S-5 review. It has arrived some info is in!

[philipma1957]

It is here!!  It works !! yeah

It auto seeks an empty ip address just like the sp20.

IT IS TOO LOUD WITH STOCK FAN AND STOCK FREQ OF 350

If you run stock fan at stock freq it is over 75db and is a nasty sounding 75db.

So a sound proof room and ear plugs are needed. My ears rang from the sound after I turned off the miner at stock speeds and using stock fan. (the fan is pictured here)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=907219.msg9980310#msg9980310

if your s-5 comes with this fan you will almost certainly want to remove it and find a better fan or two fans.

That said I like other parts of the miner


Well with more test and going to freq 356 I get  1197 gh at 588 watts = .49 watts per gh   this is making the s-5 look a lot better.

I will keep the miner at freq 356 for 4 hours to see if it is stable at 1197gh/588 watts and very few hw's

This may make me think it is better then the sp20 if it continues to scale well as I crank up freq.

1) I got it to do 1156gh at stock speed---freq 350
2) uses 581 watts  at stock speed ------freq 350
3) that is .502 watts per gh
4) auto seeks an ip so if you have a 192.168.x.xxx router it should find an address easy
5) once fan modded sound is okay at freq 350
6) temps are 64 and 58 c  I think this is okay my room temp is 28c
7) gui has huge choice of freq from 100 to 500 in steps of 6.25 or 16 per every 100 total of 64 in all
8 ) new miner interface that allows you to see all your miners  use miner config then miner link

So that is 8 good things.

The bad

1) loud loud loud and since I am 57 higher pitched sound is nastier then lower so the stock fan  running at 3600 or 3800 rpm  hurt my ears.
2) it is an s-1 not an s-3 case.  
3) the black sides are plastic
4) no top or bottom
5) stacking is not easy due to plastic sides
6) my s-5 does not like to do more then 1200gh others have had the s-5 do 1300gh------- this may be the fan mod


Would I buy this at 455 for 1 shipped to my home over a sp20e for 500 shipped to my home
some will say use 2  not 1 miner to price compare
2 s-5's to usa NJ with shipping = 899
2 sp20's to usa NJ with shipping = 1000

well I need to add 54 for new fans so  899 + 54 = 953 s-5 vs 1000 sp20  at this price point the sp20 wins
if I make a big set up 10 or more in my house the sp20 wins due to ease to stack.
some people have setups of long none stacked miners  then it is a tie sp20e vs s-5

If I paid 800 for 2 s-5's shipped to my home and did a fan fix for 54 bucks I would be at 854 usd vs 1000 usd.  for a small setup I would say the s-5 is better in this case.


These are very close to the sp20 if they cost a little less and if you add a fan mod.

These are very close to the sp20 if you are able to manage sound in an isolated area.

These are very close to the sp20 if you want under 5  or if you do not need to stack them.

These would best the sp20 for value if the price drops more say 2 for 800 shipped to the usa vs 2 for 900 as they are now.

More tests later today.
________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________


This will first start on Monday the 29th of DEC 2014.

UPS has the package in my State of New Jersey and it is due to arrive Monday.

I will post photos and measurements.
I self mod for the following reasons.
 I don't like people cursing and / or insulting each other.
 I don't like the "it will never roi buy coins and hold."
I hardly ever have to delete posts.


Some back ground on me I am 57>
 I have worked with computers since 1974.
 I have a degree in accounting from Queens College In New York City.
Some tax knowledge. (worked in the IRS a bit.)
I am retired.
I have been on this site since 2012
I mined my first btc on www.bintminter.com in August 2012.
I like to tinker with gear always did since I was 6 years old.
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________

I was offered to do this review with a free s-5 from bitmaintech warranty  at zero cost to me. Which was nice of them>  
They gave me no rules to follow they did not ask for a gentle review or please ignore problems.

But here is the deal I set a few standards for me.
 1)Try to be honest and fair.
 2) Ask myself this question   would I want to buy or sell to a person exactly like me?

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=philipma1957

  my 11 year ebay feedback long before bitcoin was around

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=64507  

my trust on this site.

I did a review on   Spondoolies sp20E  it was fair and honest and I still add info to it.-----In that case I did not get it for free.

My goal is do a good honest review on this thread.

[philipma1957]

Space saver for review. note I saved all messages and posts here via pdf. so many comments made me decide to delete for the sake of being neat.

Unboxing

box is shorter then s-3  as it comes with 1 fan



same type of foam with a bubble wrap bag

[philipma1957]

Space saver for review

  here it is mining  freq 300 downclock
vs 350 stock power used is 487 at kwatt meter
it is loud 67 db


now 487/944 at the meter is  .515 watts per gh

[dunand]

Give us an idea of the noise that the s-5 produce.

