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Reddit user buys $35 crypto rig, gets 54GB VRAM for local AI model testing

By PulseAugur Editorial · [1 sources] ·

A Reddit user, markpronkin, purchased a used crypto mining rig for $35, which contained nine Nvidia P106-100 GPUs totaling 54GB of VRAM. Despite the rig's rusty condition and the seller's refusal to test it, all GPUs functioned correctly. The user successfully ran a 35-billion-parameter AI model, Qwen3.6-35B-A3B, locally using Ollama at over 30 tokens per second, demonstrating a cost-effective way to acquire significant VRAM for AI tasks. AI

IMPACT Demonstrates a low-cost method for acquiring substantial VRAM, potentially enabling more individuals to run large AI models locally.

RANK_REASON User acquisition of hardware for AI tasks, not a direct AI release or research.

Read on Tom's Hardware →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 1 sources. How we write summaries →

Reddit user buys $35 crypto rig, gets 54GB VRAM for local AI model testing

How we ranked this

Signal score
22 / 100
Composite score across the factors below. Higher = stronger signal that this story matters right now.
Newsworthiness bucket
Tool
User acquisition of hardware for AI tasks, not a direct AI release or research.
Source corroboration
Single-source cluster
Only one publisher covered this so far. Single-source stories can still rank when the publisher is high-authority, but they lack cross-source corroboration.
Topics
product, infra
Editorial topic classification. Feeds into how the story surfaces on /topic/<slug> hub pages and into the per-entity coverage mix.
AI-industry relevance
High
Clearly on-topic for AI-industry coverage.
Story freshness
Breaking (< 6h)
Fresh story with cross-source coverage still developing. Ranking may shift as more sources report.

Full methodology in our editorial standards.

COVERAGE [1]

  1. Tom's Hardware TIER_1 English(EN) · Shane Downing ·

    Reddit user pays $35 for a crypto mining rig left in a garage and gets 54GB of VRAM at 65 cents per GB

    A Reddit user bought a nine-GPU Nvidia P106-100 mining rig with 54GB of VRAM for $35 and ran Qwen3.6-35B-A3B on it locally.

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