ASIC Miners are the only way to mine Bitcoin directly. And unlike GPU mining, which you
can accomplish, even quite casually with something like a gaming PC, but GPU mining requires
you to run software directly through a computer connected to the graphics cards.
With an ASIC, youre actually never connected to your computer, it IS the computer - to
set it up, or to make changes to the settings, you connect to a shared network that the ASIC
is on, but after its running, you can just shut the door and walk away forever.
So how are you supposed to obsessively monitor your ASIC farm remotely?! Im going to tell
you how I do it, My name is Nicholas Johnson and this is the Space Warehouse
On one hand, thats super handy! You dont have to build another computer every time you run
out of PCIE slots and want to add more cards like with GPU mining - you can just set up
as many ASICs as you can afford to buy, and let them Hash away at that sweet sweet SHA-256
until they melt the solder off of that exit fan…
The downside of this reality, though, is that you dont get a direct line to refresh the
statistics of each miner; to scrutinize the theoretical hash rate when compared to what
youre getting in real time.. To peek at intake and exhaust air temperatures or wonder if
this rejection rate is within spec.
To do all that, you need a computer sitting on the same network as all the ASICs IN PERSON.
But if you have any experience with Bitcoin Miners - you’ll know that you dont want
to inhabit the same space as they do, in person… They’re loud.
My solution up until today has been this old Lenovo laptop that I leave on in Bills office
at the Warehouse, on the same network, and then just matrix in through Chrome Remote
Desktop from anywhere.
Nothing against Lenovo - Im sure they have fine computers, but this one is I think like
7 or 8 years old, and sometimes when I call upon it remotely, it wont wake up, and other
times its just old and dumb and slow.
SO, this gives me an excuse, A: to spend money, which I love doing, and also to build another
computer, a purpose-built computer that will live inside the mine and haunt the network
24 hours a day. Maybe I’ll give it a webcam so I can obsessively check to make sure the
roof still isnt leaking on a rainy day.
And I dont see any reason not to break off a 3080 from the studio rig so this thing can
build some of its own wealth and has a reason not to go to sleep. Im sure its user error,
but this Lenovo laptop will not listen to the system settings I put in place to stay
awake, it just cant do it.
So, before we put this thing together I found this program to clone a hard drive from one
of my other computers so I literally wont have to install anything or set anything up
- itll just poof, have all my settings, all my passwords, the overclock for this very
GPU and everything as if its been running for 6 months right here like this one.
Its called Macrium Reflect - and even with a boot drive, you can just plug in an empty
drive, and tell it to clone the currently running main drive onto this fresh one! So
Ill just plug this drive in with a SATA cable, power this thing up and that part is done.
Love that.
So here we go.. Building a computer from its parts, Im going to edit the following action
sequence into a very short, viewer digestible series of clicks, taps and plugging ASMR sounds.
Ive got three microphones and three cameras set up here for
this part..
There you have it! A loose conglomeration of majority budget parts, paired with one
of the most glorious graphics cards on the planet… This is a B450 Motherboard with
the brains of a Ryzen 5 1500 CPU, an 8GB stick of the cheapest name brand DDR4 - with a name
like “Value Select” I can only imagine this is Corsiar’s worst performing RAM,
a kingston 480 GB SSD.. I did go with a gold power supply just because its going to sit
and run in a hot room and never shut off… forever.
I didnt think of a monitor when I was buying stuff, but I have this old camera monitor
that I dont use for anything Ill very rarely ever use this computer while physically in
the presence of it, I’ll almost exclusively remote in.
Ok, the new mining computer is on the network and set up with Chrome Remote Desktop, lets
call her up and see what she has to say… As long as youre hardwired into the same physical
network as your ASIC machines, you can simply type in their IP address and they have their
own little interface to show you whats happening in their bellies.
All green circles, thats what I want to see.. Oh lets try that webcam.. What software does
windows even use to webcam? Camera, concise. Man, if I ever see something unexpected when
pushing this button….
Alright. This demonstration has concluded. Next up is total immersion liquid cooling,
good LORD am I excited and terrified to dunk some of this hardware!