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Ever since Bitcoin’s inception in 2009, crypto mining has remained a hot topic among crypto enthusiasts. In the earlier days, regular Central Processing Units (CPUs) were the source for cryptocurrency mining. However, crypto miners soon realized that this wasn’t fast enough and adopted the graphical processing unit (GPU) to mine cryptocurrencies. But this was not the end! The crypto miners ditched GPU and FPGA processors as soon as ASIC Miners were launched.
Today, both GPUs and ASICs are the highly preferred mining hardware available on the market. Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners are professional mining computers that mine at exceptional speeds while consuming much less power than FPGA or GPU mining rigs. On the other hand, GPU Miners uses the graphics card to solve complex algorithm and are designed to adapt to any cryptocurrency. ASICs are much faster than GPUs, however, they are limited to a narrow set of functions.
ASIC Miners – the new age bitcoin mining hardware
The best bitcoin mining hardware available on market today is Application-specific integrated circuit chips (ASICs). These bitcoin miners are designed specifically to solve Bitcoin blocks. This means that ASIC hardware has a higher capability to solve Bitcoin blocks quickly. Moreover, as compared to older bitcoin mining hardware like CPUs, GPUs or FPGAs, this system consumes much lower electricity. There are many companies producing ASIC mining hardware and each competes with others to improve the technology.
The rising price of Bitcoin and the growing popularity of bitcoin mining means that the mining difficulty has risen. As such, to solve the block and earn a reward, a Bitcoin ASIC system is a must. With advancing technology, Bitcoin ASIC miners are also becoming faster, more efficient and more productive. There are various different models of Bitcoin miners and you need to find which one is right for you. Here we’re going to compare the two most popular and efficient Bitcoin Miners by Bitmain.
AntMiner S9
Today, Bitcoin is the world’s most powerful computing network. Post November 2015, Bitcoin’s Difficulty has climbed from 520,569,941 GH/s to a whopping 1,426,731,353 GH/s. The introduction of AntMiner S9 provided greater computing power and electrical efficiency. Bitmain’s Antminer S9 uses mining SHA-256 algorithm with a maximum hashrate of 14Th/s for power consumption of 1372W.
The S9 is a self-contained unit that doesn’t require any connection to another computer to interface with other Bitcoin nodes. It is an electrically-efficient mining device which uses just 0.1 Joules per Gigahash. This means S9 is approx. 2.5 times more efficient than Antminer S7.
Antminer S9- Specifications
| Manufacturer | Bitmain |
| Model | Antminer S9 (14Th) |
| Release | November 2017 |
| Size | 135 x 158 x 350mm |
| Weight | 4200g |
| Noise level | 85db |
| Fan(s) | 2 |
| Power | 1372W |
| Wires | 10 * 6pins |
| Voltage | 11.60 ~13.00V |
Antminer S15
The latest mining hardware in the market is Bitmain’s flagship miner, Antminer S15. Launched in December 2018, the S15 is replacing the older S9 series. This 7nm miner has the potential to reach 28 Th/s, with a power consumption of around 1600 Watts. Antminer S15 is SHA-256 ASIC miner which is based on the cutting-edge 7nm chip technology. The most striking feature of this miner is its power efficiency and it has two modes– Energy saving and high performance.
If you’re going to mine at home, energy saving mode is perfect for you because it takes only 850W. However, the high-performance mode consumes 1596W. Though this sounds too much, if we look at the hashrate, this increased power consumption is justifiable. On high-performance mode, at the cost of 0.12 $/KWh, you can get $50 a month. If we consider the power cost of 0.08 $/KWh, S15 will give you $95/mo. Definitely, these features make Antminer S15 the best bitcoin mining hardware available today.
Antminer S15- Specifications
| Mode | High-performance | Energy-saver |
| Hash rate | 28 TH/s ±2 % | 17 TH/s ±2 % |
| Power consumption | 1596 W ±7 % | 850 W ±7 % |
| Power efficiency | 57 J/TH @ 25 °C | 50 J/TH @ 25 °C |
| Connection | Ethernet | Ethernet |