ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread

[itod]

guys, will this PSU: Seasonic G Series G-550 - 550 Watt 80 PLUS® Gold Certified (SSR-550RM)
handle 1 not overclocked S3? Just yes/no answer please. I've been seeing people ask similar question and answers ending up in OFFTOPIC, like overclocking and using absolutely different PSU. I just want to know that  this thing can handle S3 for long term.

Thank you in advance for the answer whoever you are!

Yes, it will handle one S3, overclocked or not. It maybe is not most rational choice for S3 PSU since it is an overkill for one S3, but not enough for two of them. Why dont you go with 750W version, that way you will not have to buy another PSU if you choose to buy another S3?

[jpchrist]

Spending $200 and $50 is a whole different story, you are taking it to an extreme when I mentioned a medium in between of spending a few extra bucks. Spending $50 on a corsair cx500 and spending $70 on a better power supply with decent components sounds reasonable.

Someone doing it different than me has nothing to do with "doing it wrong". Antminer have limited warranty, people live in different conditions. If you have issues with your power supply 4months down the road you will wish you had spent $20 more. Anyone who appreciates hardware knows the one thing you don't do is cheap out on the power supply.

CX500 is $30 AR not $50. I've bought those and would buy again if I needed a good cheap small PSU. Just like I'd buy EVGA 1300 again if I needed a good cheap powerful PSU. I don't know what Antminer warranty has to do with anything, or living conditions.

"Doing it wrong" are your words not mine. See, I don't tell how you should run things, but you seem to be so worried that others are doing it not according to your rules that you resort to calling them "dumb" etc. I will not wish I had spent $20 more, or $40 more as the case might be. I will be happy that I can afford a spare and zero downtime rather than losing revenue while RMAing a "high quality" PSU (yes, those break too). To each their own.

You mean the part after they take my legitimate concern of something they should research and insult with sarcastic comments? Yes, if I am telling someone they should look into what they buy instead of saying "its good" because you plug it in and it works, then so be it. There is no point of arguing the quality of a CX500 because it's been done and proven.

Mail in rebate is a rebate. You pay $50 today so regardless of the time you wait to receive it does not change the fact $50 left your wallet today.

Living conditions has much to do with this. If you have 115 F ambient your components run at different temperatures then someone in Alaska. I doubt you will want to cheap out on a power supply that has components that are cheaper and rated for less temperature

Wait really? I always thought a mail in rebate WASNT a rebate. Huh, guess i should have done my research. Anyway, thanks for the insightful info!

[Michael Jackson]

i think this will shpiing as well . just wait my stuff come
and ul be update result in here.

[atledenin]

I like to tell another thing, my 2 PCI-E Power cables to S3 were a little hot.
My S3 hashrate was not stable at the rated 441Ghs but was averaging at 420. I ordered thermal paste.
Before thermal plates were arriving, I tried to plug two additional PCI-E power cables to S3.
The Antminer S3 is running at stock clocks 218.75 and PCI-E power cables are cool now.
The main reason for this post is to report that the miners stabilised at 441. Earlier it was 420.
Two thing I'm pointing out,
1. The miners plugged in continuously for 4 or 5 days and seems like it was running-in and stabilised at-last at 441.
2. Plugging the all four connectors even if you are not overclocking will some way help you.

Similar experience here.  S3 clocked down to 212 as it would not stabilise at stock.  Finally decided last night to have a fiddle as I had a bit of time on my hands.  After removing the cover I did the following -

Straightened out the heatsink fins as some were bent close to where the screws were.
Tightened up one screw which was loose on one heatsink.
Pushed the cables to make sure they were seated properly, they all looked ok, no "give" when pushing.
Put the cover back on and instead of putting the cables into the sockets closest to the ethernet port I decided to try the other two.

Hooked it back up, checked the results after a couple of hours and it was hashing at 420.  Decided to put the clock back to stock and it's been hashing at 440 for the last 24 hours!

Really strange as the only thing I felt I really did was swap the cables.  Maybe it just needed a bit of TLC and me stroking its internals made it happy!

OK so I'm back to square one with this! Went back to fluctuating between 380-410 after about 72 hours on stock setting.  Reset it back to 212.5 and it's hashing steadily at 410 now. 

Just had a thought, has anyone ran one without the cover on?  I'm thinking I might try it this weekend, wondering if the controller is getting too warm as its directly above the inside heatsinks and not to the side as with the S1.  I understand the cover is required for decent airflow across the outside heat sinks so I'll either make some sides or blow air from another couple of fans on them.

[JennaK]

Will my evga 500w gold plus handle an over clocked s3?

[muhhentuhhen]

guys, will this PSU: Seasonic G Series G-550 - 550 Watt 80 PLUS® Gold Certified (SSR-550RM)
handle 1 not overclocked S3? Just yes/no answer please. I've been seeing people ask similar question and answers ending up in OFFTOPIC, like overclocking and using absolutely different PSU. I just want to know that  this thing can handle S3 for long term.

Thank you in advance for the answer whoever you are!

