Awesome, I agree with the more blogs the better sentiment.

While not a blog, I've decided to document my experiences with bitcoin here. Complete with numbers and bad science.

I've had this message all day and I change my payout address semi regularly.

I am a fan of http://www.mini-box.com myself. I guess it depends on how small you are looking for.

edit: it also dawns on me you are probably looking to buy in bitcoins. That's what I get for responding without looking at the forum I'm in.

I picked up one of these with my bitcoin profits and haven't looked back. Brought my temps from about 69*C to about 45*C on my 5830 clocked at 960MHz.

Back in the day I lost an Athlon 1GHz Slot A CPU (yeah I know I'm old, but it was the first chip to break into GHz) to a dual power supply experiment. Everything worked fine, my cat stepped on the power strip running the fans and drives. It was a sad day and a hard lesson. I learned something important. Hopefully you can learn from my mistake too.

I don't do it often, but I've had no problem gaming on one card and mining on another.

My only experience with a pci-e extender didn't go well. I don't know anything about it because someone else purchased it, but if I had to make a guess it was the cheapest one on the planet. Couldn't get it to work in any slot/card combination. I'd guess there are a lot of things that come into play on their success rate. The motherboard was a decent MSI board and the cards were Sapphire 5830's. If I was going to get an extension for myself I'd error on the side of more expensive (within limits, no need to get ridiculous).

I'm afraid I may not be a lot of help to you on that. I did a quick search on Google and found a forum post on Futuremark about 6950's not being seen properly. Doubt it has any bearing on your situation though.

If it were me I'd monitor the card temps at default clock speeds, 1250, then with the clock changed to 300 (even though GPU-z shows 1250) and see if there is a significant difference. I'd venture a guess there will not be much difference between default and 1250, but at 300 it should drop a few degrees. If it does drop then there is a good chance GPU-z is not reporting the right clock speed. If it stays the same I'd believe GPU-z is reporting correctly.

Just some thoughts.

I am intruded and would like to subscribe to your news letter. I hope you say more than the obvious.

I've sold on Bitcoin7, TradeHill, and MtGox (before they had problems), and I can honestly say I liked Bitcoin7 the best. I like the ticker right on the front page that shows what offers are being made. I like the fact I can see that without having to log in. Orange makes me feel comfortable too.

I agree with shata, there is a good chance you'll run into power supply problems.

I've been a big fan of PC Power and Cooling ever since I read a MaximumPC (long ago) that stated they have never had one fail in the lab, except the one they dropped. Newegg even has some now that are not over the top expensive.

Also, if you are running Windows you might need a couple of these. Cheap and easy to make, no soldering required.

I've been a long time reader and half-ass miner. I'm joining the community to put in my 0.02 bitcoins.

I've been using Sapphire TriXX. Can't vouch for it on non-Sapphire cards, but it's worked great for me so far.

My only complain is sometimes the options for the memory clock change, but it lets me leave it at 300.