Archive for the ‘Mining Hardware’ Category

Antminer D3 Blissz Modified Firmware For Improved Performance

29, Nov 2017

It is not a secret that the default firmware and even settings for many of the ASIC miners that come out from the manufacturers are hardly with the best/optimal settings and often they are also limited in what you can tweak yourself. So some more advanced users take the matter in their hands in order to further optimize for performance and or stability and reliability and even add extra features that help owners of the devices to get better profit or higher profit for example. One such case is the Antminer D3 Blissz Modified Firmware for the X11 ASICs being produces by Bitmain that you might want to give a try if you have even at least one of these ASIC miners.

The custom firmware promises up to 20% lower power usage and some extra features such as ASIC voltage settings per chain as well as the ability to overclock or underclock per chain as well as more control on fan operational speeds. There are some usability improvements in the interface to make it easier and clear to use as well as some slight performance improvements as well to make it more stable and reliable in terms of operation including cgminer binary optimizations.

Do note that this is an experimental custom firmware and using it might void your warranty. Also note that it comes with built-in 1.5% developer fee built-in, so do have that in mind, although the improvements if working as promised are well worth the dev fee. The good thing is that even if you don’t like something or it does not work as expected flashing back the original firmware is as easy as installing the custom one, so you can quickly give it a go and if you don’t like the results to get back to the original.

– For more details and to download and try the Antminer D3 Blissz modified firmware…

FSP Releasing a New 2000 Watt Dedicated Power Supply for Miners

23, Nov 2017

The power supply (PSU) is one of the most important component for any crypto miner, even though it is often neglected as such by some miners, so it is no wonder that companies producing power supplies are starting to focus on the mining segment providing dedicated products. There are some companies such as Enermax, EVGA, Leadex that have very powerful power supplies that are not originally intended to be used for ASIC miners or GPU mining rigs, but often find their place as such. Fortron (FSP) however has announced their plans to release the first 2000 Watt power supply dedicated for miners and not for gamers or entusiasts – the FSP2000-A0AGPBI.

A good power supply for crypto mining needs has to offer high power output, good efficiency, reliability and most of all enough power connectors to suit every need that the miner will have for a certain application. FSP did that with the FSP2000-A0AGPBI by providing users with a good product offering 80 PLUS Platinum certification and 16x 6+2 PCI-E power connectors, so that should be enough for a lot of video cards or ASIC miners that fit into the power specs of the PSU. What might’ve been better is the peripheral connectors as they seem to be less than the ideal number you would want to have on a 2000 Watt power supply as you still need these for powering PCI-E extenders and it is never a good idea to connect more than two of these on a single line.

The FSP2000-A0AGPBI power supply is not fancy in terms of looks or offer any fancy stuff like RGB lights or whatever as you often see on some high-end gaming oriented products, it focuses on performance and features, though there is more to be desired. One would expect to see a great price that makes interesting alternative to already available similar products, but unfortunately there are talks about 450 EUR price and you might be able to get 2000W Leadex with similar specs for less. So again, there is more to be desired from FSP as they haven’t apparently taken into account all of the requirements that crypto miners might have from such a product and price also being one of the important factors that needs consideration.

– Visit the official FSP2000-A0AGPBI product page for more details and specifications…

New 16 THS DragonMint 16T Bitcoin ASIC Miner Coming in 2018

23, Nov 2017

If you think that BitMain has too much control over the Bitcion ASICs out there being one of the main manufacturers on that particular market, then you might be happy to learn that there is a new alternative coming next year. There are of course the Canaan Avalon miners and the Ebit E9 miners already available, though they are also hard to get, just like the Antminers from Bitmain lately. The just announced DragonMint 16T Bitcoin ASIC miner from a new company called Halong Mining is looking very promising. What makes this announcement even more interesting is the fact that one of the Bitcoin Core developers – BtcDrak seems to be directly involved in the development of the miner and with Halong Mining who developed it. According to the initial information the project has been started quite a while ago with a lot of people contributing and with a serious investment in order to be able to bring the much needed competition and innovation to the Bitcoin mining arena. The only possible problem here is that it might still be hard to acquire for some small miners and users willing to get just a single ASIC miner to play around with once it becomes available, especially if demand from large scale mining operations is as high as it is with Bitmain’s products.

The DragonMint 16T is supposedly the world’s most efficient Bitcoin miner, running faster and cooler than any competing miners currently available. It is based on the DM8575 ASIC chips that run at 85 GHS per chip with power efficiency of around 0.075 J/GHS according to the developers. If you are wondering what is the catch here, well the new miner is not yet available for sale, it is expected to start shipping in March 2018 or in about 4 months from now. You can however already pre-order the device with a minimum order quantity and a regular price tag of $1595 USD (with first day promo at $1350 USD per device). That price does not include a power supply, just the miner, but you can also add a 1600W PSU for $125 USD ($115 USD on promo), though again this is a pre-order. As with all other pre-orders and promises for a new product that is to start shipping in the future it is advice to proceed with caution, especially in cases such as this one where it is from a newcomer in the crypto space (new company)!

DragonMint 16T Specifications:
– ASIC Type: SHA256
– Hash power: 16 THS
– Network: Ethernet port
– Miner power consumption: 1205 W ±6%
– Chip efficiency: 0.075 J/GHS ±6%
– Fans: dual fan variable 6000rpm (100W)
– Power Supply: Not included (1600W recommended)

– For more details about the new ASIC miner check the official website of Halong Mining…


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