(Review/Guide) WhatsMiner M3 11.5 Th/s, 2000W Bitcoin (SHA-256) ASIC miner

(Review/Guide) WhatsMiner M3 11.5 Th/s, 2000W Bitcoin (SHA-256) ASIC miner

Picture copyright (c) WhatsMiner.

Author:
HagssFIN
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=348185

1. General information, other items needed
2. Unpacking
3. Overview
4. Install
5. Configuration
6. Testing
7. Power consumption measurement
8. Conclusion
9. How to order
10. Video review by philipma1957

Last updated in: February 17, 2018.

Nicely formatted version (February 17, 2018) available for download here (Mega.nz cloud service):
https://mega.nz/#!xlcxkC5R!c3-xkWRx9OldZGajjEXEJb8sOyvzNwvGC7Qzu-yWtS0

Bitcointalk.org thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2390138

1. General information, other items needed
WhatsMiner M3 is a Bitcoin (SHA-256) ASIC miner using 28nm ASIC chip technology, manufactured by WhatsMiner (headquarters in Shenzhen, China). Their official overseas distributor is Team Pangolinminer. This unit in this review was bought from Team Pangolinminer (www.pangolinminer.com).

WhatsMiner M3 is a standalone miner with a built-in controller and you don't need a separate controller, like Raspberry Pi for example to run it.
The nominal hashrate is between 11.5 to 12.0 Th/s with a nominal power consumption of 2000 Watts.

It weights 4.1 kg and outer dimensions are 335mm (L) x 125mm (W) x 155mm (H).
These are quite usual measures and weight for a ASIC miner.

Technical specifications:

Other items needed:

• A server grade power supply with at least 10x PCI-E 6-pin connectors, everyone with a dedicated cable, at least 18AWG wires.
  I used a custom 2100W power supply called WhatsPower P3 to power my miner.
  Since this is such a power hungry miner, I highly recommend using their custom PSU.
• C13 power cord suitable to your country's electrical socket
• Ethernet cable to go to your router/switch
• Computer to set initial pool and configuration settings.

2. Unpacking
The delivery schedule from China to here in Finland was quite quick.
It was first sent from China to Hong Kong in November 4.
In November 7 it arrived to DHL facility in Hong Kong.
And in November 10 a local subcontractor for the DHL handed over the shipment for me here in Finland.

Miner and power supply were packed in own dedicated cardboard boxes.
Packaging for the miner was good with lots of foam to protect the miner.
The power supply was also packed nicely.
First layer was a bit of foam and then a good wrap around it with some bubble wrap.

But if you ask me about upgrades, I would add a ESD plastic bag for both the miner and the power supply.
They came inside the box without any plastic bag.

But the hardware arrived in a mint condition so this was not a big downside.

Packaging material.

3. Overview
Here are some pictures about the miner and the custom PSU.

EDIT:
These following pictures and the quoted post are added here in November 29, originally posted in November 20.
Quote from: HagssFIN on November 20, 2017, 11:08:16 PM
@leowonderful
I finally had some time and did a quick disassembly for the miner, took some pictures and then assembled it back together to continue the mining.

I have some close up pictures of the controller board and hash boards.

I really like how it looks, seems quite robust to me when it comes to the cooling heat sink solution for example.

WhatsMiner M3 disassembled.

Controller board.

Hash board.

4. Install
The installation was quick and easy as it usually is with ASIC mining hardware.

You need to connect the Ethernet cable to your miner and the other end to the router or switch device.

And then you need a high power server grade power supply. Install all ten pieces PCI-E 6-pin power cables to the power headers found at the top side of the miner.

If you use the custom power supply WhatsPower P3, please also connect the 3-pin cable to the miner controller.

The miner uses DHCP to acquire an IP address and you can find it easily from your router configuration page IP address list or by using tools found online.

Team Pangolinminer also offers a IP found program called "WhatsMinerTool" at their website.
This way you can use the miner's IP found function.

