Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> That's for root SSH access to a Linux box that you can install whatever
 
> you want on. (Although presumably you can't change the OS - how would 
> you talk to it while you're installing it?) Several flavours of Linux 
> availbable.

Impressive.  (Cost-wise, I mean.)  I guess this is one of the great wins 
of 
virtualization.

> It is a *virtual* server though - your stuff runs in a virtualisation 
> system. (They claim to guarantee a certain minimum performance level 
> though.)

Same with Amazon, I expect. They talk about it as "equivalent to a ...." 
so 
I assume it's a shared image thingie.  Especially since you boot it by 
giving it an image split into a bunch of parts on S3, so there's got to b
e a 
pretty sophisticated boot loader going on there already.

> As with any kind of renting, there will always be a point where renting
 
> becomes more expensive than buying. The question is only where that 
> point is.

Agreed. It's also designed for you to (for example) spin up more servers 
for 
your shopping carts during the christmas rush.

> If you just want to *run* stuff, EC2 sets the tipping point really, 
> really low. (E.g., the POV-Ray thing I'm currently trying to do will 
> probably take at least a week, more likely a month. And I want to do a 

> whole series of others afterwards. For the price EC2 want, I could 
> probably buy a killer PC several times over.)

Sure.  I'm not trying to defend ECC's pricing, mind. :-)

> Buying a PC which out-performs EC2 in compute terms only isn't 
> expensive. Beating the connectivity EC2 is likely to have would be... 
> uh... "expensive".

You pay for the bandwidth, too. Not a lot, but again you have to measure 
how 
much you need and what it'll cost.

>> If you want to rent a machine for three hours to do a render, it makes
 
>> a lot of sense.
> 
> It does? Surely it would make more sense to just run it on my own PC fo
r 
> 3 hours, while I go watch TV or something. Costs £0. :-P

Assuming you didn't have one you could render on, of course.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Why is there a chainsaw in DOOM?
   There aren't any trees on Mars.

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