On 23 August 2018, Bitmain, the world’s largest manufacturer of (ASIC-based) crypto mining hardware, announced Antminer S9 Hydro, its newest and most powerful Bitcoin miner.
Antminer S9 Hydro is the Chinese company’s newest flagship, and the eighth product it has launched this year. It supports the SHA-256 secure hash algorithm, which means that it can be used for mining both Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
It uses a water-cooled system to reduce both noise and power consumption. The two key specs are a hashate of 18 Terahash (i.e. 18 trillion hashes) per second; and a power consumption of 1728W.
The water cooling system can be hooked up to an outdoor water source:
“Thanks to the customized and high-precision water cooling module, S9 Hydro can support the direct introduction of outdoor water source that meets the water quality requirements and quickly cool down the computing boards and other components inside the miner. During operation, the chip temperature difference is only around 5°C, which can greatly improve the performance and stability of the miner.”
Large mining farms with an outdoor water source, the reduction can save 8%-12% on electricity costs. Since this design can cool the inside of the miner, it should be possible to achieve better long-term operation stability. Another advantage over air-cooled systems is that it significantly reduces the amount of air that needs to flow inside the miner, which helps to avoid “dust deposits inside the machine, and decreases the risk of short circuit or corrosion of internal components.”
The water cooling system “reduces not only the internal temperature of the miner, but also most of its noise during the operation” (Bitmain claims you get 20 decibels less noise than with air cooling).
The S9 Hydro is available from today in Bitmain’s Chinese online store at a price of 7,450 Chinese yuan (approximately $1,080); delivery time is “7 days after confirmation of payment.”
Today’s news comes just two days after a report came out that claimed that Bitmain may be losing its technological edge, and as Bitmain reportedly gets ready for an upcoming initial public offering (IPO) next month.
Featured Image Courtesy of Bitmain
