I’m probably re-searching all of this to death but that’s just the way I approach every business and this one has the chance to be very profitable and trouble free or an absolute nightmare.
In all of my research and a common theme keeps popping up. Bitmain seems to be an absolutely horrible company that is exactly what everyone is scared of when dealing with Chinese companies. Their products seem to be just shy of being garbage and when compared to what they could be. The micro BT whatsminer seems to be an incredibly well-built and well engineered machine and from what I have read and heard the man who started micro BT is the engineer behind the Bitmain S9 but then he left and that’s why the S17 was such a piece of crap. That’s also the reason they use such a big case. Poor engineering. The heat sinks on the VT mechanically attached. Seems like a much better solution then what is basically just glue on the Bitmain.
ASIC chips in the Bitmain are evidently a more consistent quality which is more a statement of the chip manufacture more than Bitmain.
There seems to be so many advantages with the BT. The only downfall seems to be they use a larger chip and are not quite as efficient with power usage.
So I’m wondering does anyone here have experience with both? There doesn’t seem to be many firmware up grades for the BT products which may be because they don’t need them. I also just realized that I can fit twice as many M31s (50)in the immersion tank were building than I can S 17‘s or 19 (26). Well maybe not exactly double the amount but close enough.
I think you hit just about everything with your comments. I have both (admittedly just one Whatsminer). Both brands (at least of what I own) hit their marks for advertised hashrate and power usage.
The only things I would add to your comments are that the C13/14 setup on the Bitmains is easier to deal with IMO. The C19/20 makes sense to have just one cord, but the cords aren’t as easy to find and are more expensive. Not a huge issue, but just something to think about. The second thing, which is more of an issue, is that if you’re running in air, the Whatsminer is WAY louder than the Bitmain units. Because it’s using one bigger fan to get (what I assume is) similar airflow to an Antminer, it’s just super noisy. If you’re worried at all about neighbors, family, spouse, etc., it’s a real issue in my experience.
We will be running everything in immersion so I’m not really concerned with noise or heat. I didn’t realize the cords were different though. Thanks for pointing it out.
I’m running both. I have one M21 (I think) and 3-4 L3+ machines. I tend to prefer my Bitmain machines over the Whatsminers. The Whatsminer is louder than the bitmain units, and it is more temperature-sensitive, in that my Bitmain units have been running overclocked for 4ish years, and I have only seen one pull back its hashing power based on the room temp once. However, my whatsminers run in a reduced power mode whenever the room temp gets over 80 which the temp in that room is almost always over 80. The bitmain units also have more options in their web interface. which lets me overclock them very easily, where the whatsminers only have normal and low power modes. Now for what you are doing where they will be “liquid-cooled” that gets rid of the two biggest problems I have with mine. plus for you since space is more of an issue, the smaller form factor of the whatsminers would be a huge advantage. I also had a horrible time with the U.S. dealer for whatsminer, and personally would never buy from them again.
Thanks for all that info. I love all the interaction from the users on this platform. Do you mind telling me who the US dealer is that gave you problems and what those problems consisted of? Either on this thread or by PM. I spoke with a dealer out of Florida yesterday and he was quite helpful and most regards but very defensive when it came to he’s comparing his product to the Bitmain product as well as seemed quite upset when I talked about overclocking in immersion. Although he was very quick to admit that he is a software programmer by trade with an electronics engineering background and engineers tend to be very standoffish about talking about things that have not been tested.
It might be the same guy, the place I bought from was whatsminer.net. (This was a couple of years ago so some of the details might not be exact.) The problem was that my machine was way delayed in shipping. It was odd, a guy I work with and I both ordered machines from him around the same time with my co-worker ordering a week or two after I did, and his machine came a month or so before mine. I emailed the guy several times, and never heard back from him. I finally emailed him and said this wasn’t acceptable that he wasn’t responding and that my machine hadn’t been sent out. I said I was thinking about filing a claim with his local police department for theft since he had my payment but wasn’t sending out the machine, and then he started threatening me, saying that since he is Florida he could sue me for saying I might call the police, and that I wasn’t the first person to try calling the cops on him…etc.etc.etc. He was just extremely rude, when all he had to do was either say he forgot about my order, or that there was a delay, but after being severely delayed in shipping my order I never heard from him until I started really bugging him, and telling other people what was happening on some other crypto forums, then he got in touch and demanded I take down what I wrote on the forums. I understand delays and would have been fine if he just owned up to the delay, but instead, he went ballistic and started giving me a bunch of crap for his mistake.
That sucks. People forget we’re all human and just being honest even if it isn’t what you want to hear goes a long way with most people. The truth is always better even if it makes you mad. That is the same company that I spoke with though. Hopefully he has learned a thing or two since then. His business partner is family friends with the head engineer who is also the founder of BTMiner.
I think It was an out of the ordinary experience for that company, as my co-worker didn’t have a single issue, and all of his stuff was delivered on time.