Memory is totally irrelevant when it comes to mining, so less memory=cheaper card for same result. Furthermore, memory produces heat, so many miners under-clock their memory as much as possible.

How do you even downclock it that much? I have an 6950. The CCC doesn't go that low, and with MSI afterburner, anything lower than about 700 reverts to the default 1250...

Depends if you want a mining-only rig, or a workstation that packs enough power to mine I would say.

Anyways, the only thing you really need to mine is a (several) high end AMD cards: the 58XX line, or the 69XX line; a PSU that can handle them, and enough air flow to handle the heat. The rest is irrelevant.

The rest is entirely up to you. If you plan to recycle your mining rig into a gamin rig, get yourself a nice CPU and a case to go with that. If not, get a celeron and a pizza case

Thanks for the info, I'll try lowering my vram. What's "-v 2"?
EDIT:nevermind.

You still need to cool the oil.

The thing is the oil has a HUGE thermal capacity, and it'll take up to 8-12 hours to heat up, but it can and will eventually hit critical temperatures if not properly cooled. A poor choice (IMO) for 24/7 dedicated mining. There are silent/efficient ways to cool the oil, but don't think that just using mineral oil is a magical solution

Oil cooling can be a real sweet deal for home computers, though, as the computer will be turned off before the oil heats up.

Well... Isn't share submission somewhat related to time? My computer is running 24/7, so I don't see why I'd get less shares on longer blocks? The front page links to http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=1976.msg50002#msg50002, where Slush explains it is a score based system. Are you referring to another link?

I'd be interested in your 6950 configs. As I said, I'm a casual miner, and I mine on my primary rig, so I don't want to push the overdrive too hard (I'm F'ed if I burn it). I'm with -v -w 128. I have one of those new low cost single Bios Saphire 1GB 6950 cards, whose shaders can't be unlocked (at you flash with no safety net). I've pushed the OC up to 840Mhz, where I mine at 330MH/s, with the card @ 79°. Any way to get more bang out of it without pushing the clocks further?

I've been mining at Slush's Bitcoin Pooled Mining for a little while now. I mine casually on my home rig 24/7 at 300MH/s (1xAMD6950). I was surprised to notice that overall I am rewarded much bigger rewards for Blocks that are solved quickly (and I don't mean in a per time since, I mean absolute reward):
- I get about 0.025 Bitcoins for Blocks solved in 30 seconds
- I get about 0.02 Bitcoins per block solved in less than 5 minutes
- I get about 0.017 - 0.013 for blocks in the 20min to 1h range
- I get about 0.01 Bitcoins for the 2h upwards

I don't understand this reward distribution? Can anybody else? My guess is it is a side effect of miners trying to game the other "share-based" pools?