Please don’t accomplish this: As distinguished as everybody loves a lickety-split cleaning shortcut, we accomplish no longer imply the next way for cleaning your graphics cards or any other electronics for that matter. At greatest, you may moral stop up with a soggy mess. At worst, you may fracture your ingredients.
A video posted to Twitter allegedly displays Vietnamese cryptocurrency miners preparing outdated-fashioned graphics cards for resale by washing them with a excessive-powered jet nozzle. Mining crypto with the vitality of a number of GPUs has develop into much less profitable since “The Merge,” so cryptopreneurs are preparing to offload distinguished of their gear.
After all, some crypto-mining rigs have been working 24/7 for years, leaving cramped time for cleaning. Most casual customers moral clean their PC with a can of compressed air — maybe a gentle brush and alcohol for heavy assemble up — and call it a day, but that may presumably develop into impractical when dealing with racks and racks of GPUs. The video displays at least eight Zotac GeForce RTX cards getting blasted by a pressure washer, and that was moral one rig.
Some Vietnamese miners have cleaned up their dilapidated graphics cards after ETH merge by bathing them with extremely excessive risk. Or no longer it’s really their cleaning season while waiting for the next GPU-minable third coin. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/qnUMWxpyct
— I_Leak_VN (@I_Leak_VN) September 23, 2022
Whereas most would imply against washing graphics cards with water, it can be finished. Some even use their dishwasher for the task. There are also immersion strategies the place a component is placed in a solution and hit with ultrasound. These tactics are arguably faster when dealing with a number of parts but require special handling and water treatment.
As satisfying as the usage of a pressure washer can be, you can be hard-pressed to catch anyone recommending one to clean your circuitry. A water jet may presumably easily dislodge surface-mounted ingredients or damage the GPU in a way that a 2d-hand buyer may no longer examine even below halt inspection.
(2/3) Therefore, I imply you to be extremely careful when procuring for 2nd cards. Even in the occasion that they near from EBay, Xianyu and even the place you stay. pic.twitter.com/qdr3fNR1f4
— I_Leak_VN (@I_Leak_VN) September 23, 2022
Graphics cards are generally sturdy, effectively-constructed ingredients that can withstand some gentle abuse. On the opposite hand, a pressure washer can take chunks out of a cracked concrete driveway. Or no longer it is no longer really any GPU manufacturer has constructed a card that can stand up to that extra or much less force.
And all of this is on top of the fact that these cards have been bustle practically to death. The lesson here is to be cautious in case you bewitch outdated-fashioned or refurbished GPUs. They may appear like a fair deal, but in the occasion that they were mishandled like this, you may stop up with a worthless paperweight.
