The AxeForge Bitaxe Overclocking Guide — From Stock to Extreme

Today we will show practical, safe, hands-on procedures and engineering guidance for extreme overclocking of single-chip Bitaxe miners (cooling, power, firmware tuning, validation). This is a technical how-to — overclocking can void warranties, shorten hardware life, or cause damage if done improperly. Read warnings at the end.

Table of contents

1. Executive summary

2. Typical Bitaxe stock performance (quick model reference)

3. Overclocking fundamentals — frequency, voltage, and thermals

4. Bitaxe ASIC profiles (what to expect per chip family)

5. Thermal management: designs that actually work

6. Power delivery — specifications and recommendations

7. Tools & parts you’ll need

8. Step-by-step overclock procedure (conservative → extreme)

9. Validation, stability testing and long-term monitoring

10. Common pitfalls & troubleshooting

11. Safety, warranty, and ethical considerations

12. Appendix — sample configs and quick reference

1 — Executive summary

Community engineering and purpose-built thermal solutions have pushed single-chip Bitaxe miners from factory defaults into stable operation at substantially higher hashrates. With precision frequency/voltage tuning plus upgraded cooling and power delivery, reliable multi-terahash class performance becomes achievable for the best-behaved chips. The techniques below adapt those proven methods to AxeForge platforms while emphasizing stability and safety.

2 — Typical Bitaxe stock performance (quick reference)

Note: model names below are examples of typical Bitaxe consumer/prosumer lines; use your exact model when tuning.

• Ultra — Stock: ~350–500 GH/s

• Supra — Stock: ~650–850 GH/s

• Gamma — Stock: ~1.0–1.3 TH/s

Stock cooling and conservative voltage margins are the reason stock figures are modest compared with the silicon’s potential. Expect higher margins on newer silicon revisions. (Thermal limits, not raw silicon, are usually the bottleneck.)

3 — Overclocking fundamentals (quick engineering primer)

Frequency ↔ Voltage

• ASICs require higher core voltage to remain stable as frequency increases. Gains taper while power and heat rise non-linearly.

• Increase frequency in small increments (typically 20–50 MHz) and find the minimum stable voltage at that frequency.

Thermal limits

• Target operating ASIC die temperature range for stable prolonged runs: 45–55°C for max efficiency.

• Avoid exceeding ~70°C, where throttling begins; ~80°C is emergency protection territory on many firmwares. These thresholds are standard operating wisdom for modern miners.

Power stability

• Voltage rails must hold within ±2% under load. Ripple and supply sag cause instability and intermittent errors at high clocks.

4 — Bitmain ASIC families — tuning profiles (guideline)

Below are guideline tuning windows — start at the conservative end and only push further after extensive testing.

Bitmain Chip Family	Stock freq (est.)	Low OC	Medium OC	High OC (requires pro cooling)
1366	~400 MHz	450–500 MHz	550–600 MHz	650+ MHz
1368	~500 MHz	550–650 MHz	700–800 MHz	850+ MHz
1370	~525 MHz	575–700 MHz	750–900 MHz	900–1100+ MHz

These ranges mirror the general behavior of modern SHA-256 ASICs: modest gains at low OC, diminishing returns and large thermal/power cost at the top end. Use these as starting points.

5 — Thermal management: what actually works

If you want to push your Bitaxe into the 1.5–2+ TH/s range, stock heatsinks and fans won’t cut it. The community has converged on a few repeatable hardware approaches:

Proven approaches

1. High-quality 40 → 60 mm tower adapters — enable higher-CFM fans and increased heatsink mass. Properly mounted, these lower junction temps by ~8–15°C vs. stock. The 60mm can be found on our accessories page with and without modified power connector.

2. Low-profile copper puck bases — increase contact area and thermal capacitance (good for short spikes and stability).

3. Directed airflow chassis — create laminar airflow across the ASIC and VREG area, not just across the fan. This is achieved by using one of our HD stands available on the products page. The stand features a rear cubby for the stock 40mm fan.

4. Active VREG cooling — don’t ignore VRs and MOSFETs; they often overheat long before the die. Our stans feature a rear cubby for the stock 40mm fan. This will drop 10c off of the Vreg temps.

