Why now is the time to Bitaxe and Chill
As a Gamma user for over a year, I can attest to the absurd lengths of time and money spent on hardware to reduce ASIC and VR temps — a topic I’ve written extensively about on X and more recently, here on Reddit.
The astronomical odds of a hashing a winning block every 10-20 minutes using these little Gammas, doesn’t deter us from at least trying. Because along the way, the knowledge accrued in building and being a part of Bitaxe communities is far more interesting, exciting, and even educational when it comes to Bitcoin vs Financial Markets.
But coming back to metrics. The temperature situation on these gammas is best described as one big ball-ache. Reddit is full of them. Posts of long-suffering users asking how to triage temperature; the Voltage Regulator being the main culprit.
So, I was surprised to learn of one company, whose name spoke out me, of a cooling system that once deployed would allow you to sit back and chill: that company is of course Bitaxe and Chill.
They’ve developed one of the best cost-effective 3D-printed solutions to increase airflow not only onto the front heatsink, but across the power jack area, and surprisingly enough blast cool air across the rear of the device — all being done by a single 120mm 5V PWM fan.
The design is best described as a Giant Squid. Its three tentacles unfold out from the main fan venting system into three channels of air pointing at the three main areas impacted by heat when OC’ing, or like me have a terrible VR that needs constant attention.
I’ve now been using the Giant Squid for just under 24 hours and the results are remarkable. I’ve seen a -10°c drop in ASIC and VR temperatures, and I could achieve even more if I simply increased the Min Fan Speed. I would opt for the Noctua NF-A12x25 5V PWM as it can reach 1900 RPM with high static pressure. The Giant Squid retails under $20 (USD) with fan being extra.
For my settings I have auto fan enabled (ASIC Target Temp = 53c | Min Fan Speed = 40%) and my current working temperatures are:
ASIC Daytime = 52.9 | VR Temperature Daytime = 52. My ASIC loves ~ 53c, that’s the silicon lottery I’ve been dealt with for optimum performance.
My frequency settings sit on a PLL step of 762.5Mhz | Input Voltage = 1225mV and I’m cruising at 0.00% with the odd blip at 0.05/0.06% Hash Rate Error, with a 1-hr hash rate of 1.56 TH/s. At these settings I can very comfortably know that my system is ready for the British Summer —when that eventually comes! And, more importantly I have a system that can cope when the weather starts to warm up.
I also took the opportunity to upgrade my Leicke NT30538 50W PSU to a new MeanWell LRS-50-5 which comes pre-configured with a stand, cabling, and power plug for your country. I have been so weary of these products because of the exposed terminals. But the build quality of this stand with all the terminals hidden, and the care and attention that has gone into cable tying the electrics – safety is the number one priority of thought that has gone into this.
Oh, and you can choose from a wide array of colour schemes to pimp your bitaxe.
And if that isn't enough, everything is lovingly packaged in bubble-wrap, with a hand-written thank you note from the owner!
So, if you’re looking for that last piece of the puzzle to tackle your cooling then look no further than Bitaxe and Chill or ping u/ConsistentLab8661