Monday, February 8th 2021

Chinese Cryptocurrency Miners Are Buying Up Gaming Laptops To Mine Ethereum

The value of Ethereum (ETH) has surged over the last few months, improving the profitability for cryptocurrency miners and increasing the demand for hardware. We have seen several stories where miners are recognized as one of the causes of desktop GPU price rises however it now seems gaming laptops will be their next target. The gaming laptops in question feature RTX 30 series GPUs most commonly the RTX 3070, these laptops come at a significant premium over a bare desktop card showing just how insane the situation has become. This will likely exacerbate the already limited supply of RTX 30 series laptops.
Source: VideoCardz
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36 Comments on Chinese Cryptocurrency Miners Are Buying Up Gaming Laptops To Mine Ethereum

#2
biffzinker
How much wear n tear while mining will the GPU’s suffer?
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#3
Melvis
Disgusting greedy human.......
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#4
randomUser
Apple financial report shows that iPhones are being bought out for mining as well.
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#5
Unregistered
I believe governments should ban this mining craze, as it's just a waste of energy while producing absolutely nothing.
#6
hat
Enthusiast
Yeah, I'm actually kinda surprised at this one. As I mentioned in the other thread, with a desktop based machine, you just need one motherboard, CPU, RAM etc... and you can load it up with multiple cards, easily. With laptops, one is all you get, and you're going to have power delivery and thermal issues. The cheapest RTX3080 laptop I see at Dell is $2849.99? What's the ROI on that?
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#7
xorbe
This has got to stop, this is a huge waste of human effort for only a virtual benefit.
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#8
csgabe
I like the window of fans.
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#9
Hyderz
as long as there is profit to be made for both companies selling the units and the person mining.
this craze will likely to continue.
for those still looking for a gpu to buy... patience and dont buy into the scalpers price.
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#11
1d10t


He can afford dozens of $3000 notebook but not $350 air conditioner?
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#12
watzupken
After this mining boom goes bust, you will be seeing a lot of laptops and graphic cards that nobody wants unless they sell it for a song. Most of these laptops and graphic cards are purchased in bulk and may not have any warranty at all. Consider how much wear the hardware have gone through, its going to be very unattractive to scoop up without any warranty.
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#13
_JP_
Not only that, the amount of e-waste is going to be staggering unless people actually strive to maintain what they own and these are instead sold for parts, such as keyboards (doubt these had only the CN layout) and other odd bits of it that will remain mint, but would otherwise wear-out, in a regular usage.
Seriously, not only this needs to stop, but the right to repair has to go forward so that less waste is created due to greed-induced hazardous streaks like these happen.
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#14
Caring1
1d10t

He can afford dozens of $3000 notebook but not $350 air conditioner?
They might live in a cold climate.
Xex360I believe governments should ban this mining craze, as it's just a waste of energy while producing absolutely nothing.
Governments should legislate mining farms be self sufficient, produce their own power and pay carbon tax.
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#15
Cobain
watzupkenAfter this mining boom goes bust, you will be seeing a lot of laptops and graphic cards that nobody wants unless they sell it for a song. Most of these laptops and graphic cards are purchased in bulk and may not have any warranty at all. Consider how much wear the hardware have gone through, its going to be very unattractive to scoop up without any warranty.
The problem is that this mining thing is not like last time. It is likely to go for 2 years or more, thus why ppl are getting so crazy with it and even patching consoles (Xbox series x) to mine.

