ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread

[visdude]

A cx600 would be useless to over clock a s3! I need 2 cx750 to have two overclocked s3s

Why do you say that?  Have you actually run an S3 with a CX600?

Even if an OC'd S3 draws 450w at the wall, it only represents a 73% load on the CX600.

That's not really how power supplies work. Overall wattage is not the representation of how much power it can give on the 12v rail.
The cx600 has a 46A on the 12V rail, this is 552watts. That's 81.5%load without the added power draw from the wall minus efficiency of the power supply.
Seems it only comes with 2x PCI-E adaptors, so you would need molex to PCI-E or sata to PCI-E if you wanted to connect all 4.

Your explanation on "how power supplies work" does not make any sense at all.  I think it only leads to more confusion.  How did you come up with 81.5% load on the CX600 with an S3?  Please elaborate.  What "added power draw from the wall" are you referring to?  It is the actual power draw at the wall that computations should be extrapolated from because it is the only concrete number we can get out of the S3 or any device for that matter.  Let us indulge ourselves:

AC power draw at the wall * PSU efficiency = DC power draw on +12V rail of PSU
DC power draw on +12V rail of PSU / max load on +12V rail of PSU = % of load exerted on +12V rail of PSU

Therefore (assuming an OC'd S3 draws 450WAC at the wall using a CX600):

450WAC * 85% = 382.5WDC
382.5WDC / 522WDC * 100 = 73.28%

I am aware that the CX600 label states 46A on the +12V rail, hence you came up with 552W (46A * 12V).  Confusingly, the same label also states that the maximum +12V rail wattage is 522W.  Which one is a typo?  Should it have been 43.5A (522W / 12V) instead of 46A?  Anyway, I tend to be conservative and go with the lower rating and be on the safe side which is why I used 522W on the above computation that resulted in a 73.28% load.  However, even with a maximum of 552W on the +12V rail as you asserted, the load would then be much lower at 69.29% (382.5WDC / 552WDC * 100).  So, where was your "81.5%load without the added power draw from the wall minus efficiency of the power supply" derived from?

I reiterate that the Corsair CX500 (also with only two PCIe power connectors) is able to accommodate an S3 OC'd to 250M without any issues whatsoever let alone a CX600.  I am not just saying this for the heck of it; I and at least another member in here actually did it.  Please read here.

[suchmoon]

As long as you are aware you own a trash psu, then that is fine. You do have to buy what you can afford, and spending $400 on a miner and being cheap on a power supply is hands down dumb. If you are too broke to spend the extra $20 on a better psu then you are doing it wrong.

Spending $400 on an Ant and $200 on a PSU does not make sense for a small scale miner. The CX or whatever it is you're so unhappy about works fine with a single Ant and that's all there is to it. Not everyone wants or needs 100A on a single rail. Smaller PSU at peak efficiency is better than underutilized large one. I started with cheap-after-rebate PSUs and it was the best decision I could make back then. Dual PSUs for GPU rigs when everyone was buying LEPAs at ungodly prices, and I could afford spares too. Somebody doing something different than you is not "doing it wrong".

[MinersAnonymous]

A cx600 would be useless to over clock a s3! I need 2 cx750 to have two overclocked s3s

Why do you say that?  Have you actually run an S3 with a CX600?

Even if an OC'd S3 draws 450w at the wall, it only represents a 73% load on the CX600.

That's not really how power supplies work. Overall wattage is not the representation of how much power it can give on the 12v rail.
The cx600 has a 46A on the 12V rail, this is 552watts. That's 81.5%load without the added power draw from the wall minus efficiency of the power supply.
Seems it only comes with 2x PCI-E adaptors, so you would need molex to PCI-E or sata to PCI-E if you wanted to connect all 4.

