ANTMINER S2 Discussion and Support Thread

[precrime3]

Difficulty increase last time was only 9%, a 10 - 20% increase EVERY month is highly unlikely..... But yeah, i'd add a 40 days or so to break even, ROI is a different term. ROI: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/returnoninvestment.asp

[btcctb]

... these things will be lucky to ROI in BTC in 6 months...

what's the point to buy if ROI only in 6 months.. I must be missing something

[kendog77]

Difficulty increase last time was only 9%, a 10 - 20% increase EVERY month is highly unlikely..... But yeah, i'd add a 40 days or so to break even, ROI is a different term. ROI: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/returnoninvestment.asp

Check out past difficulty increases on this site. We continue to see 10-20% difficulty increases every 11-12 days. The latest difficulty increase of only 11% is the anomaly if you look at past increases.

http://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty

[Sitarow]

Guys calm down about the PSU. I've ordered an S2 and will do a setup guide and review - if it burns my flat down then I'll let you know

In all seriousness, I'll obviously check pwoer consumption and PSU spec'ing.

Looking forward to it.

[precrime3]

Difficulty increase last time was only 9%, a 10 - 20% increase EVERY month is highly unlikely..... But yeah, i'd add a 40 days or so to break even, ROI is a different term. ROI: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/returnoninvestment.asp

Check out past difficulty increases on this site. We continue to see 10-20% difficulty increases every 11-12 days. The latest difficulty increase of only 11% is the anomaly if you look at past increases.

http://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty

My bad, thought it was 9%. I don't think we are going to see a 20% jump in a long time, it seems the difficulty is leveling out....

[kendog77]

Difficulty increase last time was only 9%, a 10 - 20% increase EVERY month is highly unlikely..... But yeah, i'd add a 40 days or so to break even, ROI is a different term. ROI: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/returnoninvestment.asp

Check out past difficulty increases on this site. We continue to see 10-20% difficulty increases every 11-12 days. The latest difficulty increase of only 11% is the anomaly if you look at past increases.

http://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty

My bad, thought it was 9%. I don't think we are going to see a 20% jump in a long time, it seems the difficulty is leveling out....

One 11% difficulty increase does not make a trend. The verdict is still out on whether or not the difficulty is leveling out.

[precrime3]

You can still make a reasonable break even time, and pretty decent ROI even if factoring in a 10% difficulty increase every 2016 blocks.

[kendog77]

You can still make a reasonable break even time, and pretty decent ROI even if factoring in a 10% difficulty increase every 2016 blocks.

In my opinion, it is a mistake to only assume the difficulty will increase 10% every 2016 blocks in your ROI calculations. Assuming 10% increases would be a very aggressive, 15% moderate, and 20% conservative.

[MrTeal]

Difficulty increase last time was only 9%, a 10 - 20% increase EVERY month is highly unlikely..... But yeah, i'd add a 40 days or so to break even, ROI is a different term. ROI: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/returnoninvestment.asp

Check out past difficulty increases on this site. We continue to see 10-20% difficulty increases every 11-12 days. The latest difficulty increase of only 11% is the anomaly if you look at past increases.

http://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty

My bad, thought it was 9%. I don't think we are going to see a 20% jump in a long time, it seems the difficulty is leveling out....

One 11% difficulty increase does make a trend. The verdict is still out on whether or not the difficulty is leveling out.

The rate of hashing power increase might not be slowing down, but the growth rate definitely is and has been since the massive growth last fall. We're getting down close to the level of 1%/day

[precrime3]

You can still make a reasonable break even time, and pretty decent ROI even if factoring in a 10% difficulty increase every 2016 blocks.

In my opinion, it is a mistake to only assume the difficulty will increase 10% every 2016 blocks in your ROI calculations. Assuming 10% increases would be a very aggressive, 15% moderate, and 20% conservative.

If next difficulty increase is low 10's, ill go with 15%. Ill be mining on a sha-256 multi pool anyways, after I get my antminers, probably tekcoin for that 40% pos rate xD

[wpgdeez]

I've got 10 Ants running right now and it is loud and hot! I think it is worth the premium if the unit is cool and quiet,I don't plan to pre order but once they have equipment ready for purchase I will upgrade for sure.

[precrime3]

Its not a preorder lol, my definition of preorder is waiting 3-4 months for something that may or may not ship

[kendog77]

Sorry, but Bitmain doesn't have S2s in stock that ship within 48 hours so this is a pre-order.

