Bitmain Antminer S9 Review

[not.you]

But a warning to anyone thinking about doing business with Bitmain, don’t!

I've been looking into setting up my own mining rig and I'm at the point of choosing a machine as well as which coin to focus on, but after reading your review and many other bad reviews, I think I'll stay clear of Bitmain. Do you or anyone else know of any other companies that sell bitcoin asics? That actually have a good reputation I mean...   

Bitmain's quality and customer service is definitely crap and your doing yourself a favor by staying away from them. As far as other sellers, I was originally looking at www.bw.com, but they wanted a minimum of 1 PH order from memory. I'm not sure if they still sell actual machines, I think they are getting into cloud mining now.

https://canaan.io/

[1714840185]

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[1714840185]

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[1714840185]

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[yxt]

As part of my job I follow all complaints/critiques/opinions about miners and take it into account when purchasing. The T9 complaints I have seen all fall under the category of user error and not hardware error. If anyone has an actual issue with T9s please let us hear about it.

What is your job exactly? Sounds interesting

btw: 2 from my 2 R4 died within 1 week, one within 1 day

[Rabinovitch]

It looks that I'll set up my coming S9s and L3+ to work at significantly lower frequency than stock. May be this will save their lifes...

[longasleep]

i must have had a miracle batch on s5 s7 and s9 none of them has issues till this day.

[Zelek Uther]

But a warning to anyone thinking about doing business with Bitmain, don’t!

I've been looking into setting up my own mining rig and I'm at the point of choosing a machine as well as which coin to focus on, but after reading your review and many other bad reviews, I think I'll stay clear of Bitmain. Do you or anyone else know of any other companies that sell bitcoin asics? That actually have a good reputation I mean...    

I've been running a Bitmain Antminer S9 (batch 7) 24x7 since 2016-07-25, which is 301 days at the time of writing. It's still hashing at spec and I haven't had any issues with it. I've left it on stock settings - I don't overclock my miners, they seem to last better that way.

I've been mining since June 2013 and the Bitmain S9 is one of the best miners I've ever owned. I only have one, and maybe I got lucky on the reliability front, but there you go.

I've also previously owned an Antminer S1 and an Antminer S2. The S1 was rock solid, and as far as I know would still work, I gave it away in fully working order to Techvana Museum (a computer museum in New Zealand). The S2 was ok, but the daughter boards tended to get dislodged during shipping so it wasn't as sold and fool-proof as the S1 form-factor - which the S9 and T9 are descendants of. Bitmain abandoned the "desktop PC" form-factor for miners, which in my opinion was a good move.

I've owned miners from other manufacturers too, but my review of them would be no use to you since none of those manufacturers still sell miners.

[remnokc]

As part of my job I follow all complaints/critiques/opinions about miners and take it into account when purchasing. The T9 complaints I have seen all fall under the category of user error and not hardware error. If anyone has an actual issue with T9s please let us hear about it.

have had a *new* T9 that has been mining for only 8 days and two days ago one of the hash-boards shows no red light.

[RivaMiner]

Given Bitmain S9 antminers are almost always out, is there another reliable place to get an S9?

[NotFuzzyWarm]

As part of my job I follow all complaints/critiques/opinions about miners and take it into account when purchasing. The T9 complaints I have seen all fall under the category of user error and not hardware error. If anyone has an actual issue with T9s please let us hear about it.

have had a *new* T9 that has been mining for only 8 days and two days ago one of the hash-boards shows no red light.

AND...??  
Still not working? Reboot fixed it? Fixed itself? Blew up killing the family cat? <insert other details here>
What a useless statement without details...

Plus of course there IS a T9-specific thread. Just usually far down because little to report in it. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1755286.msg19168097#new

[remnokc]

As part of my job I follow all complaints/critiques/opinions about miners and take it into account when purchasing. The T9 complaints I have seen all fall under the category of user error and not hardware error. If anyone has an actual issue with T9s please let us hear about it.

have had a *new* T9 that has been mining for only 8 days and two days ago one of the hash-boards shows no red light.

AND...??  
Still not working? Reboot fixed it? Fixed itself? Blew up killing the family cat? <insert other details here>
What a useless statement without details...

Plus of course there IS a T9-specific thread. Just usually far down because little to report in it. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1755286.msg19168097#new

Blew up scaring my Rottweiler, LOL -j/k-

well, still mining with it, still only 2/3 hash power, many reboots to no effect, not really set up to determine its power usage, am thinking of buying an S9 hashboard from the US sight mentioned
above (but over 500 dollars ?? ?? )
https://bitmainwarranty.com/product-category/products/page/2/

[NotFuzzyWarm]

As part of my job I follow all complaints/critiques/opinions about miners and take it into account when purchasing. The T9 complaints I have seen all fall under the category of user error and not hardware error. If anyone has an actual issue with T9s please let us hear about it.

have had a *new* T9 that has been mining for only 8 days and two days ago one of the hash-boards shows no red light.

AND...??  
Still not working? Reboot fixed it? Fixed itself? Blew up killing the family cat? <insert other details here>
What a useless statement without details...

