don't assume you might make an ass out of yourself.
Someone has already mentioned it, but the ATI HD5830 are a great little card to start off with.
I'm pulling 285-300 m/hashs based on 975/350 settings with afterburner and windows 7.
In Australia, you can pick them up for around $140-$150 depending on where you shop.
Here in europe we have online shops with 5830 at 99 and they are available

no not all miners are equal in speed from what I have seen.
and I'm locking this from the haters and assumers maybe a programmer will be enlightened if they see this.