I actually work at a remote government facility where the electricity is free for the employees (we also have limited but free internet access), so electricity cost is really not an issue for me. I can just set up my laptop on a cooling pad and let it run all day. Also any thoughts on the APP if the only ATI driver i have is the original factory 2011 one?

Thanks for the altcoin suggestion though, i will check it out.

I have an old laptop, an HP pavillion dv6, that is running an ATI 7690m XT graphics card that i'm thinking about using for bitcoin mining. However i dont see it listed in most of the ati card lists in bitcoin calculator or bitcoin mining hardware comparisons. Is there any particular issue with this card or is it not listed because its not well known?

Also, the card doesn't have a lot of support from ATI and is still running the old 2011 drivers it came with. No new drivers for the card have been released and new driver installations fail. Will this be a problem as far as APP is concerned?