Topic: [Review] Bitmain Antminer S5 (Read 8947 times)

Any number of calculators are out there to use, for example: http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator

The 660W is certainly due to the 80 Plus Bronze PSU. I've got 2 S5 and each were only using 580W at the wall using a EVGA 1300W Supernova 80 Plus Gold  PSU. I've now combined 2 S5 to 1 controller card and the 2 combined only pull 1170W at the wall, both running on the EVGA PSU.

Twin S5 using same controller. Modded Delta fans. 120CFM and 148CFM. The temps are 5C cooler with the box fan blowing on them, which also helps circulate the air in my crawl space. Combined the twin S5's are getting 0.508W/GH.
http://www.411px.com/twinS5-withFan.jpg

http://www.411px.com/miners1.jpg
http://www.411px.com/miners2.jpg

The 2 SP20 are running on a Rosewill 1300W 80 Plus Gold. They get about 0.54W/GH

It's definitely loud.  You can replace the fans to make it quieter if you need to.

Hm...How loud is this monsta???I'm worry about that..

Bitmain Antminer S5
Disclaimer: I was given this unit in exchange for my honest review.  P2Pool was used for hashrate testing.



My S5 was delivered by UPS and required a signature.  It was held in place with foam inserts and while it did get the job done, the case on the S5 is made of a thin plastic and only covers the sides leaving some parts exposed, which worried me a bit.  However, no damage was done so I was satisfied with the packing job.



Setting up this miner was pretty easy.  While there is no url link to find the miner's ip like with Spondoolies, I did notice that the S5 accepts any pcie cable, and not just pcie cables with a centered clip on the back (the SP20 wouldn't take my 6+2pin pcie cables because the clip on the back isn't centered).  After your cables are plugged in, you power it on and hear the fan spin up and down a few times before it is ready to go.  The miner starts up fairly loud and doesn't have an adjustable fan setting, which may not make it ideal for home miners.  The interface gets the job done and once I got familiar with all the settings I was more than satisfied with it.  I wanted to get settings near what you would expect from an SP20 for this test, so I decided to test it at stock levels.  It should be noted that the S5 is easily underclocked and has the ability to beat the SP20 on efficiency with the proper settings.

Using the default frequency of 350M my S5 was able to get 1.13TH/s while using 661 watts (0.58W/GH) and exhausting 122 degree heat.  A frequency setting of 325M yielded 1.05TH/s while using 563 watts (0.53W/GH).



Overall I would say this is a great miner and definitely competitive.  It's lower price tag than the SP20 makes it a good option for large scale mining operations, the budget miner that can deal with noise, or someone who wants to tinker with it and optimize the sound/efficiency levels.  The interface gets the job done and is simple enough that I think anyone could figure it out without needing a guide.

In conclusion, the Antminer S5 is a top tier miner.  It's cheaper & cooler than it's closest counterpart (SP20) and is available to ship from stock for as low as $480 on amazon.com.  I am definitely grateful to Bitmain for the opportunity to review this product and I will keep my eye on their offerings in the future.  If you are searching for a cheap, competitive mining product with lots of customization opportunities, you can't go wrong with the S5 from Bitmain.  I even purchased an additional unit for my mining operation at retail price and was happy to do so.

Any updates on new FW?

any changes or just bug fixes? I'm running good so hesitant to upgrade.

I just upgraded to the new firmware.  It was a pretty simple process of downloading the file from the Bitmain website and then upgrading using the miner interface.  It's only been running for a few minutes, but so far so good.

Clicking the reboot option always fixes it for me. I haven't had to power cycle and my temps are sitting in the mid-low 60s. I'm going to have to try the new firmware.