ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread

[jpchrist]

Are these still a good idea to buy? Mining is bleak with the difficulty rises and the lack of price gain.

THat is a personal question i would say yes you can still break even and make a small profit on these By first of next yr. But you do come into the issue of how much you pay for power. Do you have aqueduct cooling in your home. If you well and my opinion your roi decision shouldn't be based on btc to usd. It should be based on BTC cost of miner versus btc mined by miner.
Its like investing in the stock market thier are no garantees. You could join a pool on a badluck streak and then switch and hit another with bad luck streak. You could hit a pool with good luck. and make more than the calculators say.
If you are hedging you will profit with the miner only if btc increases in price why not just buy the btc and hold and then sell when it goes up.
I have free power so i have some wiggle room on how long i can run a miner.

Have some number to back up this claim?

[jpchrist]

Does anyone have the actual weight of an S3 in the box (not just what bitmain prints on the label)?

[Tigggger]

...
The hardware manufacturers currently are not able to keep up with the increasing difficulty, and without a miracle it pretty much means the end of private mining. This may seem pessimistic and there may be new opportunities with tech <20nm but it really depends on the manufacturers' strategies, because if it stays the norm to keep customers waiting while mining the hell out of new units themselves till difficulty kills the opportunity for the customer to reach a positive ROI again, nothing is going to change.

I really was that close to hit the order button on a couple of S3+, but now I'm just going to watch the BTC value, buy a few BTC for hodling when it feels right, and wait for new hardware to be announced (which most likely is not going to happen this year).

Some very good points well made.

Sadly I don't see the situation changing, it's such a skewed equation at the moment with all the profit going to manufacturers and all the risk going to customers.  I don't think there is a single piece of hardware out there now that will generate a profit for the average miner.  We all know due to the frequent price drops that manufacturers could lower the price and allow both parties to make some money, but until people stop buying overpriced hardware they aren't likely to change the way they work (and I can't say I blame them)

[Phosphorous]

Does anyone have the actual weight of an S3 in the box (not just what bitmain prints on the label)?

Mailed one this morning. Just under 13lbs.

[topcat888]

Does anyone have the actual weight of an S3 in the box (not just what bitmain prints on the label)?

5.6 kg

[ftoole]

Are these still a good idea to buy? Mining is bleak with the difficulty rises and the lack of price gain.

THat is a personal question i would say yes you can still break even and make a small profit on these By first of next yr. But you do come into the issue of how much you pay for power. Do you have aqueduct cooling in your home. If you well and my opinion your roi decision shouldn't be based on btc to usd. It should be based on BTC cost of miner versus btc mined by miner.
Its like investing in the stock market thier are no garantees. You could join a pool on a badluck streak and then switch and hit another with bad luck streak. You could hit a pool with good luck. and make more than the calculators say.
If you are hedging you will profit with the miner only if btc increases in price why not just buy the btc and hold and then sell when it goes up.
I have free power so i have some wiggle room on how long i can run a miner.

Have some number to back up this claim?

Which numbers are u looking for the ones from an bitcoin roi calc say electricity is free and btc price stays flat.
Or are you referring to my pool luck comments

I must of missed my goal in the comment. Bitcoin mining is speclative. And thier is a chance to make a profit or atleast some think thier is. I have a person that pays me .035 btc to rent a 1 th miner a day. Not sure why all calcs say you can only get .021 a day guess he is ethier loosing it or he has some secret pool that pays nicely.

[Moria843]

Are these still a good idea to buy? Mining is bleak with the difficulty rises and the lack of price gain.

THat is a personal question i would say yes you can still break even and make a small profit on these By first of next yr. But you do come into the issue of how much you pay for power. Do you have aqueduct cooling in your home. If you well and my opinion your roi decision shouldn't be based on btc to usd. It should be based on BTC cost of miner versus btc mined by miner.
Its like investing in the stock market thier are no garantees. You could join a pool on a badluck streak and then switch and hit another with bad luck streak. You could hit a pool with good luck. and make more than the calculators say.
If you are hedging you will profit with the miner only if btc increases in price why not just buy the btc and hold and then sell when it goes up.
I have free power so i have some wiggle room on how long i can run a miner.