Your explanation on "how power supplies work" does not make any sense at all.  I think it only leads to more confusion.  How did you come up with 81.5% load on the CX600 with an S3?  Please elaborate.  What "added power draw from the wall" are you referring to?  It is the actual power draw at the wall that computations should be extrapolated from because it is the only concrete number we can get out of the S3 or any device for that matter.  Let us indulge ourselves:

AC power draw at the wall * PSU efficiency = DC power draw on +12V rail of PSU
DC power draw on +12V rail of PSU / max load on +12V rail of PSU * = % of load exerted on +12V rail of PSU

Therefore (assuming an OC'd S3 draws 450WAC at the wall using a CX600):

450WAC * 85% = 382.5WDC
382.5WDC / 522WDC * 100 = 73.28%

I am aware that the CX600 label states 46A on the +12V rail, hence you came up with 552W (46A * 12V).  Confusingly, the same label also states that the maximum +12V rail wattage is 522W.  Which one is a typo?  Should it have been 43.5A (522W / 12V) instead of 46A?  Anyway, I tend to be conservative and go with the lower rating and be on safe side which is why I used 522W on the above computation that resulted in a 73.28% load.  However, even with a maximum of 552W on the +12V rail as you asserted, the load would then be much lower at 69.29% (382.5WDC / 552WDC * 100).  So, where was your "81.5%load without the added power draw from the wall minus efficiency of the power supply" derived from?

I reiterate that the Corsair CX500 (also with only two PCIe power connectors) is able to accommodate an S3 OC'd to 250M without any issues whatsoever let alone a CX600.  I am not just saying this for the heck of it; I and at least another member in here actually did it.  Please read here.

I did not go and explain how power supplies work. I mentioned the user did not know seeing as the only thing he mentioned was the overall wattage of the power supply with the assumption that because its a "cx500" or "cx600" it can handle up to 500 or 600 watts

They mentioned cx 500 600 and 700 so I can't tell you where the goof is, I probably did the math under 12V rail while playing with calculator. Obviously either me or you pointing anything out will not matter because the owners do not care what the components are inside.

You should spend some time emphasizing the fact that these power supplies are clearly made with lower than decent components instead of nitpicking on the load %. This guy went from a cx500 is fine to a sarcastic I should get a ax1500i for 1 miner. I obviously didn't suggest he spend more than the miner, but being sarcastic for someone pointing out things you should care about doesn't help either.

As long as you are aware you own a trash psu, then that is fine. You do have to buy what you can afford, and spending $400 on a miner and being cheap on a power supply is hands down dumb. If you are too broke to spend the extra $20 on a better psu then you are doing it wrong.

Spending $400 on an Ant and $200 on a PSU does not make sense for a small scale miner. The CX or whatever it is you're so unhappy about works fine with a single Ant and that's all there is to it. Not everyone wants or needs 100A on a single rail. Smaller PSU at peak efficiency is better than underutilized large one. I started with cheap-after-rebate PSUs and it was the best decision I could make back then. Dual PSUs for GPU rigs when everyone was buying LEPAs at ungodly prices, and I could afford spares too. Somebody doing something different than you is not "doing it wrong".

Spending $200 and $50 is a whole different story, you are taking it to an extreme when I mentioned a medium in between of spending a few extra bucks. Spending $50 on a corsair cx500 and spending $70 on a better power supply with decent components sounds reasonable.

Someone doing it different than me has nothing to do with "doing it wrong". Antminer have limited warranty, people live in different conditions. If you have issues with your power supply 4months down the road you will wish you had spent $20 more. Anyone who appreciates hardware knows the one thing you don't do is cheap out on the power supply.

[visdude]

A cx600 would be useless to over clock a s3! I need 2 cx750 to have two overclocked s3s

Why do you say that?  Have you actually run an S3 with a CX600?

Even if an OC'd S3 draws 450w at the wall, it only represents a 73% load on the CX600.

