Topic: [Review] Spondoolies SP20 review - A Green miner with a Loud fan - page 9. (Read 21001 times)
December 17, 2014, 11:57:32 PM
Back of the ASIC board, clean layout
December 17, 2014, 11:54:56 PM
The heat sink uses a copper plate mounted together with aluminum heat sink that you could see on CPUs 10-20 years ago, they are joined together with some white thermal grease (which is not quality thermal compound). And the large contact surface of the copper plate does not really help since the contact surface with ASIC is small. You can see there are some thermal grease on the ASIC chip capacitors, and they are still wet as I touch them with a needle
If you re-condition the heat sink components and replace the white thermal grease with MX4 or even liquid metal on ASIC surfaces, that could bring down the temp 5-10 degrees. But due to the weak heat sink, it still can't carry out the heat enough fast unless you have huge amount of airflow passing through
It is a pitty that a modern 28nm processor only equipped with a heat sink that is decades ago, without heatpipe, without many thin finns. This in turn caused the annoying noise issue
If you re-condition the heat sink components and replace the white thermal grease with MX4 or even liquid metal on ASIC surfaces, that could bring down the temp 5-10 degrees. But due to the weak heat sink, it still can't carry out the heat enough fast unless you have huge amount of airflow passing through
It is a pitty that a modern 28nm processor only equipped with a heat sink that is decades ago, without heatpipe, without many thin finns. This in turn caused the annoying noise issue
December 17, 2014, 11:41:39 PM
The heat sink is hold tight not only by 2 screws on each corner, but also two drop of glue on each side. The glue is very hard, which makes the removal and refitting of the heat sink more difficult: you have to cut the glue first , and later when you install it back, you need some similar glue that can tolerate high temperature of the heat sink, a normal heat glue gun will not work
December 17, 2014, 11:37:54 PM
4 ASIC chips per board
December 17, 2014, 11:36:34 PM
Left is a replacement fan I planned to put in. Unfortunately they don't have the same socket type and even the pin out is different. If I want to install other PWM fans, I would have to take the original plug and wire, solder on a PWM socket to make an adaptor
December 17, 2014, 11:33:00 PM
It uses a channel design to cool both the heat sink and the VRM on the back of the board, so an open case cooling solution might not be as optimal
December 17, 2014, 11:30:50 PM
Controller board
December 17, 2014, 11:30:09 PM
Open the case
December 17, 2014, 04:42:36 AM
Thank you for the review.
Thank you too for letting us review such a great product!
Before I started to operate SP20, I thought this kind of products are just like many other miners on the market: You stack them up in a mining farm and pay lots of electricity and cooling cost, and sell the coins to cover these cost, and bring down the bitcoin exchange rate during the process. I even planned to give it to friends who are interested in bitcoin after this review
But after seeing the stunning efficiency of this miner, I'm very impressed. I had a feeling that the old good mining time is back: With this unit running at 500W, the electricity cost is neglectable, so anyone can just hold on to all the mined coins without selling a bit
Now I'm very interested to run it for an extensive period of time with a modified cooling solution
so far no one has found a better fan solution. I do think if you fully tear the machine down it could be cooled quieter.
Right now I have six.
I wish I ordered more.
I would try lower downclock then my 1350gh and 750 watts.
your review means my 6 x 750 watt = 4.5kwatts and 6 x 1350 = 8100gh could read
6 x 440 watts = 2.6 kwatts and 6 x 940 = 5640gh
I can do more then the 6. I will look forward to any idea you have to manage noise.
I think the only way to cool it down better without lowering ambient is to take it out of the case and strap fans or point fans at the boards individually.
There is however one problem handling the boards. The heatsinks are only secured in two diagonally opposite locations, and it only takes a small bit of pressure to move the heatsink off the die which breaks the TIM seal between the die and the heatsink, it also may risk crushing or damaging the die, although that hasn't happened to me yet. But I think once you disturb the TIM seal it can affect temps.
