Review of Antminer S9E vs S9K Performance

Just got my hands on 2 S9Es. Wanted to see how they stack up against the other S9 models. Design-wise, they’re almost identical in depth and width to previous versions but are a bit taller, about 2cm more. The closed-top design makes it a bit tricky to fit the PSU cables through a small hole at the bottom left of the cover.

Any updates on your S9Es? Still running fine? Sometimes new gear reveals issues after a few days. Thinking about getting either these or the S9K. The K is slower but it’s way cheaper. -Dave

Still good, running cooler than my other miners. I also have an S9K, it performs almost like the S9j and S9i. But I’ve heard some horror stories about the S9K, like people claiming Bitmain used old, bad boards for it. Can't confirm, but it's definitely suspicious why they’re so cheap.

I think the S9K and S9E are pretty much the same machine, just with a different chip, right? The frequencies are close enough to suggest that. S9K and S9E both have 180 chips, while the standard S9 has 189. So maybe they’ve just tweaked the chip size?

That makes sense, but shouldn’t the S9E run hotter if they use the same chips? Higher frequency usually means more heat, even if it’s under-volted. What do you think?

Watch your fan speeds. I have two T9+ units running at 12th, but they have different temps. One fan runs at 4000rpm, the other at 5200rpm, yet the slower one is cooler. Can you post the stats for your S9SE and S9K? I want to see how they compare.

Fans on the S9K run at higher RPMs but still, the temps are pretty comparable. The S9K has fans at 5880 and 5670, while the S9E is at 5280 and 5640. Here’s the breakdown: 1-S9E 2-S9K You’re right about the chip count, but I doubt they’re the same chips. The S9E seems bigger, maybe the heatsinks are better, which could explain the cooler operation.

Yeah, lots of factors play into it. Case size, heatsink efficiency, type and number of fans. The heatsinks are mostly the same across all Bitmain miners, but I think there are different versions, which might affect performance.

I really think the heatsinks on the S9E are bigger. I took off one fan and noticed they’re larger. There’s also a grill between the fans and hashboards, unlike the other S9s. Not sure if it’s good or bad, but it’s different.

Could be that they’re just binning chips like Intel does. Not necessarily bad chips, but just rated for different speeds. So you might get boards with chips that perform similarly but with varying heat outputs.

True! The cheaper units might have a higher failure rate, but that doesn’t mean they’re worse. Just less optimized. Example: 100 units with a 25% fail rate vs 5% fail rate. You might still come out ahead with the cheaper ones.

Good point! I was also considering numbers, but I didn’t dig deep enough. Just trying to figure out if I missed anything obvious. Thanks for the insight, man.

Used 100 units for easy math. I’m waiting on 4 S9Ks to ship soon. I’m sending two to my place and two to a friend’s. Hopefully, I can dodge any taxes. If you have cheap power, I’d say go for the S9Es.

Actually, I think it’s smarter to grab the S9K over the S9E. Just look at the cost per TH. The S9E is more expensive per TH when you factor in shipping, especially since it’s heavier.

Just got my S9K delivered today! Haven’t powered it up yet, but I opened it up. The hashboard looks totally different. The heatsinks are noticeably different too.

Looks like they might have reused old S9 boards and added new chips in the gaps. The heatsink colors are different, which is odd. The S9K uses less power than the S9J, but both have similar performance.

Definitely, the S9K and S9E have new designs. New boards and chips. I’m trying to hack into it now. Got SSH access, working on tweaking it. The S9 standard was easy, but the S9K is way more complex.

I’m hoping to adjust the frequency on the S9K, it’s running a bit hot and rebooting a lot. Need to find a way to manage it better.

I’m researching how to hack it too. Currently, I can control the fan and get it into eco mode but it’s not performing well. Found out the S9K/S9E likely uses Samsung chips. And the community has a firmware that allows SSH access.

Any updates on this? I’ve got S9Ks coming and I’m keen to try a different firmware. The current one works better than stock but lacks options for tweaking performance.