Topic: ANTMINER S7 is available at bitmaintech.com with 4.86TH/s, 0.25J/GH - page 349. (Read 527816 times)

Cheers. Let me/us know if you encounter more problems.

Meanwhile i'm itching to get a S7 myself but its pretty hard to put up so much capital up front when the difficulty going to be going much higher over the next several months.

I had 1 PSU powering the boards and the controller.  I put another psu on the controller and booted up the boards first, and now it is running at full speed.  Thanks for the advise you two..

Thanks Viro, I'll dig into it now.  Should have noticed the temp dif..

seems 2 mins of run time is hardly enough time to check hash rate.... also Bitmain said to make sure you power up the boards first then the controller.

Thats because, basing on the temp reported. One of your board is clearly not hashing. Your #1 should be at 60C~ according to the other 2 temps and its just sitting at 33C which is probably close to your ambient temp.

You're gonna have to make sure its properly connected and working. Mess around with it to determine whether its just not properly connected or if its dead and need RMA.

Anyone else getting a low hash rate?  I'm using 3 hp server psus on 120v, 800w each.  All of my chips show 0, but my average hashrate is just over 3tb.

A normal 20amp 110v circuit will work fine to power one miner. You only need a 220v if you use a 220v PSU most are just using a couple 110v PSU's or a larger 110v PSU.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, QuintLeo.

I'm always open minded and it's good to hear opinions from different sides of arguments.  I have to go to bed now.  As it is 4:41am for me and I can barely keep my eyes open.  I'll respond a bit more later.  Have a good evening or day [Depending on where you are].

Cheers

PS - I would agree their ROI takes less time because of obtaining their rigs at cost.  However, we also have to look at what action this breeds.  If one manufacturer did this, another would do the same for market share.  Which thereby would increase the amount of time it would take for ROI even though the price they paid was at cost.

The only way I see a manufacturer possibly obtaining significant market share is by over whelming force.  Meaning, they would have to more than double the network hash rate all by themselves in one big swoop all of a sudden.  That would take a LOT of capital and a LOT of power (electricity).

It makes more sense for the big boys at the moment to just replace old gear with new [more efficient] gear to increase revenue by decreasing power costs.  Getting into a hash rate war for market share will only increase the amount of time it takes to ROI on their equipment, even though it was at cost.

 I would guess that most of those folks are betting on a large Bitcoin price increase around the time of the halfing.
 I personally don't like the odds on such an increase being enough to matter, but won't be shocked to be wrong.

 Doesn't seem to be any other reasonable scenario where the S7 will ever achieve RoI unless your electric is VERY cheap or free.


 There is NO sign of Bitcoin price "following the difficulty" as one person keeps talking about, and no reason for it to do so.
 There IS reason to believe in a jump in price near the halfing (probably a little before) due to speculators jumping in based on "reduced availability" or some such, similar to what happened to Litecoin about a month before IT'S halfing this year (and the price on Litecoin has stayed up some, though not near what it peaked at), but given the much larger size of the Bitcoin market I doubt we'll see it do the near-quadruple at peak that Litecoin did. I'd guess 50-100% jump at most at the peak for Bitcoin, then a drop back down to not a lot more than it is now - other factors like Greek near-meltdown excluded.



 Nope, an S5 or SP20 is still profitable - BARELY - at double the current difficulty and electric around 10c/KWH - but unlikely to RoI if you bought one now as you wouldn't have enough time to get your money back before halfing makes anything pre-S7 UNprofitable at current trends, or even if diff increases drop back under 2% per incriment - free electric and SUPER cheap electric folks excepted.


 Keep in mind that most of the "big boys" ARE in the "super cheap electric" areas of the world, at least for their farming activities, and they're probably paying 60-80% of the up-front cost for their miners that most "home miners" are paying. Makes RoI a LOT easier for them.



 I would bet that they don't, but that they are working on their "NEXT gen" chips pretty hard - I also suspect that the "next gen" is going to be full-custom 14/16nm from all surviving ASIC makers, and that it'll be the LAST new generation and the LAST major jump in performance for 4-6 years.

 Will that happen by July 2016 and the halfing?
 My guess is "not across the board" but I won't be shocked if a couple of them are ready around that timeframe with new hardware.




