Bitcoin Forum

Hi everyone, been lurking here a while, I had the intention of starting to mine for bitcoins then it got put to one side and I still havent got around to it.
I want to start it now as I already regret waiting so long but my current computer has onboard graphics so I either need to upgrade it or buy a seperate mining rig.

So my questions are:

Which is better, upgrade or buy a dedicated rig - my budget is approximately $1200.

My current spec is Dell Inspiron 620, Intel Core I3-2120 3.30 ghz, 4gb ram with a 300w power supply.

Also is it possible to make $30-50 a day mining with this setup or is that unrealistic?

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you!

Your suggested profit target is very unrealistic. At current price/difficulty, given your budget, you could maybe make $10/day (a very rough estimate). Also, you should understand that the reward for finding a block will drop from 50 BTC to 25 BTC sometime this fall. Also, ASICs could be coming out as early as this fall as well, and if so, they will make GPU mining obsolete. I'm not telling you that you shouldn't build a rig, but you should understand what is happening in the world of mining before you make a decision. This is a very uncertain time to be building a new rig.

If you buy two 7970 and new PSU, you will make ~ 1.2Ghash/s = 0.65 BTC/24h = 5.5$ USD/24h

run 3 rigs full 24hours should get that but profit will so a long time in earning as start up cost

All comments as to the economics of building a new rig now aside (it is not a good way to make money, and is by no means a get rich quick scheme), a comment on hardware:

If you try to run a discrete graphics card on that PSU (if it even has the right cables for it), you will almost certainly overwhelm it, and when it fails it could easily damage other components.  If the motherboard has enough PCIe slots for the graphics cards you want and the case can accommodate it, upgrading will be your best bet. Just know that you'll NEED a higher capacity PSU.  You may or may not also need a new case and motherboard to accommodate the cards.  Also, note that a lot of Dell computers use the BTX form factor, as opposed to the standard ATX and ATX derived form factors that you'll see in cases that you can buy from (e.g.) newegg.com.  If you have a BTX form factor computer, don't even bother.  I helped a friend "upgrade" a BTX Dell a few months ago and all that he managed to save was the Hard Drive and GPU (he only wanted to upgrade CPU, but that meant new Mobo, which meant new RAM.  The Mobo didn't fit the old case, and the PSU didn't fit the new one.  Cost him hundreds to come up with a working computer).

tl;dr:  Upgrade is cheapest, but get a new power supply.  If your case is BTX form factor, don't bother.  Neither upgrading nor building new will get you a huge profit, and making back your initial investment is not even guaranteed.