Plus of course there IS a T9-specific thread. Just usually far down because little to report in it. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1755286.msg19168097#new

Blew up scaring my Rottweiler, LOL -j/k-

well, still mining with it, still only 2/3 hash power, many reboots to no effect, not really set up to determine its power usage, am thinking of buying an S9 hashboard from the US sight mentioned
above (but over 500 dollars ?? ?? )
https://bitmainwarranty.com/product-category/products/page/2/

Replied to in the T9 thread.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1755286.msg19295987#msg19295987

[mettalmag]

Hello fellow miners, one quick question, theoretically is there a chance to measure the heat generated from S9? I don't know how it works and how it is calculated so any help would be great

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Hello fellow miners, one quick question, theoretically is there a chance to measure the heat generated from S9? I don't know how it works and how it is calculated so any help would be great

Google "convert watts to BTU" ....

[matale0]

S9 How much coins it will mine per month in cloud?

[sibisi666]

S9 How much coins it will mine per month in cloud?

You can't know that precisely, approximately amount can be calculated, by watching difficulty and hashpower, its best to check here: https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty , there is calculator so you can get some values.

[fusion0389]

For the past 12 months I have been studying up on crypto-currencies, especially bitcoin. And once I gained enough knowledge I decided to start mining bitcoin. My plan was to start with a small number of machines, and try to build up from there. So I purchased 16 Antminer S9’s, and built my mine. I have quite a lot of experience in IT networking so setting up a quality network was not an issue, and my business partner has the electrical experience to wire up our power needs. We also studied up on the air requirements, and designed a hot- aisle cold-aisle system, as well as figured out the best make-up air including the appropriate air pressures that would best serve the machines.

In my opinion, we setup an optimal environment for the machines to have a long life span, but the result was something quite different. Within a 2 week period of operations 16 out of 48 hash boards had died, and another 3 a couple of weeks later.

So I went through the warranty process with Bitmain, and the experience was a disaster. Not only did I have to pay for shipping to Hong Kong, but once Bitmain had tested the hash boards and decided that they were indeed faulty, they then sent us 16 used hash boards. I mean these hash boards had serious signs of deterioration, I thought I was being punked for sure, there were burn marks, significant build ups of dust and dirt, and really just awful all over. I sent them near new faulty hash boards, and they sent me years old pieces of trash that I admit did work, but many of which have died since, and not long after going back into operation.

Bitmain is the type of company that will sell you a faulty product to begin with, and replace it with used second hand equipment, from their own mine no doubt. But what’s amazing is that they think there is nothing wrong with that. In most western countries if you return a faulty product, the company will either repair it, or replace it with a new part. This whole experience just highlights the stark difference between the values of the west and east.

So in the end I won’t recoup all of my initial investment let alone make a profit with the machines, but it turns out that I’ve made money trading the mining rewards I have received, plus I’ve moved over into mining Dash instead, they are much better machines, and a much better crypto-currency as well. But a warning to anyone thinking about doing business with Bitmain, don’t! They will take your money gladly, and they'll even send you the machines, but you have no guarantee that the machines aren't faulty in the first place, and an absolute certainty that you'll get given crap in replacement of broken equipment. So just don’t expect them to have any basic sense of western business ethics or values.

I have also realized that many of the companies I have dealt with in China, but Bitmain especially, can be really quite arrogant. So don’t expect to be treated like an actual customer, expect something more along the lines of we’ll take your money, and then treat you like crap afterwards if you have any problems, much like an insurance company.

Oh, and if you happen to ignore my advice and end up speaking to a support person by the name of Quentin down the road somewhere, then I’m afraid you have reached the asshole that insurance companies usually throw at you when you make a claim. So best of luck with your endeavors either way!

That really sucks... I know BITMAIN hasn't been the most consistent in quality. 2\12 S9's have failed on me over the course of 12 months and required repair, each unit required repairs to 1 hashboard so i understand that yeah quality can be improved. However, I am thinking that maybe this is because of initial quality issues back when the S9 was relatively new? The units that have given me trouble are from batch 4-12. All units purchased after that have run perfectly.

[swedenrt]

What is the hash rate of this s9?

[MrCrank]

I'm using the Baikal 900 MH machines, they are good quality. I haven't had any issues with them. The only thing I wish they supported was static IP addresses, they only support DHCP. But apart from that a very good machine.

I want use Baikal for mining too.
Where can I buy this machines? (where you bought it?)
My choice use 600 MH or 4 x 300 MH.
Thanks for advice.

[TexasHuck]

Thank you for the review.  What miner did you end up switching to?  Is there a better company to deal with?  Are there any good US manufacturers?

[Tim@BQ]

I want use Baikal for mining too.
Where can I buy this machines? (where you bought it?)
My choice use 600 MH or 4 x 300 MH.
Thanks for advice.

Apologies for late response, you can buy baikal miners from https://www.baikalminer.com/.

The Dash technology is moving pretty quickly now, so lots of demand. And the machines have become over priced in my view.

It's sad to say, but Bitmain now has the cheapest Dash machines, I can't speak to their reliability though.

[Tim@BQ]

Thank you for the review.  What miner did you end up switching to?  Is there a better company to deal with?  Are there any good US manufacturers?

I'm now mining Dash with both Baikal miners and iBeLink miners. The prices have gone up quite significantly from when I first brought with them, and the technology has moved on quite a bit as well. I have heard some bad stories about people not getting their machines from Baikal, but I had no issues with them. I also had no issues with iBeLink, although I believe now there are some pretty lengthy wait periods until you actually receive your machines. And I'm not sure about any US manufactures.