Bitcoin Mining Rig
Built and managed a 32 GPU Bitcoin mining system to learn large scale hardware, power management, and troubleshooting under load. This project started my interest in engineering and is now being converted into a GPU cluster for AI work.
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problem
A high power mining rig introduces several constraints. • Electricity consumption must stay within safe and cost effective limits. • GPU failures and thermal issues require consistent debugging and maintenance. • Profitability depends on managing high upfront capital before any returns. • The Bitcoin mining environment became less viable over time as difficulty and cost increased. We needed a system design that handled these constraints without reducing performance.
solution
We treated the system as a large scale engineering build. We optimized power distribution, airflow, and load balancing across all 32 GPUs. Our neighbor, about my fathers age who goes to our church, also happened to be an Electrician who helped up wire power throughout our house. We tracked performance metrics, identified failing components, and adjusted the configuration to maintain stability. The system operated for five years and recovered all initial costs. With mining no longer profitable, I am converting the hardware into an AI compute cluster. The GPUs still deliver strong parallel processing performance. The upgrade path also reuses the logistics, monitoring workflows, and hardware knowledge gained from the original build. This project continues to serve as a technical training ground and a long running engineering effort.
I entered engineering through a hands on project that I built with my father and my cousin while I was in high school. My father is a Chemical Engineer from Drexel. My cousin was a Mechanical Engineering student at UMBC at the time. None of us had experience with electrical systems or large scale computing. I only knew basic coding. The project forced us to learn fast, work through unfamiliar technical problems, and build a system far outside our original disciplines.
We built a 32 GPU Bitcoin mining rig using NVIDIA RTX 3090 cards. The system required careful thermal planning, power management, and hardware reliability controls. I managed the configuration, performance tuning, and long term operation of the cluster. I gained experience with diagnosing GPU failures, replacing components, updating firmware, and optimizing computational throughput.
Working with two engineers from different fields showed me how engineering principles transfer across domains. The process was practical, technical, and iterative. That experience formed the foundation of my interest in engineering as a discipline.
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