Yes, it will handle one S3, overclocked or not. It maybe is not most rational choice for S3 PSU since it is an overkill for one S3, but not enough for two of them. Why dont you go with 750W version, that way you will not have to buy another PSU if you choose to buy another S3?

I wasn't sure if 750W version will handle 2, I guess I'll take 750W version. Thank you for taking your time to answer my question!

[bigbeninlondon]

Quick question;

I think I read somewhere to ignore HW errors if my hashrate was on point.  However, I've got two miners that are getting a similar number of accepts but one of them has a much higher HW error rate.

http://imgur.com/a/hdU34

Also fan speed seems wonky...

Any ideas?  Should I take the time to troubleshoot or just leave alone?

[philipma1957]

Is it a good idea to remove heatsinks and apply new thermal paste immediately when receiving the units?

 never do that.  the first thing to do is run it at freq 218  for 6-12 hours checking the numbers it gets.

 if it is good at 218 go to 225 run it for 6-12 hours checking the numbers it gets.

if it is good at 225 got to 237 run it for 6-12 hours checking the numbers it gets.

do not open or mod the machine or change firmware until you know something is wrong with the machine.

if it ain't broke don't fix it!

[buy4crypto]

I won't encounter any issues putting a OC'd and a stock Antminer on the same power supply?

Will the 2 different power draws effect anything?

I don't think it will, but I am a noob and trying to help out a friend, I don't want him to blow his house up. 

[philipma1957]

Quick question;

I think I read somewhere to ignore HW errors if my hashrate was on point.  However, I've got two miners that are getting a similar number of accepts but one of them has a much higher HW error rate.

http://imgur.com/a/hdU34

Also fan speed seems wonky...

Any ideas?  Should I take the time to troubleshoot or just leave alone?

your worse hw s-3 is well within spec. leave it alone.

[Bitcoin Warrior]

i think this will shpiing as well . just wait my stuff come
and ul be update result in here.

they will shippiing on time . just wait your stuff come and use it .

[philipma1957]

I won't encounter any issues putting a OC'd and a stock Antminer on the same power supply?

Will the 2 different power draws effect anything?

I don't think it will, but I am a noob and trying to help out a friend, I don't want him to blow his house up. 

5136/11,734,877+198,994+5136  =   5136/11,939,007 = .004301  x 100 = .43 percent wrong and 99.57 percent correct.



look at the accepts 46,938 vs 46,891  the accepts are the money number


look at the gh 440 vs 441   you are fine

[atledenin]

I won't encounter any issues putting a OC'd and a stock Antminer on the same power supply?

Will the 2 different power draws effect anything?

I don't think it will, but I am a noob and trying to help out a friend, I don't want him to blow his house up. 

It won't affect anything, as long as it can supply the right amount of amps @ 12v it'll be fine.  Now if I remember rightly you need around 30 amps for each miner on the 12v rail.  This is not the supply from the wall but what the power supply will push to the miner.  Check the specs on the power supply there should be a sticker with the info on it.  

Best type to use are the ones that have a single rail for 12v.

 

[Darthswan]

I won't encounter any issues putting a OC'd and a stock Antminer on the same power supply?

Will the 2 different power draws effect anything?

I don't think it will, but I am a noob and trying to help out a friend, I don't want him to blow his house up. 

It won't affect anything, as long as it can supply the right amount of amps @ 12v it'll be fine.  Now if I remember rightly you need around 30 amps for each miner on the 12v rail.  This is not the supply from the wall but what the power supply will push to the miner.  Check the specs on the power supply there should be a sticker with the info on it.  

Best type to use are the ones that have a single rail for 12v.

 

30 amps for each miner?

[buy4crypto]

Thanks for the info everyone. That helps put our minds at ease.

[not.you]

I like to tell another thing, my 2 PCI-E Power cables to S3 were a little hot.
My S3 hashrate was not stable at the rated 441Ghs but was averaging at 420. I ordered thermal paste.
Before thermal plates were arriving, I tried to plug two additional PCI-E power cables to S3.
The Antminer S3 is running at stock clocks 218.75 and PCI-E power cables are cool now.
The main reason for this post is to report that the miners stabilised at 441. Earlier it was 420.
Two thing I'm pointing out,
1. The miners plugged in continuously for 4 or 5 days and seems like it was running-in and stabilised at-last at 441.
2. Plugging the all four connectors even if you are not overclocking will some way help you.

Similar experience here.  S3 clocked down to 212 as it would not stabilise at stock.  Finally decided last night to have a fiddle as I had a bit of time on my hands.  After removing the cover I did the following -

Straightened out the heatsink fins as some were bent close to where the screws were.
Tightened up one screw which was loose on one heatsink.
Pushed the cables to make sure they were seated properly, they all looked ok, no "give" when pushing.
Put the cover back on and instead of putting the cables into the sockets closest to the ethernet port I decided to try the other two.

Hooked it back up, checked the results after a couple of hours and it was hashing at 420.  Decided to put the clock back to stock and it's been hashing at 440 for the last 24 hours!

Really strange as the only thing I felt I really did was swap the cables.  Maybe it just needed a bit of TLC and me stroking its internals made it happy!

