ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread

[IITravel01]

Anyone think it would be possible to run (4) S3+ Units off a single EVGA 1300 G2... If perhaps I underclocked them a bit?

Wondering if the loss in hash would actually give better ROI using less PSUs.

Strato

At 80% load, an EVGA 1300 G2 with a 1300WDC maximum output on its single +12V rail would be approximately 91% efficient and draw around 1144WAC at the wall.  This means that four S3s would have to be underclocked so each draw around 286WAC at the wall (1144WAC / 4); i.e. (1144WAC * 91%) / 1300WDC * 100.  This should give you a reference point to realize your idea.

To go from 340-355watts down to 286watts seems like a long shot to get them working, let us know how it goes though.

[Count_Frackula]

Same issue as baykan.
Sent the payment 5 mins after placing order..
Been 6 hours since I sent payment, still showing expired.

+1

to all worriers:
1. you don't have to do anything, they usually square it out in 24 hr.
2. if you still want to be proactive, email info@bitmaintech.com (not the webmaster@) and include your transaction id.
3. Last, but not least, do not pay bitmain from coinbase as it often takes an hour to post the first confirm.

I had the same issue, actually.  Paid from Cryptsy.  
I'm guessing that Bitmain's site had some issues with confirming this morning.  I emailed them anyway, just in case.

It's ONE per household per rebate offer/campaign and not for eternity and they occur pretty frequently; and I'm certain there are CREATIVE ways around such limitation.  I've purchased CX500s at the Egg at a final cost as low as $9.99 ($39.99 list price minus $20 rebate minus $10 instant promo code discount).  I have purchased several CX500s this way since the BFL Single SC days through the Cube era.  I, in turn, had used the rebate VISA cards to purchase Egg gift cards and apply them to purchase more CX500s with ZERO out-of-pocket cost.  That's the most bang for the buck for me.

If you use it for any length of time, the bronze will cost you more in the long run.  Won't take long to recoup the $40-$50 you'd save having a gold 1300w PSU.  Plus you need more outlets.

M

I, personally, won't use less than a Gold certified.  I currently run mine off EVGA's 1000W P2 (Platinum Certified).  It's got a 10-year warranty as well, so it's guaranteed to last me almost forever.

[bluecityste]

Leaves a bit of a sower taste that someone who orders on the 19th will receive within a day or two of someone that ordered beginning of September.

Weird choices made by Bitmain

Actually ... I'd say weird choices by those placing pre-orders.

M

If there was any other option then I and most other people that want reasonably reliable, small footprint and cost effective hardware ($50 less per unit would be nice though!) would take it.

I'm guessing you know of another miner that has a similar price point and price per buck that is available from stock then?

[mdude77]

Leaves a bit of a sower taste that someone who orders on the 19th will receive within a day or two of someone that ordered beginning of September.

Weird choices made by Bitmain

Actually ... I'd say weird choices by those placing pre-orders.

M

If there was any other option then I and most other people that want reasonably reliable, small footprint and cost effective hardware ($50 less per unit would be nice though!) would take it.

I'm guessing you know of another miner that has a similar price point and price per buck that is available from stock then?

It's a two step dance miners play with manufacturers.  If their first step was pre-orders, and miner's response was "forget that" and ignored them, manufacturer's would change their tune.

M

[visdude]

It's ONE per household per rebate offer/campaign and not for eternity and they occur pretty frequently; and I'm certain there are CREATIVE ways around such limitation.  I've purchased CX500s at the Egg at a final cost as low as $9.99 ($39.99 list price minus $20 rebate minus $10 instant promo code discount).  I have purchased several CX500s this way since the BFL Single SC days through the Cube era.  I, in turn, had used the rebate VISA cards to purchase Egg gift cards and apply them to purchase more CX500s with ZERO out-of-pocket cost.  That's the most bang for the buck for me.

If you use it for any length of time, the bronze will cost you more in the long run.  Won't take long to recoup the $40-$50 you'd save having a gold 1300w PSU.  Plus you need more outlets.

M

That's a fair assessment.  It would be nice if you could illustrate the details of the figures though.

Off the top of my head, the difference between PSUs with 90% and 85% efficiency would be around 20WAC at the wall with a stock S3+ which equates to about 0.48kWh per day.  At $0.12/kWh power rate, that's around $0.06/day difference.  Therefore, $50 / $0.06 = 833 days = 28 months = 2.28 years to recoup a $50 difference in price.  Is this what you had in mind?