[philipma1957]

I just missed delivery of my S-5.  Probably going to have to wait until Wednesday to get it now.  Such tears.  

same. UPS stuck a tag to my door and didn't even try the intercom. Ill be picing it up this evening or tmorrow morning.

ps: came to this thread expecting a delivered and reviewed unit - all i found was a bunch of reserved posts and no pictures of an S5.   dissapointed

yeah a bit of a tease sorry.


the test bed is  here waiting on UPS  

[philipma1957]

I  will have a screen shot of it mining soon note many freq choices

[philipma1957]

Give us an idea of the noise that the s-5 produce.

it is noisy 67 db with a down clock to freq 300 vs freq 350

[Biodom]

Give us an idea of the noise that the s-5 produce.

it is noisy 67 db with a down clock to freq 300 vs freq 350

noisy WITH a downclock? I can't have two types of noisy miners...was hoping that this one would be tame.
Promise to myself: never order a bitcoin miner UNTIL manufacturer posts a detailed dB table (with various distances vs speed and/or fan speed)

[philipma1957]

Give us an idea of the noise that the s-5 produce.

it is noisy 67 db with a down clock to freq 300 vs freq 350

noisy WITH a downclock? I can't have two types of noisy miners...was hoping that this one would be tame.
Promise to myself: never order a bitcoin miner UNTIL manufacturer post a detailed dB table (with various distances vs speed and/or fan speed)

I have a very easy mod will do it and get back

[mavericklm]

it's the same format as s1, s3, sp20.... the more power it consumes the more ventilation it needs, resulting in higher decibels

anything can be made to run silent, it only depends on your skill and the money available

[DevonMiner]

The multiple choice frequency is an interesting addition ... looking forward as ever to your informed review and information philipma.

[philipma1957]

it's the same format as s1, s3, sp20.... the more power it consumes the more ventilation it needs, resulting in higher decibels

anything can be made to run silent, it only depends on your skill and the money available

first mod is adding the silverstone fan  model  141 from amazon.

the stock fan is the same as always it is  set as a push fan.  It is a weird fan.  38 inches deep yet the blades are only 1 inch.  then a focus set of frozen blades . loud loud loud nasty sound!.

I set the silverstone as a pull and db dropped from 72 to 66 still very loud ,but a huge improvement on power 496 watts and 1077 gh

496/1077 = .4605 watts per gh  so I added the fan and the better cooling added about 100gh of hash.  I smell overclocking possiblites.

now this never happened with the s-1 or s-3 adding the silverstones dropped fan speeds and kept gh the same.  so the gear became quieter not more power efficient .  so the chain design may have a really good benefit if you don't have other issues.
based on this my impression is add a second pull fan asap.  we also need more people to see if this happens to their s-5
forget  all that that it dropped to the same  

[klondike_bar]

Give us an idea of the noise that the s-5 produce.

it is noisy 67 db with a down clock to freq 300 vs freq 350

noisy WITH a downclock? I can't have two types of noisy miners...was hoping that this one would be tame.
Promise to myself: never order a bitcoin miner UNTIL manufacturer posts a detailed dB table (with various distances vs speed and/or fan speed)

dB isnt always the best way to do it - a 120mm fan can be loud but at a low frequency and seem much more tame than a 60mm fan at a higher frequency but lower decibles. The S2 used 140mm fans and had a sucking/whooshing noise that was very tolerable in a work environment compared with 120mm fans of similar airflow.

does the S5 have the ability to add a second fan? this could really improve the noise, as could a shroud for the top if airflow escapes that way

[philipma1957]

Give us an idea of the noise that the s-5 produce.

it is noisy 67 db with a down clock to freq 300 vs freq 350

noisy WITH a downclock? I can't have two types of noisy miners...was hoping that this one would be tame.
Promise to myself: never order a bitcoin miner UNTIL manufacturer posts a detailed dB table (with various distances vs speed and/or fan speed)

dB isnt always the best way to do it - a 120mm fan can be loud but at a low frequency and seem much more tame than a 60mm fan at a higher frequency but lower decibles. The S2 used 140mm fans and had a sucking/whooshing noise that was very tolerable in a work environment compared with 120mm fans of similar airflow.

does the S5 have the ability to add a second fan? this could really improve the noise, as could a shroud for the top if airflow escapes that way

okay added a silverstone as a pull fan.



slight clip to make it fit.


the control board takes 2x 4 pin fans



two fans.

[philipma1957]

now see this photo.  this is a huge mistake that bitmain did. if that jack was ½ inch taller 2 silverstone fans would make this gear really easy to mod.

I have complain about this more then one thread and others have mention this.  So someone dropped the ball here.
Especially  since this miner has 600 watts of heat to dump not 400.
The sad part is they decided to use 1 fast fan.  This was in my not so humble opinion a fuck up on their part.
I thought I would tame the sound of this miner with no real effort and I would like it better then the sp20e.  I will need to work hard to make the miner quiet.  Just think slap on 2 silverstone fans in 2 minutes and boom a quite or at least a pretty quiet miner with little or no effort.  Right now I unplugged the crazy loud stock fan and I am using the silverstone as pull.  very nice no issues.  but I downclocked to freq 225

I have a new mod in mind for the noise but that will be on tues.

[mavericklm]

dislike for the s1 style radiators, gives not so good feelings

curious if those extra ports for 2 more boards are working and if we can upgrade by buying just the boards and use s1 radiators....

just throw a 14cm fan on top of it, at the front!

[philipma1957]

dislike for the s1 style radiators, gives not so good feelings

curious if those extra ports for 2 more boards are working and if we can upgrade by buying just the boards and use s1 radiators....

just throw a 14cm fan on top of it, at the front!

okay I found a quiet 1200 rpm  120 mm pwm fan for the push  and I have the 140 silverstone for the pull

noise is tamed but I have a heavy under clock.  i need to do so more work but for now I will let it mine

[philipma1957]

the sides of this are plastic and bend  they will prevent shorts (I think) but forget stacking on the side like you can do with s-3's


this is what I will run over night this uses 361 watts

[daddyfatsax]

You got this bad boy in the living room Phil?

ninja edit: congrats on the Legendary buddy!!

[philipma1957]

You got this bad boy in the living room Phil?

ninja edit: congrats on the Legendary buddy!!

in the home theater room or the den.  thank you