[Review 14] Spondoolies SP20

[OgNasty]

Spondoolies SP20
Disclaimer: I was given this unit in exchange for my honest review.  P2Pool was used for hashrate testing.



My SP20 was delivered by Federal Express and required a signature.  It was held firmly in place by cardboard and I think that was a good choice given the miner is well built and has a protective casing with no exposed parts.



Setting up this miner was a breeze.  It was as simple as plugging in 4 6-pin PCIe power cables and a network cable.  After your cables are plugged in, you power it on and hear the fan spin up and down a few times before it is ready to go.  The miner starts up with a default fan setting of 80.  This is definitely loud, similar to a hair dryer or Prisma, but you do have the option to lower the fan setting down to 40.  I found using a fan setting of 40 keeps my miner plenty cool and about as loud as a microwave, which doesn't bother me when it is behind a closed door. The interface for this miner is great and full of options.  You navigate to myminer.io using any browser on your network to enter your pool information or adjust voltage/fan settings.  Since I like to mine as efficiently as possible, I thought I would try some of the lower voltage settings to see what kind of readings I would see.

Using a voltage setting of 0.62 my SP20 was able to get 1.2TH/s while using 640 watts (0.53W/GH) and exhausting 124 degree heat.  Impressive.



Overall I would say this is hands down the best miner I have used to date.  The interface is extremely impressive and simple enough that I think anyone could feel like a pro.  I noticed it even has an option for plugging a usb wifi adapter directly into the SP20 to free yourself from the need of a network cable.  While I haven't tested that feature, I thought it was an awesome and unexpected addition.  I do have a couple interface items for my wish list though.  The option to set your pools from failover-only to balanced would be nice and I didn't see a place to setup a static IP (did I miss it?).  The SP20 is great.  It's quieter, cooler, and more efficient than it's closest counterpart (Prisma) and is encased giving it a well built feeling.  I am definitely grateful to Spondoolies for the opportunity to review this product and I will keep my eye on their offerings in the future.  If you are searching for a miner, there is no doubt this is the best you will currently find on the market.

[OgNasty]

Spondoolies SP20
Using a voltage setting of 0.62 my SP20 was able to get 1.2TH/s while using 640 watts (0.53W/GH) and exhausting 124 degree heat.




Bitmain Antminer S5
Using the default frequency of 350M my S5 was able to get 1.13TH/s while using 661 watts (0.58W/GH) and exhausting 122 degree heat.




BFL Monarch
Using stock settings 2 Monarchs were able to get 1.2TH/s while using 1040 watts (0.84W/GH) and exhausting 152 degree heat.




Asicminer Prisma
Using stock settings my Prisma operates at 1.2TH/s while using 1240 watts (1W/GH) and exhausting 150 degree heat.

[Guy Corem]

...
Overall I would say this is hands down the best miner I have used to date.  The interface is extremely impressive and simple enough that I think anyone could feel like a pro.  I noticed it even has an option for plugging a usb wifi adapter directly into the SP20 to free yourself from the need of a network cable.  While I haven't tested that feature, I thought it was an awesome and unexpected addition.  I do have a few interface items for my wish list though.  The option to set your pools from failover-only to balanced would be nice and I didn't see a place to setup a static IP (did I miss it?).  The miner itself is great.  It's quieter, cooler, and more efficient than it's closest counterpart (Prisma) and is encased giving it a well built feeling.  I am definitely grateful to Spondoolies for the opportunity to review this product and I will keep my eye on their offerings in the future.  If you are searching for a miner, there is no doubt this is the best you will currently find on the market.

Thank you for the review.

[OgNasty]

Thank you for the review.

Thank you for the opportunity.

[philipma1957]

I put a link to your review here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=872014.0


waiting on Mr. Teal and all will be linked.

[OgNasty]

I like my SP20 and am appreciate of Spondoolies for sending me one, so I decided to place an order to buy another one. 

[Guy Corem]

I like my SP20 and am appreciate of Spondoolies for sending me one, so I decided to place an order to buy another one. 

Thank you. Check RoadStress's GB

[dimitri111]

Just received my order from Spon-Doolies and very satisfied with the deliver. I ordered 3 SP20 Jackson mining rigs and they look beautiful. Ordering my 1300w PSU and want to know if
"EVGA SuperNOVA 1300G2 ATX12V/EPS12V" 1300W 80Plus Gold Power Supply 120-G2-1300-XR ---- from -----> http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-SuperNOVA-1300G2-ATX12V-120-G2-1300-XR/dp/B00COIZTZM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420947274&sr=8-1&keywords=ATX+1300w+PSU
will work?
Also what would be the best pool for that, that you would recommend ?

THanks

[philipma1957]

the evga 1300 g2 is a good psu.


pools are hard to pick from.


