ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread

[Giopi]

Ordered 8/22. UPS. Unshipped.

ORdered 8/19 UPS Unshipped

[Bitkoinzz]

MORE ORDERS SHIPPED TODAY... YES.. GO BITMAIN GO  .... 8/13  AND 8/18 ORDERED ALL SHIPPED

and next up... PRE ORDERING MANY L1's which will make TWICE as much money as Bitcoins for the price and for amount of power used. BITMAIN RULES

[Giopi]

MORE ORDERS SHIPPED TODAY... YES.. GO BITMAIN GO  .... 8/13  AND 8/18 ORDERED ALL SHIPPED

and next up... PRE ORDERING MANY L1's which will make TWICE as much money as Bitcoins for the price and for amount of power used. BITMAIN RULES

And 8/19 ?
When will ship?

[R4v37]

MORE ORDERS SHIPPED TODAY... YES.. GO BITMAIN GO  .... 8/13  AND 8/18 ORDERED ALL SHIPPED

and next up... PRE ORDERING MANY L1's which will make TWICE as much money as Bitcoins for the price and for amount of power used. BITMAIN RULES

And 8/19 ?
When will ship?

maybe... tomorrow?

dont know, lets see

hope in the next 9days, all shipped

[tarmi]

did anyone receive tracking number for upgrade kits?

[visdude]

Here comes the 8th wave of anxious expectant fathers syndrome. 

[soy]

I feel faint burning smell near s3 fan.
is it normal?

I bought two S3's from reseller's here in the US.  The first unit upon firing up for the first time started giving a smell of some electronic part cooking but that cleared after a few minutes.  I suspect that's normal for a brand new unit that has only been run long enough to check it's running okay.  The second S3, was in a somewhat larger box and looked the same.  No cooking electronics smell and I was looking for it.  That one never runs quite up to the standard set by the first.  It's much more prone to falling hashrate with temperature rise.  I took it apart and changed the thermal compound.  One of the two boards had screws that were grossly overtightened.  This second one may have failed its initial test and was subject to troubleshooting where a technician really mashed down the heatsink hold-down screws to improve the thermal paste contact which had been reapplied fresher and more liberally than on the first board.  I must restate how that second now runs.  Since removing and reapplying thermal paste, it runs with fewer hardware errors than the first.  I may remove and replace the thermal paste on the first but it runs well so I haven't yet.  I'd say you're lucky you smelled that new electronics smell.

[GigaBit]

@StratoBitz - Use a 650Watt, 80+ Gold, modular or semi-modular; for one machine alone.

You won't find a good quality PSU with enough PCI-E wires to power with overclock.

I recommend SeaSonic or Corsair.

[GigaBit]

MORE ORDERS SHIPPED TODAY... YES.. GO BITMAIN GO  .... 8/13  AND 8/18 ORDERED ALL SHIPPED

and next up... PRE ORDERING MANY L1's which will make TWICE as much money as Bitcoins for the price and for amount of power used. BITMAIN RULES

What??  I never expected they'd ship ahead of schedule lol

Time to whip out the old wallet... (Edit NVM lol)

[opieum2]

Question does the new firmware posted for the S3+ do anything to improve the performance on the original S3s? Thanks

[pekatete]

Question does the new firmware posted for the S3+ do anything to improve the performance on the original S3s? Thanks

I am NOT sure about the firmware since I have not had a reason to update mine, however, it adds an option to change the hashing frequency within the GUI rather than having to SSH into the unit.
On the other hand, the new cgminer (version 4.6) released independently by the maintainer of cgminer (and will NOT void your warranty if installed) does improve on performance as has been documented in this forum, and I can attest to since I have go it installed.

[bspurloc]

I feel faint burning smell near s3 fan.
is it normal?

I bought two S3's from reseller's here in the US.  The first unit upon firing up for the first time started giving a smell of some electronic part cooking but that cleared after a few minutes.  I suspect that's normal for a brand new unit that has only been run long enough to check it's running okay.  The second S3, was in a somewhat larger box and looked the same.  No cooking electronics smell and I was looking for it.  That one never runs quite up to the standard set by the first.  It's much more prone to falling hashrate with temperature rise.  I took it apart and changed the thermal compound.  One of the two boards had screws that were grossly overtightened.  This second one may have failed its initial test and was subject to troubleshooting where a technician really mashed down the heatsink hold-down screws to improve the thermal paste contact which had been reapplied fresher and more liberally than on the first board.  I must restate how that second now runs.  Since removing and reapplying thermal paste, it runs with fewer hardware errors than the first.  I may remove and replace the thermal paste on the first but it runs well so I haven't yet.  I'd say you're lucky you smelled that new electronics smell.

um bitmain mines these for a week or 2, so u arent going to receive one that was turned on to make sure it works then shipped out.
and most people reselling them mine them a few days just because they can, before selling them.
You would be nuts to leave it in the box the whole time it is in your possession.

[bspurloc]

@StratoBitz - Use a 650Watt, 80+ Gold, modular or semi-modular; for one machine alone.

You won't find a good quality PSU with enough PCI-E wires to power with overclock.

I recommend SeaSonic or Corsair.

dont buy gold power supplies, for the price of a gold 650 you can buy a bronze 80 evga 750 with 5 year warranty and save $20.
4 pci-e not that u actually need 4, 2 work fine for overclocking.

[soy]

I feel faint burning smell near s3 fan.
is it normal?