December 17, 2014, 04:25:43 AM
Thank you for the review.
Thank you too for letting us review such a great product!
Before I started to operate SP20, I thought this kind of products are just like many other miners on the market: You stack them up in a mining farm and pay lots of electricity and cooling cost, and sell the coins to cover these cost, and bring down the bitcoin exchange rate during the process. I even planned to give it to friends who are interested in bitcoin after this review
But after seeing the stunning efficiency of this miner, I'm very impressed. I had a feeling that the old good mining time is back: With this unit running at 500W, the electricity cost is neglectable, so anyone can just hold on to all the mined coins without selling a bit
Now I'm very interested to run it for an extensive period of time with a modified cooling solution
so far no one has found a better fan solution. I do think if you fully tear the machine down it could be cooled quieter.
Right now I have six.
I wish I ordered more.
I would try lower downclock then my 1350gh and 750 watts.
your review means my 6 x 750 watt = 4.5kwatts and 6 x 1350 = 8100gh could read
6 x 440 watts = 2.6 kwatts and 6 x 940 = 5640gh
I can do more then the 6. I will look forward to any idea you have to manage noise.
December 17, 2014, 04:19:35 AM
And the only problem for home mining is its noise, just like a vacuum cleaning running, it is impossible to run at home. With even one door closed I can hear it clearly far away. So either you run it in a specialized garage/mining farm, or you have to take some modification for the cooling system. I will take it apart tomorrow to see what I can do with it
I suppose that the original fan deliver a huge amount of airflow like 200 CFM maximum, but when heavily under clocked, maybe a general low CFM/noise fan can deal with the heat
I suppose that the original fan deliver a huge amount of airflow like 200 CFM maximum, but when heavily under clocked, maybe a general low CFM/noise fan can deal with the heat
I'm personally thinking of buying a better fan and swapping it in, wonder if that'll make a huge difference?
Just heats up quicker.
The heat sink on SP20 is just entry level plain aluminum heat sink, they don't have huge surface area like those heat pipe heat sink with many thin aluminum fins, so the airflow must be very high to reduce the surface temperature
I just measured 20% fan speed noise at 1 meter away with my sound meter app, it is still 67db, and I personal feel is close to in car noise on highway (70+-db)
December 17, 2014, 03:27:28 AM
And the only problem for home mining is its noise, just like a vacuum cleaning running, it is impossible to run at home. With even one door closed I can hear it clearly far away. So either you run it in a specialized garage/mining farm, or you have to take some modification for the cooling system. I will take it apart tomorrow to see what I can do with it
I suppose that the original fan deliver a huge amount of airflow like 200 CFM maximum, but when heavily under clocked, maybe a general low CFM/noise fan can deal with the heat
I suppose that the original fan deliver a huge amount of airflow like 200 CFM maximum, but when heavily under clocked, maybe a general low CFM/noise fan can deal with the heat
I'm personally thinking of buying a better fan and swapping it in, wonder if that'll make a huge difference?
Just heats up quicker.
December 17, 2014, 03:13:37 AM
Thank you for the review.
Thank you too for letting us review such a great product!
Before I started to operate SP20, I thought this kind of products are just like many other miners on the market: You stack them up in a mining farm and pay lots of electricity and cooling cost, and sell the coins to cover these cost, and bring down the bitcoin exchange rate during the process. I even planned to give it to friends who are interested in bitcoin after this review
But after seeing the stunning efficiency of this miner, I'm very impressed. I had a feeling that the old good mining time is back: With this unit running at 500W, the electricity cost is neglectable, so anyone can just hold on to all the mined coins without selling a bit
Now I'm very interested to run it for an extensive period of time with a modified cooling solution
December 17, 2014, 02:57:05 AM
Just upgraded the firmware to the latest version 2.5.33, now I can drop the fan speed to 20 percent, still plenty of airflow (more than 100 CFM) but noise has come down quite a bit. I think if it is a pwm fan, even 10% could work, since now the back end temp is mere 46c degree, and I have seen some miners have a backend temp as high as 70c degree
December 17, 2014, 02:51:59 AM
And the amazing thing with SP20:
each of the two PSU draws only 220W on wall! With only 440W I can get 940GH, e.g. 0.47J/GH on Wall. A 20nm very efficient Knc Neptune running 3.3TH at 1900W on wall, that is barely 0.58J/GH. And SP20 at 1.4GH draws around 800W, on par with Neptune, it is definitely a nice choice given the current market price of $659 per unit, very well engineered product!
