but what I am interested in knowing if 5830s at $160 is still the best way to go... or perhaps 5970s at $500 a pop?
The 5970 is the best way to go if your looking for megahash per square foot otherwise don't bother with it.
A 5830 at 160 is a bad price. You can pick up a new 6870 which is basically the same for ~150. I would not recommend this though.
Your best bet is to wait for a 5830 at less then 130, a 5850 at less then 150 or a 5870 at 190-200.
At the top end of those prices a 5830 gives you 2.54 megahash per dollar. A 5850 gives 2.56 megahash per dollar. A 5870 at 200 will give atleast 2.2 (if its a reference card it would give 2.3)
Another thing you need to remember is the more it costs you for the entire server the more diluted those numbers become. Also keep in mind is sometimes more megahash per server is better then the original megahash per dollar for the card.
So basically nothing has really changed since I did the math... Except finding the prices you mentioned above being much more difficult.
I guess I was curious if people have given up on finding any quantity of 5830s for less then $130.. and shifted their goals to other cards
in the 6xxx series or what not that have great rebates or have gone on sale recently.
I was pretty amazed how people got excited about 5970s at 500 dollars each. That just seems like 100 bucks too much per card.
I am quickly coming to the conclusion that it is quite risky to keep building more rigs when I think the price of btc will slowly degrade
over the next several months. Hoping it is above 10 dollars consistently might be a poor assumption. Yet the idea still appeals to me
to double up on my existing speed. Hm...
Thanks for the post.