Review of the Bitcoin Asic Miner Bitmain Antminer S5

Posted on by johnnybate by

Bitmain recently introduced the Antminer S5 with their next generation chip. The S5 has the familiar open blade design as the S1 with panels on the sides to direct airflow without being completely encapsulated as the S3. What makes the S5 shine are the new chips. The S5 consumes 560 watts in our tests and runs at 1.1 to 1.2 th/s.





Specifications Antminer S5:

  • Hash Rate: 1155 GH/s ±5%
  • Power Consumption: 560 to 590 W
  • Power Efficiency: 0.51 J/GH
  • Chips 60x Bitmain BM1384 Gen3
  • Rated Voltage: 12V
  • Dimensions: 298 mm x 137 mm x 155 mm
  • Cooling: 1x 12038 fan
  • Operating Conditions: 0 °C to 35 °C
  • Network Connection: Ethernet

Also Read:  Bitmain Antminer S4 Review: 2 th/s Bitcoin ASIC Miner

Review of Antminer S5

The shipping gods were benevolent this time and Bitmain sent them prepared in case they were not. S5 arrived very well packaged in a rigid bubble wrap casing. This new packaging protects the Antminer from damage it can take in transit. The first thing we noticed was how light the S5 is at just 6.5 lbs. This light weight is due to the use of plastic side panels directing the airflow on the outside as opposed to the full metal casing the S3 had. While they feel a bit flimsy the tight fit and well-placed screw’s keep them secure. The top and bottom are open with simple access to the top for the four PCIe power connections. The S5 is noisy due the single 120mm fan that drives the air over the blades not being the best. The Antminer S5 runs at 61 to 65 dB at 4 feet. While not an immediate divorce maker, they are not quiet enough to put in your living room.

Low Power Consumption, Solid Hashrate






For this review, we used a Dell 1200 watt server PSU with a custom breakout controller board being made in conjunction of HolyBitcoin and J4bberwock. (We will have a full review of server PSUs and breakout boards for them in the coming weeks.) We also tested with an EVGA 1300 watt Supernova. The S5 pulled 560 watts at 110v from both PSUs. For this test, we used BTCGuild and Antpool where the S5 consistently ran at 1.186 th/s. This aggressive chip brings Bitmain up to the top with the Spondoolies-Tech SP20 even slightly better. The move is a good one as falling BTC value has made each gh/s you can squeeze out of a chip at the lowest power usage a win.

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