Just learning about bitcoin, have some starter questions

[MorePower!]

Below is my gaming rig I already own. I'm wondering how much money you think I could make mining on it pool mining? I don't know how to get into a pool mining situation but would be curious if you have some ideas. If you don't have to interact with the computer while it is mining, I could leave my computer mining unattended while sleeping (8-10 hours), I could run it while using the computer (6 hours per day). I game for about 2 hours per day and play online poker for a couple hours.

I've read maybe 10 articles from the stickies and I'm just getting my feet wet in this stuff. So I'm not sure how you find a pool.

http://www.overclock.net/lists/display/view/id/5090461

(the cpu is OCed to 4.6 Ghz too btw.)

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[DoctorOozy]

use http://dustcoin.com/mining to calculate profits.

You will need to know the cost of your electricity and your hashrate, which you will find by simply starting mining

[middlemarkal]

Go to www.bitminter.com that's a pool and a windows java miner , easyiest to use.

[MorePower!]

use http://dustcoin.com/mining to calculate profits.

You will need to know the cost of your electricity and your hashrate, which you will find by simply starting mining

Under the price section of this calculator, is that how much you have to spend to get a spot on the pool? Like if the BTC is 1.0000 like bitcoin up top is, does that mean you'd have to give the market price of a bit coin to the company for them to allow you into their pool?

If this is the case, how can the lower companies offer such a low cost to get in like 0.00008397 from lxcoin? Like why would someone pay the full market price of a bitcoin for the bitcoin pool offering instead of just going with a lower cost site like lxcoin or some similar site?

[protokol]

Hi, no I think that is just the relative value of the alternative coins vs bitcoin.
Try this calculator to check your profitability : http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/
Think you should get about 300-350 Mh/S with that card.  

Edit: the pool will normally take a very small percentage, not charge a set amount at the beginning.

[odolvlobo]

The ability of a computer to mine depends on the GPU, not the CPU. Look up the hash rate for your GPU in one of the hardware lists (like this:https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison) and then enter the MH/s into a calculator to find how much BTC you will mine at the current difficulty. It will be a small amount.

[MorePower!]

Does this calculator assume you're in a pool or doing it by yourself?

[odolvlobo]

The pool does not affect your average income except that you are charged a small fee to participate.

However, if you want to make a consistent amount of money, then you must mine in a pool. If you mine solo with a single GPU, you might get paid for finding a block once every year or two.