WhatsMinerTool User Guide & Software:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XthbZPFc0S-FvMi9MqpLOJlUaFAc4auW

Knowing the miner IP address makes the next miner configuration part possible.

You can also follow a tutorial video made by Team Pangolinminer for more help.
It is quite clear and straight forward video.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-Cj3QckFnI

You can also find support documentation and downloads at Team Pangolinminer website.

Whatsminer M3 User Guides & Solutions
https://pangolinminer.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001263394-Whatsminer-M3-User-Guides-Solutions

Whatsminer M3 User Manual
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lWv1mYZoHdSurfNGx6DxBIYj34MawzCs

5. Configuration
First you need to go the miner IP address with your web browser.
Then you login to the configuration page.
Username is root and the password is root by default.

Login screen.

The default language for the miner is Chinese, but it is quite easy to change to English.

Setting the language at system properties page.

Now it is time to setup mining pool settings.
Go through menus and find the Cgminer configuration page.
Click the drop down list and you are able to setup a custom pool address of your choice.

Cgminer configuration page.

You can put the pool address, username and password for three pools in a priority order from 1 to 3.
Miner hash board frequency and cooling fan settings are automatic, there is no possibility to have custom settings.

After you have ready with the settings, press Save & Apply.

Then go through menus and click Reboot to reboot the miner.

The startup process for the miner takes some time as it goes slowly through hash board frequencies, much like the autotune frequency model S9 miners also do.
After the startup process is ready, it restarts the Cgminer and then it really starts to do the mining work and you start to see 11.5 + Th/s hash rate.

6. Testing
After all the settings were made properly, it was time to test the miner.
The hash rate was around 11.7 Th/s and it slowly started to show the same at pool side.

Status page.

There are also status pages for the system log and Cgminer API log.

https://imgur.com/eg5T6rJ
https://imgur.com/NClBiX6
System log and Cgminer API log.

And of course there is the system information page.

System information.

7. Power consumption measurement
Both voltage and current measurements were done with HT-Italia HT7011 clamp multimeter.
Technical specs data sheet (.pdf document):
https://mega.nz/#!5ssAiZQY!nuixMYOwoYImFX1zfzc9KibmhO2ig-Adav37rRt50AU

HT-Italia HT7011.

Voltage measurement and current measurement.

Stable result for the voltage was 220 VAC and 9.9 A for the current.
This means that the power consumption (at wall) equals about 2180 W,
when the hash board frequency is 636 MHz and the hash rate is 11.7 Th/s.

8. Conclusion
WhatsMiner M3 is just as good Bitcoin ASIC miner as the current generation competitor miners are and it is easy one to setup.

The power efficiency is not the best, but I think it is quite good when you consider that it is the older, 28nm process node technology.

The miner and power supply price is very reasonable, 1022 USD for the miner and 90 USD for the power supply at the moment when I'm writing this.

It performed just as advertised, I got 11.7 Th/s hash rate and the nominal rate is between 11.5 and 12.0 Th/s.

Power consumption is high in the 2kW area, but cooling fans do their job properly.

Cooling design is done well and the miner didn't get too warm.

This is a very loud miner as most of the modern ASIC miners are, you don't want this in your bed room.

I think that this makes a good competitor in the Bitcoin ASIC miner market.

I would like to thank Team Pangolinminer for a nice miner and for the chance to give a review for it here at the forum.
Their actions were very quick after I started the discussion with them.

If you got any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments section below or in the Bitcointalk.org forum thread.
I will try to give my best answer.

9. How to order
You can make an order by visiting the webshop.
See more details at the official overseas distributor Team Pangolinminer website.

Team Pangolinminer: www.pangolinminer.com

10. Video review by philipma1957
Philipma1957 also bought one demo unit and psu for review purpose and did a nice set of review videos.

Part 1 (unboxing):

Part 2 (setup):

Part 3 (configuration):

Part 4 (configuration):