Hello there,
I'm from Russia and have ordered 1 x ANTMINER S5 BATCH 4.
Now I need some advice from you ...
I have a new out of the box PSU Fractal Design NEWTON R3 80PLUS® Platinum
http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/power-supplies/newton/newton-r3-600w and I'll going in anyway to connect it to S5.
Which are the potential minuses I'll get if use the PSU NEWTON R3 with Antminer S5? Please list all if it possible.
Thanks.
At 600W draw at the wall, that'll only give you around 10% headroom. If you're comfy with that (also keeping in mind that it's a Platinum PSU), then that's your call. I'd monitor it very closely for the first few days. Also, make sure that the PCIe cables don't get too hot especially during the hottest ambient temperature that you could possibly have.
I'd get a 750W/800W PSU if it were me though and overclock to heart's content without worrying about power requirement.
Agreed.
I've found the relative differences between certifications to often be pretty much immaterial, often a case of a few percentage points that could be re-claimed elsewhere for less.
Considering the base efficiency of these devices, I would aim for higher capacity over slightly better PSU efficiency at this time, as you said. Also, based on what I know of average electricity rates in Russia, I expect he would benefit from OC as you suggested.
Indeed, the difference between a Bronze and a Gold PSU (85% and 90% efficiency respectively) is really not that significant in terms of operational (electricity) cost savings over price difference justification.
For example: with a stock S3+ running at 30C ambient, the difference between an 85% and a 90% efficiency PSU of the same wattage rating (identical load %) would be around 21WAC at the wall which equates to 0.5kWh per day. At a rate of $0.12/kWh, that's a difference of $0.06 per day in power cost savings when using a 90% PSU over an 85% PSU. For the purpose of extrapolation, let's use $40 as an average full retail price difference between these PSUs. That would then give us $40 / $0.06 = 667 days = 22 months = 1.8 years to recoup such a price difference.
Of course one could argue that Gold/Platinum PSUs can be had on sale + rebates. That's true for the Bronze PSUs as well or any PSU for that matter.