 Usually, but sometimes competition drives manufacturers into fighting for market share rather than maximising profits in the short term. That's what I'm waiting for, probably in December or so.

See https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/should-bitmain-make-a-q7-1165938

We must ask ourselves, "Would it be beneficial for the big players to get in a hash rate war if the price of bitcoin remains the same or not MORE than double at the time of the block halving?"

The price of bitcoin would have to at least double to see twice the difficulty we see now.  For it to be 3x of todays difficulty, the price of bitcoin would have to be 3x what it is today for it to be beneficial to the big boys after the block halving.

There comes a point in time where it is no longer wise to invest funds into more hash rate if the rate of return does not justify such actions.  Doing so will push out the home miner for a while but certainly not during the winter months.  I know I would keep several of my rigs just for the winter months.  So, if a hardware manufacturer that mines for themselves makes a move in a hash rate war, it will not be in the winter.  It will be in the spring or early summer.  Even then, there is much risk.  They will have to acknowledge they will not have as much return during the hash rate war.  They will have to acknowledge they will not have as much return on their investment during the winter months either.

Let's say they do increase the difficulty so high it pushes out other miners.  They did this while also diminishing their own returns for a little while.  What do you think the other miners [who were pushed out] would do if the price of bitcoin rises to a level high enough to offset the difficulty increase?  They will get back in!!!!!!!  Thereby diminishing the big boys returns once again.  Which would make them wonder if the investment they made for increasing their hash rate was really worth it.  They would have to continue investing more money into more rigs to increase their hash rate even more to push out the little guys.  Also, the big boys have each other to worry about as well to make them wonder if it was really worth the investment to increase their hash rate.

So, the big boys have a LOT to think about if they wish to increase their hash rate exponentially.  It could very well back fire on them.  However, it may be a risk they are willing to take if they have enough capital sitting by for the long rainy days that will occur from such action.  Their return on investment would take much longer from such action.  If they add more hash rate after an increase in bitcoin price to push out miners who got back in the game, it would only mean more capital spent and more equipment to be concerned about making ROI.

There is definitely much to take into consideration by the big boys if they wish to get into a hash rate war.

this time i agree with you, now its 1 year before halving and i guess  difficulty after halving would be around 2x or even 3x of todays difficulty.  

No, I honestly don't think the difficulty will drop.  It WILL rise.  I'm only counting on the price of bitcoin to rise exponentially come spring time.  It's counter intuitive for the big boys to get into a hash rate war at present price of bitcoin.  It's more productive for them to replace old gear with new gear without raising the difficulty exponentially at the moment [In my opinion].  

So yes, I expect the difficulty to go up to approximately 70 billion by December and 90 billion by spring next year.  But I'm also expecting the price of bitcoin to rise with the difficulty, however, a delayed rise along with it.  The price of bitcoin [Percentage wise] will not rise the same amount at the same time.  There will be a delay in the rise of bitcoin price until the spring.  I expect a significant rise in price in June [Just before the block halving].  If I don't see that significant rise in June, it's time for plan B or C.  If we do have significant rise, it's probably time to sell the rigs on eBay at very close to the same price as what I paid for them.  Why close to the same?  Because BITMAIN will have the price of the S7 much higher at that point in time if the price of bitcoin is significantly higher in proportion to the difficulty.  

It's just a gamble I'm making.  I'm not going all out with my money.  As I'm using money to invest in things other than bitcoin (E-Cigs).  I'm only gambling with a portion of available funds.  There are always risks in investments.  Some more than others.  Usually, more risk means more returns if it pans out.  I always say, when gambling, "Never invest what you're not willing to lose and never invest more than 10% of your bankroll into a game." Also, "Never have all your eggs in one basket."

I would be willing to bet that BITMAIN and other big players will have a new rig waiting just for what I'm talking about with the rise in bitcoin price in June.  It would be foolish for us to think they won't.  That's where I believe the mining side of bitcoin will get very competitive for a while.  That's when I believe will be the best time to sell my rigs or just before it.  It depends on the price of bitcoin at the time.

