Does anyone happen to know what the wattage usage is of the S3 at each frequency?  I'd like to put together a web form that takes the current Bitcoin price and the price you pay for electricity and then figures out what frequency would be best in terms of efficiency.  I could hook the units up to a watt meter and figure this out myself, but was curious if anyone had already done it and can save me the trouble?  (Or if there is a defined ratio, I could use that as well I guess.)

I'll make the site public and then potentially add other miners to it if they offer the same ability to change wattage/frequency and I have access to the numbers.   Maybe I'll call it Intelihash.   Haha...

That's your estimate.  But why do you think that?  Shipping alone must be non-negligible, as Bitmain ships super-fast from China.  4xS3 Blades, could easily fit in a single S3 sized box and weigh considerably less.

Regardless, the real evidence is, Bitmain keeps saying they are going to do it.  What reason could they possibly have to tell potential customers that an upgrade is coming if it is not economical for them to do so.  Surely they don't want to prevent people from ordering entire S3's if they aren't planning to sell the upgrade.  Because it is very obvious that some people who would otherwise purchase S3's are waiting for upgrade kits.

My results on a corsair HX750 Psu (gold rated)

218 = ~350W
225 = ~363 W
237.5 = ~388 W
250 = ~410 W

While I applaud your idea, and willingness to share with the community, you still have more to consider.

The problem is, there are other variables.  PSU quality/80Plus rating, 120v vs 240v, even the quality of power from your power company has some effect on the # of watts at the wall.  Not to mention, these S3's tend to vary all over the +/-5% manufacturer's acceptable tolerance range.  Much more so than the old S1's anyway.

But here, I'll share what I have.  2xB1 S3's clocked at 225mhz averaging 455GH each on a single EVGA 1300G2 (80Plus Gold) pulled about 720W from the wall.  Right in line with what most people are reporting for 225mhz on gold rated PSU's.

Thanks, I think what I'll do is put up a default for the device but allow you to change the wattage for each frequency if you want to spend the time to figure out what each of them are for your device/psu.  It's the same as going to one of those profit charts where you can preselect a miner and see what it might earn.  Obviously an Antminer S1 at 180gh isn't common, it'll be 176gh or overlocked to 200gh, etc.  So providing the same kind of flexibility to enable you to change it would be ideal. 

At the same time, if you run a lot of these units together and want to just assume a base average among them, having some idea if downclocking would result in more profit would be handy.   I'm writing it for myself but will make it available to all.  Then just improve it where good suggestions like yours come in and make sense.

Thanks again.

Quick question, in the cgminer stats, there are a few different difficulty values. Diff, Diff1#, DiffA#, and DiffR#. I think I've got them all figured except for DiffR#, suggestions?

Yes those are my estimates. What are yours? I know a little bit about manufacturing CCAs and production as that's what we do where I work. The bulk of the cost of the S1 or S3 is in the main boards. The controller cards are basically Raspberry Pis which can be bought retail for under $40, I'm sure Bitmains are less than that if sold separately. The aluminum frame is not pricey in mass production. You might have something with shipping. But here are the economic scenarios of where you'd be 2 months from now (ignore shipping times, assumed a wash for each scenario):

Scenario A: Order new S3, sell old S1. 0.66BTC ~= $383. Sell S1 for $150 after S3 arrives. Net result: -$233, with double or better mining efficiency at current difficulty level for 2 months.

Scenario B: Wait for an upgrade kit. Assume $250 cost w/ availability 1 month from now. No S1 salvage value. Net result: -$250, 1 month or longer using S1 at half the efficiency of S3. 1 month with S3 efficiency at future difficulty level(s).

So clearly to make an upgrade work, you'd probably need to have an upgrade kit sold at less than $200 and be made available within a month to even come close to breaking even vs ordering an S3 now and selling your S1 when the S3 gets here when factoring everything in.

I could be wrong, but I would be extremely surprised to see a $200 or even a $250 price on an upgrade kit in the near future when they are getting $383 for a full unit. Add in the headaches of support for helping some of us idiots tear apart our machines and do our own upgrades and the proposition doesn't seem to make much sense.

Bottom line, there really is no reason to wait for an upgrade kit. Make your life easy and order a new S3 and sell your S1 when it arrives.

Someone just bought S1 for $160 on ebay (0.27BTC, 0.25BTC after ebay fees!). I am surprised-it sells on ebay for almost the same as 1 month ago (maybe $10-20 $ less).
People were selling S1 on BitcoinTalk for 0.22-0.23 a month ago-they were selling too cheap, obviously. Probably, low diff jumps played a role.

That's rough, one of my two orders shipped last night via UPS and shows on their site with expected delivery by end of business tomorrow in Carlisle PA USA.

Scheduled Delivery:
Thursday, 08/07/2014, By End of Day

Last Location:
Departed - Shenzhen, China, Wednesday, 08/06/2014

Special Instructions:
Signature Required

Shenzhen, China   08/06/2014   7:17 P.M.   Departure Scan
08/06/2014   4:15 P.M.   Export Scan
08/06/2014   12:42 A.M.   Arrival Scan
08/06/2014   12:40 A.M.   Departure Scan
08/06/2014   12:19 A.M.   Origin Scan
08/05/2014   9:55 A.M.   The package is awaiting clearing agency review. The package is at the clearing agency awaiting final release.
Shenzhen, China   08/05/2014   7:33 P.M.   Pickup Scan
China   08/05/2014   7:03 A.M.   Order Processed: Ready for UPS