That's not really how power supplies work. Overall wattage is not the representation of how much power it can give on the 12v rail.
The cx600 has a 46A on the 12V rail, this is 552watts. That's 81.5%load without the added power draw from the wall minus efficiency of the power supply.
Seems it only comes with 2x PCI-E adaptors, so you would need molex to PCI-E or sata to PCI-E if you wanted to connect all 4.

Your explanation on "how power supplies work" does not make any sense at all.  I think it only leads to more confusion.  How did you come up with 81.5% load on the CX600 with an S3?  Please elaborate.  What "added power draw from the wall" are you referring to?  It is the actual power draw at the wall that computations should be extrapolated from because it is the only concrete number we can get out of the S3 or any device for that matter.  Let us indulge ourselves:

AC power draw at the wall * PSU efficiency = DC power draw on +12V rail of PSU
DC power draw on +12V rail of PSU / max load on +12V rail of PSU * = % of load exerted on +12V rail of PSU

Therefore (assuming an OC'd S3 draws 450WAC at the wall using a CX600):

450WAC * 85% = 382.5WDC
382.5WDC / 522WDC * 100 = 73.28%

I am aware that the CX600 label states 46A on the +12V rail, hence you came up with 552W (46A * 12V).  Confusingly, the same label also states that the maximum +12V rail wattage is 522W.  Which one is a typo?  Should it have been 43.5A (522W / 12V) instead of 46A?  Anyway, I tend to be conservative and go with the lower rating and be on safe side which is why I used 522W on the above computation that resulted in a 73.28% load.  However, even with a maximum of 552W on the +12V rail as you asserted, the load would then be much lower at 69.29% (382.5WDC / 552WDC * 100).  So, where was your "81.5%load without the added power draw from the wall minus efficiency of the power supply" derived from?

I reiterate that the Corsair CX500 (also with only two PCIe power connectors) is able to accommodate an S3 OC'd to 250M without any issues whatsoever let alone a CX600.  I am not just saying this for the heck of it; I and at least another member in here actually did it.  Please read here.

I did not go and explain how power supplies work. I mentioned the user did not know seeing as the only thing he mentioned was the overall wattage of the power supply with the assumption that because its a "cx500" or "cx600" it can handle up to 500 or 600 watts

They mentioned cx 500 600 and 700 so I can't tell you where the goof is, I probably did the math under 12V rail while playing with calculator. Obviously either me or you pointing anything out will not matter because the owners do not care what the components are inside.

You should spend some time emphasizing the fact that these power supplies are clearly made with lower than decent components instead of nitpicking on the load %. This guy went from a cx500 is fine to a sarcastic I should get a ax1500i for 1 miner. I obviously didn't suggest he spend more than the miner, but being sarcastic for someone pointing out things you should care about doesn't help either.

As long as you are aware you own a trash psu, then that is fine. You do have to buy what you can afford, and spending $400 on a miner and being cheap on a power supply is hands down dumb. If you are too broke to spend the extra $20 on a better psu then you are doing it wrong.

Spending $400 on an Ant and $200 on a PSU does not make sense for a small scale miner. The CX or whatever it is you're so unhappy about works fine with a single Ant and that's all there is to it. Not everyone wants or needs 100A on a single rail. Smaller PSU at peak efficiency is better than underutilized large one. I started with cheap-after-rebate PSUs and it was the best decision I could make back then. Dual PSUs for GPU rigs when everyone was buying LEPAs at ungodly prices, and I could afford spares too. Somebody doing something different than you is not "doing it wrong".

Spending $200 and $50 is a whole different story, you are taking it to an extreme when I mentioned a medium in between of spending a few extra bucks. Spending $50 on a corsair cx500 and spending $70 on a better power supply with decent components sounds reasonable.

Someone doing it different than me has nothing to do with "doing it wrong". Antminer have limited warranty, people live in different conditions. If you have issues with your power supply 4months down the road you will wish you had spent $20 more. Anyone who appreciates hardware knows the one thing you don't do is cheap out on the power supply.

