ANTMINER S7 is available at bitmaintech.com with 4.86TH/s, 0.25J/GH

[bbOOmm]

Anyone powered his S7 using only 1 PCi-E 6 per board ?
I have powered them with only 1 cable per board for the last 2 days and they were working fine
Just today I read somewhere that it actually needs all 3 cables per board.

wow that's gutsy. cables not getting warm?

I'd also be worried about the connectors, sure they'll be overspec'ed but not infinitely.

As I mentioned when someone asked about running with just 2 connectors powering each board ... The Molex Mini-Fit Jr pins are rated for 9 amp maximum. HOWEVER, its not a continuous rating. The friction fit of the pins also introduces a resistance, the older the plug on the power supply, the looser the pin to pin contact thus increasing heat produced and potential "micro" arcing which then DRAMATICALLY increases pin temp. The inserting and removing of the plug from devices "stretches" and bends the contacts, the first time a plug is used, its the strongest contact, but as heat is produced due to load, the springyness of the contact material diminishes and the connector will loosen up on its own with time.

I can post some pictures of some of the Molex Mini-Fit Jr connectors from an Avalon that was running stock clock that just had enough of running continuous moderate amperage - not near the maximum-  through the pins.... nice n chared and had a small fire which delaminated the circuit board and required extensive modifications to the board to get it running again.

Unless you are made of money and can afford a $1600 doorstop... go right ahead.... Also, make sure your renters / home owners insurance is up to date and would cover such an instance.... its only a matter of time when taking that kind of short cut.

[reinaldo83]

Hello

Have a question.

What should I consider when chosing a mining pool?. I have a S7 B2 on its way to my house. It should be delivered on thursday and this is my first miner.

I have been reading about the different methods each pool work (PPS, PPLNS, DGM, SMPPS, etc...) and also we can find several pools on each method. Which method and which pool do you think work better and why? If two given pools work on PPS for example, how is that possible that one of them could have their luck on "-8%" (just saying something), I thought statiscally both of them should be "the same thing" (of course according to their each mining total power)

Do they have any trick I should take care of?

Is there anyway to measure efficiency of each mining pool without having to test each pool for several hours or days?

Thank you

[CrypR]

That is consistent with my experience.  I have had many new cables/connectors under high loads that stay nice and cool, but a few months later they start getting hot.  I have also noticed variance even between samples of high quality cables.  After many negative experiences with KncMiner Neptunes that only have one PCIe, I plan to use all three on my S7s for backup and redundancy.  Burning my house down to save a few $'s on cables is not worth it for me.

[Biodom]

Hello

Have a question.

What should I consider when chosing a mining pool?. I have a S7 B2 on its way to my house. It should be delivered on thursday and this is my first miner.

I have been reading about the different methods each pool work (PPS, PPLNS, DGM, SMPPS, etc...) and also we can find several pools on each method. Which method and which pool do you think work better and why? If two given pools work on PPS for example, how is that possible that one of them could have their luck on "-8%" (just saying something), I thought statiscally both of them should be "the same thing" (of course according to their each mining total power)

Do they have any trick I should take care of?

Is there anyway to measure efficiency of each mining pool without having to test each pool for several hours or days?

Thank you

Re luck and mining pool.
Below is the great writeup from a known pool observing expert:
http://organofcorti.blogspot.com/2015/07/faq-bitcoin-mining-and-luck-statistic.html
Any miner should read it, in my opinion.

basically two points:
1. any pool would have longer bad luck than good luck
2. from #1 it follows that you will underperform if you chase luck from pool to pool because you would never know when a period of bad luck stops and good luck begins and vice versa.

[Tupsu]

That is consistent with my experience.  I have had many new cables/connectors under high loads that stay nice and cool, but a few months later they start getting hot.  I have also noticed variance even between samples of high quality cables.  After many negative experiences with KncMiner Neptunes that only have one PCIe, I plan to use all three on my S7s for backup and redundancy.  Burning my house down to save a few $'s on cables is not worth it for me.

Today I got the smell of smoke from my Corsair CX750M

It was connected with one S7 board and S7 controller.

[Crypto84]

is there going to be a batch 4?

[Biodom]

Did anybody try to put S7 in the attic instead of regular floors, basement  or garage? We don't have basements here, typically.
What would be a worry?
Sound should not be a problem, not sure about heat, although with fall coming (it is still balmy 75F right now), maybe it will be OK?

