(This is my first post on Steemit -- I'm happy to be a part of this great platform!)

I'm not a nerd, okay? Well, let me be specific: I'm not a computer nerd. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I want to get that out of the way, because while I'm proud of these machines, I'm still very much "in training," here.

I'm a Financial Analyst by trade and a web entrepreneur/passive income enthusiast by hobby. I'll tell you more about those things on a different day. Today I want to talk about my purpose-built BOINC machines.

Back in high school, I had a Physics teacher whose first name was literally Ron Jon. Not kidding. He was brilliant, and he had a way of always keeping me captivated. I wasn't really the science-y type in high school, but he had a way of captivating his students and I found myself particularly taken by his teaching style. One day, he told me about a project called SETI@Home where I could actually donate my computer's spare computing capability to help the SETI project out. Instantly, I was intrigued.

That was circa 2002...

Computesaurus Rex

Fast-forward to January of 2017 and I finally decided it was time to build my second computer. The first one had served its purpose (which was to allow me to play SimCity, in case you were curious) and it was time to put my old AMD FX-6300 and HD-7970 out to pasture. Well... I sold it to a guy on CraigsList, actually for $200.

I wanted to build something powerful. I wanted to join SETI@Home and quickly be one of the top computers in the project. After a bit of research, I built this guy, which I lovingly refer to as Computesaurus Rex...

Key Specs:

• Ryzen 1800x CPU (8-core, 16-thread)
• Asus Crosshair VI Motherboard
• 32 GB RAM @3000mhz
• (2) GTX 1070 GPUs @1910mhz boost (One ROG and one EVGA)
• 128 GB Samsung M.2 SSD
• 750-watt EVGA Platinum PSU

True to my intentions, I joined SETI@Home and through working with their amazing community I had my rig in the top 100 machines within about a month. I even founded a team for other Ryzen CPU-based builds and had it in the top 40 teams.

I kept hearing about GridCoin but I was doing so well running my Ryzen SETI team that the requirement to join the GridCoin team was a temporary deal-breaker. I figured I would see what the potential was of my team first, and then once the team started to slide (happens to every new team) I would take a look at this GridCoin stuff.

A few months later, I had reached a crossroads in my BOINCing: with $50/month being spent on electricity, I was either going to have to cut my BOINC contributions in half or less, or I needed to see if I could at least earn the cost of electricity through GridCoin.

So, off to GridCoin I went.

Time to Set Up GridCoin

Being a Finance professional, my investments have strictly been on Wall Street. I had heard of CryptoCurrencies like BitCoin and Ethereum and I had heard of this thing called "mining" but I didn't really understand it and I generally don't put my money in investments I don't understand. With that said, this was very much out of my comfort zone.

I got the GridCoin wallet set up in about 5 minutes. Being as I was already BOINCing anyway, all I had to do was leave my beloved Ryzen team and join the GridCoin team. Just like that, I'm all set up.

I had to go through the process of acquiring some GridCoins, since I read the more you have, the more often you stake and the more often you get paid. I figured I could just take $1,000 I was going to put into stocks that month and instead buy GridCoins. After a couple hours of painful research, I figured out the way "AltCoins" work is you've got to purchase BitCoin or Ethereum with FIAT money through a service like CoinBase, and then send the BitCoin to a different exchange where you could sell it to acquire the AltCoin you desire.

I was floored at how quickly money travels between exchanges. I was even more floored that it was about 9:00pm and the exchanges were open. That's weird, right? (I would later learn that CryptoCurrency exchanges just never close... huh)

Then I got Paid!

Fast-forward a few days of crunching and more than a few helpful tips from the kind folks over at the GridCoin subreddit and I received my first payment. I had a Magnitude of 120 and I had earned 1.06 GRC.

I was hooked. I earned 19 GRC the next day, and then 20 the day after, and then 38, and then 40.

You get it.

At this point I was dedicated fully to SETI@Home and I knew that was one of the more competitive projects that earns each individual the fewest amount of GridCoin. I questioned the GridCoin subreddit to find out what I was giving up by not optimizing projects. If I wanted to earn at least the cost of electricity, I would at least need to double my daily GRC earnings.

User Vortac (a prominent GridCoin miner/investor) was kind enough to give me some ideas on how to earn more GridCoin, and he estimated I could essentially quadruple my earnings by simply selecting different projects.

Through his advice, I was able to take my 145 Magnitude and jump to a 500 Magnitude in a matter of days. All the while, the value of GridCoin was surging from the $0.04 I originally purchased at to upwards of $0.06. I started to do the math and figured out that not only could I exceed the cost of my electricity, but I could exceed it by potentially a couple hundred dollars per month.