Installation notes

• Use a high-quality thermal interface (phase-change or high-performance thermal paste) for best contact. Kryonaut thermal paste is our recommendation and is used in all of our kits and products.

• Ensure the mounting adapter is mounted correctly — uneven pressure causes hot spots and instability.

6 — Power delivery: specs & recommendations

Overclocked ASICs can draw significantly more power than stock ratings suggest. Plan for margin.

• Rule of thumb: use a PSU (or 5V rail) with ≥120% of the expected peak draw for the OC target. This reduces sag and ripple.

• Look for supplies with low ripple, tight voltage regulation, and sufficient headroom on the 5V/12V rails as applicable. These can be found on our products page and come complete with a AxeForge terminal cover.

• Keep connectors, traces, and wiring short and heavy gauge to minimize voltage drop. Consider adding local decoupling caps near VR areas.

7 — Tools & parts checklist

• Precision socket/mount adapter kit for AxeForge ASICs

• 40 mm and 60 mm high-performance fans

• low-profile heatsink

• Bench PSU with adjustable voltage/current limit and good regulation

• Thermal paste (high-TT conductivity) and high-quality pads if required

• Infrared thermometer or thermocouple probe for spot checks

• Monitoring rig (software that logs hashrate, chip temps, voltage, rejects)

8 — Step-by-step overclock procedure (conservative → extreme)

Do not skip steps. Work methodically.

A. Baseline (safety first)

1. Record stock hashrate, chip temp, ambient temp, and power draw.

2. Ensure stock system runs stable for at least 1-2 hours before modifying.

B. Conservative tuning (goal: safe + noticeable gain)

1. Install improved cooling adapter and fan at modest RPM.

2. Increase frequency +25–50 MHz from stock.

3. Raise core voltage in tiny increments to the minimum that yields a stable hash and no HW errors.

4. Run a 6–12 hour stability test, monitoring temps and rejects.

5. If stable and temperatures are good (<65°C), repeat step 2.

C. Aggressive tuning (goal: large gain, more testing)

1. Move to 60 mm cooling and beefier 50W PSU.

2. Increase frequency by additional 50–100 MHz steps.

3. For each frequency bump: find minimum stable voltage and run a 1-2 hour validation.

4. Monitor VREG/MOSFET temps carefully — they often fail earlier than chips.

D. Extreme tuning (pro level — expect diminishing returns)

1. Use professional-grade heatsinks, premium fans (or liquid cooling adapters if available), and industrial DC power. (DO NOT PASS 35W for extended periods, the power connector at the bitaxe is not meant to handle more then 5 amps of constant draw). Also, don't forget that power use number the interface does not take into account the fans power use and only shows the Asics power use.

2. Increase frequency toward the top of the AF family’s extreme window (see section 4).

3. Accept that at extreme clocks you may need to increase redundancy, accept higher rejection counts, and plan for shorter maintenance intervals.

9 — Validation & long-term monitoring

• Short-term: stress test for 1-2 hours after each major change. Watch for HW errors, rising rejects, or instability.

• Long-term: run a multi-week monitoring log for any candidate configuration to confirm mean time between failures and average efficiency.

• Use rolling averages for hashrate and record ambient variations — cooler ambient improves headroom.

10 — Common pitfalls & troubleshooting

• Symptom: frequent reboots or kernel hangs → Likely causes: PSU sag, undervoltage, or poor connector contact. Fix by increasing PSU capacity and verifying wiring.

• Symptom: sudden hashrate drops without reboot → Likely cause: thermal throttling. Check asic temp and VREG temps.

• Symptom: increased hardware errors or stale shares → Likely cause: too-low voltage for frequency or frequency is set to high and not enough voltage is being applied. Reduce frequency or increase voltage slightly.

11 — Safety, warranty, and ethics

• Overclocking may void manufacturer warranty. Proceed only if you accept those consequences.

• There is a fire and electric hazard if components are mis-sized or airflow is blocked. Ensure installations follow local electrical codes and that PSUs are appropriately ventilated.