Antminer D3 went on sale in the summer of 2022 and immediately became in great demand.
This was the first ASIC from the Antmimer line, allowing mining on the X11 algorithm, on which the popular Dash cryptocurrency is based, brought real super profits and paid for itself in less than a month.
Now this wave has subsided, but D3 can be found on sale - previously it sold out so quickly that it was very difficult to purchase it. Is it worth purchasing it now, what are the features of the X11 algorithm and what is remarkable about the D3 miner, as well as how profitable it is in 2022 - we will tell you about all this.
Technical characteristics of Antminer D3
This device has the following parameters:
- hashrate – 15-19 GH per second with a deviation of up to 5%;
- energy consumption – 970-1200 W per hour;
- voltage – 11.6-13 V;
- energy efficiency – 93%;
- working boards – 3, each with 60 BM 1760 chips;
- operating temperature – 0-40 °C, optimal window – 10-25 °C;
- dimensions – 320 x 130 x 190 mm;
- weight – 5.5 kg, 4.2 – unpacked ASIC;
- noise level – 76 dB at a distance of one meter.
What does Asic Bitmain Antminer D3 look like?
Note that the appearance of Antminer D3 is not very different from most other Bitmain models. The design looks like a rectangular pipe equipped with two fans located on both sides of the device. Inside the ASIC there are three boards on which 180 chips are installed. Each board has a power of 5.7 Gh, and a total of 17 Gh, which is more than the power declared by the manufacturer (15 Gh). Note that the latest batches were delivered to the market with a capacity of 19.3 Gh. The equipment has 10 power connectors: 3 on each board and 1 on the control module.
Appearance of ASIC Antminer D3
The entire range comes in dimensions of 320 x 130 x 190 mm, which differs slightly from the dimensions stated on the manufacturer’s website (320 x 131 x 180 mm), with a weight of only 4.1 kg.
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Thus, Antminer D3 has an advantage over its competitors (for example, Antminer D5 weighs 9.5 kg and has dimensions of 400 x 260 x 380 mm) due to its more compact dimensions and relatively light weight.
Upon receiving the device, the first thing you need to do is inspect the miner for damage: dents and cracks. Pay attention to heat sinks, fan blades, cables, and bent connectors. In case of any damage or defects, you must immediately contact support.
Features of the algorithm, the rise and fall of mining on it
If at first ASICs were made only for Bitcoin mining and were suitable for cryptocurrencies based on the SHA-256 algorithm, then, with the growing complexity of the Bitcoin network, manufacturers began to add devices to their line that work with the Scrypt and X11 algorithms. Today we will take a closer look at the latter, on which the Dash cryptocurrency operates. There is a separate article about its mining - “Mining DigitalCash”.
X11 is notable for the fact that it uses 11 hashing functions at once. Its mining is not as energy-intensive as when working with SHA-256 and Scrypt. This algorithm was created so that ASICs could not mine cryptocurrencies based on it - but in the end, the obstacles turned out to be insufficient, and such ASICs appeared on the market.
The owners of the first devices hit a truly big jackpot: they brought in up to $200 a day, paying for their purchase in a couple of weeks. However, the complexity of the network began to grow very quickly, and the efficiency of each individual ASIC began to decrease accordingly. At some point, the market turned out to be oversaturated and mining on ASIC X11 began to barely pay for electricity. In recent months, however, a gradual increase in its profitability has again been observed - this is mainly due to the rise in the price of coins, and the fact that the complexity of their network is practically not growing, because new miners prefer to buy devices to work with more profitable algorithms.
Antminer D3 payback period and earnings prospects
To begin with, it is worth considering that, judging by forecasts, a significant increase in the Dash rate is planned for the second half of 2022. This can significantly affect the payback period, reducing it compared to current values.