OK so I'm back to square one with this! Went back to fluctuating between 380-410 after about 72 hours on stock setting.  Reset it back to 212.5 and it's hashing steadily at 410 now. 

Just had a thought, has anyone ran one without the cover on?  I'm thinking I might try it this weekend, wondering if the controller is getting too warm as its directly above the inside heatsinks and not to the side as with the S1.  I understand the cover is required for decent airflow across the outside heat sinks so I'll either make some sides or blow air from another couple of fans on them.

One of my miners seems to work best if I leave it running for long periods.  Although, that one also seems to need anywhere from 3 to 8 reboots to come up strong, meaning that within 10 minutes of the reboot it hits the 440ish mark and has no x's.  If I take the effort to repeatedly reboot until I seem to hit a good start it will chug along for days with decent hash rate.  My other miner works best with frequent reboots because when I leave it running for extended periods it drops to sub-400 range and even if it was doing 450+ for hours before that, it eventually brings the average down sub-400 over a longer time.  That one has a cron job that reboots it every 6 hours and that seems to keep the long term hash rate at 450ish.  These are fickle little machines.

I ran them both without the cover for more than a week but the first one I mentioned above now has the cover back on.  The chips at the end of the second chain would sometimes go to x's either right after a reboot or within 5 to 10 minutes without the cover.  Checking with my hand near the heatsinks (with cover off) I could feel that the end of the heatsink on one side really was getting warmer and not getting good air flow.  These are both in a climate controlled server room with other fans blowing on or near them but even so this unit seems to like the cover on for those rear chips on that one side.  My other one (the frequent rebooter) runs cover off and I almost never see x's on the chips.

Full disclosure: the frequent rebooter is set to 225 freq and the one that does not like reboots is set to 250.  Both also have queue set to 2 which keeps them busy without maxing the load levels.

[oskuro]

Still waiting for my 2 S3.... i used EMS:

2014-07-31  19:25:00                               Posting  
2014-07-31  19:44:00   SJYX                            Despatch from Sorting Center  
2014-07-31  21:36:00   SHENZHEN                    Arrival at Sorting Center  
2014-07-31  21:59:27   SHENZHEN                    Despatch from Sorting Center  
2014-08-06  14:35:00   SPAIN MADRID AP    Arrival at Sorting Center  
2014-08-06  14:37:00   SPAIN MADRID AP    Handed over to Customs  

2 days in customs?? WTF

still no changes, i dont understand it...

[Biodom]

Just an update-

I have 30 antminer s3's B5 coming my way. Right now they're stuck in customs in Cincinnati, Oh.

I was told from dhl tracking to contact them. I am on the phone right now and they wanted to know what the units were and what I intended to do with them. The dhl customs lady seemed very interested in bitcoin.

Just thought I would let you guys know that this is potentially some of the information they will want. IMHO. Don't lie about what your package is. I also speculate that since USA has some regulation on bitcoin and bitcoin related business that they want info for this.

She also asked for my social and to know if this was for personal or business use.

Knoxx/BlitzStix

30 miners cannot be for personal use from DHL perspective

I am on the phone right now and they wanted to know what the units were and what I intended to do with them.

Of course, since you ordered 30 of them.

Don't lie about what your package is.

Functionally, these are servers. You can call them Application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) based servers. Or, you can call them bitcoin miners.
Just don't call them "magic wands"-that would be a lie.

I also speculate that since USA has some regulation on bitcoin and bitcoin related business that they want info for this.

This is pure FUD, which makes everything you wrote doubtful.

[navigator]

I ordered 2 S3's on the 1st and will be getting them today. DHL sucks in my area. I know my UPS guys personally. Only damage I've ever had on a miner was a bent fan guard on an S2.

Removed last leg and out for delivery
Louisville, KY, United States    
08/08/2014    4:58 A.M.    Departure Scan
08/08/2014    2:17 A.M.    Import Scan
08/08/2014    1:22 A.M.    Arrival Scan
08/07/2014    9:45 P.M.    The package is awaiting clearing agency review. / Your package was released by the clearing agency.
Anchorage, AK, United States
08/07/2014    3:25 P.M.    Departure Scan
08/07/2014    1:24 P.M.    Arrival Scan
08/07/2014    9:38 A.M.    The package is awaiting clearing agency review. / The package is at the clearing agency awaiting final release.
Shenzhen, China
08/07/2014    7:04 P.M.    Departure Scan
08/07/2014    3:25 P.M.    Export Scan
Shenzhen, China
08/06/2014    11:25 P.M.    Arrival Scan
08/06/2014    11:23 P.M.    Departure Scan
08/06/2014    9:34 P.M.    Origin Scan
08/06/2014    8:11 P.M.    Pickup Scan
08/06/2014    6:04 A.M.    The package is awaiting clearing agency review. / The package is at the clearing agency awaiting final release.
China
08/06/2014    6:38 A.M.    Order Processed: Ready for UPS 

[JennaK]

Could I run and over clock a s3 with this PSU by any chance? Its all I have. http://m.newegg.ca/Product/index?itemnumber=17-438-016