ANTMINER S2 Discussion and Support Thread

[BITMAIN]

A short good news for the S2 buyer is that we will let the S2 to upgrade to 1.8TH/s or 2TH/s at very low cost which you can only image now in the August or September. It still depends on many factors to let us achieve that and detailed plan needs to be drafted, But we are very confident that we can make it.

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[topminingcontracts]

A short good news for the S2 buyer is that we will let the S2 to upgrade to 1.8TH/s or 2TH/s at very low cost which you can only image now in the August or September. It still depends on many factors to let us achieve that and detailed plan needs to be drafted, But we are very confident that we can make it.

Bitmain rocks!

[kendog77]

A short good news for the S2 buyer is that we will let the S2 to upgrade to 1.8TH/s or 2TH/s at very low cost which you can only image now in the August or September. It still depends on many factors to let us achieve that and detailed plan needs to be drafted, But we are very confident that we can make it.

Just so we're clear, are you saying that you will provide a low cost way to overclock the current S2 to 1.8TH/s or 2TH/s in August or September?

[dalenorman2005]

And also to be clear, even though August or September is a lifetime away in this game....

are you planning on allowing 1.8 or 2 TH using the same 1000 watts of power, or 1800-2000 watts of power?

[topminingcontracts]

A short good news for the S2 buyer is that we will let the S2 to upgrade to 1.8TH/s or 2TH/s at very low cost which you can only image now in the August or September. It still depends on many factors to let us achieve that and detailed plan needs to be drafted, But we are very confident that we can make it.

Just so we're clear, are you saying that you will provide a low cost way to overclock the current S2 to 1.8TH/s or 2TH/s in August or September?

:-)

Did you think will take Bitmain 3 months to do OC?

[taipo]

At a guess, the 'very low cost', would most certainly be having to buy an additional PSU, or several 1 kW PSUs ( for example ).

[ChuckBuck]

Interesting.  Be able to overclock to 2 TH/s just buying an additional PSU for a couple hundred more.

If that's the case, I have to get me one of these!   

[dropt]

At a guess, the 'very low cost', would most certainly be having to buy an additional PSU, or several 1 kW PSUs ( for example ).

I would think it more likely that Bitmain will have an upgrade path to replace the cards with ones containing chips of a smaller process node (28nm).

[freebit13]

At a guess, the 'very low cost', would most certainly be having to buy an additional PSU, or several 1 kW PSUs ( for example ).

I would think it more likely that Bitmain will have an upgrade path to replace the cards with ones containing chips of a smaller process node (28nm).

I agree, probably a card replacement, but also with fewer W/Gh, so the existing psu might suffice.

[MrTeal]

At a guess, the 'very low cost', would most certainly be having to buy an additional PSU, or several 1 kW PSUs ( for example ).

I would think it more likely that Bitmain will have an upgrade path to replace the cards with ones containing chips of a smaller process node (28nm).

I'd agree with you there. Getting the existing cards to 200GH/s each is going to be impossible, even with a heatsink upgrade. That's the same rate as an overclocked S1, but the S1 has 8 of the TPS53355 regulators (one per 8 chips) while each S2 card has 4 (one per 16 chips). Not to mention having to deal with ~4kW of heat in a 4U chassis.

[Majixagi]

At a guess, the 'very low cost', would most certainly be having to buy an additional PSU, or several 1 kW PSUs ( for example ).

I would think it more likely that Bitmain will have an upgrade path to replace the cards with ones containing chips of a smaller process node (28nm).

I'd agree with you there. Getting the existing cards to 200GH/s each is going to be impossible, even with a heatsink upgrade. That's the same rate as an overclocked S1, but the S1 has 8 of the TPS53355 regulators (one per 8 chips) while each S2 card has 4 (one per 16 chips). Not to mention having to deal with ~4kW of heat in a 4U chassis.

So how much extra does the case, PSU, and controller add to the total package? I'm wondering how much savings can be had here. This really does sound great, but if it produces a stack of old cards that has no resale value, the cost benefit of just buying cards would have to be better than that resale value.

[DevonMiner]

I did not expect that I have to reinsert the cards, but now it works. Hashing with avg 1006.35 GH/s.

After all the horror stories written throughout this thread, I have it on record in the forum that I would never own an S2 and thought Bitmain had lost it. Due to a weird set of circumstances (A fellow mining buddy in trouble, favors called in and a diverted order) today I nervously received a batch 4 S2.

First impressions were that the box was intact and the foam packaging looked pretty good. First thing of course was to unscrew the cover and check the cards ... none were out of their connectors, but ALL easily pushed down into position by a couple of mm to fit back into their sockets securely. The two rails that are supposed to keep them in place were a little high, so there was room for movement ... especially as the S2 had been packed upside down in the box! Also the screw holes in the holding rails had been drilled too big, so the screws had popped through.

So ... time to switch on ... and nothing. It powered up, but the fans continually ran at full speed and the display was blank.

