ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread

[TracerX]

Attention everyone!
You must have already noticed, the S3 is becoming less and less profitable, it's a mining machine that will never ROI.
This is the new BITMAIN,they are selling on pre-orders an over priced.
The only one's fault is us, because we buy their crap like hot cakes.
A company would never lower prices when they have no competition and they sell their products in seconds.
But there is a solution to all of this, we can correct this !

EVERYONE STOP BUYING THEIR CRAP!
This will force them to lower price and deliver on time so their units will start to ROI again.

Point us to a product with the same GH/W ratio and GH/$ ratio then, kind sir.

The point vortexz is making is that he believes the HW is overpriced, as in: you're an idiot for buying it because you're never going to make your money back.  The incentive for BITMAIN to sell the HW at a price point that would allow you to actually make money is non-existent because people keep buying the overpriced HW.

It doesn't matter what the GH/W and GH/$ ratio is if you're never going to earn your money back.  People keep buying this HW hand over fist  because it's preceived as the best, when in reality you're all giving BITMAIN more money for it than you'll ever get back.  

TL;DR: STOP BUYING HW JUST BECAUSE ITS THE BEST AVAILABLE, ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO MAKE YOUR MONEY BACK.

To be fair, that's often the case with hardware, even in these forums.  If it weren't for some previous GBs, many people purely mining wouldn't have made any returns.

Everyone should continue to decide for themselves if mining hardware at these prices is an investment or not.  We have these conversations frequently when the price of BTC versus fiat drops, and less frequently when it's up (even though fiat prices shouldn't inform ROI if you paid in BTC).

[dropt]

as I have already stated, this another reason they will not lower prices, the lack of competition.

There was competition but after they all got together and had that Miner Manufacturers pow-wow, they're all working together instead of against each other.  It's called anti-competitive practices, specifically price fixing.

[hdbuck]

as I have already stated, this another reason they will not lower prices, the lack of competition.

There was competition but after they all got together and had that Miner Manufacturers pow-wow, they're all working together instead of against each other.  It's called anti-competitive practices, specifically price fixing.

AM is back on business @1,2btc/Th and in massive quantities tho

[dropt]

To be fair, that's often the case with hardware, even in these forums.  If it weren't for some previous GBs, many people purely mining wouldn't have made any returns.

Then they shouldn't be buying HW.  Why is that such a difficult concept to understand?

Everyone should continue to decide for themselves if mining hardware at these prices is an investment or not.  We have these conversations frequently when the price of BTC versus fiat drops, and less frequently when it's up (even though fiat prices shouldn't inform ROI if you paid in BTC).

You want the honest and brutal truth?  Because people aren't capable of deciding for themselves.  If people were capable of deciding for themselves and making rational objective decisions then BITMAIN and all of the others wouldn't be constantly selling out.

[dropt]

AM is back on business @1,2btc/Th and in massive quantities tho

That's true, and IIRC FC said his goal is to drive the competition into unprofitable territory.  As in he's going to undercut everyone so badly that they all go out of business.

[hdbuck]

AM is back on business @1,2btc/Th and in massive quantities tho

That's true, and IIRC FC said his goal is to drive the competition into unprofitable territory.  As in he's going to undercut everyone so badly that they all go out of business.

yea i'd be tempted to think that it is exctaly what has started to happen.. bitmain having to run the "preorder whilst i solomine" scam. spondo drawning under their preorders book and crying fo mo fools to buy sept batches..  

[Moria843]

Will upgrade of S1 to S3 use the same S1 controller board that has wireless access. Will I still be able to use a wireless connection?

[-droid-]

Will upgrade of S1 to S3 use the same S1 controller board that has wireless access. Will I still be able to use a wireless connection?

yes, s3 controller has wireless access, just swap the antennae

[tarmi]

I am tempted to upgrade my S1, but the price is too high if I take in consideration the fact that bitmain will ship their kits in one month and the next difficulty is skyrocketing.

[tom99]

Attention everyone!
You must have already noticed, the S3 is becoming less and less profitable, it's a mining machine that will never ROI.
This is the new BITMAIN,they are selling on pre-orders an over priced.
The only one's fault is us, because we buy their crap like hot cakes.
A company would never lower prices when they have no competition and they sell their products in seconds.
But there is a solution to all of this, we can correct this !

EVERYONE STOP BUYING THEIR CRAP!
This will force them to lower price and deliver on time so their units will start to ROI again.

Point us to a product with the same GH/W ratio and GH/$ ratio then, kind sir.

+2

[dulac97]

I agree.  An undervolted S1 getting 140 gh/s is closer in power efficiency to the S3, but the net pickup of an upgrade kit is only 313 gh/s...for .46 BTC 37 days out.  I'll pass.

[dropt]

Attention everyone!
You must have already noticed, the S3 is becoming less and less profitable, it's a mining machine that will never ROI.
This is the new BITMAIN,they are selling on pre-orders an over priced.
The only one's fault is us, because we buy their crap like hot cakes.
A company would never lower prices when they have no competition and they sell their products in seconds.
But there is a solution to all of this, we can correct this !

EVERYONE STOP BUYING THEIR CRAP!
This will force them to lower price and deliver on time so their units will start to ROI again.

Point us to a product with the same GH/W ratio and GH/$ ratio then, kind sir.

+2

Why, so you can buy it and lose more money?  What's the benefit of the best GH/$ if it still costs you $5 to earn $3?

[Moria843]

Will upgrade of S1 to S3 use the same S1 controller board that has wireless access. Will I still be able to use a wireless connection?

yes, s3 controller has wireless access, just swap the antennae

Thanks. Won't be upgrading for a few months, if at all, but that's one less thing to worry about. I'll be able to use the extra heat when the weather cools down. Plus by then may cost less and be able to get more BTC for the dollar if things keep going like they are. A wait and see game. ROI and BTC value never a sure thing.