[bbOOmm]

Anyone powered his S7 using only 1 PCi-E 6 per board ?
I have powered them with only 1 cable per board for the last 2 days and they were working fine
Just today I read somewhere that it actually needs all 3 cables per board.

That's over 350W DC for 1 cable.  The connectors/pins are only rated for a maxijum of 324W, and those ratings aren't overly conservative given the demanding environments mining puts on them (vibration + high ambient temps).  Plug more cables into them, like now...

Edit: Plus it violates Bitmain's ridiculous warranty terms...

I'm doing 8 total, 2 each to outside boards and 3 to center plus controller. That way I can use 2 dell 750 PSU with 8 cables. Using high quality 16awg cables and breakout boards. No issues. Been monitoring temps of connectors and cables. Avg connect temp is 79F. Miner runs at 55-59c and ambient temp is 69-72F.

That would be 175w per cable on the boards with 2 plugged in. Consumer PSU may not handle this since cables are lower gauge and will heat up more.

The wire gauge on the bitmain 1600 psu's is pretty teenie.
Maybe that is why the "three cable rule" is pushed.
My corsair rm1000 modular cables are pretty beefy. I use two per board with the daisy chain from one of them, filling all connectors.
The board next to the controller socket gets the daisy chain from the second cable.

I'm not sure what the wire gauge number is on the Bitmain power supplies, someone will have to see if there is some printing on the wires and post the AWG size.

BUT, for reference, when I made the cables for the DPS-1200FB power supplies I have, I used 20ga wire.... its what I had laying around that would fit the pins I have.... Calculating the load per wire,  I divided the maximum amperage the power supply could produce across the 6 Molex plugs, the amperage per pin/wire was 5.5 amp.... WELL within the specification for the wire size and insulation type using an NEC wire chart.

YES, insulation type is also a factor. You can have anything from varnish coated wires, plastic insulated, silicone insulated, or even teflon insulated. Some insulation melts at lower temps, so if you have a Molex connector that heating up because of old age or you have been plugging and unplugging a lot and you have cheap ass plastic insulated wires, more likely you will have a meltdown from insulation melting then wires shorting out than if you were running a smaller wire gauge, same amperage, and teflon insulation.

You might think silicone insulated wires will handle the heat... somewhat. Silicone insulation is used when maximum flexability is required, or is in a higher heat environment, or is carrying higher voltage (think 1000V or more). Silicone insulation is not very good when its in direct contact with a high temperature material such as a wire which has a contact that is micro arcing causing the wire to heat up massively.... it will melt with relative ease.

[bbOOmm]

Did anybody try to put S7 in the attic instead of regular floors, basement  or garage? We don't have basements here, typically.
What would be a worry?
Sound should not be a problem, not sure about heat, although with fall coming (it is still balmy 75F right now), maybe it will be OK?

An attic would be too warm. You have to remember, there is Mother Natures nuclear powered heater that is beaming heat onto your roof, that roof then absorbs the heat and then transfers the heat to the air in your attic space.

Unless you can move a lot of air through the attic to make the air temp in the attic the same temp as the ambient air temp outside, I think it will be too hot in the attic.

[Biodom]

is there going to be a batch 4?

they are most likely fixing to either introduce lite or drop the price to be competitive with others in December and especially by January.
I would be hugely surprised if they keep both the premium and the model.

[bbOOmm]

is there going to be a batch 4?

they are most likely fixing to either introduce lite or drop the price to be competitive with others in December and especially by January.
I would be hugely surprised if they keep both the premium and the model.

Since they didn't use the model number ~ S6 ~ ... maybe that's what the 3.xTH/s "S7 lite" will be .....

With how cut throat the bitcoin hardware market is.... the absolute addiction to getting the best efficency, supply and demand ( no more S7's at 4.86TH/s )... I'd have to say that the 3.x TH/s S7 lite will be the same price as the  S7 B3. WHY NOT? Only game in town, till someone else comes along and creates some competition.... then and only then will there be lower price models.

[yslyung]

any updates on delivery ? i dont think there will be any "new" models of miners till delivery is up to schedule ? ordered on 25th last mth, nth yet for me.

[Finksy]

I'm not sure what the wire gauge number is on the Bitmain power supplies, someone will have to see if there is some printing on the wires and post the AWG size.