The price of ASIC looks very attractive. In the summer of 2022, you can easily buy it for $500, although sometimes the D3 is sold even cheaper. For those who want to get into ASIC mining without risks, fears about the decline in the relevance of the device and other negative aspects, buying a D3 at this price looks like one of the most profitable decisions:
- Since Dash mining difficulty skyrocketed in the last quarter of 2017 (20x from late September to late December), this figure has not increased again.
- After the peak value, it decreased significantly, giving Antminer D3 a better chance of compensating for previous failures.
If we estimate the net income of the device for June 2022, excluding electricity costs, then the profit will be about $3.5-4.7 per day. Even with such a small income, the payback period will be 4-5 months. If you take into account energy costs, the net profit per day will be about $2.5-3, which will allow you to pay for the device in six months. Given cheap electricity, you can increase your daily profit to $3.5-3.7 per day, which will speed up the return of money spent on ASIC even faster.
It is important to consider that with the high cost of electricity, the impact of this parameter on the overall profitability of Antminer D3 can be considered a minus. In such cases, bills will “eat up” almost half of the income and reduce the relevance of choosing this model.
Looking at the big picture, if the strong rally in Dash materializes, D3's daily earnings will be on a completely different level. Of course, this will also affect the cost of the device, which will increase in proportion to the growth of its demand. In such conditions, those miners who bought D3 at the lowest price will benefit the most, taking advantage of the “bad reputation” of the device and its unpopularity.
Miner capabilities
Immediately at the time of the release of this model, it was the most profitable of the ASICs and paid for itself in just a few weeks, which made it a real hit. Now, however, its capabilities no longer look so great: the power of cryptocurrency networks based on the X11 algorithm has increased significantly, primarily due to the D3s themselves, which were sold out too much. And coin prices have fallen significantly since the beginning of the year, which also contributed to the decline in profitability.
Don't forget about your competitors. If the D3 was once the most powerful X11 miner, this title has now been lost: the Pinidea Miner DR-100 Pro has a hashrate of 22 GH per second, as does the iBelink DM-22G. Innosilicon has even rolled out the A5 Dashmaster, which combines a power of 32.5 GH per second with an energy consumption of 750 W per hour - much more efficient than the D3. Under these conditions, D3 was saved by the price reduction. Even though it can't compete in terms of power, the ASIC's low cost still makes it an interesting choice.
To increase power, experienced miners often use an option such as overclocking. Moreover, the D3 comes with software with which you can adjust the frequency of the chips. But in terms of overclocking capabilities, the D3 does not have high potential: increasing the frequency to more than 590 MHz is undesirable.
Connection and setup
D3 is connected in the same way as other ASICs from Bitmain. Let's break down the process step by step:
- Connect the power supply to the miner - to do this, you need to plug the connectors into the connector until it clicks. We recommend using a branded power supply, but if you don’t have one, another one will do, the main thing is that its power matches the device’s consumption of 1,200 W, and preferably with a margin, since it can change depending on external conditions.
- Connect the power supply to the mains.
- Using an Ethernet cable, connect the miner and router.
- Determine the IP address - this is done through a browser or using an IP Scanner program or similar.
- Enter your login and password for access, indicate the device IP in the address bar.
- Set up a miner - both mining in solo mode and connecting to a pool are possible. The latter is more profitable even though you have to pay a small commission. A pool is available from the manufacturer - Antpool, as well as some others, for example, Zpool or Prohashing.
It is advisable that the miner be installed in a separate room, since it is very noisy. In addition, it is best if the air temperature does not exceed 20°C, in such conditions the D3 shows optimal results.
Note that the manufacturer provides a 180-day warranty from the date of shipment, so if the ASIC breaks, you can replace it. But as a rule, ASICs from Bitmain have a low accident rate - as far as possible for such complex devices. However, please note that if it breaks during overclocking, it will not be subject to warranty service. Other cases not covered by the warranty include: water damage, malfunction due to a faulty non-manufacturer power supply, or excessive power surges. Finally, it will not be valid if the owner has replaced one of the components himself.
