Antminer L9 16 GH/s
- Amlogic
- CVitek
The Antminer L9 is an air cooled Bitmain ASIC for Scrypt, built on BM1491AA chips. It puts out 16 GH/s at 3360 W, which works out at 0,21 joules per megahash. What makes Scrypt interesting is merged mining: the same work counts in the Litecoin and Dogecoin networks at once, and the pool pays in both coins without a watt of extra draw. You can estimate earnings in the Antminer L9 profitability calculator.
Over a day the machine gets through about 81 kWh. At 0,10 € per kilowatt that is 8,10 € a day. The L9 goes on a single phase in a garage or a utility room, usually one to four units per space.
Technical specifications
| Algorithm | Scrypt (LTC + DOGE, merged mining) |
| Hashrate | 16 GH/s (±3%) |
| Power draw | 3360 W (±5%) |
| Efficiency | 0,21 J/MH |
| Chip | BM1491AA |
| Hash boards | 3 |
| Chips | 330 |
| Control board | Amlogic or CVitek |
| Power input | 220 to 277 V AC, single phase, built in PSU |
| Power connector | P13 |
| Cooling | Air, 4 fans |
| Noise | 75 dB |
| Connection | Ethernet |
| Weight | 14,1 kg |
How the L9 differs from neighbouring models
Its predecessor the L7 delivered around 9,5 GH/s at roughly 0,36 joules per megahash. At a comparable draw the L9 nearly doubles the hashrate and spends close to half the electricity per unit of work. Running an L7 today only holds up where the kilowatt costs next to nothing.
The range already has the newer L11. It is leaner on power but pricier, and there is considerably less of it around. Do the sum against your own tariff: on cheap electricity the premium for the new generation takes a long time to come back.
The L9 does not compete with bitcoin ASICs such as the S21, they are a different algorithm and different coins. Comparing them by hash count leads nowhere because the units differ: gigahashes on Scrypt, terahashes on SHA-256. The choice here is about which coin you believe in and which one you run the numbers on.
What it takes to run it
3360 W continuous at 230 V works out at about 14,6 A. The line is run in 2,5 mm² cable, protected by a 16 A breaker and a residual current device, and the socket is shared with nothing. The machine is single phase, the PSU sits inside the chassis and the inlet is P13. How cable size and breaker rating are worked out: power supply and wiring for an ASIC miner.
With the line in place all that is left is finding the machine on the network and telling it which pool to work for. Its IP address is reported by the IP Reporter utility, everything else is set in the web panel. The step by step procedure: how to configure an ASIC miner.
Cooling and noise
The 3,36 kW come back into the room almost entirely as heat, roughly three electric kettles running without a break. Four fans carry that heat out and the datasheet noise figure is 75 dB. From four machines in one room the intake and the extraction are already kept apart. Airflow sizing and the noise section: cooling ASIC miners.
Firmware
We sell it on factory Bitmain firmware, with no third party builds. The original files and their checksums are published on that page, should the machine ever need recovering.