I checked the display cable ribbon (looked OK), and then the Ethernet cable, which had slightly come adrift of the controller board.

Take two: switched back on ... and it has been hashing away fine ever since.

So Bitmain are getting there, still a few little tweaks maybe to protect these miners during shipping. Why not make the blades lock into position like PCIe cards?

[taipo]

At a guess, the 'very low cost', would most certainly be having to buy an additional PSU, or several 1 kW PSUs ( for example ).

I would think it more likely that Bitmain will have an upgrade path to replace the cards with ones containing chips of a smaller process node (28nm).

If they are going to ship these out at 'very low cost', then yes, otherwise all those with current S2's will be incurring more than 'very low cost' to upgrade.

[BeZerKaNZ]

This is an ongoing issue with Bitmain in general. I too was just hit with a failed part, and the turn around on failed product WILL result in serious loss in mining payouts. There is an advantage to going with Bitmain for mining hardware, however due to their support on hardware with issues, you need to factor in as serious losses in revenue .

Yeah I've accepted that I will probably never reach ROI, and its very frustrating/depressing watching your investment go from bad to worse.

Bad to worse => to worser....

Got the blue screen of death.... S2 turns on but only getting a blank blue LCD display on the S2. I've re-imaged SD card but did nothing. Waiting for a Bitmain to reply for a RMA request.

[dalenorman2005]

This is an ongoing issue with Bitmain in general. I too was just hit with a failed part, and the turn around on failed product WILL result in serious loss in mining payouts. There is an advantage to going with Bitmain for mining hardware, however due to their support on hardware with issues, you need to factor in as serious losses in revenue .

Yeah I've accepted that I will probably never reach ROI, and its very frustrating/depressing watching your investment go from bad to worse.

Bad to worse => to worser....

Got the blue screen of death.... S2 turns on but only getting a blank blue LCD display on the S2. I've re-imaged SD card but did nothing. Waiting for a Bitmain to reply for a RMA request.

Don't give up yet.  i've had the same thing.  try removing all the boards (power off first, of course), then power on.  watch the controller board for blue lights.  they mean the controller has found a usable boot partition on the SD card and booted from it.  if you get it to boot, and can connect to the web page of the controller, then the problem may have been a connection to one of the currently-removed boards.  you have to put them back in, but there's a good chance that shutting the system off "hot" will botch the SD image, so you have to ssh into it and shut it down gracefully...

shutdown -h now

wait for it to do so, then power off.

keep us posted.

[Moria843]

You can underclock 4 Ants on a 1000W power supply for cheaper still.  140 gh/s each.

 Even then, you're still off ~ 0.8 BTC-1BTC difference between the two options which is approximately eaten up by purchasing a couple adequate power supplies for driving the six S1's.

 Like I said, it's a very close call either way.

It is a close call but I decided to go with the S1s once they dropped down to 0.55 BTC/each.
I just had more faith in their "proven technology" and I was concerned over the S2 reviews.

I decided to go with 8 S1s and 4 Corsair RM850 PSUs. Total cost $2320 for all.
Overclocked all 8 to 400 MHz to get 200 GH/s for total of 1.6 TH/s.
Each PSU powering 2 S1s and pushing 837 W.
So at $0.12/kWh, it's costing about 4x0.837x24x0.12=$9.64/day
Making about 0.08 to 0.1 BTC/day or about a $35/day profit at $450/BTC.
I have faith that BTC price will go up and I'll at least break even with difficulty increases.
So far they've been rock solid. I see no big ROI advantage in the S2.

[nikolaz]

I have to say Batch 4, definitely an improvement from the other batches... not to mention brand sparkling new PSU suggest it was not pre-mined like the S1s.

I have 4 x Batch 4 S2 running - totalling 3.99 TH/s with 1.3% reject rate... Each miner is pulling 1040W from the wall. Board temperature between 41C - 51C.

So far so good...

[tzortz]

Good job for bitmain. Wouldn't expect it.

[googlemaster1]

I better start trying to figure out how to piece together a frankenminer with my old cards once I upgrade.  I will be sad to see old mining equipment not getting used!

[klondike_bar]

At a guess, the 'very low cost', would most certainly be having to buy an additional PSU, or several 1 kW PSUs ( for example ).

I would think it more likely that Bitmain will have an upgrade path to replace the cards with ones containing chips of a smaller process node (28nm).

I agree, probably a card replacement, but also with fewer W/Gh, so the existing psu might suffice.

its possible that the bitmain 55nm chips can achieve better than 1w/GH if they are undervolted even further. stuffing twice as many chips in an S2 might allow 1.8TH/1200W or something like that, but even this would not allow 2TH witht he current 1000w PSU, so perhaps the next gen will be 40nm

28nm would allow about 4x the efficiency, so either half as many chips or the same wattage and 2x the hashrate,  or the same number of chips/wattage for 3.5-4TH.