GoKawiilReddit user buys old 9-GPU crypto rig for $35, runs 35B-parameter AI model on it
Reddit user markpronkin bought a rusty, untested nine-GPU crypto mining rig found in a damp garage for about $35 (3,000 rubles) after the seller refused a pre-purchase test. The rig's nine Nvidia P106-100 cards, each with 6GB of GDDR5, provided 54GB of combined VRAM and worked on the first attempt, running Alibaba's 35-billion-parameter Qwen3.6-35B-A3B model in Ollama at over 30 tokens per second.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The find highlights how obsolete Pascal-era mining GPUs, despite losing full CUDA support under version 13.0, can still be repurposed cheaply for running modern AI models locally, since Nvidia continues security updates through October 2028. This suggests a growing secondhand market where leftover mining hardware could offer budget-conscious hobbyists a low-cost path into local AI experimentation, though performance may be bottlenecked by weak supporting components like the rig's Celeron CPU.
- Nine Nvidia P106-100 mining GPUs with 54GB combined VRAM were bought for roughly $35.
- The rig ran a 35-billion-parameter AI model (Qwen3.6-35B-A3B) at over 30 tokens per second on first try.
- Pascal-generation GPUs lose some CUDA 13.0 support but retain security updates until October 2028.
NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti 16GB GPU — If you're inspired by this scrappy mining rig revival but want reliable VRAM for local LLM experiments without rust or guesswork, a modern GPU like the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB offers solid memory capacity for running models in Ollama. It's a practical upgrade path for anyone wanting to tinker with AI workloads at home without betting on a garage-find gamble.
See NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti 16GB GPU on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: tomshardware.com — Shane Downing, 2026-10-12
Published there as: “Reddit user pays $35 for a crypto mining rig left in a garage and gets 54GB of VRAM at 65 cents per GB”
Read the original report → The summary and analysis above are GoKawiil's own, written from reporting by the source above. Facts and quotes belong to the original publisher.