Then I had an idea...

The Computable Hulk

Why don't I just go all-in on this thing? I love the concept of putting my computing resources to good use and making a little money on the side for my efforts, and I had so much fun building Computesaurus Rex... let's just take this party up another gear! How about I build I similar computer with a little more GPU horsepower?

First, I had to think of a good name for the computer, and how am I supposed to beat Computesaurus Rex? What could beat up a T-Rex, right?

THE INCREDIBLE HULK COULD BEAT UP A T-REX, THAT'S WHO.

So "The Computable Hulk" was born in concept. I took what I had learned about power usage and computing, accepted the fact that the Crypto-Miners have all the AMD RX-480 graphics cards, and I ordered all my equipment.

After I double-checked with the wife, of course. Believe me, that was a weird conversation after I had just spent over $3,000 building a computer a few months ago.

So let me walk you through the painful (but fun) process of building The Computable Hulk (and yes, I'm going to keep calling it that. That's his name).

(This is my messy "office" area in the basement. There's C-Rex down there in the corner on the right, and all my parts randomly scattered all over the desk behind it)

(Here's the obligatory "glamour shot," where I've got the CPU seated, the RAM installed, and it's still in the fancy ASUS motherboard box)

(If two GTX 1070's was good for C-Rex, then how about three GTX 1080's for The C-Hulk?)

(The naked insides of the beautiful Corsair 760T case. Same as C-Rex. I am a creature of habit)

(Got the front all opened up. Getting ready to install the BD-RW Drive)

(Got the 1,200 watt Corsair Platinum PSU seated. It was surprisingly difficult to get ahold of a 1,200 watt PSU. My guess is the miners have been eating up the stock of these as well)

(My ADD got the best of me. Back to the BD-RW.)

(The CPU cooler radiator went in without a hitch. This is why I chose the same parts as my previous build. It's amazing how much quicker the second build in three months goes.)

(Motherboard seated -- no problem!)

(Fast forward a week, and I've finally got all three of the GPUs umm... "seated" where I want them. More narrative on that below)

So, it turns out while the Asus Crosshair VI does have three PCIE 16x slots, the third slot is too close to the second to allow a third GPU to go there. I initially used a PCIE riser to seat the second GPU lower and space it out, but then it was sitting directly on the PSU and heat was instantly a problem.

Solution? I went to the hardware store and picked up a few things. A few metal brackets and some zip ties and I've got a third GPU in my case where the hard drives would go if I wasn't using an M.2 SSD. I'm still waiting on a riser cable (being shipped from China since those, too, are all out of stock) so I can actually hook it up and get that third GPU running.

Key Specs of The Computable Hulk:

• Ryzen 1800x CPU (8-core, 16-thread)
• Asus Crosshair VI Motherboard
• 32 GB RAM @3000mhz
• (3) GTX 1080 GPUs @1998mhz boost
• 500GB Samsung EVO 850 M.2 SSD
• 1,200-watt Corsair Platinum PSU

This second machine --even though I've only been running the two GTX 1080 GPUs so far-- is a BOINCing beast... or Hulk, as it were. My Magnitude on GridCoin has exploded to 960 and I suspect it will continue growing for another couple weeks at least, particularly when I get that third GPU running early this week. I crossed the 200 GRC/day barrier earlier this week. Things are going well!

My Affinity for BOINCing, and Why It's Not Mining

First off, I have nothing against Crypto-miners. Everybody in the gaming/PC world is angry at them right now because they're hoarding all the high-end parts, but I think that's silly. The sustainability of Crypto-mining has the potential to add millions to the R&D of PC part manufacturers. They will catch up with demand eventually, and all will be good in the world again.

With that said, I rarely refer to what my computers are doing as "mining." I am contributing computing resources to scientific projects through BOINC, and the fact that I'm able to earn GridCoin on the side is simply what allows me to amp up my efforts with multiple, powerful machines. It is my hope that when GridCoin removes the team requirement on BOINC, hundreds of thousands of my fellow BOINCers will see it that way and will join me.

What's Next?

I've got some ideas. There's a good chance The Computable Hulk gets parted out sometime within the next six months and rebuilt on the AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPU and the X399 platform. There's a 16-core, 32-thread version that I think could be fun to play with.

Steemit Friends: Thanks for reading my first Steemit post. I will update this soon once I get the third GPU hooked up and I start seeing some results. If you've got questions or comments, let me know!

~XaqFields