Earlier this year I bought a few 280x and used them for mining. Now, they were used for approximately 2 and a half months before I stopped. I've heard that extended mining can be harmful for GPUs.

1- Now, is 2.5 months long enough to do any harm? They were running 24/7.

2- Is there a program out there to test the reliability of my GPUs?

I've downloaded a few programs to benchmark them (3Dmark, Unigine). Everything seems to be ok but these programs measure performance right? (fps, temperature, etc...) They won't tell me if my GPUs are fully functional. Or maybe it's the same thing I don't know. I want to sell them and before I do I want to make certain that they're 100% functional. Any advice?

Just came back from a 4 months hiatus from the world of crytos. My GPU rigs have been asleep for the summer because of the heat. Right now, is it still possible to use a GPU rig in a manner that will be profitable? Or should I just dismantle them and sell the parts?

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this question. If not please redirect me to the right board.

I googled a bit but didn't find anything conclusive. What is currently the easiest way to convert my LTCs to BTC?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFdfle1_nb0

This is kinda long(13 min) but he seems to be really optimistic about it.

I have a question. When I fool around in CGwatcher, the program tells me that if my GPUs reach a certain temperature, it will lower their intensities. I came back from work today and my GPUs were running at 81C, 81C and 82C and CGwatcher was telling me that my GPUs were still fine (a green check). I have 3 280x in this rig. I read somewhere that it's bad when your GPUs reach 80C because the fan will be working overtime to keep them cool which will drastically shorten their lifespan. I don't know what temperature CGwatcher would consider unsafe but obviously 80C was still OK for the program. Is there a way to lower this temperature. For example, is there a way to tell CGwatcher that if the GPUs reach 75, to start lowering the intensity?

Problem solved!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkFg8_7E_iw&feature=youtu.be

So... Defective controller? I don't much care. Now this thing can run 24/7 and I can sleep at night.

A big thank you to everyone who helped to solve the problem.

Plenty of good suggestions. Thanks guys.

The reason I wanted to try to change the fan was that I thought maybe one of the wires is defective and, as STT mentionned, "theres power and there is one wire for measuring rpm of the fan.    If it cant read that, it'll max the volts to max the rpm (as failsafe)." So I was thinking changing the fan for a similar one was worth a shot.

The other idea I had was to basically go for a weaker fan. The one that came with the antminer is 12V, 1 amp. And it's pretty noisy at max power. I tried one of my PC case's fan and this one is 12V and 0.16amp. It is dead silent, but it is also so weak that I wouldn't want to risk using it on the antminer and having it overheat and possibly bricking the unit for good. So I was thinking about a fan that was maybe 0.3 or 0.4 amp. Do those even exist? Running at full power it probably wouldn't be too noisy and it would get the job done until the day I retire my antminer for good.

Trying to plug the fan on the other fan connector is a GREAT idea. The problem is that the wire is too short. But it's still worth a shot. I'll unscrew the fan tomorrow and place it on the other side to try it. If the fan runs normally then my problem will be solved. I'll just connect the fan on the other side of the unit for good. If the fan still runs at maximum then the problem is clearly the fan so I'll just get a new one. I could also try s1lverbox 's solution. My time during the day is limited but I will try to make time for this tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the help.

I'm worried that if I modify a regular case fan that way, it might not be powerful enough to keep the antminer properly cooled. Anyway. Thanks for the link. I'll look it over.

These fans are not commonly used. They are:

- 120mm X 38mm
- 12V
- PMW(I don't even know what that means)
- 4 pin connector

But it's a different kind of 4 pin connector. I tried one of my 120mm PC case fans and the 4 pin connector didn't fit. The little pieces of plastic on top of my PC fan connector are aligned with pin 1 and 3. On the Antminer fan the little pieces of plastic are aligned with pin 1 and 4

It's the third connector in that picture, the one labeled "4 Pin with PMW signal Molex small"

http://media.bestofmicro.com/0/H/312353/original/molex-en.png

I have yet to find those types of fans anywhere. I googled a bunch. Looked on Ebay and Amazon but they always have the wrong connectors. Are those fans even sold anywhere?

Thanks for all the replies. I'm really bad at soldering so to me that's not really an option. I thought possibly the firmware might be dated but it turns out I have the latest one.

I'll try replacing the fan. If that doesn't work I don't know what I'll do. Maybe turn it off at night.

I tried using one of my PC case's fans but it didn't fit. It's weird. The fan from my PC case has a 4 pin connector but it's a different 4 pin connector. Maybe because the one from the Antminer is a higher powered fan? I'll try to go at my local computer store and see if they have that model of fans.

Thank you very much for the response!   Yours sound kinda loud too but not quite as loud as mine. I sent an e-mail to Bitmain. I don't really expect an answer but it's worth a shot.

I tried doing the master reset thing. When I pressed the button, the lights on both blades stopped blinking (no longer mining) but the fan never stopped. I had to re-enter all my miner config info, which confirmed that the master reset happened, but yeah the fan never got slower. I tried unplugging all the power cables and replugging them. No difference. I also tried unplugging the fan wire and replugging it. Nothing either. Anyway, thanks for the help man. I'll go through the entire menu. Maybe there's something that controls the fan in there.

If I go into my Antminer's status screen, under Status, and Miner status, it says that the RPM of my fan is 15120. The temperature of both blades is at 35. I would be really curious to know the speed of the fan from other users on this forum.

This is nuts. I'm supposed to sleep in the next room. If I can't find a solution for this I'll have to turn it off at night and that'll just kill my possible ROI.

Everything in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqiW_-JIW_o

Please comment.

Should I be worried?

(please forgive the horrible video quality. It's an old webcam)

Can anyone tell me what HODL means?

http://www.vnbitcoin.org/bitcoincalculator.php

This calculator predicts a 99,416,291,020 difficulty by year's end. They assume a 14.55% increase every cycle. Is this really a possible scenario? With predictions like these, no ASIC hardware will break even.

Isn't it more likely that the difficulty rise will slow down a bit at some point? If I understand this correctly, a 99 billion difficulty would mean that the network's total hashing power would be 20 times what it is now by year's end. I find that hard to believe. Thoughts?

Juan,
just a quick question. My order has been updated with "Payment at @ Chase 3/24/14" and "Shipping List". Does that mean you've received my payment and that the miner has shipped?

Est ce une tendance qui va continuer? C'est un peu inquietant, je viens de m'acheter un Antminer S1. 

I want to purchase something from a website that only accepts bitcoins. I signed up with btc-e.com but they don't accept credit cards. Is there a place online where I can purchase a bit coin with a credit card or something?

I've been wondering about this overhead. Is it safe to run a PSU at full capacity 24/7 non stop for a really long time? How much leftover wattage (if any) do you need for a stable rig temperature wise? 100-200 watts? 10% of the watts?