[Guide] Dogie's Comprehensive Bitmain Antminer S4 Setup [HD]

[dogie]

So did anyone find good replacement fans to make it quieter if your going to underclock or just run at stock? I am looking to make these as quiet as possible when I get them and any information would be truly appreciated.

2x SP120s on the front is the best you're going to do, there isn't enough headroom with a 30C ambient.

[dogie]

So did anyone find good replacement fans to make it quieter if your going to underclock or just run at stock? I am looking to make these as quiet as possible when I get them and any information would be truly appreciated.

2x SP120s on the front is the best you're going to do, there isn't enough headroom with a 30C ambient.

Sounds awesome, so they push a good amount of air around? I also need the same sized fans for a Thunder X3 that machine is crazy loud, since its a similar design these should push enough air?

It won't make a huge difference in noise as you've still got 2 loud fans in there. The SP120s don't do enough on their won but in conjunction with 2 stock fans they can work.

[vabchgent]

Dogie do these still have the problem with Nicehash and westhash. Also what is the wattage used at wall. Thanks

[dogie]

Dogie do these still have the problem with Nicehash and westhash. Also what is the wattage used at wall. Thanks

I believe there is a modded firmware floating around which fixes some of the issues with nwhash, wattage at the wall is ~1400W.

[vabchgent]

Dogie do these still have the problem with Nicehash and westhash. Also what is the wattage used at wall. Thanks

I believe there is a modded firmware floating around which fixes some of the issues with nwhash, wattage at the wall is ~1400W.

Dogie- Can they be under clocked maybe be taken down to 1.5 TH and Lower the wattage. I don't see any real information on this anywhere debating buying one since Bitmain is holding back on the S5s

Also what firmware version is running around for the nwhash issue. Can you at least point me in the right direction. Thanks

[dogie]

Dogie do these still have the problem with Nicehash and westhash. Also what is the wattage used at wall. Thanks

I believe there is a modded firmware floating around which fixes some of the issues with nwhash, wattage at the wall is ~1400W.

Dogie- Can they be under clocked maybe be taken down to 1.5 TH and Lower the wattage. I don't see any real information on this anywhere debating buying one since Bitmain is holding back on the S5s

Also what firmware version is running around for the nwhash issue. Can you at least point me in the right direction. Thanks

Yes they can be underclocked. Its not a bitmain firmware so its not officially recommended: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=850620.0

[FreeFelix]

Hi there

What is the recommended frequency to run these S4 at, currently at 200.

By the way moved to BTC guild getting full hash rate (thanks) - first had it linked up to multipool - couldn't get it to register full power.

Gonna move my S3's to this pool what would be the best diff to set the worker for these.

[dogie]

Hi there

What is the recommended frequency to run these S4 at, currently at 200.

By the way moved to BTC guild getting full hash rate (thanks) - first had it linked up to multipool - couldn't get it to register full power.

Gonna move my S3's to this pool what would be the best diff to set the worker for these.

200 or less, its up to you if you want hashrate or efficiency. S4s won't work well with multipool as it switches coin, even if you can force a high difficulty. S3s should be set at 512.

[FreeFelix]

thanks a bunch

[mirahan]

My S4 dropped the first ASIC board when I underclocked to 200. Started by showing x's in seven places, then eventually turned to all dashes under ASIC #1 status.

I reclocked at 225 and 0740 volts and everything is back up and running at all o's. She is running great, but I am worried that I am running her too hard. 2.5 TH/s on average. EDIT - She runs at up to 3 TH/s for long periods at this frequency. I just checked and this worries me.

Will I destroy the S4 at these rates? If I underclock, is there anyway to keep all 4 ASICs running properly?

[dogie]

My S4 dropped the first ASIC board when I underclocked to 200. Started by showing x's in seven places, then eventually turned to all dashes under ASIC #1 status.

I reclocked at 225 and 0740 volts and everything is back up and running at all o's. She is running great, but I am worried that I am running her too hard. 2.5 TH/s on average. EDIT - She runs at up to 3 TH/s for long periods at this frequency. I just checked and this worries me.

Will I destroy the S4 at these rates? If I underclock, is there anyway to keep all 4 ASICs running properly?

Over what period did it drop the board, after a few minutes or days? You will absolutely destroy the PSU at 3TH and most likely at 2.5TH. Can you give us a screenshot of the dashboard?

Underclocking stability seems to be about getting the correct 'integer' of voltage as some are much more stable than others. I remember that 0705 seemed to work well, possibly 695 also. I'm not sure why it does that but 700 for example does nothing for me.

[mirahan]

The x's on the ASIC chain status row #1 turned up almost instantly when I clocked back to 200.

I just now clocked back from 225 to 200 and set voltage at 0705. Seems to be doing great now! Thank You.

That thing was really cranked up at 225 and 0725. High fan CFM and high temps (49-50). I feel much better now. It sounds better and not so loud and hot. Hashing at 1.9 TH/s in lieu of 2.2 - 2.5. All o's.

Thank you, sir!!

[dogie]

The x's on the ASIC chain status row #1 turned up almost instantly when I clocked back to 200.

I just now clocked back from 225 to 200 and set voltage at 0705. Seems to be doing great now! Thank You.

That thing was really cranked up at 225 and 0725. High fan CFM and high temps (49-50). I feel much better now. It sounds better and not so loud and hot. Hashing at 1.9 TH/s in lieu of 2.2 - 2.5. All o's.

Thank you, sir!!

No problem. Remember that when you do a voltage change that the unit really needs a hard power off otherwise it won't always set right and the chips might not reinitialise properly.

Good luck.

