I think you're absolutely right and pointed that out in my earlier post. I just wasn't sure it worked that way but now you seem to confirm my suspicions. However given the rates I was seeing for the 24 thread 24 gig machine I had listed at the time which I don't think was ever more than 2-3 cents per hour and only for periods of less than a day IIRC, if you can find a machine like that and bid 4-5 cents, you a) probably wouldn't have any competition and b) would be paying half the price of the best prices we've seen here or less.

And even if you get out bid, it would most likely be only temporarily, so the real issue would be how difficult it would be set the instance up again. I seem to recall something on their web site about automating the process but I might be wrong about that. And as I said, at 4-5 cents, I don't think you would have any competition.

I did this a few months ago so I don't think things have changed much in the meantime.

But in terms of paying someone to crunch for you, you're probably better off talking to some of the teams here like TPU and XS that I've referenced before. Even if you can't run rigs you would want to build yourself, there are plenty of people on those teams who would be more than happy to build and run them for you at cost for a percentage of time on the machine. Think of it as a time share.

I've been on both teams for a period of years in each case and I can vouch for both. Not only would you meet a great group of people and learn more than you can probably imagine, but you would achieve your goals for a fraction of what you're currently thinking of spending.

I do understand the attraction of not having any messy human interaction, and if that is part of what you like about going this route, that's cool. I'm not trying to spam your thread. I really am trying to be helpful and point out alternatives that I think might appeal to at least a few people who were considering this alternative.

In my last post above, I posted the results for the 8 core/2Ghz machine, here is the latest summary:

Totals	Days	AVDays	Points	Results	PPR	AvPPD
Cloud1	141.90	7.88	546,936	1,090	537.86	30,385

Output appears to be stable, but for the cost I want more. This instance will not be renewed, just allowed to expire at the end of it's month...

Still it was a good test and added to the results etc for the projects.

what cloud service are you using again?

Hi all,
I just set up a sample account from windows azure.
it's free for 30 days. you can crack up 20 cores. no utility bill & no broadband bill :))
have a check.. it's worth 600 CPU/days...

What plan have you chosen?

TIA