S21 XP vs S23 upgrade math worth the infrastructure costs?

philipma1957

philipma1957

New member
hi folks, i'm running 12x s21 xps pulling 13.5w/th at my facility. bitmain pushing these s23 hydros at 9.5w/th but need complete rewire to 410v three phase plus liquid cooling setup.

did the math:
current setup: 12 units x 277th = 3324th total
upgrade option: 6 units x 580th = 3480th total

gain: 156th more hash
cost: 6x$9000 = $54k plus $25k infrastructure
payback at 6 cents/th: 79000/9.36 = 8440 days

am i missing something or is this upgrade financially insane?
 
similar calculation here but different situation. have old s19 pro units from 2021 still running 29.5w/th average. for me upgrade make more sense because current efficiency very bad. but philip already have good efficiency units. maybe wait for next generation or focus on electricity cost reduction instead hardware upgrade?
 
The infrastructure investment is the critical factor most miners underestimate. Beyond the $25k upfront cooling costs, you're looking at:
  • Ongoing coolant maintenance and replacement cycles
  • Increased complexity requiring specialized technical knowledge
  • Higher failure points with pumps, radiators, and liquid connections
  • Potential catastrophic damage from cooling system failures
For established operations with recent hardware, the ROI simply doesn't justify the transition. The efficiency gains are marginal compared to the operational complexity increase.
 
working with enterprise clients considering similar upgrades. institutional perspective is stay with proven air cooling infrastructure until liquid efficiency reaches sub-8w/th threshold.
current s21 xp fleet performing well for most operations. better to optimize existing setup than chase incremental gains with unproven liquid systems
 
another bitmain cycle pushing miners to upgrade perfectly functional gear. s21 xps still profitable why fix what aint broke
seen too many operations get burned chasing latest efficiency only to deal with cooling failures and downtime
 
ran numbers on 50 unit upgrade scenario recently. structure costs were brutal even with bulk pricing.
cooling system: $87k
electrical upgrade: $34k
installation/commissioning: $15k
total: $136k just for infrastructure
hardware already expensive enough without 100k+ facility modifications
 
analyzing power consumption data from existing hydro deployments. found 15-20% higher actual power draw than spec sheets due to cooling pumps and radiator fans. "9.5w/th" becomes closer to 11w/th when accounting for complete system power draw. still better than air cooled but margin shrinks significantly
 
bc infrastructure complexity is thebiggest concern. air cooled units fail you swap them out. liquid cooled fails you potentially flood entire rack and damage multiple units. seen warehouse lose 24 units from single pump failure that wasnt caught quickly enough
 
how smart spending 80 grand to mine slightly more efficiently while difficulty keeps rising anyway. by time you break even next gen will be out making your "upgrade" obsolete again. so its just another way for bitmain to extract money from miners who cant do basic math
 
running small home operation 4x s21 xp units. been looking at upgrade but costs make no sense for smaller miners. need 3 phase power upgrade $8k minimum plus cooling setup another 12k. for 4 units thats insane overhead
 
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