Antminer S19XP 141TH review: the most powerful Bitcoin miner! Setup & profitability.
With 141 TH/s, Bitmain's Antminer S19 XP was one of the most powerful Bitcoin miners on the market among machines cooled by fans alone. In this video (in French), we look at it from every angle, measure its noise, set it up on a pool and work out its profitability depending on the price of electricity, to answer one question: who is this machine profitable for?
Video from late 2022: the figures below date from that time. See "What about today?" at the end of the article.
1. The Antminer S19 XP in detail
- Hashrate: 141 TH/s on Bitcoin;
- Power consumption: about 3,000 W;
- Weight: 15 kg, in a format that remains compact;
- Cooling: two exhaust fans and two intake fans, with the power supply mounted on the side;
- Connections: an Ethernet port for the network (no Wi-Fi), a small IP Report button to find the machine's IP address and a USB extension that apparently lets you plug in an SD card for updates;
- Price: about €6,300 excluding VAT at the time of our test;
- Warranty: one-year Bitmain manufacturer warranty.
2. Noise: 80 to 90 dB
Bitmain announces 75 dB. At start-up, we measure between 80 and 90 dB next to the machine: the fans spin at 6,000 rpm, hence the loud noise. It remains to be seen whether they calm down once the machine has settled.
3. Setup
The interface is simple. You can configure three pools; we set the machine up on CruxPool, the French pool, which has the advantage of offering a server URL in France. Once mining has started, the interface shows the temperatures, which went up to 68 °C, and the firmware version, a very recent one dated 17 October.
4. How much does the S19 XP earn?
At the time of our test, the machine mined about 0.015 BTC per month. Bitcoin mining is very competitive: many farms around the world pay less than 10 cents per kWh for their electricity, more like 5 to 8 cents. So everything depends on the price per kWh:
- At 17 cents (a French household on a standard contract, without Tempo): about €250 of earnings per month against €367 of electricity. You lose around €100 a month: the machine will never pay for itself.
- At 10 cents: you are no longer in the red, but the gain is only about €30 per month, i.e. about 200 months to pay back the machine at the price of the time. With Bitcoin back at half its all-time high, about €28,000, this drops to 31 months, a little under 3 years; at the ATH level, about €56,000, to 10 months.
- At 5 cents: this is the case of the customer the machine was intended for, who runs it in a country where electricity costs a little under 5 cents. Net earnings are about €140 per month, i.e. about 45 months to pay back at the price of the time, 20 months if you sell your bitcoins at €28,000 and 9 months at €56,000.
5. Our opinion: a machine for professionals
In our view, this type of machine is aimed at professionals, or at least at people who have a company and can buy it excluding VAT. The price of electricity is decisive. We should also remember that such a machine runs for at least 4 to 5 years: even at 10 cents per kWh, someone who keeps their bitcoins until the next bull run can hope to pay it back in about a year.
What about today?
The halving of April 2024 halved Bitcoin's block reward, from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC: at equal difficulty, a machine now mines half as many bitcoins, and the figures above are out of date. The reasoning remains the same: the price of electricity, the price of the machine and the Bitcoin price decide profitability.
To redo the calculation with today's data, use our Bitcoin mining profitability calculator and browse our Bitcoin miners. No cheap electricity at home? Have a look at our miner hosting. And to reduce the noise of an ASIC, read our article on the home-made soundproof box.