Oy vey!

[MinersAnonymous]

Any official notice of why the message feature was removed from bitmaintech?

[suchmoon]

Spending $200 and $50 is a whole different story, you are taking it to an extreme when I mentioned a medium in between of spending a few extra bucks. Spending $50 on a corsair cx500 and spending $70 on a better power supply with decent components sounds reasonable.

Someone doing it different than me has nothing to do with "doing it wrong". Antminer have limited warranty, people live in different conditions. If you have issues with your power supply 4months down the road you will wish you had spent $20 more. Anyone who appreciates hardware knows the one thing you don't do is cheap out on the power supply.

CX500 is $30 AR not $50. I've bought those and would buy again if I needed a good cheap small PSU. Just like I'd buy EVGA 1300 again if I needed a good cheap powerful PSU. I don't know what Antminer warranty has to do with anything, or living conditions.

"Doing it wrong" are your words not mine. See, I don't tell how you should run things, but you seem to be so worried that others are doing it not according to your rules that you resort to calling them "dumb" etc. I will not wish I had spent $20 more, or $40 more as the case might be. I will be happy that I can afford a spare and zero downtime rather than losing revenue while RMAing a "high quality" PSU (yes, those break too). To each their own.

[MinersAnonymous]

Spending $200 and $50 is a whole different story, you are taking it to an extreme when I mentioned a medium in between of spending a few extra bucks. Spending $50 on a corsair cx500 and spending $70 on a better power supply with decent components sounds reasonable.

Someone doing it different than me has nothing to do with "doing it wrong". Antminer have limited warranty, people live in different conditions. If you have issues with your power supply 4months down the road you will wish you had spent $20 more. Anyone who appreciates hardware knows the one thing you don't do is cheap out on the power supply.

CX500 is $30 AR not $50. I've bought those and would buy again if I needed a good cheap small PSU. Just like I'd buy EVGA 1300 again if I needed a good cheap powerful PSU. I don't know what Antminer warranty has to do with anything, or living conditions.

"Doing it wrong" are your words not mine. See, I don't tell how you should run things, but you seem to be so worried that others are doing it not according to your rules that you resort to calling them "dumb" etc. I will not wish I had spent $20 more, or $40 more as the case might be. I will be happy that I can afford a spare and zero downtime rather than losing revenue while RMAing a "high quality" PSU (yes, those break too). To each their own.

You mean the part after they take my legitimate concern of something they should research and insult with sarcastic comments? Yes, if I am telling someone they should look into what they buy instead of saying "its good" because you plug it in and it works, then so be it. There is no point of arguing the quality of a CX500 because it's been done and proven.

Mail in rebate is a rebate. You pay $50 today so regardless of the time you wait to receive it does not change the fact $50 left your wallet today.

Living conditions has much to do with this. If you have 115 F ambient your components run at different temperatures then someone in Alaska. I doubt you will want to cheap out on a power supply that has components that are cheaper and rated for less temperature

[muhhentuhhen]

Any official notice of why the message feature was removed from bitmaintech?

Have the same question... After I wrote my message to them, couple hours later the "message" feature just dissapeared from their website.

[MinersAnonymous]

Any official notice of why the message feature was removed from bitmaintech?

Have the same question... After I wrote my message to them, couple hours later the "message" feature just dissapeared from their website.

I saw someone here mention they emailed the info@bitmaintech.com, I am still curious if the message feature is gone for good. It was a clean looking system to log messages and keep track

[visdude]

I am running an overclocked s3 on a cx500 right now. 14 days and its fine...so....

Is it at 250M?  What's your wattage at the wall and ambient room temp?