[mirahan]

I even re-clocked again at 193 and used 0695 volts. Powered down for a good 30 seconds and then back on. I sacrificed about 100 GH/s, but my fans are about 20% less rpm and chips are down to 41-43 temperature. Man, I was running her so hard at first before I knew what I was doing. Poor unit. 2.5 to 2.7 TH/s and my chips were 50 temperature and 3720 cfm on all four fans. Thank you again for your help, and glad I didn't run a good unit into the ground.

My wife is also much happier with the noise greatly reduced.

Sidenote - I run a plumbing and HVAC business, so I had my shop foreman in the sheetmetal shop make me a 90 degree transition that fits over the back of the entire unit. This rectangle turns up 90 degrees and then transitions into a 6" round duct. I cut a hole in the ceiling of a large closet in my home office and run the exhaust directly into the attic. This alleviated the BTU load of the unit on my central HVAC almost entirely. The door to the closet is louvered so the unit has plenty of air. I live in Texas, so this was an important modification for me. Aside from the BTU load this also muffled the noise 90-95%.

The only issue i had was making a slot for the power cord, so I lose a little exhaust with that, but it is negligible.

If anyone wants a picture I can take one. This application has really worked well .... for the home hobbyist.

[wpt1wpt1]

Can someone with the original shipping box please get the dimensions of the box for me. I know the weight is 36 lbs but can't find the box size to create a shipping label.

Thanks

[Bajula]

Question for anyone and everyone, I had an s4 psu go out on me. has anyone tried replacing the psu with 2 1000w psu's? and does anyone know if I use say corsairs instead of a server psu and breakout board, what issues might arise from several of the small wires run together at the bolt would do to the psu... fine? fire, screaming and running? Something else? I'm contemplating (but wating for responses before attempting) taking the end connectors from the dead psu running a 6 pin stripped, 3 positives clamped/soldered to the end from the old wire, and 3 neg per board (1 psu for the bottom 2 boards and 1 for the top) good idea? bad idea? or meh idea?

Thanks in advance for any time spent on this.

[dogie]

Can someone with the original shipping box please get the dimensions of the box for me. I know the weight is 36 lbs but can't find the box size to create a shipping label.

Thanks

A shipped S4 weighs 16kg and the dimensions of the shipping box are 580 x 580 x 270mm. The unpacked unit measures 432mm x 442mm x 133mm.

Question for anyone and everyone, I had an s4 psu go out on me. has anyone tried replacing the psu with 2 1000w psu's? and does anyone know if I use say corsairs instead of a server psu and breakout board, what issues might arise from several of the small wires run together at the bolt would do to the psu... fine? fire, screaming and running? Something else? I'm contemplating (but wating for responses before attempting) taking the end connectors from the dead psu running a 6 pin stripped, 3 positives clamped/soldered to the end from the old wire, and 3 neg per board (1 psu for the bottom 2 boards and 1 for the top) good idea? bad idea? or meh idea? Thanks in advance for any time spent on this.

If you've got a spade terminal variant S4 + PSU, I wouldn't try and convert a consumer PSU as its just not worth it. The s4+ uses 10AWG cables, so you'd need manyx18AWG cables to match that, per terminal, per half board. One of those DPS2000's would be pretty good as you could realistically get quite a few 16AWG cables and add your own spade connectors on. Or cut them off the old PSU and put them on the DPS2000.

[Bajula]

cool, thanks.. Though I was thinking less, 10g is pretty crazy hehe. 6 "should" do but yeah better to use something else that can take the old wires directly. BETTER is if bitmain will sell me a replacement. dps 2000 then eh? In any case thanks for the response, and thanks for all the info you keep putting up!!!

[Bajula]

Derp as a side note I just looked up for fun the carrying capacities for wires, 'cause I thought 10g was a bit over the top, the wires seem to be set up to carry a full 100amps at 12v Wow, while that is probably not needed it makes sense if it's more of a heat dissipation problem. Just for future reference. So yeah 18g would probably melt... IF it's not about heat build up, then 3 or so 18g could carry the current for each half-board with no serious problems. I mean what is it, 360-ishw per half-board? So it's pretty much gotta be a build up of heat over time. I'm guessing that is what went wrong with the earlier psu's as I think they had psci-e cables.. maybe I'm wrong there. In any case, thanks once again for saving me from a fire... hehe This last bit was for info in case someone in the future wanted to take another look at the concept.

[Bajula]

An update and potential to laugh a bajula.. and laugh and laugh and laugh.
Bitmain referred me to the manufacturer of the psu. No response from them (apluspower) yet. So I got bored... tore the thing apart. there are only two + coming off the psu and split into 4. So that makes the thick wire makes sense.. that's like a 60a draw. So yeah.. fire waiting to happen.
Revisiting the other psu ideas. ( I need something that will work on 110 btw) So now I'm at taking a modular cpu (8 pin) 18g should carry 40a MAX but I'm only looking at 30 or so. running those to the ends of the original wires - (split into 4 pos 4 neg each with 4 18g spliced in using twist connectors for home electrical wiring ... so that should take it fine. In theory a little over 360W per board (2 boards per plate)

While it 'should' work, and be fine and all... if I don't come back and say anything else.. Either it worked fine and I just went away... (unlikely since I like to talk so much) or I electrocuted myself (moooooostly unlikely - I'm a little paranoid about getting shocked.. ) or I got a replacement psu in before deciding to go splice crazy... probably unlikely otherwise I wouldn't have kept thinking of another way to rig this thing. hehe.

Stay tuned.. there may follow a tale of fire and woe.. or wailing and gnashing of teeth, maybe a tale of pluck, grit and success against all odds.. or maybe a fairy tale romance.. eww ick... no not that one... definitely not that last.