Re needing more outlets, that's what power strips are for; and I've got enough of them already and I'm almost certain that most of us do.  It could also be argued that using a single/dedicated PSU for each S3 eliminates a single point of failure of three S3s powered by a single PSU.

[Count_Frackula]

It's ONE per household per rebate offer/campaign and not for eternity and they occur pretty frequently; and I'm certain there are CREATIVE ways around such limitation.  I've purchased CX500s at the Egg at a final cost as low as $9.99 ($39.99 list price minus $20 rebate minus $10 instant promo code discount).  I have purchased several CX500s this way since the BFL Single SC days through the Cube era.  I, in turn, had used the rebate VISA cards to purchase Egg gift cards and apply them to purchase more CX500s with ZERO out-of-pocket cost.  That's the most bang for the buck for me.

If you use it for any length of time, the bronze will cost you more in the long run.  Won't take long to recoup the $40-$50 you'd save having a gold 1300w PSU.  Plus you need more outlets.

M

That's a fair assessment.  It would be nice if you could illustrate the details of the figures though.

Off the top of my head, the difference between PSUs with 90% and 85% efficiency would be around 20WAC at the wall with a stock S3+ which equates to about 0.48kWh per day.  At $0.12/kWh power rate, that's around $0.06/day difference.  Therefore, $50 / $0.06 = 833 days = 28 months = 2.28 years to recoup a $50 difference in price.  Is this what you had in mind?

Re needing more outlets, that's what power strips are for; and I've got enough of them already and I'm almost certain that most of us do.  It could also be argued that using a single/dedicated PSU for each S3 eliminates a single point of failure of three S3s powered by a single PSU.

Assuming your electricity is $0.10/kwh, and you're using 100% of the rating's power.
400w = 444w from the wall (at 89% efficiency - Platinum) = $1.066/day = ~$389/year
400w = 452w from the wall (at 87% efficiency - Gold) = $1.085/day = ~$396/year
400w = 460w from the wall (at 85% efficiency - Silver) = $1.104/day = ~$403/year
400w = 472w from the wall (at 82% efficiency - Bronze) = $1.133/day = ~$414/year
400w = 472w from the wall (at 80% efficiency - Basic) = $1.152/day = ~$420/year


Ratings from Wikipedia
Keep in mind that EVGA has 10-year warranties on their high-end PSUs, so it's guaranteed to last that long - which is why that's what I'm using.

[Dallski]

Is anybody here an electric engineer:

please explain this: last night power went out (computer off, alarm clock, oven , etc), but not for long (I wasn't there so I can base it only on indirect evidence of electrical systems shutdown).
Three S3 miners are on one circuit, three on another. Two miners on each circuit show sharp drop down, then equally sharp recovery in hashing (which is expected).
However, one miner on each circuit shows ABSOLUTELY NO EFFECT on hashing, as if nothing happened.
How is this possible? I made a screen shot, so could document that it is what pool interface shows.
Basically, if power was off even for a few sec, then where the hashing was coming from since the pool shows it as uniterrupted?
Is there a buffer or maybe this couple did not fully shutdown if power was lost only for a fraction of a second?

I'm not an electrical engineer, but I've experienced similar anomalies. At first I thought maybe 1 phase was down and the other stayed alive, but even that's not accurate. I believe it goes down to the power supply in relation to the capacitors inside and the length of the outage. I've had power blips where 2 rigs were plugged into 1 outlet on 1 circuit, and 1 went down while the other mined through the power outage. I'm assuming the one that stayed alive had enough power in it's capacitors to keep the rig going, however momentarily.

Also, to get back to you, the reason I think batch 9 is ridiculous is not because of the price (I actually paid less because I bought it when btc was 465). It's the fact that they promised me September 20th delivery and the next batch has an earlier promised delivery date even though mine hasn't been shipped yet. Hopefully, I get the UPS notice in the next few hours (it's 6:30AM Beijing time), but I think people from early September orders are still waiting ahead of me.

[Count_Frackula]

Is anybody here an electric engineer:

please explain this: last night power went out (computer off, alarm clock, oven , etc), but not for long (I wasn't there so I can base it only on indirect evidence of electrical systems shutdown).
Three S3 miners are on one circuit, three on another. Two miners on each circuit show sharp drop down, then equally sharp recovery in hashing (which is expected).
However, one miner on each circuit shows ABSOLUTELY NO EFFECT on hashing, as if nothing happened.
How is this possible? I made a screen shot, so could document that it is what pool interface shows.
Basically, if power was off even for a few sec, then where the hashing was coming from since the pool shows it as uniterrupted?
Is there a buffer or maybe this couple did not fully shutdown if power was lost only for a fraction of a second?

