Is it worth it for me to start mining with Deepbit if the best videocard in my studio is an old 9800gt, especially given that I can't run it 24/7 since I use it to test our OpenGL projects? Would I be better off just buying the Bitcoins?
.... As far as buying goes, watch the market, it seems to be dipping, which is actually a good thing if you want to buy. The technology is proven, it works. just wait, that price will come back up and in the mean time, you can get more coins for your dollar. I think buying is the way to go.
I wouldn't be offering speculative or investing advise beyond cautionary if I were you.