying its 18awg to justifying the safety of 16awg wires.

If this is made with 18awg, thats not good. It might be fine for an S5, where you occupy all 4 connectors with thier own 18awg wire (and could fit 3xS5 on the 1600W PSU, possibly with a tiny amount of underclocking if required), but for a lot of other hardware (ie: anything that would draw >180w/cable) its dangerous.

my rule of thimb is that 18awg can handle a maximum of 150-200W depending on the cable quality. 16awg can handle 250-320W depending on the cable quality. I would much rather see bitmain offer this PSU (or as a secondary option) with 16awg wire for a few dollars more.

[dog1965]

Its 18AWG.

not good but thanks for an honest answer.

if I buy this with 2 s-5's  I will be pushing the wires at freq 375 and higher.

Why would it be? S6 @ 375 is no more than 600W pre PSU = 150W per cable strand = perfectly fine on 16AWG. On tubes we were doing 250-300W per cable strand on 16AWG which was the sensible limit.

you somehow went from saying its 18awg to justifying the safety of 16awg wires.

If this is made with 18awg, thats not good. It might be fine for an S5, where you occupy all 4 connectors with thier own 18awg wire (and could fit 3xS5 on the 1600W PSU, possibly with a tiny amount of underclocking if required), but for a lot of other hardware (ie: anything that would draw >180w/cable) its dangerous.

my rule of thimb is that 18awg can handle a maximum of 150-200W depending on the cable quality. 16awg can handle 250-320W depending on the cable quality. I would much rather see bitmain offer this PSU (or as a secondary option) with 16awg wire for a few dollars more.

How about no dollars they can keep that junk. They would have to pay me to take it.

[tss]

PCI-E cables 16AWG or 18AWG?

Good question, I'll try and find out. The spade connector version used 10AWG.

Its 18AWG.

18AWG? Gross. Though 1600W at 12 cables is only about 4A per wire... That'd be good enough for most things. I'd like to see one of these hooked up to some Neptune cubes and watch the entire setup burst into flames though.

Also, Phil, how does my DPS-2000BB breakout board and PSU stack up to your criteria? The efficiency might not be quite as good, but the board holds 12 cables natively (I've run 16 without issue, pushing two Prismas per PSU) and a kit costs less than $155. We don't 1-year the PSU (90 days typical for used equipment) but lifetime on the board and cables.

By the numbers this is a nice-lookin' PSU. I hope Dogie's right about the fan not sounding terrible, because every 1U fan I've listened to (for example DPS800, DPS1200 and all SP rackables) are super annoying. It'd be nice to have user-defined cabling too.

i was playing with a whole bunch of dps800 power supplies last year.  two of the pins can tell the supply fan to run at low speed.  and the dps800 gets very quiet.  using each to power 2 antminer s3's, never had a problem with failure or overheating due to the low fan speed hack.