The kit may include a power supply from the manufacturer Bitmain APW3 ++, with a power of 1,600 W, which is more than enough to operate the ASIC. The power supply unit itself is characterized by a high level of efficiency, small dimensions and low noise generated during operation.
Installing Asic Antminer D3
Before you start mining cryptocurrency, you should prepare the equipment for work: connect the network cable and power cord.
Preparing the Antminer D3 miner for work
Now you can proceed directly to launching and configuring Antminer D3.
Setting up Antminer D3
Turn on the miner by clicking on the “IP Reporter” button and wait until the indicator lights up.
Initialization when turned on for the first time will take 90 seconds, and the process of setting up the equipment itself will take just a couple of minutes. After this, Antminer D3 goes into operating mode.
But first, you should connect to the admin panel by entering the IP address in the search bar of your browser, and only then begin setting up the ASIC miner itself. As a result, a panel for controlling Antminer D3 should appear in front of you:
Control panel (admin panel) for the Antminer D3 miner
So, to set up mining, in the admin panel go to the miner configuration tab “Mining Configuration”, and then click “General Settings”.
Tab for connecting the Antminer D3 miner to the mining pool
There is no need to change your password. But if you wish, you can do this in the “System” / “Administration” tab. After entering all this data, click “Safe&Apply” and connect to the mining pool.
The next tab is “Miner Status”. Here, data directly on the operation of the equipment is displayed (hashrate, number of mined blocks, pool settings, etc.).
Antminer D3 miner operating parameters tab
If something goes wrong with the miner, for example, errors appear in the operation of the boards or overheating of the chips is detected (maximum temperature 85° C), we recommend trying to reboot the miner
. This can be done by clicking the “Reboot” tab in the “System” section, where there is a button with the same name. Click and wait 90 seconds for the miner to reboot.
Tab for restarting the Antminer D3 miner
When the miner is configured, the PC can be turned off - this will not affect the coin mining process in any way.
Overclocking Antminer D3 and firmware
The firmware for Antminer D3 is a special software on the basis of which cryptocurrency mining is carried out.
After installing the firmware, the owner of the equipment on which the software was installed receives a number of benefits
as:
- Reducing energy costs;
- Remote control capabilities;
- Increased stability of indicators (temperature, speed, etc.);
- Increased productivity (hashrate);
- Reducing noise levels, etc.
The pre-installed Antminer D3 firmware can be found in the “System” section. Next, go to the “Upgrade” tab, select the update archive and click “Flash image”.
Official firmware for Antminer D3
For the updates to take effect, you must restart the miner. However, it is not a fact that installing firmware from the manufacturer will give the expected result.
To increase performance and overclock the miner, it is better to install alternative software on it. For this purpose, a whole range of firmware from third-party services was invented, for example, ASP-Project, Blissz, etc.
Installing firmware on Antminer D3
Each firmware, each upgrade, offers more and more new opportunities to simplify the mining process and increase the efficiency and profitability of the equipment.
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However, Bitmain warns that any unofficial software is installed at the risk of the ASIC owner, and in the event of a breakdown or any other error in the operation of the equipment, the manufacturing company is not responsible for the consequences and disclaims all warranties.
It is also worth noting that with increased overclocking, the miner needs stronger ventilation and lower room temperatures.
Advantages and disadvantages
Let us briefly highlight the main pros and cons of Antminer D3. And he has both. Let's start with the advantages:
- The assembly is quite high-quality by ASIC standards.
- Easy installation and setup.
- The manufacturer, Bitmain, has already proven itself in the market, so you can expect high-quality support from it.
- At the start it had amazing profitability - but now this advantage has lost its relevance.
- The price/performance ratio, however, remains quite attractive even now - especially if you mine with the expectation of future price growth.
The disadvantages are the following:
- Due to the availability of more powerful models, it is not as effective as before, and this problem will only get worse in the future.
- Noisy fans that require replacement when installing an ASIC in a residential area.
- Sometimes a problem appears with hot-melt adhesive, and parts of the device simply fall off - however, in new modifications it is practically solved.
