There is an Imgur album here with pics from a fresh S7 B8 received very recently by my "friend".
"He" prefers not to post these under his name as "he" knows BITMAIN reads this forum and does not want to ever do anything which even may be construed as a warranty violation. I told "him" my understanding of the warranty documentation has stated since the S5+ you should check that all heat sinks are in place prior to powering the unit, but better safe than sorry so "he" will remain anonymous.
I can vouch that these are from a very recent unit and although the pictures may have some very poor lighting, even some with bad blur, they were taken in a hurry as we all know a minute lost hashing time right now is an exponential slam to BTC income.
I knew several people were asking for pictures of different items on the unit. I hope this helps, but if everything has already been discovered let me know and I will remove this post.
http://slooopy.imgur.comCheck the S7 B8 album, it is shared with the public.
(If you notice anything which shouldn't be shared please let me know via PM as I would always do the same for my mining brethren)
I have several comments regarding the S7 and our beloved bitcoin. We have a long way to go and we need all hands on deck to grow as a community. Please take a few moments to read and contemplate these subjects.
Personally my S7 units have been completely babied. I monitor voltage and current draw. I've installed 3 levels of surge and HF noise protection for the main mining room. I perform a set Preventative Maintenance schedule. I am fortunate I have only seen one out of the box failure I managed to correct myself with a new fan. I give credit where it is due and in my opinion the price has been used to take advantage of the home miner at every opportunity. It is too much considering the quality, but my miners have been running since the day each one was received without downtime except for a single unit which had a bad fan.
Price set aside and my personal opinion of the hardware is that it has been a step in the right direction when compared to the S5, but as the batches rolled out I saw an increase in reliability and a better coordination of quality control with regards to the binning of chips, default settings, and my personal opinion is Batch 7 was one of the better batches in terms of reliability. IF reliability were charted I think it would be similar to looking at an AC waveform where Batch 8 is on the downswing.
My main issues are, as others have noted you must part your hair and hold your mouth just right while performing certain mining rituals with a soldering iron draped around your neck and chicken in your pants
to receive the advertised hashrates. As I said I do give credit where it is due and the issues I describe with my hashrates has not been to the point of the SP20. Many know I have long preferred Spondoolies hardware, but they did quote the SP20 as a 1.7 when it should have been a 1.3 TH miner in my opinion and marketed as a underclock / overclock powerhouse. It was the flexibility and engineering of that unit which gave it the rightfully earned reputation as the top miner of its generation and when we see a manufacturer offer such to the public again with good customer service it could easily become the new King of Hardware.
I also want to take a moment to tell everyone who is having issues with their S7s, hashboards dying, long wait times for RMAs, ignored by customer service, etc that these are the things you must remember when purchasing another miner. These things add tremendous cost to your mining venture. These are things many of us have been talking about for a long time. Bitmain has not improved in these areas. Customer service is poor.
Do NOT let the fanboys ever intimidate you. There is one who still makes quite a bit of coin from bullying kids in the playground. Shut him down at every opportunity so he cannot continue publishing bad information. (If you do not know who and what I mean feel free to PM me for references, as I have been collecting threads and a truck load of other information to help stop this abuse.)
There are a select few, especially one who you should always stand against in this hardware forum. Remember, there are many others with issues who are seeing people slammed by fanboy #1 who are intimidated to the point they won't even post on this forum. This drives those people away from the best resources in the world. People like Phil, sidehack, Rich, and so many more who honestly care about helping people with hardware issues. Don't just ignore the bad seeds tell him what a pos he is and show him how he is wrong when you see it. That is the only way to stop bad actors. You must show them, and your peers they have zero clues and spout regurgitated crap and only when the newer people who are lurking see you stand up will they have the confidence to ask for help.
Some people make mistakes, I know I have, and I have publicly admitted them and thanked the person who corrected me. David (DMwardJR) recently had a conversation where he learned some things about the NEC and he thanked Prelude for showing him the information and continued to educate himself by purchasing the 2014 NEC code and studying it to make sure he continues making good decisions and helps people with accurate information. That is a huge thing we all should do. Help each other and if you are incorrect, state such so we all learn from the many days of time each of us invest in our own ways. That is how we all grow together. David knows a great deal about building a farm, and his advice should be considered. I also enjoy reading the projects by Tupsu, he goes out on a ledge and tries different things and shares such with everyone. Phil is always involved in real reviews. He shows what I view as the common miner approach to what is possible, and what is correct.
There is not a single one of us who knows it all but as a community we must show the world we can police ourselves and in no way shape, or form do we need regulations from anyone, government, or company telling us what is right / wrong. Do your part by pointing out the crap when you see it. We all do not have the knowledge Rich and Jabber do. That doesn't mean we soak up what they share and there is not a use for us. There is a job for every member of this forum who regularly uses the information.
There are many more great people here with good minds than you know. There are so many people here with the simple intent to help others. Do your part by calibrating your moral compass and giving it a voice. Never assume someone else will handle it because as a group with the numbers the good people of bitcointalk Hardware section have, there are zero reasons for the bad actors to be allowed to flourish in our midst.
I have personally seen information given which could kill someone if taken literally, because the poster does not take time to research. He states whatever he wants and when called out he uses various tactics to wiggle his way around until people simply tire of listening to it and allow it to continue.
Stop the bullying, stop new miners from being given bad information and most importantly, do something to pay it forward. Who knows, you very well may be the single person to save someone's life, literally.
Thank You for your time.
