Unironically. I did this with my 480 back in the day in an uninsulated apartment. Also crypto mining in the narrow slice of time where it was profitable-ish to do so with a consumer GPU. But then ASICs took off and I went back to folding / SETI
I remember trying this for a little bit too and did some crypto mining, but after leaving it on for days my room refused to warm up at all. I think the room was just too big for the heat output of the pc to handle. In the end i gave up and just turned on the heater again.
Yeah, it was basically like me running a ~400 watt heater. It’s not a ton, but it’s also not nothing. Even when I did use resistive electric heaters, I still kept it going because it still contributed. 15A 120v circuits, ~1500w heaters are the norm. At the time I did that I was also running Dual Xeons; so, full system draw was in the ballpark of ~600w. At the time, it was cheaper-than-free heat, so why not, even if just supplemental.
Of course, now that doesn’t work at all; always a loss. But still: It’s a heater that does some limited good while also heating. The electricity is the same anyways… May as well push it through some logic gates before warming my room.
100% efficient. (of course, heat pumps can go over 100%… But as far as resistive heating goes, it’s not like a GPU is any worse then a space heater… Watts are watts)
At the time I was running it, it was about enough to offset the cost of electricity and maybe turn a slight profit. Nothing substantial. But then it got way harder to mine btc and asics dominated the field.
Of course, had I started a few years earlier, I’d probably be a billionaire.
I did this a long time ago but found that by the time my systems completed work, they were already completed and I never got any credit. Not that credit was the reason I did it, but also my results were just wasted. It’s probably been well over a decade since even looked at it and longer still since I tried doing it. Has it gotten any better about assigning smaller units of work or any other mitigation of those kinds of issues?
You can also heat your place while doing science: https://foldingathome.org/
Well I’ll be damned
Thanks for sharing!
Unironically. I did this with my 480 back in the day in an uninsulated apartment. Also crypto mining in the narrow slice of time where it was profitable-ish to do so with a consumer GPU. But then ASICs took off and I went back to folding / SETI
I remember trying this for a little bit too and did some crypto mining, but after leaving it on for days my room refused to warm up at all. I think the room was just too big for the heat output of the pc to handle. In the end i gave up and just turned on the heater again.
Yeah, it was basically like me running a ~400 watt heater. It’s not a ton, but it’s also not nothing. Even when I did use resistive electric heaters, I still kept it going because it still contributed. 15A 120v circuits, ~1500w heaters are the norm. At the time I did that I was also running Dual Xeons; so, full system draw was in the ballpark of ~600w. At the time, it was cheaper-than-free heat, so why not, even if just supplemental.
Of course, now that doesn’t work at all; always a loss. But still: It’s a heater that does some limited good while also heating. The electricity is the same anyways… May as well push it through some logic gates before warming my room.
100% efficient. (of course, heat pumps can go over 100%… But as far as resistive heating goes, it’s not like a GPU is any worse then a space heater… Watts are watts)
How much did someone make from that? With one ordinary PC I mean, to not turn my question into a “how long is a rope” type.
At the time I was running it, it was about enough to offset the cost of electricity and maybe turn a slight profit. Nothing substantial. But then it got way harder to mine btc and asics dominated the field.
Of course, had I started a few years earlier, I’d probably be a billionaire.
I did this a long time ago but found that by the time my systems completed work, they were already completed and I never got any credit. Not that credit was the reason I did it, but also my results were just wasted. It’s probably been well over a decade since even looked at it and longer still since I tried doing it. Has it gotten any better about assigning smaller units of work or any other mitigation of those kinds of issues?