During the pandemic, cryptocurrency was booming. Everyone wanted to profit off crypto, and mining is one of the best ways to do that. However, when the market goes down, what happens to all of that old hardware? And what are the sketchy things miners are doing with these GPUs?

Full Time, Full Power

Mining is a race. And if you want to win it, you’ve got to go FAST. So to increase their revenue, miners will run their GPUs at 100%, 24/7. This makes the chip itself get VERY hot. Silicon can degrade at these insane temperatures, and these mining GPUs could be just mere hours away from failure.

Moreover, at these insanely high temperatures, the thermal paste can degrade over time, causing poor thermal transfer between the cooler and the silicon itself. If you go to do something like game on one of these GPUs, it may get hotter than it normally would, causing more of the effects listed above. Eventually though, your games will start crashing, and your PC will get quite loud from the increased fan speeds. So buying one of these GPUs isn’t as very good idea to begin with. But just wait until what you read next.

Water ≠ Electronics

Some of these miners clean their GPUs with water. Does that not sound absurd to you? Even if it dries before you put it in your PC, it would already destroyed the thermal paste. And what if the water didn’t dry? You can say bye bye to your PC.

Prices are Falling

A new RX6600 will run you ~$260. And with Intel joining the GPU game, there is new competition for AMD and Nvidia. With falling GPU prices and all of the downsides, there are less and less reasons to buy a used mining GPU.

However, if you do end up buying a used mining GPU, here are my tips:

• Put on new thermal paste

  This will ensure that there is good thermal conduct between the silicon and the cooler.

• MAKE SURE ITS DRY

  Don’t put water in your computer. I shouldn’t have to explain this one.

• Treat it with respect

  Try to make sure that your temps are under control, and make sure the card gets fresh air from outside.

  Also, monitor your GPU. If it dies right after you buy it, contract the seller. Maybe they’ll be nice and refund you.