I bought two S3's from reseller's here in the US.  The first unit upon firing up for the first time started giving a smell of some electronic part cooking but that cleared after a few minutes.  I suspect that's normal for a brand new unit that has only been run long enough to check it's running okay.  The second S3, was in a somewhat larger box and looked the same.  No cooking electronics smell and I was looking for it.  That one never runs quite up to the standard set by the first.  It's much more prone to falling hashrate with temperature rise.  I took it apart and changed the thermal compound.  One of the two boards had screws that were grossly overtightened.  This second one may have failed its initial test and was subject to troubleshooting where a technician really mashed down the heatsink hold-down screws to improve the thermal paste contact which had been reapplied fresher and more liberally than on the first board.  I must restate how that second now runs.  Since removing and reapplying thermal paste, it runs with fewer hardware errors than the first.  I may remove and replace the thermal paste on the first but it runs well so I haven't yet.  I'd say you're lucky you smelled that new electronics smell.

um bitmain mines these for a week or 2, so u arent going to receive one that was turned on to make sure it works then shipped out.
and most people reselling them mine them a few days just because they can, before selling them.
You would be nuts to leave it in the box the whole time it is in your possession.

Yet there would be signs the tape had been removed and replaced.  There was quite a bit of additional USPS Priority Mail tape but there was no signs of repackaging that jumped out at me.  What I find curious is the Bitmain box dimensions difference.  Was about to measure the boxes and looked at the second first, this time more closely, and the bottom had been opened and resealed.  

#1 room temp 79°, 442.64GH/s(avg) HW 151, 15hrs 49min
#2 room temp 83°, 428.83GH/s(avg) HW 39, 245 (it just made a liar of me), 15hrs 53 min.

And no, when I buy a "new" Bitmain Antminer S3 on Amazon I do not expect the seller to have been hashing with it.  I expect to be sent a new miner untested by the reseller.

[MoreBloodWine]

I feel faint burning smell near s3 fan.
is it normal?

Sometimes it can be on newer items but Bitmain doesnt exactly sell new items so you could have a fan going bad.

[bspurloc]

for upgrading to cgminer 4.6 is upgrading to the newest firmware a must??

I am seeing one hashing 8gh/s slower another the same and another 2gh/s slower.

I do 243.75 and all my miners sit at 495gh/s
now I am seeing 492 and 488. and yes the cpu load is much lower the os is responsive again!

[bspurloc]

Yet there would be signs the tape had been removed and replaced.  There was quite a bit of additional USPS Priority Mail tape but there was no signs of repackaging that jumped out at me.  What I find curious is the Bitmain box dimensions difference.  Was about to measure the boxes and looked at the second first, this time more closely, and the bottom had been opened and resealed.  

#1 room temp 79°, 442.64GH/s(avg) HW 151, 15hrs 49min
#2 room temp 83°, 428.83GH/s(avg) HW 39, 245 (it just made a liar of me), 15hrs 53 min.

not saying it happened, but you would be amazed how easily tape comes off on something that sits in a freezer, then reattaches when warmed.
but either way bitmain mines these before selling them.  I think they actually mine the whole stock load as they are building out the next batch. like build batch 7 mine them all and not sell them till batch 8 is ready, mine batch 8's till batch 9 is ready to replace them.

[pekatete]

for upgrading to cgminer 4.6 is upgrading to the newest firmware a must??

I am seeing one hashing 8gh/s slower another the same and another 2gh/s slower.

I do 243.75 and all my miners sit at 495gh/s
now I am seeing 492 and 488. and yes the cpu load is much lower the os is responsive again!

You do NOT need to update the firmware before you run cgminer 4.6
How long have they been running for?  cgminer 4.6 seems to take a while to ramp-up to speed in my experience (may-be the maintainer can throw some more light on this), so if they have only been running for a few hours, let them be.

[bspurloc]

for upgrading to cgminer 4.6 is upgrading to the newest firmware a must??

I am seeing one hashing 8gh/s slower another the same and another 2gh/s slower.

I do 243.75 and all my miners sit at 495gh/s
now I am seeing 492 and 488. and yes the cpu load is much lower the os is responsive again!

You do NOT need to update the firmware before you run cgminer 4.6
How long have they been running for?  cgminer 4.6 seems to take a while to ramp-up to speed in my experience (may-be the maintainer can throw some more light on this), so if they have only been running for a few hours, let them be.

2 hours I had them going. one was sitting at 505 for an hour but fell back to 495 after the 2nd hour

[pekatete]

for upgrading to cgminer 4.6 is upgrading to the newest firmware a must??

I am seeing one hashing 8gh/s slower another the same and another 2gh/s slower.

I do 243.75 and all my miners sit at 495gh/s
now I am seeing 492 and 488. and yes the cpu load is much lower the os is responsive again!

You do NOT need to update the firmware before you run cgminer 4.6
How long have they been running for?  cgminer 4.6 seems to take a while to ramp-up to speed in my experience (may-be the maintainer can throw some more light on this), so if they have only been running for a few hours, let them be.

2 hours I had them going. one was sitting at 505 for an hour but fell back to 495 after the 2nd hour

I'd say let them be for at least 24hrs. Hash-rate variance would / can account for that, and it just may be that the block you (we) are currently hashing is harder (this is not factual by the way!). Hash rate variance smoothing is one of the benfits of 4.6, so it will ramp up over time, not the previous knee jerk type increases and decreases.
PS. have you looked at your pool-side hash-rates and are able to make comparisons with pre 4.6 hashrates?
EDIT: pool-side hash-rates AND earnings!