[Ayers]

is this worth it? someone managed to make roi on those? how much the earning before you throw it on the wc? i was thinking of buying one

[oskuro]

Still waiting for my 2 S3.... i used EMS:

2014-07-31  19:25:00                               Posting  
2014-07-31  19:44:00   SJYX                            Despatch from Sorting Center  
2014-07-31  21:36:00   SHENZHEN                    Arrival at Sorting Center  
2014-07-31  21:59:27   SHENZHEN                    Despatch from Sorting Center  
2014-08-06  14:35:00   SPAIN MADRID AP    Arrival at Sorting Center  
2014-08-06  14:37:00   SPAIN MADRID AP    Handed over to Customs  

2 days in customs?? WTF

[Mental Fight]

is this worth it? someone managed to make roi on those? how much the earning before you throw it on the wc? i was thinking of buying one

i think thats suitable with difficult . but all choice of buyyer.

[9600]

So! All units are hashing over 440gh (Two over 490), but only when using a cronjob to restart the cgminer service every 1/2 hour - 1hr depending on the miner.
Regardless of how long I leave any of these guys up to "stabilize", they always fall to 390-398 after 48 hours.

There's only one thing. I am noticing a rather high number of duplicate shares poolside since starting this restart routine. (surprise)
Is there a cgminer flag among the bitmain options to clear the asic of all work upon a cgminer restart? I know the A1 miners have a similar command with '--hwreset'

Restarting every 30 minutes is a bad practice.
Try replacing thermal paste grease and I think the issue will be solved.

I'm pretty aware how just how shitty it is, but unfortunately after re-pasting two units I saw a decrease in running temperatures but was still experiencing a steep drop off in hash after about 25-35 minutes. One of the units will spike back up to about 470 but never enough to average out to 440 without cgminer restarts.

I wish I could attribute this to poor labor skill on my part, but I'm just about 100% certain I don't suck at apply thermal paste. =/

what kind of thermal paste did u use ??

Ceramique

ok.. do not use AS5 thermal paste and do not place
the plate upside down like this idiot tried to do below:
http://i62.tinypic.com/k9bapy.jpg[/img]

check your heat sink is placed right way:
http://i59.tinypic.com/2l9nubs.jpg[/img]

with all those "-" it looks like you have a cooling issue on that blade.
look at your plate did you place it upside down by accident ??

Hahaha, no no definitely didn't remount the plate upside down. However, if my heatsinks were machined/cast anywhere NEAR as well as the ones in that unit I probably wouldn't have any problems.

[MinersAnonymous]

So! All units are hashing over 440gh (Two over 490), but only when using a cronjob to restart the cgminer service every 1/2 hour - 1hr depending on the miner.
Regardless of how long I leave any of these guys up to "stabilize", they always fall to 390-398 after 48 hours.

There's only one thing. I am noticing a rather high number of duplicate shares poolside since starting this restart routine. (surprise)
Is there a cgminer flag among the bitmain options to clear the asic of all work upon a cgminer restart? I know the A1 miners have a similar command with '--hwreset'

Restarting every 30 minutes is a bad practice.
Try replacing thermal paste grease and I think the issue will be solved.

I'm pretty aware how just how shitty it is, but unfortunately after re-pasting two units I saw a decrease in running temperatures but was still experiencing a steep drop off in hash after about 25-35 minutes. One of the units will spike back up to about 470 but never enough to average out to 440 without cgminer restarts.

I wish I could attribute this to poor labor skill on my part, but I'm just about 100% certain I don't suck at apply thermal paste. =/

what kind of thermal paste did u use ??

Ceramique

ok.. do not use AS5 thermal paste and do not place
the plate upside down like this idiot tried to do below:
http://i62.tinypic.com/k9bapy.jpg[/img]

check your heat sink is placed right way:
http://i59.tinypic.com/2l9nubs.jpg[/img]

with all those "-" it looks like you have a cooling issue on that blade.
look at your plate did you place it upside down by accident ??

Hahaha, no no definitely didn't remount the plate upside down. However, if my heatsinks were machined/cast anywhere NEAR as well as the ones in that unit I probably wouldn't have any problems.

