I must say, this thread has totally inspired me.
After some research, I officially diving in!
The parts were ordered today! 9 cards and 2 Power Supplies. I split the cost 50/50 with the old man who lives in my spare bedroom.
After much planning this weekend, I decided to use my main daily driver, my dad's daily driver, and 2 spare PCs that we have and are not currently being used. So, after doing a lot of power calculations and planning. We have a planned phased approach.
Phase 1 - install graphics cards in existing PCs without any need for risers,
My daily driver (PC 1) - install 2 MSI Armor OC RX 480s
My dad's daily driver (PC 2) - install 2 MSI Armor OC RX 480s
Spare Dell T3500 (PC 3) - install a higher wattage PS and install 2 MSI Armor OC RX 580s
Spare Custom PC (PC 4) - install a higher wattage PS and install 3 MSI Armor OC RX 580s
Phase 2 - convert Spare PCs to risers (9 risers, and 4 more cards), build wooden riser cases
Spare Dell T3500 (PC 3) - install 4 risers and add 2 more cards
Spare Custom PC (PC 4) - install 5 risers and add 2 more cards
Phase 3 - install additional cards and risers to max out the remaining daily driver PCs (10 risers, 6 more cards and 1 more PS)
My daily driver (PC 1) - install 5 risers and add 3 more cards
My dad's daily driver (PC 2) - install a higher wattage PS, install 5 risers, and add 3 more cards
So, by utilizing as much existing hardware, I should be able to get 9 cards up and running quickly while lowering our initial cost and risk! In a couple months, we will be doubling our hashing power with only a minimal incremental investments at each phase. Conservatively, 19 cards should net about 500 MH/s.
Also, the thought is to learn a bit on the way. Each phase has goals to meet. Not only to begin hashing, but to also test. Test capabilities of the 480s/580s, tweak and tune the cards, ROMs, etc. And then, learn the tricks of the riser setup. After that, we should be good to build a some more dedicated riser rigs from ground up.
Please, if you have some thoughts, or advice, I would love to hear from you. Most importantly, what do your wives think?