Antminer S9 is a bitcoin miner released by Bitmain in June 2016. It adopts the latest generation bitcoin miner chip BM1387 independently developed by Bitmain with a hashrate of 11.85 TH and power consumption of 1172W.

BM1387 is the 5th-generation bitcoin miner chip independently developed by Bitmain with TSMC 16nm FinFET process and application of fully customized designs. The hashrate of single chip can reach 74GH/S with only 0.08W/GH/s power consumption under 0.4V CPU core voltage. It was the bitcoin chip with lowest power consumption in history at that time.

The original version of S9 (submodel: Antminer S9-11.85TH) will be used this time. Now, EastShore will bring the latest evaluation for you.

 

Parameters of Antminer S9

Brand	Antminer S9
Submodel	11.85 TH/s @ 1172w
Hashrate	11.85TH/s ± 5%
Power Consumption	1172w ± 12%
Efficiency	0.1J/GH + 12%
Chips	189 x BM1387

 

Unpacking Photos

Antminer S9 is packed in five-layer industrial carton with complete logistics warehousing label, product barcode, QC and brand logo. The miner is wrapped with EPE foams in suspension to effectively ensure safe transportation.

Inside the box are Antminer S9 and English-version double-sided user’s manual.

Lateral side of Antminer S9

Seen from above, the miner consists of three hashboards and each has three PCI-E 6pin power interfaces.

On the front side, we can see the SD card interface (reserved), IP button, network cable interface, reset button and status indicator (also Antminer logo, QC tag and barcode) as well as the cooling fan for air inlet.

Another side of the miner is a warning tag. On the rear side is the cooling fan (air outlet).

The integrally-molded chassis is made of aluminum alloy, just like Antminer S7, and the hashboards are inserted and fixed through the grooves inside.

Each chip has an independent heat sink in very compact structure.

Physical parameters of the miner is shown as below:

 

Installation and Setting-up

The installation and test of Antminer S9 are not so complicated. Please refer to our guidance ANTMINER GENERAL MINING GUIDE.

 

Performance Test

The test uses Antminer APW3-12-1600-B2 power supply (1600W 80PLUS GOLD). The indoor noise in this test is about 389dBa and the indoor temperature is about 29℃.

With default frequency of 550 and over one day of operation, the hashrate is fluctuating between 11.6-12T, average value is 11.84T. The hashrate curve is stable without obvious fluctuations.

The tested power is 1317W.

Overclocking test, the default frequency is 550, raise third gears to 568.75 and the tested hashrate is about 12.2-12.3T after one-hour operation.

The test power is 1362W when overclocking.

In terms of noise, the fan rotation speed on the configuration page is 4320-4560rmp and the measured noise about 20cm away from the miner is about 81-86dBa.

The measured noise about one meter away from the miner is about 76dBa.

The default setting of fan speed is automatically adjusted based on ambient temperature. During normal operation when the temperature is low at night, the fan speed drops to about 3000-4000rpm, and the measured noise about 20cm away is about 72dBa.

In terms of temperature, with the auto adjustment of the cooling fan, the chip temperature on the configuration page is 63℃ and the temperature on chassis is 36℃.

The measured temperature at air inlet is 32.8℃.

The measured temperature at air outlet is 44.9℃.

 

Summary

• The hashrate of Antminer S9 basically conforms to the official parameters. After a long time of operation, the average hashrate is 11.84T and the curve is stable without big fluctuations. It owns certain space for overclocking. The miner with such high hashrate is suitable for mining farms and the total hashrate of 86 miners can reach 1P.
• The actual power measurement is higher than the official parameter(default frequency 550, hashrate 11.84T and power consumption 1317w). Nevertheless, thanks to the 16nm chip, its performance still ranks the best among the existing miners (the most electricity-saving) in the world.
• The only disadvantage of Antminer S9 is its noise level because it’s the noisiest model among all the Antminer series up to now. Long air duct, the big temperature difference in the front and the rear and high-power cooling fans, if multiple such miners are gathered together in the mining farm with high room temperature, the noise will be very considerable.