Has anyone tried a liquid-cooling solution? I was thinking it might bring down weight and noise a lot...
I would love to see bitmain do this in the S2.
however, from an end-user POV there are two issues I see:
1) cost of building custom waterblocks is high, probably more then what you would save over air cooling (maybe $25/month) and by getting the extra 5-10GH (~$50), particularly in small quantities
2) you could try immersion cooling similar to asicminer, but the initial costs for that are very high (You would probably need to spend a few thousand in r&d to have one designed for 1TH or so)
In bulk, the prices could be reasonable. I'm sure bitmain could have custom waterblocks made in china that weigh a little more then the current heatsinks for an extra $10 each.
Add in hoses, pumps, and a radiator - you could build a 1TH antminer that takes up about the space of 3 S1 units (weighing about the same as 3 units) and requires only 2 fans on a decent radiator. The final cost might be achievable at a 5% premium over current costs.
I can envision having an antminer where a pair of big waterblocks measuring about 10"x10"x2" (about the size of two of the current heatsinks stacked vertically) could have 4 blades bolted to each it and would only require about the same amount of space as 2 antminers
{[]} {[]}
{[]} {[]} {,} represent hashing boards [] represents waterblock
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[radiator]
however, the design costs for this would probably outweigh the benefits up until at least making >100 of them. There would also become the risk of liquids in your mining farm if build quality is lacking or hoses get pulled loose
