Topic: Exclusive 1st Review: Bitmain Antminer S7, 4.8+ th/s Using Only 1250 Watts - page 2. (Read 7303 times)

Thank you for taking the time to review it Mane. Don't mind dogie, he doesn't like sharing attention.

Maybe I will sell 1 board to you. A lot depends on how quiet I can get the full s-7 to run. If it is simply too loud and pulling one board solves the problem I would sell a board.

Heh... I would like to get it for testing and playing too...

Waiting now for price drop... 

Having spent some time exploring S5 Undervolting I would love to be playing with an S7, however budget, particularly with UK VAT, does not allow a purchase at this point. (If anyone, for whatever reason, fancies selling a single S7 Hash Board please PM me) A couple of thoughts & questions for those who will be having a go at undervolting.

Not undervolting related but would also be good to confirm that the controller board is actually marked up as S5+ as shown in the Bitmain pictures as we already know that S5 & S5+ controllers are interchangeable it will then only be a small step to confirm that an S5 Controller could be used with an S7, which could be handy if people decide to perhaps break an S7 into either single units, or a single and a double?

Out of curiosity it would be good to have a better quality picture of both sides of the hash board. In particular it would be good to confirm that there is an oscillator for every trio of chips? I think this is what I can see on the low res Bitmain pictures but they are not good enough to confirm. I still think it was the additional oscillators that enabled the latest V1.91 S5 Hash boards to undervolt successfully.

When working on the S5 I found it useful to do tests with just a single board connected at a time. This will actually be easier in the S7 as the controller has it's own supply. This enables a much lower output adjustable supply to be used while experimenting and also I found a significant variance between boards which is good to understand as when powering the full unit looking for HW errors the "worst" board will otherwise dominate the results.

I look forward to watching, fingers crossed as we have yet to understand why Bitmain have been so explicit on supply voltage ( Rated Voltage: 12.0V+5%, should not be less than 12.0V ), from the sidelines when the tests begin.  


Rich

Thanks Phil, will check back in these again, it has been a while since I looked. Anything I found which handled a decent amount of 240 and displayed readings was out of my ballpark. You seem to find some deals though I will check this one out.
I am realizing it doesn't have to be something I leave each miner on, I can just use it as a diagnostic tool from one connection to another.
Rather than using any PDUs I made my own cables which run from disconnects mounted by my sub panel which is 10' from my miners. I put 10 gauge copper SO from the disconnects to junction boxes where I split off 12 gauge SO runs to individual power supplies. A good PDU setup would work much better, but my 10 gauge was free along with several connectors. Junction boxes where I solder the 10 gauge and 12 gauge splices is cheap too. Although my time is worth something as well and I spent a large amount of it doing it that way. Heat Shrink is damned expensive though.

Appreciate the info.

yeah underclocking/undervolting is key

  if you can do these at :

4000gh 900 watts
3500gh 700 watts
3000gh 580 watts

fucking killer gear.

obviously  you need a psu that does 10 volts

I have been doing some underclocking as well as some overclocking.
Too early to give hard numbers but it steps down nicely with no bugginess.  I will later this week after running 12 to 24 hrs per setting have some more solid numbers.

It would be so nice to be able to order an extra one 'just to play with' so you never had to take the 'others' down.

I bit the bullet and ordered one. I have been following the thread where you, Phil, etc have been discussing adjustable voltage PSUs. I would very much enjoy seeing a solid delivery on the aforementioned undervolt and the PSU you guys think can do it while maintaining a solid efficiency.
For anyone interested the thread is here:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/antminer-s5-underclock-undervolt-best-jgh-1151460

The points I have picked up are:
1. Plan to start the unit closer to 12v and then adjust the input voltage for maximum range.
2. Watch for a consistent increase in HW errors and you know to back off.
3. You seem to require a specific S5 board version. RICH goes in detail explaining his in the thread. I hope someone can show an S7 board to see if it has the same components.
I understand Rich's disclaimer: he isn't stating this board revision is exactly why some units overclocked and others didn't, but he is pretty damn sure.

D. The thread is a fire starting for the people who are interested in getting the most enjoyment from turning knobs, electricity, and adjustable power supplies. Good stuff


I do not forget the few months wondering if I would be able to purchase something modern but I am happy with everything so far with the S5+ quality except. 1 Fan failure and 1 heat sink which wasn't cut out properly. The front of it was still full of material. It is installed on the front where you had to be able to see it when installing a fan. Pretty glaring. Although, if that is the worst I have to deal with, no worries. I spent the day friday e-mailing with bitmain support. Started with Colorado and after e-mailing a few times they sent me to zendesk. After emailing zendesk a couple times they sent me to china. Unusual route for me this time, but this is what they told me to do.
The fan quit. As they have for several people on the S5, S5+ and even one of the reviewers posted about an S7 he just received with a non-functional fan.
I confirmed 100% it is indeed the fan which failed on the one I have. Not the controller or wire.

S5+ Runs great on dual 2880s.  
#1 2880 running S5+ left and center module -- using 2290 watts
#2 2880 S5+ right module, S5+ control board, a stock S5 and a underclocked to 1100ghz / 630 - 650w SP20 -- using 2385 watts.
(These amounts are based on a small sample and could be off 20%, but I do not think so.)

