I see you got some Vornado fans on those 6990s, how big of a difference do they make versus a cheap Honeywell desktop fan?  I know those suckers are strong but not as strong as those Lasko/Stanley mini carpet blower fans....It's all about efficiency at this point though 

Aren't those Cougar PSUs sweet?  I've picked up two since they're so dirt cheap on Newegg and I am thoroughly impressed.

You have to edit the afterburner.cfg file to overclock/underclock, Afterburner isn't retaining the downclock overclock info because you need to enable unnoficial overclocking.  Here are the directions how:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=338906

If you're on Windows and it's causing system crashes you may also need to edit your registry by setting "EnableULPS" to 1.

If you have poor airflow in your case I would highly recommend getting a few of these for your case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185060

You could go for the slightly slower RPM models as well to cut down on the dBA but the air flow from these fans is just amazing, that and your video card's dBA is probably around ~35 dBA anyways.  I would put 2 on the left side of the case to blow cool air directly on the cards, with your 3 fan design video cards that would be ideal.

As for your memory clock I would recommend using Afterburner.  To downclock the memory you have to lower the memory then close and reopen Afterburner to keep downclocking it to lower speeds.  880MHz speed with 250MHz memory should get you lower temps and much lower power consumption, at this point in the mining game the less watts consumed the more profit    Screw unlocked shaders, all that does is up your power consumption anyways!

I get about 360Mh/S on each of my 6950s with 65% fan and under 70C so your temps seem extremely excessive.  Do you downclock your memory?  You can downclock to 250-300MHz  on 6950s and still be stable 24/7.

One of three rigs:

-AMD Sempron 140 CPU
-G-Skill 2GB DDR3 RAM
-Gigabyte 990FX-UD3 (great motherboard, cheap and has good PCI-E layout)
-Western Digital 80GB Hard Drive (WD800JD)
-AMD Radeon HD 5970s (the new OEM ones that came out, solid overclockers)
-Cougar GX-1050 (great efficiency and rail design, only has 6 PCI-E cables though)





I have 3 Scythe Slipstream 120mm 1900RPM fans blowing cold air down on the GPU chips, they make a huge difference in VRM temps so the cards don't throttle down.  These fans are quite amazing, great price, great CFM, and acceptable dBA (nowhere near my 5970s @ 70% fan speed).  I also have a Honeywell table fan circulating the air.  The whole rig and cooling solution only uses 700 watts so mining is still profitable, for long-term mining I focused on energy efficiency first and foremost (even over cooling or hash rate).  This rig does 1520MH/sec (380 MH/sec for each GPU core).  It sure doesn't look pretty but it gets the job done, the mobo is laying on some computer case sides from junked computers I found by the dumpster 

I agree completely.  I hated my 5970 at first but seeing the hash/watt performance nothing else comes close, for long-term mining these are hands down the best card.  The fan was loud for the first month but after it burned in I lowered my fan speed 10% and it's not much louder than a table fan on high.  I wish I had money today to buy some on Newegg with the $100 off promo, hopefully they extend it one more week and I can nab another one.  The 7xxx series will be worth it in the long run if their hash/watt performance is close to the estimates so far.  Looking forward to those cards

I think debt default is on it's way.  This Zerohedge article really puts things into perspective:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/us-closes-2010-2011-fiscal-year-1479034032855715-debt-95-billion-jump-day-12-trillion-increase-

At the rate our government is spending money every month, we are going to reach a 100% debt-to-GDP ratio in another month or so.  Once countries hit that point it's a sinking ship.  The only way to sustain that ratio is to manipulate markets and force your citizens and banks to buy more debt like Japan (forgot the technial term for forced buying of bonds).  Sure we can print more money but since it's debt-based it will just accelerate the crash even faster.  The only solution is for our government to stop spending more money than it takes in, and I just don't see that happening.  We are headed for a financial/monetary crash the world has never seen the likes of.

Are there other miners out there like me who are still turning a profit?  When Bitcoins were $18 a piece I was making $300/month, now that the price is down I'm still making $90/month so I see no reason to quit.  I initially bought more efficient hardware (80 Plus Gold PSUs and Radeon 5000 series cards) so my watt consumption is rather low.  I am on the fence about building another rig at this time, I want to get another 5970 since the heat output will be negligible in the winter (just crack open the nearby door) but don't want to deal with that extra heat come next summer.  The 7970s coming out have made me reconsider investing again so soon.  My rigs are paid off at this point I'm just waiting to reinvest.  I definitely will not be buying any more 6950s since their hash/watt ratio is nowhere near 5770s or 5970s so hopefully the 7000 series cards will be far more energy efficient.

Socialize losses and privatize profits, gotta love "capitalism"

Thanks for the chart Matt, I know some people don't believe in technical analysis but the head and shoulders is so obvious you can see the Dow Jones bubble is going to pop soon.  It is so grossly overvalued it isn't even funny.

Oh, btw gold and silver are ON SALE!  Perfect time to load up 

Global markets are taking.  Dow is down 700 points in two days, EU is crumbling and Greece is months away from default.  US has already hit the debt ceiling AGAIN which it just fought over passing less than 2 months ago.  So when does everyone think we will have a global economic collapse?  Do you think the bankers and politicians can hold this crumbling system together for much longer?  Want to hear people's time estimates on how this event will unfold into the next year.....

