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.