If you indeed think the difficulty is going to drop that certainly makes my assumptions pessimistic, so that is a fair point, although I'm still assuming zero cost for electricity, PSU, etc...

Thank you for your thoughts, you raised some interesting points.

Built in my recreation room downstairs just for home mining:



ALL of this gear is gone now awaiting S7's:  [That is black spray paint on the wall inside the mining closet.  It was as good of a place as any at the time to do some painting].  Five (5) 240V/30A circuits provide power for the Five (5) 240V/30A PDU's.  Two of the PDU's are mounted to the ceiling joists out of the picture.  Don't mind the orange 10/2 wire hanging down.  That's another 240V/30A line I was running that was not completed yet at the time of the photograph.  I had more hardware (S5's) that were put into use on the left side that were not set up yet at the time of the photo.

As you can see... I already have the 220V to 240V outlets with PDU's and I have several Corsair Platinum 860 watt PSU's.  What you don't see in this photo are the 19 IBM 2880W PSU's.  Four of the IBM 2880W PSU's were being used for the 15 SP20's.  The rest are out of the picture.  So, I'm not spending any extra money on outlets, wiring for outlets, PDU's, PSU's, ethernet cords or PCI-e cords.  I already have the peripherals.  I only need the rigs.

The 14,400 CFM exhaust fan is plenty for my present needs of getting the heat out.



This photo was taken during the initial setup of the hardware.  I'm adding it only to show the size of the mining closet inside:

I saw the same thing in my calculations as well.  However, I'm going to take a bit of a gamble.  I have my thoughts about the difficulty between now and the block halving that I do not wish to share here.  I also have my thoughts about bitcoin price in the spring and about a month out from the block halving.  The power costs per GH/s is not as high as it used to be on previous rigs.  I'm actually paying for the power out of pocket and holding on to the bitcoin mined.  There's a chance I might sell the rigs one month away from the block halving.  I won't know until that time.  I will get money back when the rigs are sold on eBay.  How much?  Who knows...  I only want to be in position if we have another pump like we did November of 2014.  

If bitcoin price rises, so does the price of the rigs.  I could potential sell the rigs at the same price (used), if not more, on eBay if that scenario works out.  It's all about timing in my opinion.  The next ten months will be very interesting indeed for bitcoin and for mining.  I had to have "something" in the game.  I might lose a little or I might make a lot after selling bitcoin mined later down the road and selling the rigs at a potentially higher price on eBay.  Who knows?  Only time and a little luck will tell us.  Depending on difficulty, I may buy 14 more S7's in December to be prepared for the spring.

I have my thoughts about price of bitcoin and difficulty, just as I'm sure you have your own.  As for who's will be correct as time passes???  Only time will tell.  Some might say, "Buy bitcoin instead of rigs."  I'm a gambler.  I'm going to try to mine the same amount of btc I would have bought and sell the rigs for a little extra profit once I'm finished.  That's the plan anyway.  You can try to sway others to avoid what I'm doing.  That's fine.  I don't mine.  It's a little late to sway me; as I have already purchased 9 of them.  You might sway me from purchasing 14 more in December.  Only time will tell.  I'm open minded.

i 100% agree.. the s7 is too large for a home miner.. you have to get special outlets if you already dont have 30 amp or 220 outlets. takes 2 high end or one large expensive power supply.
you would be lucky if you break even on cost before the block halfs.. if you dont you might not ever.. its not like the price of btc will double overnight..


bitmain should have made smaller home miners, maybe one of the s7 hash boards. i would have replaced my s3s with one of those.

people whit money like to spend money 

Serious question. Why are people buying these. I just did a quick break even calculation and assuming zero electricity costs, not including the PSU cost, and zero difficulty increases you break even in about 190 days. Obviously those are very favorable assumptions, probably very unrealistic.

Not criticizing the product, just really curious about it, since I mined for a very long time (before finally giving it up last year), and I've bought Ant Miners before, but I now find myself scratching my head. The numbers these days just don't seem to make sense to me.

Yes, they did say that.

I wish I would not have hesitated myself and just ordered on the first day.  However, I waited until the 9th of September.  So, it may not be until the 9th of October before I receive them.  It's all good though.  I'll remain patient.