When I got my 5970 last month I HATED it, it's loud and hot.  This month I have to say after getting a Kill-A-Watt EZ and seeing how damn efficient this card is, it's my new favorite card   The fan speed at 60-65% speed is loud at first but once it breaks in it's not too bad.  I messed up putting MX-2 on it earlier last week but I re-applied it as well as adding some MX-2 on the VRMs as well (on everything that the thermal pads touch) this week and it made a bit of a difference (VRMs dropped 5C, GPUs dropped 2C).  When you crack the card open you will see that most of the thermal pads are smooshed/torn, I would fill in the voids so the pad so it makes full contact with the VRMs.  I have looked into the Arctic Cooling aftermarket coolers but if you buy two Scythe 120mm 1900RPM fans and put them over the card blowing cold air on it is far more economical and energy efficient.  I would just stick with the stock HSF, they are more effective than any other solution.  Good luck modifying the HSF, please make a post here if you happen to do that.

I say if you don't know how to copy-paste correctly you deserve to lose your BTC 

Wow, that sucks pretty hardcore.  I would just say if you're on that list to change your password immediately and hopefully wherever they got this account info from will get locked down soon!

Thanks for the interesting links, bank4tomorrow is total NWO banking cartel bullshit.  This cashless society is being forced on us more and more now.  Have you also noticed that more and more blogs are using mandatory Facebook login so you can't even anonymously post comments on articles?  The corporations and government want to track our every move, the Bilderberg agenda is coming to fruition starting with Facebook and Google.  I hope Anon takes them down with #RefRef.....  Also this cashless society is being rammed through more quickly, but I don't think it will be that well accepted before the next global monetary reset when they want to force it on people.

The reason miners haven't left in hordes is because even at $5.00/BTC mining is STILL profitable.  I am not saying it's great profit but it's profit nonetheless and I guess if you have an unstable rig which you have to constantly coddle then it's not worth the hassle.  I will give examples of my rigs, which are very common rigs (nothing special), and my electrical rate is middle of the road ($.12/KWh) for United States:

Rig # 1 (Antec Lanboy Air w/ 2 x Radeon 6950s & 7 high-speed 120mm fans for cooling)

   - 730 MH/sec. with current difficulty 1,755,425 = .40 BTC/day => $6.10 current price = $2.44/day
   - 455 Watts = .455 KWh @ $.12/KWh = $1.31/day
   - Net Profit = $1.13/day for 28 days = $31.64/month

Rig # 2 (Open rig w/ Radeon 5970, 2 x Radeon 5830s, 2 high-speed 120mm fans & one Honeywell Table Fan for cooling)

   - 1350 MH/sec. with current difficulty 1,755,425 = .72 BTC/day => $6.10 current price = $4.39/day
   - 736 Watts = .736 @ $.12/KWh = $2.12/day
   - Net Profit = $2.27/day for 28 days = $63.56/month

So as you can see nearly $100/month for just keeping an eye on two rigs is easy money (if you plan on selling BTC at this low of a price).  This is imo the lowest point Bitcoin will go, so any rise in value will make your profitability go up significantly.  For everyone complaining about electricity rates just go get a Kill-A-Watt EZ and measure your energy consumption.  736 watts for 3 power-hungry cards is pretty damn good, granted the PSU is a Cougar 1050W GX which has 80 Plus Gold energy efficiency but any long-term miner should invest in some solid PSUs.  Enermax, Cougar, and Lepa make some very affordable 80-plus Gold PSUs not to mention others if you can catch rebates/sales on Newegg.  For fun here are some other appliances around the house I measured:

Hairdryer on High
   - 1,520 Watts 
Toaster
   - 850 Watts
Fridge
   - 11 Watts closed, 47 Watts with fridge open - 660 Watts Starting
Lasko Blower Fan
   - Speed 1 = 77 Watts, .64 Amps => $0.22/day
   - Speed 2 = 86 Watts, .71 Amps => $0.24/day
   - Speed 3 = 102 Watts, .88 Amps => $0.29/day
Honeywell Table Fan
   - Speed 1 = 26 Watts, .17 Amps => $0.07/day
   - Speed 2 = 29 Watts, .22 Amps => $0.08/day
   - Speed 3 = 34 Watts, .3 Amps => $0.10/day
TV, Cable Box, Wii Idle
   88 Watts => $0.25/day

Rob and John are total toolbags.  I think people need to understand that anytime they want more convenience they have to give up some of their privacy/liberties.  At some point you need to say enough is enough, I don't need more convenience at the expense of my every move and purchase being tracked, logged, and sold to corporations to develop their advertising focus.

I think to really understand the answer to this question one should ask "What is money?"  I think Bill Stills does a great job of covering that, but I also remembered this excellent audio clip that had some valid points:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/423/the-invention-of-money

Their answer is that money is fiction, but I would say that currency is fiction and not money.  I would consider gold to be a currency AND a money, but the Federal Reserve Note is just currency since it has no intrinsic value other than toilet paper or kindling in the event of currency failure.  So in essence the FRN is fiction, it can be printed at a whim and can be exchanged for REAL money or commodities (that is where the scam lies).  That isn't to say that once the US defaults we will not have to trade commodity or other assets for the foreign debt being held.

I am pretty impressed with everyone's responses on this posting and have thoroughly enjoyed the discussion so far.  I think Bitcoin will succeed as a currency, mainly because everyone supporting it here is quite intelligent (forget the speculators).  It is just a matter of time before it catches on (we need decentralization around the globe).