Been here a few days trying to get my bearings.
My machine is doing the whole generating thing with 0.3.21 at about 4500 khash/s.
Where does that put me on the spectrum of mining rigs?
Good, bad, indifferent?
Should I upgrade hardware or join a pool if I'm interested in doing this?
CPU mining will get you nowhere. You need a good ATI graphics card for mining. Check out
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison for a good list of what does what.
I looked into it a week ago and found the ATI 5850 to be the best value for me. Power consumption is relatively very low, and if you look hard, you can purchase good ones under $160 shipped.
Also take a look at
http://bitcoinx.com/profit/index.php -- enter in your specs and investment to get a rough idea of your profit margins.
He's allowed to play the lottery, isn't he?!
CPU mining will generally award you a block every few years depending on your CPU.
In a few years however, that block could be worth a few million.