BUT, for reference, when I made the cables for the DPS-1200FB power supplies I have, I used 20ga wire.... its what I had laying around that would fit the pins I have.... Calculating the load per wire,  I divided the maximum amperage the power supply could produce across the 6 Molex plugs, the amperage per pin/wire was 5.5 amp.... WELL within the specification for the wire size and insulation type using an NEC wire chart.

YES, insulation type is also a factor. You can have anything from varnish coated wires, plastic insulated, silicone insulated, or even teflon insulated. Some insulation melts at lower temps, so if you have a Molex connector that heating up because of old age or you have been plugging and unplugging a lot and you have cheap ass plastic insulated wires, more likely you will have a meltdown from insulation melting then wires shorting out than if you were running a smaller wire gauge, same amperage, and teflon insulation.

You might think silicone insulated wires will handle the heat... somewhat. Silicone insulation is used when maximum flexability is required, or is in a higher heat environment, or is carrying higher voltage (think 1000V or more). Silicone insulation is not very good when its in direct contact with a high temperature material such as a wire which has a contact that is micro arcing causing the wire to heat up massively.... it will melt with relative ease.

Typically I would recommend against 20ga wire for mining application, with 16awg a minimum for many of the miners out there, but you are spot on with your numbers for ampacity.  As for insulators, the type it is isn't quite as important as the rating on it.  For example, the cables that I typically order have UL 1007 or better (UL1015 is made for higher temperature, and would be a bit better for mining, though I haven't had problems with the 1007).

Point being, you could have a better type of insulator than PVC, but if the temperature rating isn't high enough you could end up in trouble. My only experience is from mining/supplying cables, so it is far from professional advice.

[clgrissom3]

Hello

Have a question.

What should I consider when chosing a mining pool?. I have a S7 B2 on its way to my house. It should be delivered on thursday and this is my first miner.

I have been reading about the different methods each pool work (PPS, PPLNS, DGM, SMPPS, etc...) and also we can find several pools on each method. Which method and which pool do you think work better and why? If two given pools work on PPS for example, how is that possible that one of them could have their luck on "-8%" (just saying something), I thought statiscally both of them should be "the same thing" (of course according to their each mining total power)

Do they have any trick I should take care of?

Is there anyway to measure efficiency of each mining pool without having to test each pool for several hours or days?

Thank you

This was a really good thread about just that...this guy did a 12-week pool payout test and posted his results.  It's a good read and it's only 2 pages worth.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1059040.0

[wolfen]

any updates on delivery ? i dont think there will be any "new" models of miners till delivery is up to schedule ? ordered on 25th last mth, nth yet for me.

Towards the end of this week for oct17 and oct21

[wolfen]

Anyone powered his S7 using only 1 PCi-E 6 per board ?
I have powered them with only 1 cable per board for the last 2 days and they were working fine
Just today I read somewhere that it actually needs all 3 cables per board.

That's over 350W DC for 1 cable.  The connectors/pins are only rated for a maxijum of 324W, and those ratings aren't overly conservative given the demanding environments mining puts on them (vibration + high ambient temps).  Plug more cables into them, like now...

Edit: Plus it violates Bitmain's ridiculous warranty terms...

I'm doing 8 total, 2 each to outside boards and 3 to center plus controller. That way I can use 2 dell 750 PSU with 8 cables. Using high quality 16awg cables and breakout boards. No issues. Been monitoring temps of connectors and cables. Avg connect temp is 79F. Miner runs at 55-59c and ambient temp is 69-72F.

That would be 175w per cable on the boards with 2 plugged in. Consumer PSU may not handle this since cables are lower gauge and will heat up more.

The wire gauge on the bitmain 1600 psu's is pretty teenie.
Maybe that is why the "three cable rule" is pushed.
My corsair rm1000 modular cables are pretty beefy. I use two per board with the daisy chain from one of them, filling all connectors.
The board next to the controller socket gets the daisy chain from the second cable.

I'm not sure what the wire gauge number is on the Bitmain power supplies, someone will have to see if there is some printing on the wires and post the AWG size.

BUT, for reference, when I made the cables for the DPS-1200FB power supplies I have, I used 20ga wire.... its what I had laying around that would fit the pins I have.... Calculating the load per wire,  I divided the maximum amperage the power supply could produce across the 6 Molex plugs, the amperage per pin/wire was 5.5 amp.... WELL within the specification for the wire size and insulation type using an NEC wire chart.