Have some number to back up this claim?

Which numbers are u looking for the ones from an bitcoin roi calc say electricity is free and btc price stays flat.
Or are you referring to my pool luck comments

I must of missed my goal in the comment. Bitcoin mining is speclative. And thier is a chance to make a profit or atleast some think thier is. I have a person that pays me .035 btc to rent a 1 th miner a day. Not sure why all calcs say you can only get .021 a day guess he is ethier loosing it or he has some secret pool that pays nicely.

0.035BTC per day seems to be a good payment rate for 1 Th/s (good for you that is). My 1.6 Th/s mining currently only producing 0.03 to 0.036BTC per day. Guess you have to figure he's not maintaining and has no sunk cost, but I still don't see how he's making money. Believe it would be better for him to just buy the BTC.

[ftoole]

Are these still a good idea to buy? Mining is bleak with the difficulty rises and the lack of price gain.

THat is a personal question i would say yes you can still break even and make a small profit on these By first of next yr. But you do come into the issue of how much you pay for power. Do you have aqueduct cooling in your home. If you well and my opinion your roi decision shouldn't be based on btc to usd. It should be based on BTC cost of miner versus btc mined by miner.
Its like investing in the stock market thier are no garantees. You could join a pool on a badluck streak and then switch and hit another with bad luck streak. You could hit a pool with good luck. and make more than the calculators say.
If you are hedging you will profit with the miner only if btc increases in price why not just buy the btc and hold and then sell when it goes up.
I have free power so i have some wiggle room on how long i can run a miner.

Have some number to back up this claim?

Which numbers are u looking for the ones from an bitcoin roi calc say electricity is free and btc price stays flat.
Or are you referring to my pool luck comments

I must of missed my goal in the comment. Bitcoin mining is speclative. And thier is a chance to make a profit or atleast some think thier is. I have a person that pays me .035 btc to rent a 1 th miner a day. Not sure why all calcs say you can only get .021 a day guess he is ethier loosing it or he has some secret pool that pays nicely.

0.035BTC per day seems to be a good payment rate for 1 Th/s (good for you that is). My 1.6 Th/s mining currently only producing 0.03 to 0.036BTC per day. Guess you have to figure he's not maintaining and has no sunk cost, but I still don't see how he's making money. Believe it would be better for him to just buy the BTC.

I know pay .035 to mine .021 i just laugh to my btc wallet. These people who lease rigs pay in btc so thier generally i doubt hiting roi form a btc view but i see the same users doing it so they must have some stratogey for makin it work. Hey if they dont lease it then it mining one of my pools. Win win for me.

[bspurloc]

Hi, anyone shed any light on this?



Been running @250 for the past 3 weeks solid, then this morning that happened.

Ive clocked it down, but I'm assuming I've fried one side.

Any ideas for a repair anyone?

what batch are these where the fan speeds are completely wrong?

[bspurloc]

Does anyone have the actual weight of an S3 in the box (not just what bitmain prints on the label)?

Mailed one this morning. Just under 13lbs.

yaeh I see fedex saying 10lb and ups saying 13lbs

[twib2]

Does anyone know the specs or screw type (size, length, pitch, etc) for the screws that mount the two heatsinks to the hashing boards?

Bitmain shipped me a board w/o heatsinks when I sent my old one back with heatsinks still attached.  Then they sent heatsinks but no screws.  My original warranty problem was reported on 2 August, and I'm still not back to full hashing on that unit because of things like this, not to mention the time when it took more than a week to hear from them in the middle of our interactions despite trying several times.  Meh.  Not happy with the customer service...  Never had to use them for the S1's, and everything was great.

[shaxs]

I have 10 Antminer S3. One of them was under performing and had a few x's under ASIC status so I GUI rebooted it. Now, it doesn't hash at all and the Antminer section on Miner Status just says "This section contains no values yet".

