Convert older comp to dedicated Miner? Not finding answers

[mrrhames]

Hi, First up. Appreciate anyone that can help on this. I've got a couple of questions that do not seem to be answered in all the articles and videos I've watched. I am not a well knowledgeable computer person, as all of you.

I've been cpu mining for quite a few months now, just the basic scyptminer in the pool notroll.in . Nothing fancy while working. With the recent rise as well as interest in cyptocurrency in general. I'm deciding to take it up a notch, maybe bigger. And yes I under the difficulty rate, and energy consumption required.

On my basic older dell computer the scryptminer varies from 3-7 khash/sec -4 thread(s)
I've been getting a few litecoins a month.

Dell Dimension E520.
Intel core 2 dual which has the built in graphics to it.
Running windows xp media edition.
1.87 GB
I do have a Radeon 6450 on this as well.

Now here are my questions. Which I can not seem to find answers too.
Everyone out there seems to say you do not need any sort of fancy hardware aside from a strong Graphics Card. And psu and cooling fan of course.
if this is the case, then I should be able to make this older computer a miner easily, correct? Just install a higher grade graphics card? Like a Radeon 5850 or 6950.

When I run GUIMiner, under the devices dropdown menu, it says:" No opencl " which apparently means it can not use the Radeon 6450 to mine? Is this correct?

Being that the motherboard with an intel chip has an internal graphics processor, does this mean that I have been mining this whole time at 3-7 khash/sec, not using the Radeon 6450 which is installed? Which means I could be making more? Or does this Radeon 6450 really only get that little bit?

If that is the case, how do I change that? Or does a dedicated mining rig, mean requiring a motherboard with no internal graphics?

Hopefully my questions make complete sense.

Thanks

[bitManXD]

Your video card does not have opencl or no opencl drivers. Well, use cgminer when you want to cpu mine. I get around 900KHash/s on my pentium 4.

Hope this helps.

[clicksmoney]

1. Have you installed the AMD OpenCL SDK?
2. What's the power rating in the power supply?
3. Check mb spare PCI-E x16 slots
4. 6450 is barely better than a couple of CPUs https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison
5. Have you joined a mining pool yet?

A dedicated mining rig may have an onboard graphics but your discrete Video slots and cards will be totally freed up for mining. But then a dedicated rig you shouldn't expect to be doing to much work or play on anyway. I would definitely look at your goals and how much expenditure it will take to get there. If you just want to have something of BTC it might be okay with what you got but with increasing difficulties and paying for electricity to contend with not taking it too seriously may be something to consider.

[mrrhames]

clicksmoney:
1. I have installed the AMD OpenCL SDK. All drivers are installed according to the catalyst install control panel. I have gone to AMD website as well, which says the opencl sdk is only for windows 7 or better. I'm thinking there may be something I'm just not catching here, or havent done.
2. 300 rating on the power supply.
3. Not sure what you mean by checking it. But its all good for working with graphics. I know thats not what you mean but I'm not sure.
4. Yes I know its a super basic card. I've had it for a little while. Just not sure if the miner is using it or not now though?
5. Yes. I've been on notroll.in for a few months, but I only get 3-7 khash/sec with that dell computer. My main computer running a geforce9200 gets 9-16 khash/sec and that is during all my other work running trading platforms and documents.

So then by assessment of what you are saying. This computer I could add a larger GPU and it will work?

I fully understand about the difficulties and electricity. I'm looking more at the future of how things are shaping up with BTC looking like it may be the main cryptocurrency type with all the others trading around it. Such as with fiat currency now. The USD is the main currency of the world which most others are based on traded off of. Anyhow, thats how I'm looking at things with building a simple miner. Where I might want to mine a different coin another week.

[mrrhames]

bitmanxd:
If I may ask. What graphics card are you using to get 900khash/s.

Also I haven't figure out how to mine litecoin on cgminer. I'm not finding a good tutorial or information on setting that up on cgminer.