I'm planning for the winter and the only sure thing I can count on is the extra heat they'll provide for my basement.

[philipma1957]

Attention everyone!
You must have already noticed, the S3 is becoming less and less profitable, it's a mining machine that will never ROI.
This is the new BITMAIN,they are selling on pre-orders an over priced.
The only one's fault is us, because we buy their crap like hot cakes.
A company would never lower prices when they have no competition and they sell their products in seconds.
But there is a solution to all of this, we can correct this !

EVERYONE STOP BUYING THEIR CRAP!
This will force them to lower price and deliver on time so their units will start to ROI again.

Point us to a product with the same GH/W ratio and GH/$ ratio then, kind sir.

how about 1.04 btc for 850gh , but worse on watts?

bitmain is 1.32 btc for 880gh .

https://asktom.cf/index.php?topic=735982.0

[TracerX]

AM is back on business @1,2btc/Th and in massive quantities tho

That's true, and IIRC FC said his goal is to drive the competition into unprofitable territory.  As in he's going to undercut everyone so badly that they all go out of business.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out--I look forward to AM's new gear.

[bluebottle73]

At least my other 2 units are working reasonably well (although they're now hashing at around 220 GH/s - consistently.  Well below what was promised.)

So if you have 2 "other units" (I suggest you have tho S3s working normally, right?) why don't try to clone the SD card content from normal S3 to SD card of S1's controller? Maybe it will work? 

That's the kind of thing I'm thinking of, but not sure of the procedure to do that.  I'm not put off by a challenge, just don't know where to start..

Well don't I feel like a right idiot over this.  I was pretty busy yesterday and didn't have much time to figure things out further until this morning.  I decided I would reflash the original firmware, and resetting the configuration at the same time, and check to see if it would work that way, which it did.

Then I went to upgrade the firmware to the later version posted at bitmain, and noticed that the file I was using and assuming was that version of the S3 firmware, it turned out it was S1 firmware I downloaded some time ago for some of those units I had.

SOOOooo.. I owe a big apology to Bitmain on that front.  I was a little frustrated (a lot frustrated) by the delays and while I still stand by the criticism about their RMA process, I was certainly in the wrong about the criticism of receiving the 'wrong board'.  

Long story short, I flashed the correct version of the firmware, reconfigured the unit, and it's now hashing at ~440 GH/s and I'm happier now.

[chunkyjunkie]

So the Rocket miner from Gaw is just under 1w/ghs but is in stock.  Bitmain better reconsider 1. pricing, 2 availability or a lot of us I am guessing will be searching more for alternatives.

Now to look into this rocket box more.

The least Bitmain could do is offer previous customers coupons.  

Unless they are just going for the new " clueless " demographic that buys anything just to be mining, profit be damned.


Also Gaw is offering s3 with a free month of hosting, still more expensive then the s3 if it was in stock but I bet some people understand what 30 days of lost mining is.

[OneCardShy]

Well, I'm going to be "in" for four S3+'s.

If it is assumed to be a given fact that no miner currently produced can ROI, then the future looks brighter than ever. For me.

We home miners will lose 'hundreds' in FIAT currency investing in BTC mining gear which soon will not even be able to pay for it's own electricity.

Now scale that up and see how much the large (private) mining companies are going to lose if they continue to operate. Even cheap power cannot compensate for the cost of replacing ASIC units with better modern ones. Eventually they will fold as unsustainable business designs.

Either BTC gets better and we all win, or BTC tanks, large mines go under causing a measurable difficulty drop, and those of us still in the game after taking our (relatively small) losses continue on.

I am not betting my Fiat on whether BTC goes up or if BTC goes down. I am investing it in mining equipment knowing that whatever the outcome, BTC is established and here and I'm going to be a part of it as others come and go.

-OCS

[tom99]

Attention everyone!
You must have already noticed, the S3 is becoming less and less profitable, it's a mining machine that will never ROI.
This is the new BITMAIN,they are selling on pre-orders an over priced.
The only one's fault is us, because we buy their crap like hot cakes.
A company would never lower prices when they have no competition and they sell their products in seconds.
But there is a solution to all of this, we can correct this !

EVERYONE STOP BUYING THEIR CRAP!
This will force them to lower price and deliver on time so their units will start to ROI again.

Point us to a product with the same GH/W ratio and GH/$ ratio then, kind sir.

how about 1.04 btc for 850gh , but worse on watts?

bitmain is 1.32 btc for 880gh .

https://asktom.cf/index.php?topic=735982.0

  I dont like it and you have to put it together by yourself.   If you fukup that in the air.

bitmain is 1.32 btc for 880gh is old price but S3 sold out

bitmain is 1.12 btc for 880gh  for newer one S3+ for Sept. 20

[Xian01]

http://s29.postimg.org/gt8d0ri5j/IMG_6512.jpg
I'm dirty blonde if you want to call it that....

As a matter of practical formality, the 4Chan Protocol dictates that you produce a photo of yourself, with a shoe on your head, with todays time and date and your forum name written on a piece of paper.

For extra bonus difficulty, it is not unreasonable to ask for you to hold a tooth-brush in your left hand.

Related: I have 5 S3's collecting dust because the data center deal fell through on a commercial insurance-related issue, and I have no more space left in my house as I'm drawing ~8kW for mining already. *grumbles* Guess I'll have to decommission either some A1's or BitFury gear. Haven't decided yet. *grumbles* /r/firstworldproblems