These S2's likely haven't even been manufactured yet unless Bitmain is pre-mining with them.

[precrime3]

Oh my bad, statement retracted :p

[klondike_bar]

... these things will be lucky to ROI in BTC in 6 months...

what's the point to buy if ROI only in 6 months.. I must be missing something

Its an investment. There are very few investment vehicles that pay for themselves in 6months, and investors have to decide whether it will make a profit or a loss, as well as how much work will go into upkeep and cooling.

Don't buy it because someone else does. Buy it because you think it will make you a profit

[btc_jumpnrl]

I always use 20% for worst case scenario estimation. That way any price increase and or lower difficulty just adds to my profit. This release is cutting return way closer than their S1s though. Without power they will take 5 months to start RoI with April 1st start. With power you could possibly never make a return unless you sell after couple months. If they ship a week early it should barely break in 5 months with power. Hopefully the S2 is just as OC-able. Even a small 10% gain is worth the power increase. I figure the fans will have to be upgraded anyway (for noise mostly) , but i hope the PSU has some headroom.

Sushi could you please give us customers some more information on the fans (size/temps) and the PSU ?

[precrime3]

Im not really concerned about ROI (return of investment, how much it makes, not to be confused with break even) more about longetivity. The thing about GPU rigs they are reconfigurable. Once scrypt becomes commericiaized (ASICS) could just set it to mine vertcoin, and if asic for scrypt-n, keccak, etc,etc.... Where the limiting factor is how long the GPU can physically last running 24/7. I think in a little while, difficulty will level off, or bitcoin will become mainstream, so miners can make a decent income off of mining tx fees from all the transactions. That has what been holding me back from buying antminers. 540 gh/s won't last long in this game....

[visdude]

Guys calm down about the PSU. I've ordered an S2 and will do a setup guide and review - if it burns my flat down then I'll let you know

In all seriousness, I'll obviously check pwoer consumption and PSU spec'ing.

+1.  Stop getting your panties in a knot over vague technical specifications. Bitmain has a prototype right now (that i assume works just fine) so it seems VERY unlikely they would be stupid enough to skimp on the PSU rather then be smart and install a power supply that has some headroom. They are not tech-illiterate, and the S1 proved that handily.

I imagine that Bitmain has arranged some sort of deal with enermax that they will buy PSUs in bulk, within china, and get very good cost, high quality models. Even with the extra shipping weight it probably works out cheaper then letting customers buy one on delivery - and might be partially influenced by the forum threads full of people complaining about their units malfunctioning [because they are trying to use <500W power supplies]

I use server supplies for a lot of my gear, which gives me 1000W for about $30 + an hour of my time (getting the supply, testing it, soldering cables, testing it again, praying its not one with a screaming 2000RPM fan, etc), but I have no issues with a supply being included if the quality and price are right.

Well, it's an imagination on your part as you stated...and that's fine.  But specs are there for a reason.  It's the only thing we can go by.  I don't care if somebody has tested a 1000W PSU with the S2 and successfully run it 24/7.  A 1000W PSU is just that -- a 1000W PSU.  Nothing more, nothing less.  If it were capable of producing higher DC output, then it would be rated more than 1000W and vice versa.  A device that draws around a sustained 900WDC from it (based on 90% PSU efficiency and Bitmain's spec of 1000W at the wall which is most likely underrated just like with the S1s) is too close for comfort for me.

You see, it's a matter of choice which you can't do anything about just like I can't do anything about your choices.  Like I stated earlier, "knock yourself out" if you're comfortable with the stock 1000W S2 PSU.  I couldn't care less.  I just prefer to have at least a 1200W PSU for it for good reasons.  That's all.

[dropt]

Check out past difficulty increases on this site. We continue to see 10-20% difficulty increases every 11-12 days. The latest difficulty increase of only 11% is the anomaly if you look at past increases.

http://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty

So are you saying that if this was November of 2013 one could reasonably assume that the hashrate will double for eternity?

We're nearing the end of the road for large percentage increases if we're not already there. 

[precrime3]

Check out past difficulty increases on this site. We continue to see 10-20% difficulty increases every 11-12 days. The latest difficulty increase of only 11% is the anomaly if you look at past increases.

http://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty

So are you saying that if this was November of 2013 one could reasonably assume that the hashrate will double for eternity?

We're nearing the end of the road for large percentage increases if we're not already there. 

Lets not be quite sure. Im hoping it is, but since all the preorders haven't shipped "calm before the storm" seems to be more appropriate.