Hi all,

I have recently discovered Dell's Wyse series of Cloud Client Computers. (http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/cloud-client-computing & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Wyse) I have never heard of this before, but it seems this could be a sweet way to contribute a lot to World Community Grid at minimal cost to myself. But seeing as how this is an entirely new concept to me, I need to be sure of some things before I even consider purchasing one or more. I have no use for these Wyse things, so if I bought any, they would be entirely dedicated to W.C.G. tasks.

(1) First off is the general question: isn't W.C.G. the kind of work that "thin clients" are MADE for? Sure seems like it, just checking... if I also would need to buy a Client Manager, that makes this less attractive.

(2) These Wyse boxes come with several different flavors of operating systems: Wyse ThinOS, various flavors of Windows Embedded, various flavors of Linux, Windows XPe, Windows 2009. I know Windows obviously, I have a working knowledge of command-line UNIX, and I've never used a GUI front-end to Linux but I suspect I would enjoy that. Any advice here? Mainly, do any of these clearly not support a W.C.G. client and must be avoided?

(3) Now, I'm assuming that with these "thin clients," I might need some device that acts as "manager," correct? http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/cloud-client-computing They make client managers, device managers, and who knows what else? The root question is if I could just buy one thin client and easily set it up to run W.C.G. tasks day in and day out?

(4) Then I was also concerned about making a new fire hazard in my studio apartment. I asked an I.T. manager about that and he replied "Fire risk is minimal. If you live in a modern dwelling your circuit breaker will cut you power before trouble.. A 15amp circuit can handle about 1800w." Any comments as to whether or not that holds true?

(5) Finally I was concerned about a significant increase in my power bill. The same I.T. manager says "if you ran 5 computers with 100w power supplies around the clock you would spend about 500w*24hours/day*30days/mo/1000*0.1$/kwh =$36 per month." The Dell Wyse C class thin clients boast an average power consumption of under 7 watts. (http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/wyse-c-class/pd?~ck=anav) So would this be right then-- one of these then clients not 5 computers, so divide by 5; then 7 watts instead of 100, so multiply by 7 hundredths or 0.07... leaving 36 / 5 * 0.07 = 50 cents a month to run each one of these???

So to wrap up, I'm looking to cheaply and easily make a home server farm for the Grid. What am I looking at for my total projected cost? (I've seen Wyse boxes on eBay for $20 that are used, but Best Buy sells some brand new for $100; hmmm...)

Thanks everybody for any and all constructive input!
Jeff
oh, p.s. is anybody already using these for World Community Grid?