Like some of the better PSUs you can run a high load on these 2880s and (do not do this unless you know what you are doing. I am not recommending anyone do anything I say) I don't think it is an issue to run the S5+ on a single 2880, but it isn't as efficient. Not saying anything most do not know. As a matter of fact it would probably be pretty bad because the way they really taper off in efficiency at the maximum or exceeding maximum load. Many miners will tell you it is easy to make your power bill jump fast or lower in that same time frame by properly loading your power supplies. It would be amazing to see a modular PSU system with load balancing in a kit form to provide 1x.x vDC to a bank of string design miners and then compensate based on history of which miners didn't run well at whichever voltage. I know with the S5 and assume with the S5+ it matters if you have a specific revision, but the trend you saw was the addition of those components so it is safe to assume the S7 did have them is that correct?
I think several miners who can afford to pickup 5 - 10 or more S7s would happily pickup a newer revision PSU "system" which allowed for a good underclock. It does appear that some are able to go much further than even some of the ones with the right boards, but I'm confident a recommended setting could be made by you guys.

I plan to change some things around with the power so I have a little more load on #1 and #2 2880 PSU. (I do not recommend anyone ever overpowers a PSU!!!) One time I ran one of Jabberwocks 2880 boards with every slot filled with S3s using 2 cables per S3. It ran for several days and the only casualty was a few of the S3s ran a little odd and lost hash overall. (Seriously, the people who know what they are talking about will tell you do not do this. Do not plug in too many things. Add 20% to your calculated usage I was with my units the entire time, but it was still not worth what could have happened!) It was around 3300 or 3500? watts, I do not remember exactly. in my bedroom. The white noise was a little much, but I do enjoy the noise in general. I am sleeping with an S4 at the moment. That sounds sick huh. The S5+ and S7 are not coming in unless I get very cold.

MY personal disclaimer because I feel like I should for some reason:
I understand investing in any new miner may be a bad choice, if that is what I do, invest. I willingly spent my currency on modern miners. (This is for the people who keep telling so many they are idiots for purchasing mining equipment. I get it, buy coin, I agree, it would be the safer thing to do. Point made. Give it a rest, the price is what it is as well. We are all going to hell for buying new miners. Understood)

Cant wait to see what you guys come up with for the S5 and S7 Rich. I bet Phil could sell a million power supplies if you roll across the right one with a delay (relay?) to handle adjusting the voltage.
I am gonna go play with some Gekko compaq sticks.

**EDIT** Yes, sorry, edit after my WOT, but I will be as short as possible. Help requested and very much appreciated:
Major, Rich, or anyone, please tell me what you are using to measure power usage on your split phase 120 / 240 vAC lines. I have a kill a wat for a single line which I could discombobulate some things to read one line, but Ive been told the 240v kill a wats are expensive. I have a good meter with a record function, true rms fluke 87. Not the best but a decent meter which is calibrated every few months. I also have a AC DC amp clamp where it connects to the meter and displays 1mv = 1 amp. Should I set it on AC amps and measure / record each line of the split phase for however long the meter can save and average out based on that? It may be the best I can do with the equipment I have, but I would sure like to be able to attain instant feedback in a painless and inexpensive way. I can afford something reasonable, but not the hundreds or even thousands I see charged for proper long term measuring equipment.
Any advice?

Thanks people!

OK as someone has asked.   Here's my Forecast for Overclocking. Underclocking Forecast on previous page.

I am guessing at 12.8V & 775MHz we might see 6278GH & 1650W ? I would however only try it after Warranty has expired, and with a Hurricane blowing through the cooling fins.

I think also looking at the Data sheet they might have been a bit Conservative at 12V and a "good" unit might be able to do 675MHz with 5468GH & 1400W

Rich

Have you tried overclocking it?
I'm considering overclocking one of mine when they come, would be nice with some insight

Looking forward to hearing if S7 responds to undervolting and clocking?

If it does function I am guessing at 10.8V & 425MHz we might see 3450GH & 650W ?

Rich

As long as the underclocking goes hand-in-hand with undervolting, it should.  Chip's datasheet claims 21.25Gh, ~0.18J/Gh at 0.6V - which should be at 450MHz clock.  Non-linearity of the driving circuit notwithstanding, there should be efficiency gains at the wall as well.

guess that does not improve efficiency... (as with s5, i think  )

Have you tested underclocking at all?  I wonder how efficient it can get.

I agree, that would be nice as well.
That being said the S5 is still a solid miner and runs in that range at close to 1.2 th/s.

On stock settings I am getting 1250 watts at 4.9+ th/s on average.
So not bad at all.  Using 110v though has higher amperage than running at 220v.

Customer Service I rate based on experience with them for issues and from other customer feedback.
Bitmain as a whole has for the most part been solid in that area. If the company has issues or is new I note that as well.

Your welcome. I love mining. I have been quiet lately though as I have a new son at home now. Nearly two months old. 

I really really like these units but just to expensive for me. I really hope Bitmain listens and makes a smaller more friendlier unit. Given the great efficiency of the chips. A nice 500-600w miner for home (essentially half an S7) would be BRILLIANT!

awsome! and what's about the power consumption? it is 1210w?
My S5 are running at 350Mhz and draining 575w, and the s7?