GamerHash

[MatthewL]

Just looking at PC that has come to me that fried its PSU and then wouldn't boot, turned out total reset of BIOS seems to have fixed it but not quite sure weather he has fried it trying to overclock?

 

PC now booting and is used by a kid gamer but has GamerHash on it, anyone come across this before, is it safe/legit?

 

Sorry not a gamer here, if it was me it would come off but would rather check.

[Garacesh]

If the motherboard has substantial overclocking capabilities it's possible that the PC was drawing more power than the PSU could output? But most motherboards only have an AI 10%, so I wouldn't imagine it would be enough to push it over the edge? I guess maybe if the PSU was some cheap concrete-filled jobbie then maybe?

 

Do you know what parts you have?

[MatthewL]

Not sure what it had in it, I suspect it had a PSU not suitable but new one in and its a 850 so should be ok.

 

Not sure what he had done to it, like finding a needle in a haystack comes to mind.

 

GamerHash, you heard of it before?

[Garacesh]

Never, but a quick google tells me it's likely to be an effectively-useless cryptocurrency that doesn't even have the option of cashing out.

 

The shop could be worse though. Trading your points in for actual monetary-value-things like Steam wallet, Riot points, or even games is fair. But I'd wonder just how long it would take to generate the couple-of-dollars worth to buy anything of value, and how much it's 'worth' based on hardware degradation and electricity costs. I suspect it would just be cheaper to buy the thing you want outright.

 

At least with things like Folding@Home you're trading hardware/electricity against the greater good, you're not expecting any kind of ROI.

Edited August 30, 2020 by Garacesh

[CHiLL]

I hadn't heard of GamerHash. I just Googled it and my first thought was nope. I just don't trust blockchain type things when it comes to 'making money'. I also doubt, like you suggested, whether the money earned would outweigh the electricity usage. I have a smart metre at home and it's usually in the green when the average items (TV, Sky box, router, fridge, etc) are running and the PC is idle. When I'm gaming, it'll go orange due to the extra power draw. If the PC is on all day and I'm gaming for several hours, it can add an extra £1 per day in electricity.

 

As for the PSU, it could have simply just died, whether of old age, hardware failure or from an overclock. When it comes to overclocking, you need to make sure that the PSU has enough wattage headroom above the full-load capacity the system already draws. AI overclocking doesn't take that much extra, but manual overclocking can. The PSU isn't the only thing to consider when looking at manual overclocks, you have to have the right board. Most Intel unlocked and AMD Ryzen CPUs allow overclocking, assuming the board has the capabilities. However even if a board has the options, it doesn't mean you can properly overlock. The VRM/power delivery on some cheaper motherboards cannot handle the extra power demand required and can fail.

[bald_pig]

cryptomining can put a heavier load on a gpu than gaming, so the extra load could have taken a borderline psu over the edge?