Archive for the ‘Mining Hardware’ Category

Bitmain Just Announced the 14 THS AntMiner S9 ASIC Bitcoin Miner

31, May 2016

bitmain-antminer-s9-asic

One more announcement fro Bitmain, the AntMiner S9 ASIC Bitcoin miner is no official and will start shipping on June 12th for $2100 USD without the shipping cost (power supply is not included). The device uses the company’s new 16nm ASIC chips BM1387 and essentially triples the hashrate of the previous generation S7 miners while offering the same level of power usage. The Bitmain AntMiner S9 should be capable of 14 THS SHA-256 mining hashrate with a power usage of 1375 Watts at the wall, so definitely a good improvement over the S7.

Bitmain AntMiner S9 Specifications:
– Hash Rate: 14.0 THS ±5%
– Power Consumption: 1375W + 7% (at the wall, with APW3 ,93% efficiency, 25C ambient temp)
– Power Efficiency: 0.098 J/GH + 7% (at the wall, with APW3 93% efficiency, 25°C ambient temp)
– Rated Voltage: 11.60~13.00V
– Chip quantity per unit: 189x BM1387
– Dimensions: 350mm(L)*135mm(W)*158mm(H)
– Cooling: 2x 12038 fan
– Operating Temperature: 0 °C to 40 °C
– Network Connection: Ethernet
– Default Frequency: 650 MHz

The big question however is if now was the right time to announce the new mining hardware, as of you order now from the first batch you might be getting your units delivered right before the Bitcoin block reward halving. So it might be wise to wait for a later batch of S9 miners after the halving to see how the situation will change and if you might get a better deal in terms of price for the hardware. Then again if you are using S7 miners you might already get to the planning for switching to S9 now that the previous generation S5 is no longer profitable barely covering the electricity costs.

Bitmain Now Offering AntMiner S7-LN with 1KW ATX Power Supply

30, May 2016

bitmain-antminer-s7-ln

Bitmain has a new interesting offer for miners in the form of a lower hashrate ASIC miner for Bitcoin called AntMiner S7-LN that comes packaged with a 1KW Enermax ATX PSU. The new Bitmain AntMiner S7-LN apparently has less chips – 90x BM1385 instead of the 135 found in the regular S7 and as a result you get a bit more than half the hashrate at about half the power usage. The AntMiner S7-LN is rated at 2.7 THS hashrate and about 700W of power usage at the wall and can be yours for $291 USD without the shipping and taxes per unit – the miner and the PSU for it – with the shipping expected to start on June 2nd. The good thing about this offer is that the PSU is a regular ATX one so it can be used for a PC or a GPU mining rig and not only for ASIC miners when the time to shut down the S7-LN comes.

Bitmain AntMiner S7-LN Specifications:
– Hash Rate: 2.7 TH/s ±5%
– Power Consumption: 697W + 10% (at the wall, with Enermax, 25C ambient temp)
– Power Efficiency: 0.25 J/GH + 10% (at the wall, with Enermax, 25°C ambient temp)
– Rated Voltage: 11.60~13.00V
– Chip quantity per unit: 90x BM1385
– Dimensions: 306mm(L)*150mm(W)*275mm(H)
– Cooling: 2x 12038 fan
– Operating Temperature: 0 °C to 40 °C
– Network Connection: Ethernet
– Default Frequency: 700 MHz
– PSU: 1000W Enermax golden power supply

The only drawback is that the Bitcoin block reward halving is right around the corner, so in about a month and a half the coins mined by the miner will be cut in half. So now it might not be the best time to consider purchasing the current generation of Bitcoin ASIC miners even of the offer is an attractive one. So consider carefully whether now is the right time to purchase SHA256 ASIC mining hardware or better to wait for the halving and then consider what to do…

A Third X11 ASIC Miner Appears, the Baikal Mini Miner

19, May 2016

baikal-x11-asic-mini-miner

It seems that there is another product appearing on the market in the form of a X11 ASIC miner from a third company, though this one is apparently targeted at the Chinese mining community – the X11 ASIC Baikal Mini Miner. The miner apparently is capable of providing about 150 MHS X11 hashrate with a power usage of about 40 Watts thanks to the use of 40nm production process for the ASIC chips. There is no clear information about exact price, but it should be around 1-2 BTC or the equivalent in USD, though some shops have listed the device at a higher price than that. It is good to see more alternatives, but the big question is if the X11-based crypto coins are capable of handling the massive new hashrate that is provided by the ASIC miners that are getting produced at a fast pace with the competition heating up.

X11 ASIC Baikal Mini Miner Specifications:
– Hash Rate: 150 MHS (±10%)
– Power: 40 W (±5%) @ 0.27 J/MH (at the wall, with 25 C ambient temperature)
– Power supply: DC 12V 5A Power Adapter with 2.5 DC Plug (Not included)
– Interface: Ethernet
– Operating Temperature: 0 ~ 40 C
– Dimension: 140mm (L) x 100mm (W) x 95mm (H)
– Weight: 475 grams

It seems that the miner uses a board like Raspberry Pi for providing a web-based interface for control and monitoring of the mining process and there is no need to plug it in to a computer, all you need is power and a network cable plugged to the device. With the right price and availability outside of the Chinese markets this device can be an interesting option for home miners due to the relatively simple open design and the lower noise level, so you might want to keep an eye out for the Baikal X11 ASIC Mini Miner. For the moment we have not been able to find a way to order one of these devices to do a proper review, but we are going to keep trying.

– Check this thread on the official Dash forum for some more details about the new miner…


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