Thank you for the review. each of the two PSU draws only 220W on wall! With only 440W I can get 940GH, e.g. 0.47J/GH on Wall. A 20nm very efficient Knc Neptune running 3.3TH at 1900W on wall, that is barely 0.58J/GH. And SP20 at 1.4GH draws around 800W, on par with Neptune, it is definitely a nice choice given the current market price of $659 per unit, very well engineered product!
December 17, 2014, 01:08:44 AM
And the only problem for home mining is its noise, just like a vacuum cleaning running, it is impossible to run at home. With even one door closed I can hear it clearly far away. So either you run it in a specialized garage/mining farm, or you have to take some modification for the cooling system. I will take it apart tomorrow to see what I can do with it
I suppose that the original fan deliver a huge amount of airflow like 200 CFM maximum, but when heavily under clocked, maybe a general low CFM/noise fan can deal with the heat
I suppose that the original fan deliver a huge amount of airflow like 200 CFM maximum, but when heavily under clocked, maybe a general low CFM/noise fan can deal with the heat
I'm personally thinking of buying a better fan and swapping it in, wonder if that'll make a huge difference?
Currently I can put it close to window, where 5c cold air are sucked into the room, maybe even a GT1850 (which is almost silent) can deal with the heat. But who knows when summer comes
Just checked the fan, it is more than 2A, definitely over 200 CFM, this is standard for server application, but not suitable at home
December 17, 2014, 01:04:43 AM
And the only problem for home mining is its noise, just like a vacuum cleaning running, it is impossible to run at home. With even one door closed I can hear it clearly far away. So either you run it in a specialized garage/mining farm, or you have to take some modification for the cooling system. I will take it apart tomorrow to see what I can do with it
I suppose that the original fan deliver a huge amount of airflow like 200 CFM maximum, but when heavily under clocked, maybe a general low CFM/noise fan can deal with the heat
I suppose that the original fan deliver a huge amount of airflow like 200 CFM maximum, but when heavily under clocked, maybe a general low CFM/noise fan can deal with the heat
I'm personally thinking of buying a better fan and swapping it in, wonder if that'll make a huge difference?
December 17, 2014, 12:54:26 AM
And the only problem for home mining is its noise, just like a vacuum cleaner running, it is impossible to run at home. With even one door closed I can hear it clearly far away. So either you run it in a specialized garage/mining farm, or you have to take some modification for the cooling system. I will take it apart tomorrow to see what I can do with it
I suppose that the original fan deliver a huge amount of airflow like 200 CFM maximum, but when heavily under clocked, maybe a general low CFM/noise fan can deal with the heat
I suppose that the original fan deliver a huge amount of airflow like 200 CFM maximum, but when heavily under clocked, maybe a general low CFM/noise fan can deal with the heat
December 17, 2014, 12:48:14 AM
those are the lowest numbers yet. damn they are good.
please show a screen shot of the settings page.
please show a screen shot of the settings page.
Now after a restart it turns to 900GH, and ASIC stats shows lower frequency at 595Hz. Maybe due to rise in room temperature, anyway, settings are all set to 0.6
December 17, 2014, 12:26:08 AM
those are the lowest numbers yet. damn they are good.
please show a screen shot of the settings page.
please show a screen shot of the settings page.
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