Is it a good idea to remove heatsinks and apply new thermal paste immediately when receiving the units?

[muhhentuhhen]

dam!!! This is the FASTEST delivery ever.

My S3-B5 was shipped on 6th of August from China via. DHL and today on 8th, they are already in my town awaiting customs clearence. I haven't even bought my PSU's yet.

[topcat888]

Has anyone seen the next estimated next est diff level..?

Next difficulty retarget occurs at block 316511.0 (eta 12.4 days): 24080944291.1 / +22.1% [est.]

I know it's only estimated but even so, yikes...! 

[sergio]

is this worth it? someone managed to make roi on those? how much the earning before you throw it on the wc? i was thinking of buying one

Are you kidding? the s3 has been around a few weeks only, and ROI takes over 100 days, just use the following calculators:
https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/calculator

http://www.vnbitcoin.org/bitcoincalculator.php

This question will be a proper question by the end of the year.

If Bitmain changes to their old selling model, and decides to go to sale from stock instead of pre orders it may help a little, since instead of having to wait 1 or 2 weeks, you will only wait 48 hours for shipping.

The pricing of the S3 is so that it barely ROI, most others do not ROI.

And if for some reason bitcoin price drops the S3 goes up in price and you will definitely not ROI, at the beginning of batch 5 the price was 0.64 then it went up to 0.68, now it is at 0.66, however difficulty has continuously gone up during this period.

I am waiting myself for the price to drop, the ones that buy independent of ROI will not ROI but will enjoy the fun of mining, the ones that wait will enjoy double fun ROI and mining, and who knows if during that time a better deals appears.

The next best deal seems to be the sp30, however that is a pre order of 1.5 months maybe 2 months until they change their model of sales it is a worse option, however if the start selling from stock it could change things a lot taking into consideration that the power supply it is already included, in such a case it is easy to compare just plugs numbers in the calculators and see which ROIs first.

[oskuro]

So! All units are hashing over 440gh (Two over 490), but only when using a cronjob to restart the cgminer service every 1/2 hour - 1hr depending on the miner.
Regardless of how long I leave any of these guys up to "stabilize", they always fall to 390-398 after 48 hours.

There's only one thing. I am noticing a rather high number of duplicate shares poolside since starting this restart routine. (surprise)
Is there a cgminer flag among the bitmain options to clear the asic of all work upon a cgminer restart? I know the A1 miners have a similar command with '--hwreset'

Restarting every 30 minutes is a bad practice.
Try replacing thermal paste grease and I think the issue will be solved.

I'm pretty aware how just how shitty it is, but unfortunately after re-pasting two units I saw a decrease in running temperatures but was still experiencing a steep drop off in hash after about 25-35 minutes. One of the units will spike back up to about 470 but never enough to average out to 440 without cgminer restarts.

I wish I could attribute this to poor labor skill on my part, but I'm just about 100% certain I don't suck at apply thermal paste. =/

what kind of thermal paste did u use ??

Ceramique

ok.. do not use AS5 thermal paste and do not place
the plate upside down like this idiot tried to do below:
http://i62.tinypic.com/k9bapy.jpg[/img]

check your heat sink is placed right way:
http://i59.tinypic.com/2l9nubs.jpg[/img]

with all those "-" it looks like you have a cooling issue on that blade.
look at your plate did you place it upside down by accident ??

Hahaha, no no definitely didn't remount the plate upside down. However, if my heatsinks were machined/cast anywhere NEAR as well as the ones in that unit I probably wouldn't have any problems.

Is it a good idea to remove heatsinks and apply new thermal paste immediately when receiving the units?

If someone could please post a few pics about what´s needed to be done. I dont know once i open S3 what to do. You clean up old thermal paste, and where do you apply new thermal paste? just have no idea. thx! a few pictures would help

[Omarko]

what does it mean when one of my chips goes to "-" ?

how can I bring it back online?