Recently, Bitmain has introduced a new miner based on the SHA256 algorithm, Antminer S9 Hydro, which immediately attracted widespread attention ever since. We finally witness the mass-produced water-cooling miner in the real sense! S9 Hydro miner is suitable for BTC, BCH, DGB and other SHA256 currencies. It adapts to Antminer APW5 silent power supply with low temperature, low noise and immunity to dusts.
The design of water-cooling miner enables the scaled mining field with more space, such as the separation of hash components and heat dissipation parts, small mining fields are equipped with small water tanks and water-cooling heat sinks; large mining fields are equipped with water purification devices and cooling towers to convert cold water into hot water through water cooling system. Or the mining can also be used in other situations, the future is really worth looking forward to …
Perhaps in the future, the mining can be applied to community heating, hot water supply for hotels, bathing centers, spring centers, tropical fish aquaculture, greenhouse vegetable planting, etc., instead of heating the air and wasting the energy for nothing, just imagine the future…
Now, EastShore will bring the evaluation on Antminer S9 Hydro.
Official Parameters
| Brand | Antminer S9 Hydro |
| Hashrate | 18 TH/s (+/-5%) @ SHA256 |
| Power consumption | 1728w(with Antminer APW5) |
| Efficiency | 96J/TH± 10% |
| Size | 360mm (L) * 125mm (W) * 190mm (H) (including elbow pipes) |
Unpacking Photos
The whole set of S9 Hydro consists of three separate packaging boxes: water radiator, miner and power supply. The three parts are packed in industrial carton with the physical dimensions marked on the outer casing.
Open the box we can find the water radiator and power supply are wrapped in dustproof and waterproof bags as well as EPE foams. The miner is protected by ESD bag plus EPE foams.
In the package, the water pipes of the miner are also protected by EPE foams to prevent accidents during transportation.
The complete kits include: water radiator=1, APW5 power supply=1, S9 Hydro miner=1, user manual=1, quality certificate=1, connecting pipe=4, water pipe buckle=10.
External Appearance of Water Radiator
The water radiator is composed of water tank, water pump, heat sink and cooling fans. A windshield is added to the air inlet side to ensure security.
Air outlet side of water radiator
Details of water radiator: water outlet locates at the bottom of all-in-one pump, the water tank is in the middle and the upper side is the back water inlet and filling inlet.
Details of water radiator: stainless steel handle for portability
Disassembly details of Water-Cooling radiator
More detailed parameters can be seen through disassembly: FREEZE MOD dedicated water-cooling all-in-one pump.
Two 390*24*120 water-cooling radiators.
Six Cooler Master 12025-1A four-core PWM silent fans.
Outer Experience of S9 Hydro Antminer
The outer appearance is similar to that of the S9 series. The dimensions are 365*150*185 and the net weight without water is 5.15KG.
Since the bottom is partially raised for water cooling sheets and the rear is also equipped with water pipes, it looks slightly larger than S9 Antminer.
Two splitters are installed on the rear to be connected to 6 tubes toward the internal cooling fins by the in-and-out circulation.
Miner details: One Cooler Master 12025 PWM fan is installed on the interface side to enhance air circulation inside the miner.
The controller and interface panel are the same with S9.
Disassembly Details of S9 Hydro Antminer
The internal structure and water-cooling principle can be clearly seen after disassembly.
The miner consists of four hashboards, one piece more than that of S9, so the hashrate is correspondingly higher than S9 (three hashboards).
Every two hashboards are surrounded by 3 water-cooling sheets to reduce temperature by in-and-out circulation.
There are as many as 12 water pipes in the rear.
Side baffle for interface fans.
Overview of miner disassembly.
Antminer APW5 Outer Appearance
APW5 is a dedicated silent power supply developed for Antminer S9 Hydro.
Power output 12V, 216A, rated power 2600W, 94% conversion efficiency with good materials.