I use nicehash/westhash

mmpool.org

https://mining.bitcoinaffiliatenetwork.com


maybe someone else can pick one for you

[Zich]

Just received my order from Spon-Doolies and very satisfied with the deliver. I ordered 3 SP20 Jackson mining rigs and they look beautiful. Ordering my 1300w PSU and want to know if
"EVGA SuperNOVA 1300G2 ATX12V/EPS12V" 1300W 80Plus Gold Power Supply 120-G2-1300-XR ---- from -----> http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-SuperNOVA-1300G2-ATX12V-120-G2-1300-XR/dp/B00COIZTZM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420947274&sr=8-1&keywords=ATX+1300w+PSU
will work?
Also what would be the best pool for that, that you would recommend ?

THanks

How many miner will you hooked on evga 1300?

[dimitri111]

Just received my order from Spon-Doolies and very satisfied with the deliver. I ordered 3 SP20 Jackson mining rigs and they look beautiful. Ordering my 1300w PSU and want to know if
"EVGA SuperNOVA 1300G2 ATX12V/EPS12V" 1300W 80Plus Gold Power Supply 120-G2-1300-XR ---- from -----> http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-SuperNOVA-1300G2-ATX12V-120-G2-1300-XR/dp/B00COIZTZM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420947274&sr=8-1&keywords=ATX+1300w+PSU
will work?
Also what would be the best pool for that, that you would recommend ?

THanks

How many miner will you hooked on evga 1300?

Hi,

I have 1 EVGA hooked up to each SP20 rig. So 3 EVGA's and 3 SP20.

[OgNasty]

I love how rock solid these units perform.  Not to mention how easy it is to upgrade the firmware and adjust the voltage.  Really happy with mine thus far.

pools are hard to pick from.

I recommend this one: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=306611.0   

[Zich]

Just received my order from Spon-Doolies and very satisfied with the deliver. I ordered 3 SP20 Jackson mining rigs and they look beautiful. Ordering my 1300w PSU and want to know if
"EVGA SuperNOVA 1300G2 ATX12V/EPS12V" 1300W 80Plus Gold Power Supply 120-G2-1300-XR ---- from -----> http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-SuperNOVA-1300G2-ATX12V-120-G2-1300-XR/dp/B00COIZTZM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420947274&sr=8-1&keywords=ATX+1300w+PSU
will work?
Also what would be the best pool for that, that you would recommend ?

THanks

How many miner will you hooked on evga 1300?

Hi,

I have 1 EVGA hooked up to each SP20 rig. So 3 EVGA's and 3 SP20.

That's good psu, I bet the load on each psu is around 50%.

[OgNasty]

After mining away perfectly for 8 months without needing so much as a restart, my SP-20 has now become unresponsive. 

Anyone have any ideas?  I literally haven't tried anything but a restart, as I just recently noticed it was not responding to attempts to access the GUI.  Should I try a hard reset (is that even possible)?  Any advice would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

[HerbPean]

After mining away perfectly for 8 months without needing so much as a restart, my SP-20 has now become unresponsive.  

Anyone have any ideas?  I literally haven't tried anything but a restart, as I just recently noticed it was not responding to attempts to access the GUI.  Should I try a hard reset (is that even possible)?  Any advice would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

A lot of controller seems to failed these days ... Hope it's not that.

I would start by plugging only 1 PCI-E in port 1.

1. Power off
2. PCI-E in connector 1.
3. Power on.
4. Repeat for the other connector

I had the same trouble and I managed to get it back by doing that. You can also power off and on the same connector a few time. I got my machine back with the PCI-E connected in Port 1.

[Biodom]

After mining away perfectly for 8 months without needing so much as a restart, my SP-20 has now become unresponsive.  

Anyone have any ideas?  I literally haven't tried anything but a restart, as I just recently noticed it was not responding to attempts to access the GUI.  Should I try a hard reset (is that even possible)?  Any advice would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

I had something similar happen with also 8 mo old SP20E.
At first it looked dead with double blinks of the yellow light.
I restarted the PSU and router, reconnected ethernet cable, checked PSU connections.
Still the same (no hashing), but after ~5 min I was able to see it on myminer.io
I connected to the gui then and simply restarted the cgminer and SP20 started working/hashing.
Later I noticed that one ASIC was overheating (which was not the case with these settings before). Tried to switch voltage down a little-still overheating.
I then simply switched that ASIC off in the advanced panel. Everything is back no normal (fingers crossed) and the miner is much more stable.
I could have increased fan-but i have somewhat sensitive ears and cannot tolerate fan at 20 and above.
Will probably test at 30-50 before selling (if ever) because I think that the eighths ASIC is OK, just needs more cooling.
You can also check my post about this in unofficial thread, but it is pretty much the same in even less #of words.