Antminer s9 is considered one of the most cost-effective miners of the Bitmain line. Compared with the previous version of the ASIC s7, the engineers managed to make not even one but one and a half steps on the path of the device’s energy efficiency, and compared to the Antminer s5, the characteristics of the Antminer s9 are improved qualitatively.
The device is focused on mining cryptocurrency on the SHA-256 algorithm. The most famous payment systems that use this algorithm are Bitcoin and BitcoinCash. On the upgraded version of SHA-256 – Daggerhashimoto – the Ethereum online services system was built. The advanced models of the Application-specific integrated Integrated Circuit (ASIC) are equipped with several chip-based processors, coolers and power supplies. But in order to appreciate all the advantages of Antminer s9, we’ll consider separately the hashrate efficiency, electricity consumption, payback period and other characteristics of this ASIC miner.
Bitmain Antminer s9 Capabilities and Characteristics
Scattered information about the proposed release of S9 on the 16 nm process technology began to appear six months later after the release of S7 – in April 2016. But the press release was released only on May 31, announcing the release of the BM1387 chip and the launch of production of a new generation of miners from BITMAIN with the energy efficiency transition from the previous 0.25 W / Gx / s to 0.1 W / Gx / s. The power consumption of the device also increased, but only slightly, but the hashing performance increased from 4.7 TH / s to 13.5TH / s.
There are several versions of S9– at 12.5, 13, 13.5TH / s. There were also batches with a nominal capacity of 14 TH / s, but due to the fact that they were too hot, the frequency was reduced in subsequent series. At the time of release Antminer s9c 13.5 TH / s in hashing performance was superior to any other device released before it. The capabilities of its 189 chips distributed on 3 boards are compared with the hash rate of the capacity of the entire Bitcoin network from 2009 to the middle of the 2012 state advantage in favor of S9. An index of 0.1 J per gigahash makes the S9 more than 2.5 times more efficient than the miner Antminer S7 (with a consumption of approximately 300 watts more than S7).
ASIC miner Antminer s9 main characteristics:
- HashRate – about 13.5TH / s (varies within 5%).
- Energy efficiency – 0.1 J per gigahesh.
- Energy consumption – 1350 watts.
- The processor is 189 * BM1387 (63 chips per board).
- Designed to work at 25-40 degrees indoors.
Externally, the miner is similar to its predecessor, slightly different wiring control boards. S9 retained the aluminum case, which as a heat sink works better than plastic. Hash cards are inserted into guides without a rigid attachment.
Compatible with Antminer s9 power supplies:
- 1600 watt AntMiner APW-12 Bitcoin Miner PSU,
- 1300-watt EVGA SuperNOVA GPU PSU.
EVGA 1300 W is about 15% cheaper than AntMiner 1600 W, but if you take an equivalent EVGA power, it will be 55-60% more expensive than a similar AntMiner unit. Allowed to use and other powerful power supply (server or normal). But the regular power supply unit APW3-12-1600-B2 is more convenient to use, since it has 10 connectors (one for the control board and three for each of the three hashing boards). That is exactly what is needed for one S9. There are default closed contacts for the power and monitor button. As follows from the marking, the unit produces a voltage of 12 V with an efficiency of 93%.
A rather noisy block fan muffles even a miner cooling system consisting of two 120-millimeter fans (with a maximum fan speed of 6 thousand revolutions / min.), Producing a loud whistle on high tones. In later installments, the power unit noise problem was almost eliminated.
For normal operation of the device and cooling the chips at room temperature of about 25 ° C, 50% of the acceleration power of the fans is sufficient, and at 40 ° C (the maximum declared by the manufacturer), 70% is sufficient. But the fans installed on the device are noisy at 30 percent overclocking, so they are often changed to quieter ones, for example, the Delta AFC1212DE from 4 thousand rpm, even accelerating them to 2-2.5 thousand turns. Judging by the reviews, it even more effectively reduces the temperature of the chips, which is kept at 70 ° C (at 20 ° C indoors).
When connecting two or three power supplies, it is important to make sure that only one block connectors are connected to each hash board. In general, due to the minimum power reserve during overclocking, it is recommended that at least one of the hash boards be connected via an alternative power supply.
As the temperature of the chips rises (which happens when the room temperature rises), the S9 performance begins to fall. So, when reaching 90С on chips and 55С – on hashrate losses, the loss is about 3%. An increase in temperature is also reflected in the increasing number of HW errors. The number of cases when the chip, for whatever reason, stops responding to the controller’s signal, grows to tens of hours, and, all of them can be issued only by one faulty chip.