This time it wont stop anytime soon.
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#16
Chomiq
Can't wait until this bubble bursts.
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#17
kayjay010101
hatYeah, I'm actually kinda surprised at this one. As I mentioned in the other thread, with a desktop based machine, you just need one motherboard, CPU, RAM etc... and you can load it up with multiple cards, easily. With laptops, one is all you get, and you're going to have power delivery and thermal issues. The cheapest RTX3080 laptop I see at Dell is $2849.99? What's the ROI on that?
Depends on the 3080's config (could perform as bad as a desktop 3060 Ti depending on the configuration Dell goes with) so assuming equal mining performance to the 3060 Ti the ROI (excluding electricity costs, maintenance costs, time investment to procure all the machines, time to set them up, etc.) would be 456 days ($2850/$6.25 earned per day based on today's Ethereum price). Assuming the 3080 equals a desktop one, the ROI is 289 days ($2850/$9.88). So anywhere between 9.5 months to 15.5 months, assuming Ethereum keeps its price as it is today. Good ROI is in the <6 month range so this is quite bad. Though I doubt these people bought the laptops for $2850 per, they probably got a bulk purchase deal from the manufacturer.
Xex360I believe governments should ban this mining craze, as it's just a waste of energy while producing absolutely nothing.
I believe less government interference is preferable. As long as the appropriate taxes are paid when the crypto is cashed in I see no issue.
That argument can also be stretched for so many more topics (cough stock market cough). Something not producing anything does not mean it has to be outright banned.
Also, good luck with banning crypto. You might be able to prevent cashing out to a certain extent but crypto to crypto exchanges are not preventable and there are many cryptocurrencies which are "clean" in the sense that they're not mined. Some are even directly linked to fiat currency, like USDT.
TheLostSwedeAnd then there's this...
videocardz.com/newz/gpu-mining-farms-are-causing-power-outages-in-iran
That's the Iranian government's doing though. They're renting out electricity to chinese farmers at the expense of their own citizens. Not that the Iranian government has really ever cared for their citizens... Anyhow, it's not the mining that's causing the power outages, it's the government allocating electricity to chinese mining operations for profit, at the expense of their citizens access to electricity. Yes, that results in mining 'stealing' power from Iranian citizens, but it's their own government allowing and doing it. Not the miners fault in that case (although they're douches for participating in the arrangement)
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#18
BSim500
watzupkenAfter this mining boom goes bust, you will be seeing a lot of laptops and graphic cards that nobody wants unless they sell it for a song. Most of these laptops and graphic cards are purchased in bulk and may not have any warranty at all. Consider how much wear the hardware have gone through, its going to be very unattractive to scoop up without any warranty.
I wouldn't touch any 2nd hand GPU with a barge pole anymore. "Any miner worth his salt would take good care of it and undervolt and have a well ventilated case", etc, that gets repeated in the mining echo chamber is more wishful thinking that describes a small minority of miners, with many more being a lot of casuals that max it out (especially if that person isn't paying for electricity, ie, a kid whose mining is funded by the Bank of Mom & Dad, or stuff used at universities / work, etc). And of course, people can and do lie to make a sale. "No sir, this has absolutely not been used for mining. That I am getting rid of a great card just after a drop in Bitcoin prices for absolutely no reason is purely coincidental" is a level of BS I'll happily let others deal with.
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#19
TheDeeGee
This getting out of hand, mining needs to be killed.

I even saw TPU advertise for mining, what the hell.
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#20
Baum
yeah stop advertising

a lot of the bank industry is foul and bad, but a lot of smaller banks gave people (through out europe?) the posibility to get credit to build or buy a home.

If they get hit by more cryptocurrency, this also its very bad for even normal people.

trurst and stability is nothing that is chained to anonimity in any way. If the bank knows me as a customer i get a better deal than any time possible in crypto *future* thinking..


cryptocurrency is used for drugs and money laundering mainly, yes it will change over time but not currently so this needs to stop as we are heading in a recession already..
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#21
Quansir
No one seems to notice that it's the buyer's problem, not the seller's. The Chinese government explicitly forbids the circulation of digital currency in the Chinese market, that is, you can not use legal tender (RMB) to carry out any transaction, which means that all digital currencies eventually flow into the western market. As for energy consumption, I don't think it is a waste. Western China's energy production capacity is higher than demand, especially hydropower, which is bought by miners and becomes a source of livelihood for the poorer local people. As long as the international banking organizations are not closely linked, these miners can continue to mine. It's like stealing credit cards never stops.
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#22
BorisDG
This crypto shit should end. It's so freaking annoyng... hardware prices are going up (mostly GPU) and now probably many items will be out of stock.
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#23
DonKnotts
1d10tHe can afford dozens of $3000 notebook but not $350 air conditioner?
Or a box fan for $20. If they are comfortable just using fans, then at least use a normal freaking fan. It's bound to be cheaper than that goofy assembly of fans and a pair of these will move a lot more air.
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#24
Caring1
DonKnottsOr a box fan for $20. If they are comfortable just using fans, then at least use a normal freaking fan. It's bound to be cheaper than that goofy assembly of fans and a pair of these will move a lot more air.
So where is the RGB? :laugh:
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#25
ExcuseMeWtf
Xex360I believe governments should ban this mining craze, as it's just a waste of energy while producing absolutely nothing.
But you realize the same can be said about gaming right? :roll:

Also if anything, govt's are more likely to add to it, creating their own cryptocurrencies. Venezuelaat least did.
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