I'm not an electrical engineer, but I've experienced similar anomalies. At first I thought maybe 1 phase was down and the other stayed alive, but even that's not accurate. I believe it goes down to the power supply in relation to the capacitors inside and the length of the outage. I've had power blips where 2 rigs were plugged into 1 outlet on 1 circuit, and 1 went down while the other mined through the power outage. I'm assuming the one that stayed alive had enough power in it's capacitors to keep the rig going, however momentarily.

Also, to get back to you, the reason I think batch 9 is ridiculous is not because of the price (I actually paid less because I bought it when btc was 465). It's the fact that they promised me September 20th delivery and the next batch has an earlier promised delivery date even though mine hasn't been shipped yet. Hopefully, I get the UPS notice in the next few hours (it's 6:30AM Beijing time), but I think people from early September orders are still waiting ahead of me.

Computers can do the same things.  It's somewhat a matter of luck.  PSUs have pretty large capacitors in them, designed to normalize power.  They're basically big batteries.  In cases of extremely short-term power outages, it is possible to completely lose power, but still have enough residual power where the device stays on for a matter of seconds.  It's also why you see your lights turn off first, before your computer turns off a second or two later.

[visdude]

It's ONE per household per rebate offer/campaign and not for eternity and they occur pretty frequently; and I'm certain there are CREATIVE ways around such limitation.  I've purchased CX500s at the Egg at a final cost as low as $9.99 ($39.99 list price minus $20 rebate minus $10 instant promo code discount).  I have purchased several CX500s this way since the BFL Single SC days through the Cube era.  I, in turn, had used the rebate VISA cards to purchase Egg gift cards and apply them to purchase more CX500s with ZERO out-of-pocket cost.  That's the most bang for the buck for me.

If you use it for any length of time, the bronze will cost you more in the long run.  Won't take long to recoup the $40-$50 you'd save having a gold 1300w PSU.  Plus you need more outlets.

M

That's a fair assessment.  It would be nice if you could illustrate the details of the figures though.

Off the top of my head, the difference between PSUs with 90% and 85% efficiency would be around 20WAC at the wall with a stock S3+ which equates to about 0.48kWh per day.  At $0.12/kWh power rate, that's around $0.06/day difference.  Therefore, $50 / $0.06 = 833 days = 28 months = 2.28 years to recoup a $50 difference in price.  Is this what you had in mind?

Re needing more outlets, that's what power strips are for; and I've got enough of them already and I'm almost certain that most of us do.  It could also be argued that using a single/dedicated PSU for each S3 eliminates a single point of failure of three S3s powered by a single PSU.

Assuming your electricity is $0.10/kwh, and you're using 100% of the rating's power.
400w = 444w from the wall (at 89% efficiency - Platinum) = $1.066/day = ~$389/year
400w = 452w from the wall (at 87% efficiency - Gold) = $1.085/day = ~$396/year
400w = 460w from the wall (at 85% efficiency - Silver) = $1.104/day = ~$403/year
400w = 472w from the wall (at 82% efficiency - Bronze) = $1.133/day = ~$414/year
400w = 472w from the wall (at 80% efficiency - Basic) = $1.152/day = ~$420/year


Ratings from Wikipedia
Keep in mind that EVGA has 10-year warranties on their high-end PSUs, so it's guaranteed to last that long - which is why that's what I'm using.

I think the Wikipedia chart that you are referring to is just a general guideline as opposed to actual 80 Plus Certification test results here that illustrates actual efficiency % at different load values of each PSU.

[mdude77]

It's ONE per household per rebate offer/campaign and not for eternity and they occur pretty frequently; and I'm certain there are CREATIVE ways around such limitation.  I've purchased CX500s at the Egg at a final cost as low as $9.99 ($39.99 list price minus $20 rebate minus $10 instant promo code discount).  I have purchased several CX500s this way since the BFL Single SC days through the Cube era.  I, in turn, had used the rebate VISA cards to purchase Egg gift cards and apply them to purchase more CX500s with ZERO out-of-pocket cost.  That's the most bang for the buck for me.

If you use it for any length of time, the bronze will cost you more in the long run.  Won't take long to recoup the $40-$50 you'd save having a gold 1300w PSU.  Plus you need more outlets.

M

That's a fair assessment.  It would be nice if you could illustrate the details of the figures though.