I have rebooted a few times but it won't has at all. Any idea what is going on?

[iglasses]

I have 10 Antminer S3. One of them was under performing and had a few x's under ASIC status so I GUI rebooted it. Now, it doesn't hash at all and the Antminer section on Miner Status just says "This section contains no values yet".

I have rebooted a few times but it won't has at all. Any idea what is going on?

Did you firmware it for the speed selection?  After you load that firmware you MUST go to the advanced tab and select a clock speed or it won't hash right.

[chunkyjunkie]

Was looking ok for a bit, but thinking difficulty is over 22% by the time we adjust.

currently 14.19%, but with lift off. 

Hope I am wrong.

[shaxs]

I have 10 Antminer S3. One of them was under performing and had a few x's under ASIC status so I GUI rebooted it. Now, it doesn't hash at all and the Antminer section on Miner Status just says "This section contains no values yet".

I have rebooted a few times but it won't has at all. Any idea what is going on?

Did you firmware it for the speed selection?  After you load that firmware you MUST go to the advanced tab and select a clock speed or it won't hash right.

No I have not updated to a new firmware. They still have the ones they shipped with. Is the new firmware worth it?

Also, power cycling it by pulling the power cord on PSU fixed the issue.

[iglasses]

I have 10 Antminer S3. One of them was under performing and had a few x's under ASIC status so I GUI rebooted it. Now, it doesn't hash at all and the Antminer section on Miner Status just says "This section contains no values yet".

I have rebooted a few times but it won't has at all. Any idea what is going on?

Did you firmware it for the speed selection?  After you load that firmware you MUST go to the advanced tab and select a clock speed or it won't hash right.

No I have not updated to a new firmware. They still have the ones they shipped with. Is the new firmware worth it?

Also, power cycling it by pulling the power cord on PSU fixed the issue.

Well if you put the latest firmware on you can change clock speeds without having to ssh into the miner and type out the commands manually.  They added a tab on the configuration page with a drop down that you can select various clock speeds and just hit apply/save and the miner reboots set to that clock speed.
I found it helpful for testing different speeds.

[Atomar]

Where exactely is the freq. Setting ?? I know I saw that! But can't find it anymore in the newest firmware ...

Edit: Newer mind! Just found it though

[MoreBloodWine]

Where exactely is the freq. Setting ?? I know I saw that! But can't find it anymore in the newest firmware ...

Edit: Newer mind! Just found it though

If your on the new firmware it's under the advanced setting tab which you will find after going to the Miner Configuration area.

Edit: Just saw your edit lol

[aurel57]

I know the feeling. I was also debating buying S3s but now holding to see what happens. I'm still mining with 8 S1s and they're down to pulling in about 1 BTC a month. At my electricity cost of $0.13/kWh this cost me about $340/month. So I'm still making a small profit at the current BTC price. May upgrade using the kits, but not worth it yet. Waiting to see what happens.

You really need to look at the pencil mod of your S1's I did my 9 miners and now they mine at only 140GH but use @ 200 watts less apiece. So now my electric cost (.125kw) is about .51 day each. You will make more profit doing so. Then this also freed up PSU to run some S3's

[shaxs]

I have 10 Antminer S3. One of them was under performing and had a few x's under ASIC status so I GUI rebooted it. Now, it doesn't hash at all and the Antminer section on Miner Status just says "This section contains no values yet".

I have rebooted a few times but it won't has at all. Any idea what is going on?

Did you firmware it for the speed selection?  After you load that firmware you MUST go to the advanced tab and select a clock speed or it won't hash right.

No I have not updated to a new firmware. They still have the ones they shipped with. Is the new firmware worth it?

Also, power cycling it by pulling the power cord on PSU fixed the issue.

Well if you put the latest firmware on you can change clock speeds without having to ssh into the miner and type out the commands manually.  They added a tab on the configuration page with a drop down that you can select various clock speeds and just hit apply/save and the miner reboots set to that clock speed.
I found it helpful for testing different speeds.

I thought these had issues running at anything other than stock speeds?