The bridge
Hardware, cooling and mods
Most of these started life as mining write-ups. Waterblocks, copper plates, thermal pads, BIOS flashing, awkward multi-GPU behaviour. The funny thing is none of it went out of date - the same skills keep a local-AI rig cool and stable just as well as they did a mining rig. So they live here, in the middle, useful to both sides.
Jul 2022
Installing and migrating to the Octominer x8 Ultra Plus
Moving from Windows and open-air water-cooled rigs to the Octominer x8 Ultra Plus running HiveOS for quieter, more power-efficient mining.
May 2022
NVflash: how to flash a GPU BIOS (and get back to stock)
NVflash guide: where to download it, the commands you'll actually use (--list, --save, -6), and a real example returning an EVGA XC3 Ultra 3090 to its stock BIOS.
Apr 2022
Copper Modding a 3080 Founder's Edition
Using a coolmygpu.com copper cooling plate instead of thermal pads to fix a stubborn 3080 Founder's Edition with runaway VRAM temperatures, including the measurements involved.
Mar 2022 · archive
GeForce RTX 3090 Ti – First Impressions
Early hands-on notes on mining with the NVIDIA RTX 3090 Ti, including hashrate, VRAM temperatures, power adapters and driver quirks.
Jan 2022
Strange 3090 GPU hashrate underperformance fixed by a Zotac bios update
Diagnosing why a Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity OC underperformed against Arcticstorm cards, and how a Zotac firmware updater unexpectedly fixed the hashrate.
Jan 2022
Cooling my 3080 Founders Edition GPUs with better thermal pads
How replacing the poor factory thermal pads on 3080 Founders Edition GPUs fixes runaway VRAM temperatures, with notes on pad squishiness, placement and thickness.
Jan 2022
How to improve cooling: NVIDIA 3090 FE waterblock install / thermal pad replacement
A step-by-step guide to converting a 3090 Founder's Edition GPU to a water block: dismantling the case, cleaning the mainboard, and replacing the thermal pads and paste.
Jan 2022
Waterblock installation: Zotac GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity
Converting a Zotac GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity to water cooling: stripping the case, replacing the thermal pads and paste, and installing the EK-Quantum Vector Trinity water block.
Jan 2022
How to build a water-cooled crypto mining rig
Documenting the build of a first-time miner's four-GPU water-cooled RTX 3090 rig, and the lessons learned along the way.