Abstract: We provide a follow up to our previous piece, a comparison between the Antminer S19 Pro and the Whatsminer M30S+. We focus on the thermal characteristics of the miners and provide thermal images. The thermal images indicate more clearly that the Whatsminer has a higher operating temperature than the Antminer (perhaps by design), while both devices have a similar impact heating the external environment.
Figure 1 – Thermal image of the Whatsminer M30S+
In our previous report, as the below chart indicates, we noted that the Antminer was on average 45.9°C, around 10.5°C cooler compared to the Whatsminer. We measured the temperature using a thermometer inside the main air-flow ejected from the miners. In this short piece, we also analyse the temperatures of the machines using thermal images.
Figure 2 – Miner Temperature (°C)
(Source: BitMEX Research)
(Note: Temperate measured 15cm away from the miner, directly in the air flow outside the main exhaust)
When mining Bitcoin, the machine uses power and essentially all of this power ends up as heat. Therefore one may think its odd measuring the temperature of the miners; because a measurement of the power usage alone may be sufficient. However, we think it could be important to draw a distinction between two metrics:
- The temperature of the mining machine itself
- The volume of heat energy transferred away from the miner
In theory, once the miner has reached an equilibrium temperature, the heat transferred away should have the same energy as the input power. This does not mean the air-flow itself will have the same temperature if the input power is the same. There are other factors such as the wind speed and the surface area of the air outlet. We would like to emphasise that we are not physicists, nor are we experts in thermodynamics. The conclusions and comments in this report are only basic observations and could be incorrect to some extent.
As Figure 1 above illustrates, the Whatsminer device itself is warm during operation, operating at almost 60°C in some places on the middle of the device. In contrast, as Figures 3, 4 and 5 below indicate, the Antminer operates only marginally above room temperature. However, for both miners, the area around the outlet fan is warm and both machines heat up the surrounding area to a similar extent. One may think this indicates that the Antminer has superior cooling than the Whatsminer, perhaps driven by the fact it has double the amount of fans, partly justifying the higher price. On the other hand, a more likely explanation is that by design, the Whatsminer has a higher operating temperature than the Antminer, as the chip is more efficient at this higher temperature.
Figure 3 – Thermal image of the Antminer S19 Pro
The following thermal image shows the Antminer from above. One can see that the main body of the device is only marginally above room temperature, while the outlet has heated up the floor directly below the main air-flow to around 40°C.
Figure 5 – Thermal image of the Antminer S19 Pro from above
Disclaimer
Please note, this should be considered as a very amateur analysis. A more appropriate analysis could be to very the air temperature at the inlet and monitor how the device dissipates the extra heat.