need help with a mining rig

[mike678]

You might not want to wait too long for a good deal on a 5850. Remember that each day you wait, your are missing the opportunity to mine at what will probably be a lower difficulty level. Personally, I would go for a 5830 or even a 6950 if you can find a good deal on either of these now. If you can get them in Australia, I think the Corsair hx850 is a good option. If you check the review on hardwaresecrets.com, they say that this unit performs better than many 1000w units, and can easily pull 1000w from the wall. Essentially it is a 1000w supply, with the wattage rating reduced to get the silver 80+ rating.

I agree with Dargo, bitcoin mining is gambling, your either in it all the way or just watching from the sidelines, especially since difficulty increases about every 9 days. But with that said make sure its expendable income and not something you depend on. A 5850 will give you overclocked up to 350Mhashs  (0.225 BTC per day, bitcoinX.com) and maybe more but, I keep mine in around 330 just because my space is limited so heat builds up quickly.

So if there is a good deal and you can afford it jump in! But keep in mind to make back the cost of the 5850 is going to be a while (months).

While I agree the quicker you get in the better you are incorrect in expecting the difficulty to change every 9 days.

june 15 - june 24 is 9 days
june 24 - july 6 is 12 days
july 6 - july 19 is 13 days

As you can see the difficulty is slowly moving towards the 2 weeks its suppose to be. Unless some major positive event happens I believe the difficulty will remain at about this level.

[Morebitcoinsplease]

You might not want to wait too long for a good deal on a 5850. Remember that each day you wait, your are missing the opportunity to mine at what will probably be a lower difficulty level. Personally, I would go for a 5830 or even a 6950 if you can find a good deal on either of these now. If you can get them in Australia, I think the Corsair hx850 is a good option. If you check the review on hardwaresecrets.com, they say that this unit performs better than many 1000w units, and can easily pull 1000w from the wall. Essentially it is a 1000w supply, with the wattage rating reduced to get the silver 80+ rating.

I agree with Dargo, bitcoin mining is gambling, your either in it all the way or just watching from the sidelines, especially since difficulty increases about every 9 days. But with that said make sure its expendable income and not something you depend on. A 5850 will give you overclocked up to 350Mhashs  (0.225 BTC per day, bitcoinX.com) and maybe more but, I keep mine in around 330 just because my space is limited so heat builds up quickly.

So if there is a good deal and you can afford it jump in! But keep in mind to make back the cost of the 5850 is going to be a while (months).

While I agree the quicker you get in the better you are incorrect in expecting the difficulty to change every 9 days.

june 15 - june 24 is 9 days
june 24 - july 6 is 12 days
july 6 - july 19 is 13 days

As you can see the difficulty is slowly moving towards the 2 weeks its suppose to be. Unless some major positive event happens I believe the difficulty will remain at about this level.

Wow I am happy to be incorrect especially in this case, so the difficulty moving out towards 2 weeks now... Nice... Better start loading up more. Thanks mike678

[geckogroove]

just to throw some water in the works, my mobo only supports 2 cards 0.o
is a separate rig now worthwhile? I'm stuck at a $500 budget remember
maybe a new mobo for my computer that supports quad and my current CPU ect will be beneficial, any suggestions? I can add cards ect later

[Xephan]

just to throw some water in the works, my mobo only supports 2 cards 0.o
is a separate rig now worthwhile? I'm stuck at a $500 budget remember
maybe a new mobo for my computer that supports quad and my current CPU ect will be beneficial, any suggestions? I can add cards ect later

Unless you really can't have anything outside of your casing, you might want to look at the cheaper alternative of using a riser + extension cables.

[Reckman]

Are you worried about what it looks like?

B.c with 3 cards its probably not going to be able to effectively cool it within your case.

With that in mind I would add a second 500w psu, and two more 5850 with risers. Maybe a box fan =p should be able to get all of that for 400 easily.