How to Install, Use, and Overclock an AntMiner S3 Bitcoin Miner

Updated 8/6/14 by Brian Webster (brianwebster@gmail.com)


This is a general guide for setting up and overclocking your AntMiner S3. If you wish to use a wireless connection, you can view the wireless guide. The wireless guide assumes that you have first read this tutorial.


1. Carefully remove your AntMiner S3 from the box and padding. Take your time and get some help so you don't accidentally knock a connector or resistor off.

2. Now, placement of the S3 is important. Once it's running, you won't want to move it around very much. Pick a good spot where your PSU's power cables can reach and, if you are connected additional fans, make sure they are able to reach their power source. Make sure the S3 has a free supply of air (don't put the intake fan up against a wall or another S3!). 

3. With the power supply in the OFF position, plug in two 6-pin PCI-E power outputs from your PSU. One into each blade. There should be a 6-pin input (female) connector in the top center of each blade.  If your power supply has low amperage per rail, you may need to plug in 4 6-pin inputs. However, 2 will normally work (one on each blade). 


Our S3's are on sale for $259


4. A UPS (uninterruptable power supply) 
 is optional. If you are only running one or two units, this may be a good idea. However, it can get very expensive if you are running many units. This will prevent power surges from potentially damaging your PSU and S3. UPS's typically last many years and can be a good investment for all of your computer gear. I operate several CyberPower and APC UPS's.

5. Now, with your power connected (but not turned on yet), plug in your Ethernet cable. I have read reports of people encountering up to 1% loss in efficiency when using wireless connections. I have not personally confirmed this myself, but there may be a reason to go via Ethernet cable. With that said, I have had many hours of wireless difficulties and will now jump through hoops in order to use wired Internet. 

6. It's time to turn it on. Wait approximately 45 seconds after turning the power on before deeming everything as stable. We wait, because mining does not actually begin for approximately 20-40 seconds after turning the device on. Once mining begins, the device may pull an extra 300+ Watts. Note: Some S3's can take up to 3 minutes to begin mining. However, 30-45 seconds is normal. 

7. If all is well so far, it is time to connect to your AntMiner S3 and configure it. Log into a computer on the same network as your AntMiner S3.

8. Obtain the IP address of the S3 -- it should be on a sticker near the main fan. Most devices seem to have 192.168.1.99 as their initial IP address. Note: if you have another device on the network with this IP address, please unplug it before starting up your S3. I will show you how to change the IP address shortly.

9. Load up your Internet browser (I recommend Chrome), and navigate to http://192.168.1.99 (or whatever IP address your S3 had on its sticker)

10. You should be taken to a login screen. The username is "root" and the password is "root"  (without the quotes)

11. Click on "Miner Configuration"


12. Next, configure your pools. Here is an example of the pools on one of my S3's. Click "Save and Apply" when you are done configuring your pools. The mining software will automatically reset. You do not need to reboot the device.


13. Click on the "Miner Status" tab. If it is fairly empty, wait 10-15 seconds and click the Miner Status tab again. It should start to populate with lots of statistics. I will detail some of the important stats below.

14. Check your client-side hash rate. At this point, it should hover between 400 GH/s and 480 GH/s.

Note: The device in the image is an overclocked device, so the hash rate is higher.


15. Next, jump down and check temperatures. You should check it now and check it again in 10 minutes once things really heat up. I work to keep all of my devices under 50 Celsius.

Notice that only one fan has an RPM reading. This will be the case for most S3's, unless you plug in a qualifying fan into the second blade.

The S3's should run fine below 55C.

16. Now, look over to the bottom right. How many X's do you have? Your device should have zero. Just because you have a few X's does not mean your hash rate is low. Sometimes your device will hash fine with some X's. However, if you have a lot of X's, then it is time to turn off the device. Double check that your PSU is good enough, make sure the power cord to your PSU is good, and the probable cause for a new device is thermal paste and thermal paste oil shorting out circuits on your boards. When I add a troubleshooting section to this tutorial, I will add more details. The main thing is -- clean up that thermal paste and make sure you have a good PSU. Be careful when cleaning!



17. Now, double check that you are connecting to one of your pools. The numbers shown here are pretty standard after 13 hours of operation.



18. Visit your pool's website where they show your worker stats. Double check that your worker is hashing as expected. Remember to set your worker difficulty correctly. You'll want a difficulty of 256 for S3's. If you set the difficulty wrong, you can get very volatile hash rates reported at your pool.

19. Time to change the IP address. You will want to be careful with this one, as it could be difficult if you use an invalid IP address for your network. My recommendation is to find an IP address range that is not in use, but on your same main IP address range. For example, if your network has IP addresses at 192.168.1.***, you might consider putting each of your S3's at 192.168.1.201 (for device #1), 192.168.1.202 (for device #2), etc.

To change your IP address, click on the Network tab, and click Edit next to WAN:



Change the value in the textbox circled in blue below. Double check your settings.

Once you are convinced it is correct, it is time to reboot the device. Go to the System Tab then click Reboot (top right).

It can take 30-45 seconds for everything to be back up and running again, assuming you set the IP address correctly

20. Before you do anything else, write the IP address down and take it to the device. You are likely to forget it and, depending upon your network, it can be very difficult to figure out what the IP address is once you forget.

Steps to OverClock an S3

1. Download putty.exe -- I know it sounds funny, but this is the best program for connecting to Linux which is the operating system inside the S3.

2. Load up putty, and connect to the IP address of your S3.

If you are prompted, click "Yes"

3. When prompted for a username and password, "root" is the username and "root" is the password (without the quotes).

4. Navigate to the configuration directory by typing in the command

5. Now, type

6. This opens up a basic and hard to use text editor. Press the insert key on your keyboard. This will put you in edit mode. Edit the file as follows if you want to OC to 475 GH/s (for S3's). If you want to step it up to something short of that, use the #225M setting. Note: if you are overclocking an S1 -- I recommend using the #375 setting.

When you are editing, note that lines that start with # are "commented out". So, by removing #'s, you are activating those lines. If you overclock and want to return to normal, putty back in and comment out the 237.5M lines and remove the #'s from the #218.75M (default) lines.

7. When you are done editing, hit the escape key, followed by ":wq" and then enter (don't include the quotes). This stands for "write changes and exit". If you need further assistance with text editing, google around for "How do I do ____ in VIM?" and you will find many good examples. It can be tough to use.

8. Finally, exit putty and reboot the device. As soon as you can, access the miner status tab and watch for lots of X's and watch those temps. If it gets above 50C, I'd shut it down and adjust fans. If you get lots of X's, your PSU may not be good enough, your temps may be too high, or perhaps your S3 doesn't overclock very well. Some do, some don't.

Warning: Overclocking may void your device warranty!

Good luck! Any questions, email me at brianwebster@gmail.com or oxygen728 on Ebay.