YES, insulation type is also a factor. You can have anything from varnish coated wires, plastic insulated, silicone insulated, or even teflon insulated. Some insulation melts at lower temps, so if you have a Molex connector that heating up because of old age or you have been plugging and unplugging a lot and you have cheap ass plastic insulated wires, more likely you will have a meltdown from insulation melting then wires shorting out than if you were running a smaller wire gauge, same amperage, and teflon insulation.

You might think silicone insulated wires will handle the heat... somewhat. Silicone insulation is used when maximum flexability is required, or is in a higher heat environment, or is carrying higher voltage (think 1000V or more). Silicone insulation is not very good when its in direct contact with a high temperature material such as a wire which has a contact that is micro arcing causing the wire to heat up massively.... it will melt with relative ease.

As far as pluging and unplugging, I use the corsair rm1000 1000 watt psu with modular connectors.
I plug the modular cables into the s7 once and LEAVE THEM THERE. Two pcie cables per board with one daisy chain connector per board.
When I need to detach the psu from the s7 I unplug from the psu only.
This way the s7 power connectors stay more pristine.
Again, the gauge on the bitmain 1600 watt psu is quite small so use all connectors on the s7.

[Biodom]

Hello

Have a question.

What should I consider when chosing a mining pool?. I have a S7 B2 on its way to my house. It should be delivered on thursday and this is my first miner.

I have been reading about the different methods each pool work (PPS, PPLNS, DGM, SMPPS, etc...) and also we can find several pools on each method. Which method and which pool do you think work better and why? If two given pools work on PPS for example, how is that possible that one of them could have their luck on "-8%" (just saying something), I thought statiscally both of them should be "the same thing" (of course according to their each mining total power)

Do they have any trick I should take care of?

Is there anyway to measure efficiency of each mining pool without having to test each pool for several hours or days?

Thank you

This was a really good thread about just that...this guy did a 12-week pool payout test and posted his results.  It's a good read and it's only 2 pages worth.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1059040.0

he basically posted random variation from the norm.
At least this is what I see when I look at the results.

[clgrissom3]

Hello

Have a question.

What should I consider when chosing a mining pool?. I have a S7 B2 on its way to my house. It should be delivered on thursday and this is my first miner.

I have been reading about the different methods each pool work (PPS, PPLNS, DGM, SMPPS, etc...) and also we can find several pools on each method. Which method and which pool do you think work better and why? If two given pools work on PPS for example, how is that possible that one of them could have their luck on "-8%" (just saying something), I thought statiscally both of them should be "the same thing" (of course according to their each mining total power)

Do they have any trick I should take care of?

Is there anyway to measure efficiency of each mining pool without having to test each pool for several hours or days?

Thank you

This was a really good thread about just that...this guy did a 12-week pool payout test and posted his results.  It's a good read and it's only 2 pages worth.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1059040.0

he basically posted random variation from the norm.
At least this is what I see when I look at the results.

It's a good place for a newbie to start without being overwhelmed with it all.

[philipma1957]

is there going to be a batch 4?

they are most likely fixing to either introduce lite or drop the price to be competitive with others in December and especially by January.
I would be hugely surprised if they keep both the premium and the model.

Since they didn't use the model number ~ S6 ~ ... maybe that's what the 3.xTH/s "S7 lite" will be .....

With how cut throat the bitcoin hardware market is.... the absolute addiction to getting the best efficency, supply and demand ( no more S7's at 4.86TH/s )... I'd have to say that the 3.x TH/s S7 lite will be the same price as the  S7 B3. WHY NOT? Only game in town, till someone else comes along and creates some competition.... then and only then will there be lower price models.

bitmaintech can self mine at the high coin prices which are touching 360 usd.

I see them waiting a while before batch  4 and I see them selling a 2 board unit at a price rise per gh . 

if the 4860gh batch 3 was 1620 usd that was 33 cents a gh.

I can see a 3200gh batch 4 sell for 1200 usd which is  37.5 cents a gh

If coins keep rising it would sell.  Sell well.

[cryptichermit]

any updates on delivery ? i dont think there will be any "new" models of miners till delivery is up to schedule ? ordered on 25th last mth, nth yet for me.

Towards the end of this week for oct17 and oct21

I ordered 10/25 batch 3.
Shipped out 10/30, set for arrival tomorrow.