Help a newbie get started please.

[arachn1d]

Hi there.

This sounds very interesting and I'd like to get started.

I have two computers I can immediately start using for "mining."

How would I get started?

One is my professional computer: Macbook Pro (last year).

Second is my gaming computer: Recently built Sandy Bridge 2500k OC'd to 4.5ghz w/ 2x 6950's OC'd to 6970's.

Can I use both to mine for me or am I only allowed to use one?

I heard I can get more money by leveraging GPU than CPU. How would I do this?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and put the effort and make me follow the right direction!

Thanks!

[PLATO]

Hi Arachn1d, welcome! The first thing you should do is download the Bitcoin client on each computer. It will need to download the block chain, which might take an hour or so. In the meantime, explore the forums and find threads about mining. There are a few mining programs available, the only one I've used is the Python OpenCL Miner and that was with an nvidia card. You'll basically run the mining program, and point it at your running bitcoind client. You can do this with the CPU, GPU and GPU simultaneously, although the macbook will probably never generate any bitcoins. Ask in IRC if you need additional help: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#bitcoin-otc

[Jered Kenna (TradeHill)]

Welcome and I'll second what those 2 said. The amount you will (if any) generate from the cpu compared to the GPUs is almost insignificant. I wouldn't bother, unless you're luckier than all hell you'll be losing by doing it.

Check out the wiki too, lots of good info.

[CyMeP]

I will stop mining with my mac book pro instantly and rather save the environment electricity. 

[RodeoX]

You may find this helpful: http://is.gd/tnhtaq
It is a tool for calculating your mining odds.

[Jered Kenna (TradeHill)]

I wouldn't use the macbook at all or the CPU on the gaming rig.
Yeah it will help a small amount but the power it will use won't pay for it's self and if you increase your hashing by .5% it's not worth increasing your watts by 20%.

Those are just guesses and not that close but the input output would be something horrible like that on the CPU.