LOL - you clearly don't quite know what an ASIC is. Altera are programmable chips - FPGA's. I programmed a lot of them when I worked for Beckman Coulter.

ASICs are custom made chips. They are very efficient because they will only run that one single application they are built for. You have to design the chip yourself, then pay a wafer manufacturer to make it for you, and they don't like to make stuff in small quantities.

Building an ASIC is not an easy task, and its not cheap either, which makes me very suspicious of the BFL Jalapeno....

Make a living doing *what*? Trading virtual currency? Only if you are very lucky. Mining virtual currency? Only if you have a shit ton of money to spend on a mining rig.

1. crossfire function is irrelevant. The mining software does not use them that way. It will see each card individually.
2. Nothing special. Just get a MoBo with two x16 slots - more if you want to use more GPU's later. CPU doesn't matter, and a GB of budget RAM should be fine. Hard drive really isn't even needed, it can be run from a flash drive.
3 24/7 shouldn't be a problem
4. Don't go nuts with a huge power 1200W supply (a good 430W will do), don't add a lot of unnecessary components, drives, etc. Just keep it simple. Don't even need a monitor, actually, just log-in to it remotely.

The best dollar/hash ratio seems to be the Radeon 5850/5830 GPU's. They are capable of 300-350+ Mh/s and can be found on Ebay for around a hundred bucks each. By my calculations, two of them should net about .05 BTC per day - about $5 per day at the current exchange rate.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

Two 5850's are around 300 watts. That's 7.2 KWh per day. At 18 cents per KWh, that's an energy cost of about $1.30 per day.  $3.70 per day net will pay off $200 cost in under two months - assuming a relatively stable exchange rate, of course - and there's the rub! The exchange rate could go much higher, or it could drop back down. That anybody's guess. You also have to factor in the difficulty rate. As network hash rate rises, your return drops. A lot of folks keep saying all these ASICs are going to come on line, but I have my doubts that its going to happen quickly. The BFL ASIC seems to be classic vaporware with no materialization in sight, and some people saying its an outright scam. If it is, its a very elaborate 'long con' type of scam. Only time will tell. The Avalon ASICs are coming out, but in pretty low numbers. IMO not enough to seriously effect the hash rate for some time (years end maybe).

Just curious - to all the people that said its not worth it because the payout rate is about to be cut in half, and ASICs are coming online:

The rate has been cut in half but the bitcoin value has more than quadrupled AND the promised low cost ASIC machines have not materialized. Has this changed your opinion about using gaming rigs for mining?