Chips and whole boards “fall out” and when trying to overclock the device, beyond the limit stated by the manufacturer. At S9, it is not possible to “squeeze” even + 10% to 650 MHz – at a frequency of 700 MHz, mining stops. Moreover, in the first installments, the manufacturer itself set the default value to 650 MHz, in subsequent batches, to stabilize operation, the standard was reduced first to 600 MHz, and then (from the 5th batch) and to 550 MHz.
Advantages of Antminer S9:
- Relevance in 2018;
- Decent performance;
- High energy efficiency;
- Excellent cooling;
- 100% autonomy;
- Easy setup and connection to Antpool;
The disadvantage of the S9 is only one – very noisy fans, as we said above.
Connecting and configuring Antminer s9
When you turn on the miner there are no special requirements for the “socket” – the power of the S9 is comparable to the power of the iron. It is advisable only to make sure that the blower fan does not rest on a wall or other barrier. The normal start of the miner is indicated by the flashing green Normal indicator on the controller board. But some time (several tens of seconds) after launch, until the device goes into normal mode, the Fault fault indicator may flash.
To find out the address assigned to the miner, you can either check the list of DHCP clients in the web interface of the router, or use the IP Reporter utility. To use the utility in the application, the “button” Start is pressed, and on the control panel of the device – the physical IP report button (held for a few seconds). Due to this, the program will detect the miner and show its IP and MAC addresses. After entering the address into the address bar of the browser and entering the login-password pair (by default, this is root – root), the web interface is launched.
In the GeneralConfiguration tab, the data of the selected pool is entered, for example, belonging to BitmainAntpool, but without changing the basic settings, the miner will still start mining at the manufacturer’s pool. When changing the pool, it is important to consider the compatibility of the modification of the stratum protocol with pools. No problem, you can register on Antpool and F2pool. But in general, the program offers the ability to connect to either three servers of the same pool, or – to three different pools.
The Antpool interface is partially made in Russian, which simplifies the work. In your personal account you will need to enter the account name for mining. This account fits on the settings page, instead of “antminer”. Replacing the name and password of the worker is not required – they are created automatically.
By setting a “tick” to the position of stopping mining when the temperature range in 80C is exceeded (“Stoprunningwhentempreratureisover 80”), it is possible to prevent the boards from overheating. Also “manually” it is possible to set a constant speed of rotation of the fans.
The tab “AdvancedSettings” sets the clock frequency of the chips. And in the “MinerStatus” tab approximately an hour after launch, it will be possible to get acquainted with the stabilized working statistics. Deviations of speeds within 5% of the stated are usually considered acceptable and normal.
Bitmain Antminer s9 Payback Period
It is clear that the prediction of the payback of the device depends on a number of fixed and variable values, among which the main value is the rate of cryptocurrency during the mining period. The values of the cost of the device itself and the electricity consumed are less susceptible to fluctuations.
For example, at the end of December 2017, the price on the Bitmain official website for an S9 device was $ 2,725. When calculating bitcoin mining, it is necessary to lay the amount of remuneration for the extracted block, but this amount can only be approximated, since for only two days on December 19-20, significant fluctuations in cryptocurrency were noted (in this case, there was a decline in the rate of $ 18.7 thousand up to 16.52 thousand dollars for bitcoin).
If you put in the calculation of $ 50 per day (and the high performance of the device provides an approximate production in the pool with approximately the estimated remuneration, taking into account the current rate), then S9 can pay off in about 2 months. But in addition to the course, a number of other socio-economic factors immediately intervene.
- An increase in demand gives rise to an increase in price. Bitmain itself has already raised the price of the S9 and it is possible that it will grow again. Miner dealers, as a rule, are available, but the price for it is twice the official one and, accordingly, the estimated payback period, all other things being equal, is doubled. In addition, there is no guarantee that in this case they will not offer used equipment.
- Relevance of the proposal. First, it is not always possible to buy Antminer S9 from Bitmain – that is, it is not always available. And, secondly, at the end of December you can only pre-order the device. Shipment will begin only after 2 months – in early February 2018. What by then will be the course and other accounting parameters is unknown.
- Logistics. On the official website, payment is accepted in BitcoinCash, which introduces an additional accounting factor in the cost calculation, but the main thing here is that problems with delivery to Russia may arise. Recently, information appeared that the Eldorado and M-Video networks are planning to sell the S9 from 2018, but then the final price for Antminer will depend on the store mark-up and market conditions.
It is very difficult to make a long-term forecast for cryptocurrency recoupment (and several months, and this market is already a long-term period). Devices that in the beginning of autumn brought $ 100 a day to the beginning of winter can not earn even ten. But at the end of 2017, Antminer s9 remains the leader in mining networks on the SHA-256 algorithm. In order to assess the potential of the device at the current time, you can use the Bitcoin online calculator. To do this, enter the device hashrate and click the “Calculate” button. The calculator will automatically provide information about current earnings opportunities, taking into account the current rate and conversion into the specified currency.
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