Off the top of my head, the difference between PSUs with 90% and 85% efficiency would be around 20WAC at the wall with a stock S3+ which equates to about 0.48kWh per day.  At $0.12/kWh power rate, that's around $0.06/day difference.  Therefore, $50 / $0.06 = 833 days = 28 months = 2.28 years to recoup a $50 difference in price.  Is this what you had in mind?

Re needing more outlets, that's what power strips are for; and I've got enough of them already and I'm almost certain that most of us do.  It could also be argued that using a single/dedicated PSU for each S3 eliminates a single point of failure of three S3s powered by a single PSU.

The CX500 is "at least 82%" according to NewEgg.
The Lightning 1300 is "at least 87%", and "up to 92%".

That 5% span is what you estimated above. 

In typical manufacturer garble, the spec sheet lists the CX500 as "> 80%" and the Lightning as "> 87%".  How that translates into "at least 82%" for the CX500 is anyone's guess.

Also remember you do get what you pay for.  The golds are higher quality, will last longer, and will feed better power to your units.  2.28 years may seem like a long time, but I know I've had my PSUs around for mining longer than that.  And if the day comes when I'm no longer mining, I'll likely find a new home easier for my gold PSU than your bronze PSU.

M

[eoakland]

Hi all, i have question.  i had an s3 with bad asics on chain 2.  Bitmain RMA'd my faulty pcb chain 2 and sent me an RMA board.  when i received it i noticed right away that it had a burnt spot on the pcb (not sure what the component that has been melted is ?)  it appears to have had some sort of heat or flare up issue prior to them sending it to me.  i continued to put thermal paste and mount it to my s3.  right away i noticed that my fans were spinning at 2800-3000 (within the first 30 seconds of it hashing).  normally my s3's fan spun anywhere from 1800-2150 (tops).  my s3 is not overclocked, it's running at 218.75.  

anyone have any clue what's up with it ?  i cannot have this s3 spinning its fans at 3000.  I live in a tiny apartment.  I contacted Bitmain right away and sent them the pictures that i am posting and listed the issue.  

i forgot to mention that the temperature of chain 2 is 9 degrees higher than my chain 1 (again within the first minute of hashing)

additional details...this device had a faulty control card that kept it from hashing for 1 month, and had a bad chain 2 that had it missing 140gh/s for 2 weeks.  All in all i have missed damn near of 1.5 months of mining with device.  the device has been a lemon from the start and continues to get worse.  as much as i feel like Bitmain has been helpful, I am upset because they knowingly sent me a faulty PCB as my RMA.  

[psjw4450]

My order has been paid for but expired and I have emailed Bitmain with the information but no response.  Is anyone else having this issue?

[john33027]

For those still waiting on B8 shipment, my order from Aug 27th went out on the 13th and an Aug 30th order went out early this morning.

[suchmoon]

My order has been paid for but expired and I have emailed Bitmain with the information but no response.  Is anyone else having this issue?

Has it been 24 hours? Give them some time then e-mail the address on the website.

[psjw4450]

My order has been paid for but expired and I have emailed Bitmain with the information but no response.  Is anyone else having this issue?

Has it been 24 hours? Give them some time then e-mail the address on the website.

Thanks for the info.  I am concerned because I have two orders and they corrected the 2nd one but not the first one.  I will wait and see what happens after I email them. 

[nexus99]

Sept 1st order shipped this morning.

[nexus99]

Spondoolies SP20 vs Antminer S3... which has better power efficiency and which has the better price? Discuss!

[9600]

Spondoolies SP20 vs Antminer S3... which has better power efficiency and which has the better price? Discuss!

The Spondoolies miner comes in at $.70/gh right now. Not even close to BMT.
I'm not sure what else there is to discuss.
At 1100W it's not even as efficient as the S3+.

[Biodom]

Spondoolies SP20 vs Antminer S3... which has better power efficiency and which has the better price? Discuss!

The Spondoolies miner comes in at $.70/gh right now. Not even close to BMT.
I'm not sure what else there is to discuss.
At 1100W it's not even as efficient as the S3+.

0.64<0.78-true statement
0.64>0.78-false statement

0.67-for Sp-30

355 (w)/453GH=0.78 S-3
3000(w)/4500GH=0.67 SP-30
1100(w)/1700GH=0.64 Sp-20

Price-wise, S-3 has a ~14% advantage over Sp-20 (~10% if giftcard was used)

[Syke]

Spondoolies SP20 vs Antminer S3... which has better power efficiency and which has the better price? Discuss!

It might be a fair comparison if the SP20 shipped immediately. But it doesn't. There's no comparison. SP20 is far less profitable.