One AVC 0.3A silent fan is used for heat dissipation. The fan is designed at the top to release the air from the rear. It owns outstanding mute performance and temperature control.
Detailed disassembly of APW5 Power Supply
Overview of Power Supply Disassembly
In addition, the Bitmain also designed a special bracket(S9 Hydor-BRKT) for power supply, which can be portable or integrated with the miner for the sake of convenient delivery.
Installation and Setting-up
The installation and setting-up of Antminer S9 Hydro are a little complicated. Please refer to Tutorial for Antminer S9 Hydro Water Cooling Bitcoin Miner for details.
Once the setup is completed, the S9 Hydro starts running tens of seconds later. The real-time status is shown on the “Miner Status” page.
Performance Test
When the miner is powered on, the fan will run at full speed. The noise level then can reach 76.5dB, the standby power consumption is about 279W and the wind speed is 7.8 m/s.
During normal running of miner, the fan speed decreases. The noise level then is measured as 64dB at the minimum distance and the power consumption is about 1800W.
The noise is measured as 54.7 dB at about 2 meters away, which is equivalent to that of the stand fan at home, so the noise is well controlled.
The temperatures measured at different places of the miner and water radiator are as follows: the chip temperature is 58-63℃, the temperature of the miner, water pipes and water tank are 34-42℃ and the temperature of air outlet is 58-60℃. We can see the overall temperature control is quite excellent.
After 24 hours of uninterrupted test, the average hashrate tested by F2Pool is 18TH/s and the received hashrate of the pool is stable without big fluctuations.
Summary
| Brand | Antminer S9 Hydro |
| Hashrate(Avg.) | 18 TH/s |
| Power consumption(Avg.) | 1800W |
| W/TH | 100W/TH |
| Temperature(Hashboard) | 58℃ – 63℃ |
| Temperature(miner & water pipes ) | 35℃ – 42℃ |
| Temperature(Air outlet) | 59℃ |
| Noise | 64 dB |
| Noise(2M away) | 55 dB |
| Feature | Cool; Silent |
Ⅰ. Individual Player DIY
Although the miner with water cooling system has appeared in early years, the mass-produced water-cooling miner has never showed up before. In general, this water-cooling miner is of great playability and it’s very suitable for mining fans with strong DIY capability.
The single miner and water radiator can be placed at home or in the office. In summer, the tube can be added to extend the water radiator to outdoors or semiconductor refrigeration fins can be equipped to enhance cooling effect. Special coolant can also be used or just prepare a fish tank to raise some tropical fish. Or directly place indoors in winter to serve as heater. So, the mining has been done, the issue of winter heating has been solved with electricity subsidies. We are expecting more water-cooling miners with better price performance so that all the common mining fans can sense the real existence of blockchain.
Ⅱ. Intensive Deployment in Mining Farms
In mining farms, since there’s no need to consider the air duct cooling, the air inlet and outlet, the power consumption of fans and the water curtain arrangement. Within the unit area we only need to consider the size of water inlet and outlet pipes to greatly increase the miner quantity in unit area. Of course, we don’t have to worry about noise disturbance and corrosion by dust deposition. The miner keeps running at low temperature and clean state with improved reliability and stable operation, the efficiency will not be a problem naturally. Of course, we also need to consider the costs and maintenance difficulty of water-cooling miners.
Ⅲ. Two words for this type of miner: Cool and Silent
- Cool: Good temperature control by water cooling system, which plays a key role in smooth operation of the miner.
- Silent: Water cooling system has no specific demands on fans. Although there are six fans running, the noise is under good control.
Tips
Do not follow the disassembly by EastShore. The warranty will be invalid in following cases:
- Run the miner without connecting water cooling system;
- The miner itself is disassembled and the components are replaced arbitrarily;
- Damages due to lightning strikes, voltage surges, poor quality power supplies, etc.;
- Water leakage, moisture of circuit boards and components, damages by corrosion;
- The circuit board has burn marks or the chip is burnt;
- Overclocking.